John thought it would be particularly morbid for one of our deputies to be eating ice cream at a gruesome crime scene. Of course, that required some gruesome ice cream. John provided the joke, I provided the packaging.

Click for large view. Note Vlad’s impaled victims!

Would the lid show on camera? You never know. I made one just in case.

Here’s Deputy Chris Nakis, in a photo by Tracy Stopa Moran.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the Mind Rip zombie shoot Sunday night! My feet and fingers are still pruny, my voice is hoarse, and I’ve got blood and dirt in places you don’t want to know about.

We had more than two dozen eager zombie volunteers. They were made up, slapped with mud, and told to walk through tall weeds in pouring rain. And they kept coming back for more. What’s wrong with these people?

I saw the footage today, and it rocks! We got shots that any big budget production would be jealous of. It’s really gratifying to see what we can do with a little talent, some elbow grease, and buckets of enthusiasm.

Special thanks go out to our make-up crew, headed by Terry and Mary, who made a little foundation go a long way. Thanks also to the gentlemen of the West Webster Fire Department and the staff of MacGregor’s who put up with our shenanigans.

We have a few more scenes to shoot before the promotional trailer will be edited and made public. In the meantime, I plan to post some behind-the-scenes stills and video soon.

To stay up to date with the project, become a fan of Mind Rip here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mind-Rip/147839051857

If you have any snapshots or video from Sunday night, feel free to post them on our wall!

-Mike Boas

In one particular Mind Rip scene, Sheriff Edwards sits at his desk reading an old horror comic. So it fell to me to make a fake comic prop for the scene.

EC comics like Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror were an influence on writer John Vincent. He worked them into the story, giving one of the characters a comic collection. The film’s monsters are spawned from the comics’ nightmare images.

For a prop, we wanted to avoid using the trademarked EC Comics, instead giving the impression of those publications. Of course, we couldn’t resist having fun with it. (The Vault of the Crypt of Terror? We loved the redundancy of that title.)

The back cover came from an actual ad seen in classic comics:

I cast myself (in various Halloween costumes) as the three ghost hosts:

The comic needed a dingy, used look. Here’s a blow-up to show the applied texture.