Here it is, if you followed Greg's Zombie school this is the end product.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Interview for Knights of the Guild Podcast
Greg sat down and chatted with Kenny and Jenni, co-hosts of The Official Fan Podcast for the very successful Webseries The Guild. Greg created and built all the weapons in Felicia's Day's #1 Music Video (via Itunes) 'Do you want to date my Avatar'.
You can listen to the podcast online or get a direct download HERE
If you have Itunes you can download it at THIS LINK .
The interview runs about 20 minutes. If you haven't seen the video yet, you can watch it for free on You Tube HERE
Keep up-to-date on Greg's other projects:
- Greg Aronowitz’s Blog - http://barnyardfx.blogspot.com/
- Greg Aronowitz’s Twitter - http://twitter.com/gregaronowitz
- Alien Ninja - http://alienninja.tv/
- Labou The Movie - http://www.laboudvd.com/
- Labou Merchandise - http://laboustuff.com/
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
S.P.D. - Part 3
A piggy in sheep’s clothing. Well, a dude dress as an alien that resembles a monkey that had sex with an artichoke named piggy in a nation known for having a larger sheep population than human beings. But that’s lame as a bi-line.
I know, I know, I read the tweets and emails. Everybody wants to get to the video of Alycia recording the song “Me” and the genesis of “Buttery”. I’ll get to that! I promise! But in this blog I am trying to show how the world of SPD became a reality to me, and months before we even started casting Rangers, there where a handful of characters that were taking shape in my mind. They were the first “inhabitants” of 2025 Earth, and for me, they really set the tone for the rest of the show. This character is one of the more defining members of that group. Not nearly as cute as the pink ranger, but definitely a face to blog about. PIGGY!
Photo 1: So as far as TV writing goes, you start a series off with a strong concept, and essentially a “sketch” of a season. On a “normal” show, that sketch can be much more defined. You can plan a season arc out with major milestones throughout, and have some leeway for random unexpected changes like actors leaving the show, or dips in ratings where the network wants a new direction, or an unplanned chemistry between certain cast members that audiences respond to. In the case of PR, the US version follows many trails blazed by the Senti version so costumes, props, and special effects can be shared. Due to schedule shifts and a million other strange variables, SPD production was started only a short time after DekaRanger commenced. So we were planning a season that we couldn’t project an ending to! We were starting storylines driving blind. Mid season, we often got reports from fans about what was happening in Deka eps before we even saw them!
So there were many storylines and character arcs that were left open and adjustable as more information was made available. Piggy’s was one of them. We didn’t know which side he was ultimately going to choose. We didn’t even know if he was going to survive the season. What we did know from the beginning was that he would be a filthy, retched creature who used Earth as his own personal Pick-A-Part. Hence the name PIGGY, which instantly calls up the image of a huge hog shoveling down slop at a troth.
And so my crusade began. Of course the first thought that came to everyone’s mind was that he would look like a pig. Everyone except mine! I thought the name should describe his attitude, not his physical appearance. I’d say of all the unusual things I wanted to do with SPD, my Piggy design scared the network the most. I think “unusual” was the word they used as feed back. I was hoping for “awesome” or “original”. No such luck. It ended up in me begging for a shot to bring it to life, and if it still felt wrong, I would redesign with the artichoke ape becoming background so nothing went to waste. Lots of chin rubbing and nervous sighs. In the end, Piggy ended up becoming one of the coolest aliens on TV, and a personal favorite of mine. But beyond the design, the man that is truly responsible for making all that happen is…
Photo 2: Barnie Duncan! If Piggy were a stiff faced monotone alien, you would probably have only ever seen a random glance of my work in the background of some cantina scene. But Barnie brought an energy, a quirkiness to this character that is rarely seen in live action TV. The first night I met Barnie in person was at the cast dinner, where everyone gets together for the first time as a whole group. Many of the Rangers had just gotten in from other parts of the world, and there was a lot of excitement and celebration. But Barnie cornered me and we had an hour-long discussion about Piggy. He was all business. He was curious as to Piggy’s home planet, his political beliefs, his eating habits, everything. I remember thinking, “This guy is taking this really serious!” But all of that attention to detail shines through in every frame of Piggy on the screen. I was so impressed with the depth of Barnie’s talent, I asked him to join me in New Orleans for my next project!
Photo 3: And to my great fortune, he did! Here is Barnie as the legendary Captain LeRouge in LABOU! (Shameless plug: laboudvd.com) Instead of being an artichoke alien from outer space, this time Barnie was a French pirate captain searching the seven seas for his lost family treasure. He gives a performance that shivers even Jonny Depp’s timbers! Unfortunately, Captain LeRouge dies in the first scene of the movie.
