Waiter, there’s a severed head in my soup

The first of our trailer scenes takes place in a restaurant kitchen. Two smart aleck cooks insult each other while chopping vegetables. An unexpected monster-type noise from outside catches their attention… and a severed head smashes through the window, flying into the room. The head flips end over end, landing with a splash in a pot of lentil soup.

We began with storyboards, drawn by John. This gave him a way to demonstrate the proposed shots to the cast and crew. (See the black & white image below.) On the day of the shoot, we had extra time and inspiration, so we added some more shots, which I sketched out on site. (The blue boards below.) Click either image for a larger view.

This was a fun shoot. We spent all Sunday in a local restaurant, shooting the kitchen from every angle imaginable. We built a fake wall with a break-away window (more on that later). Our “Uncle Fester” head was provided by Michael Del Rossa, and it was a thing of beauty. A little goopy blood and a stick rammed in from behind, and that head was ready to smash through the window repeatedly.

Here are some pics from the shoot, courtesy of Johannes Bockwoldt.


John does surgery on the severed head.


Just another day on the job for Mikey.


Having fun? Oh yeah, fun!


A practice run, without the glass. For the final smash, Mikey wore a black mask to remain invisible.


Mikey is NOT a terrorist.


Applying the very important blood.


Getting the candy glass in place.


The wall? Fake. The glass? Fake. The crew? Real.


Installing candy glass, made from actual candy.

Stay tuned for more pics from the shoot!

Stop Motion for Mind Rip

The story of Mind Rip involves comic book monsters that are brought to life through psychic means. One such monster is “Boil Head,” a slobbering hot rod driving fiend. Inspired by the legendary Big Daddy Roth’s “Rat Fink” designs, the Boil Head will appear on screen as a stop motion puppet.

John began with a ball and socket armature, and now he’s applying oil-based clay over the top of it. Eventually, when the sculpt is perfect, he’ll make a mold from it.

It barely looks like anything right now, but I insisted we take some pictures for comparison purposes later. Also in these pics, you can see the original sketch and the hot rod model that Boil Head will be driving.

Shooting a grindhouse-style trailer

The overarching plan for Philrose Productions is to have several projects in the queue, ready to go. With the script for Lake Midnight completed, this summer we’re turning our attention to shooting an updated promotional trailer for Mind Rip.

We’ll be capturing new scenes to supplement our previous cemetery shoot, then cutting something in the style of drive-in/grindhouse trailers of the 70s and 80s.

I’ve been going through my own collection of trailers, looking for style influences. Below is a smattering of title cards I like for font styles and exploitation language. Yes, if you saw the Rodriguez/Tarantino feature Grindhouse, you saw some parodies of trailers like these.

I’ll be posting more behind-the-scenes photos from this trailer project in the coming weeks. Check back soon for updates!

-Mike