Photo 4: But I couldn’t let Barnie go so easily! So I brought him back for the rest of the film as the dreaded ghost pirate Bayou Bob! Confused? See the movie! Here’s ghost Barnie scaring the pants off the Honorable Mayor Ray Nagin. Yeah, that’s really the mayor of New Orleans in our movie. He actually saved our lives during Katrina. But, again, that’s another story…(of course, THAT story is in the making of features on the Labou DVD! You can see Barnie and many other SPD cast tell their version of our whole hurricane adventure! Go buy it now! This blog will still be here when you get back…)
Photo 5: Okay. Back to the blog at hand. SPD. Piggy! Oh, yes. The memories. So, much of this story is the same: Dan and Terry did Barnie’s head cast before I got to NZ. A rough layer of clay was formed to create the base of the cowl. I am so serious when I say that my inspiration for Piggy was an artichoke. I started sculpting the “leaves” by hand, but Terry took one and made a stone mold, which he pressed clay into to speed the process up. It really helped me fill out Piggy’s headdress more quickly, as time was tight, but ultimately, all the fine detail had to be redone by hand, individually, scale by scale…
Photo 6: …by scale, by scale, and then more scales…I don’t know, I wonder why I always do that. But I know I will do the same thing next time. And the time after that! If something feels right, you can’t cut corners to make it less work just for the sake of not having to do the work. Of course, you have to be prepared to sacrifice things like, well, having a life! Note the windows. See that blackness? Can you guess what time it is? Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know! Fun fact: everybody else went home while it was still light out! Remind me to buy Dan and Terry a pint when I get back to NZ, cause they really put it all out there for the show. I mean, I can be a loser and sculpt all night cause, hey, what else am I going to do? But those guys were with me every step of the way and by no means are they losers! Hell, Dan even has a girlfriend!!! He’s my idol!
Hmmm, before we leave this photo…its like a crime scene…what other interesting bits can I tell you? Well, Terry is working on molding Gruumm’s horn. Dan is prepping a foam latex mask for paint. It’s the alien that Sky, Syd, and Bridge fight in the beginning of Beginnings part 1. Its actually a demon foam run I had left over from a film I was making called “ALLEYCAT”, starring Alley Baggett, that fell through in prepro. Waste not, want not. I pulled every uncopyrighted creature foam I had to populate 2025 Earth. Yeah, but back to the photo. Oh, you can see Gruumm’s red lenses in the lower left. The small black box on the coil of cable is the rheostat to illuminate his eyes I mentioned in part 2. Ummm, and that black garbage bag behind me? That is the first alien I started sculpting for the show. I can’t remember why, we were out of good clay or something that held me up from working on the main characters for a day or so. So I took some of that funky sandy water clay and started making a background mask. It was weird. Big lips over a large nose. Bruce loved it! I kept trying to get back to it, but never did. The guys would laugh at me all summer as I watered it like a plant, trying to keep it alive. It eventually dried up and cracked apart. After like, 8 months, I had to let it go. I don’t even have a photo. I’m sad now.
Photo 7: So here’s Piggy pretty much all roughed out. Just like Gruumm, I roughed the complete sculpt on the actor’s bust. But ultimately, the face and cowl will need to be finished separately. Once again, the cowl will be reused for as long as possible, while the facial appliances will be replaced for every day of shooting.
Photo 8: The final face sculpt. Terry pulled a snap off of Barnie’s bust with the cowl sculpt on it, so I could line up all of the face scales with the head scales. Ordinarily, we would “float” the rough facial sculpture off of the cowl sculpture and reseat it onto the snap, but the process is time consuming and requires a lot of forethought! So I think I just resculpted this face from scratch, using photos of the rough as reference, and the stone impression of the cowl on the snap for guidance. It’s important to remember, if you are doing this yourself for the first time, that foam does shrink. The cowl will have spandex reinforcement in it, so it won’t shrink too much. But the face appliance could shrink as much as a ¼ inch. So I sculpted the edge scales a little fat and long so we won’t end up with a gap!
Photo 9: Finished sculpting, blah, blah, blah, made the mold, blah, blah, blah, wouldn’t fit in the oven, blah, blah, blah, like shipping a boat anchor to Wellington, blah, blah, blah, and here I am painting again. My first instinct was to make him green, like an artichoke, but it just seemed too obvious! Lots of little spots! When in a time crunch, still make it as complicated as possible! But I have to! It’s all about the end result! This photo was taken hours away from the first morning of shooting Piggy, of course! Note the windows…dark again. All I can say is, even in NZ, McD’s was there when I needed it most!
Photo 10: But, c’mon! Wasn’t it all worth it! Look how fun this character is! If I could go through a wormhole and do this all over again, I would change…Nothing! I love this guy. Well, maybe I would have taken more pictures! I wish I had a photo of every outfit Piggy wore! Gavin and the gang came up with some crazy junkyard sheik!
Photo 11: Barnie was an actor. Piggy was an alien. And hardly anyone knew they were the same person! I’m serious! Of course, the alien makeup calls were always hours earlier than the rest of the cast and crew, and Barnie would transform into Piggy and stay in character all day, and then it took hours after wrap to remove the makeup, so most people never saw his real face for months. And Barnie made Piggy such a real, complete, living being, that it was perfectly normal to have a conversation with “Piggy”! He made you forget Barnie existed. He made you believe Piggy was real. It was surreal. I only had to apply Barnie’s makeup the first time, and then Dan and Terry handled it when I went off to do EP things. So I even forgot what Barnie looked like after a few months! I remember Barnie dropping by the set on his day off about 1/3 of the way through the season. He came up and said hi in a very kiwi accent, than wander over to craft service. I turned to Violette and said, “Who was that?” Chris raised his Skybrow and said, “Don’t know, brother.” I know I sound foolish for admitting that in public, but I think it stands as testament to Barnie’s incredible skill.
Photo 12: You always here stories from the big make up movies about actors in prosthetics conjugating together, like how all the chimps stayed in one group and the gorillas in another during Planet of the Apes, or how the Elves and the Uraki never mingled while filming LOTR. It must be human nature. Or in this case, alien nature! Whenever more than one of our stars was in makeup, you would always find them hanging out together between scenes. This photo makes me nervous. When these two get together, Earth could be in danger!
Photo 13: If you though your job was strange…
Photo 14: More support for the name PIGGY…
Photo 15: Here is Piggy at home. In a dumpster! Well, a space age trash receptacle. I had to come up with about a hundred “dumpster “ designs because the network was concerned about kids trying to live in dumpsters because Piggy made it cool. I could see that. Wait, no, I can’t…
When I was a kid, I though the trash compactor on the Death Star was the coolest thing I ever witnessed on film. But it NEVER made me want to crawl around in someone else’s trash! And I’m from Jersey!
Photo 16: Well, eventually Piggy won the lottery and moved into the big time! Here’s a shot of his lunch truck. I’ll talk about this more when I get to SPD SETS, but I thought I’d mention it while we are talking about Piggy himself. The genesis for this whole plot line was that Bruce thought it would be funny to build a mobile trash and trinket truck, and well, ultimately drive it off a cliff! Sounded like fun. So we did!
Photo 17: Well, we ALMOST did. The cliff idea got nixed because of environmental reasons, and the fact that the cost to salvage the wreckage would be more than the cost to build the truck itself. So we found the next best thing! The steepest hill on the North Island. I drove up there in a jeep, and honestly, I thought I was going to die! The photo doesn’t do the grade justice. And just imagine this photo with Koichi pyrotechnics in it…yup, pretty cool!
Photo 18: Alright, I gotta get back to work. This “project I can’t talk about “ is consuming a lot of time. But I didn’t want to leave the blog stale for too long! Luckily, none of my clients, or my producer read this! I know that because I have yet to get a text or call saying, “How can you be writing that blog when you should be __________” (insert any of the hundred things I SHOULD be doing!) But it’s fun to recall all of this stuff. Here’s one I’m not even sure you got to see: Piggy’s long lost cousin, Snogg. He’s in Endings Part 2, when the gang goes to visit Jack and Piggy at their new business. I shot a little scene with him, but the finale was so packed, I think all that’s left of him in the cut is a quick wipe as he lifts a box out of the van as the Rangers approach. He was a bad run of Piggy’s cowl resurrected, with a background alien face I had sculpted for the first “cantina” scene when Piggy got his truck. Which brings up one last memory for this entry…
Photo 19: Remember how I was complaining that I love to make more work for myself by always doing lots of scale patterns? Well, I really do love it, so I am only kidding for the sake of dramatic blog entry when I say that. But what REALLY sucks is when you spend hours laying out all those scales, and one of your beloved Power Rangers (Who shall not be mentioned, but his name is not unlike the color violet) steps on it while climbing into the back of your right hand drive car after you graciously offer to chauffeur him home from a read through!!!! Wanna hang out? No, I can’t, because I have to spend the night RE-sculpting your footprint off of my alien’s face! Ah, memories.
Photo 20: I promise. I will reveal the good stuff next time I get a chance to return to SPD Blog. 5 rangers. 6 friends. Infinite stories to tell you…
I’m gonna tweet this link as soon as it posts. PLEASE retweet it and tell everyone to follow @gregaronowitz so all the SPD fans can point and laugh with me. Or at me. Doesn’t matter, as long as you follow me!
I know, I know, I read the tweets and emails. Everybody wants to get to the video of Alycia recording the song “Me” and the genesis of “Buttery”. I’ll get to that! I promise! But in this blog I am trying to show how the world of SPD became a reality to me, and months before we even started casting Rangers, there where a handful of characters that were taking shape in my mind. They were the first “inhabitants” of 2025 Earth, and for me, they really set the tone for the rest of the show. This character is one of the more defining members of that group. Not nearly as cute as the pink ranger, but definitely a face to blog about. PIGGY!
Photo 1: So as far as TV writing goes, you start a series off with a strong concept, and essentially a “sketch” of a season. On a “normal” show, that sketch can be much more defined. You can plan a season arc out with major milestones throughout, and have some leeway for random unexpected changes like actors leaving the show, or dips in ratings where the network wants a new direction, or an unplanned chemistry between certain cast members that audiences respond to. In the case of PR, the US version follows many trails blazed by the Senti version so costumes, props, and special effects can be shared. Due to schedule shifts and a million other strange variables, SPD production was started only a short time after DekaRanger commenced. So we were planning a season that we couldn’t project an ending to! We were starting storylines driving blind. Mid season, we often got reports from fans about what was happening in Deka eps before we even saw them!So there were many storylines and character arcs that were left open and adjustable as more information was made available. Piggy’s was one of them. We didn’t know which side he was ultimately going to choose. We didn’t even know if he was going to survive the season. What we did know from the beginning was that he would be a filthy, retched creature who used Earth as his own personal Pick-A-Part. Hence the name PIGGY, which instantly calls up the image of a huge hog shoveling down slop at a troth.
And so my crusade began. Of course the first thought that came to everyone’s mind was that he would look like a pig. Everyone except mine! I thought the name should describe his attitude, not his physical appearance. I’d say of all the unusual things I wanted to do with SPD, my Piggy design scared the network the most. I think “unusual” was the word they used as feed back. I was hoping for “awesome” or “original”. No such luck. It ended up in me begging for a shot to bring it to life, and if it still felt wrong, I would redesign with the artichoke ape becoming background so nothing went to waste. Lots of chin rubbing and nervous sighs. In the end, Piggy ended up becoming one of the coolest aliens on TV, and a personal favorite of mine. But beyond the design, the man that is truly responsible for making all that happen is…
Photo 2: Barnie Duncan! If Piggy were a stiff faced monotone alien, you would probably have only ever seen a random glance of my work in the background of some cantina scene. But Barnie brought an energy, a quirkiness to this character that is rarely seen in live action TV. The first night I met Barnie in person was at the cast dinner, where everyone gets together for the first time as a whole group. Many of the Rangers had just gotten in from other parts of the world, and there was a lot of excitement and celebration. But Barnie cornered me and we had an hour-long discussion about Piggy. He was all business. He was curious as to Piggy’s home planet, his political beliefs, his eating habits, everything. I remember thinking, “This guy is taking this really serious!” But all of that attention to detail shines through in every frame of Piggy on the screen. I was so impressed with the depth of Barnie’s talent, I asked him to join me in New Orleans for my next project!
Photo 3: And to my great fortune, he did! Here is Barnie as the legendary Captain LeRouge in LABOU! (Shameless plug: laboudvd.com) Instead of being an artichoke alien from outer space, this time Barnie was a French pirate captain searching the seven seas for his lost family treasure. He gives a performance that shivers even Jonny Depp’s timbers! Unfortunately, Captain LeRouge dies in the first scene of the movie.
Photo 4: But I couldn’t let Barnie go so easily! So I brought him back for the rest of the film as the dreaded ghost pirate Bayou Bob! Confused? See the movie! Here’s ghost Barnie scaring the pants off the Honorable Mayor Ray Nagin. Yeah, that’s really the mayor of New Orleans in our movie. He actually saved our lives during Katrina. But, again, that’s another story…(of course, THAT story is in the making of features on the Labou DVD! You can see Barnie and many other SPD cast tell their version of our whole hurricane adventure! Go buy it now! This blog will still be here when you get back…)
Photo 5: Okay. Back to the blog at hand. SPD. Piggy! Oh, yes. The memories. So, much of this story is the same: Dan and Terry did Barnie’s head cast before I got to NZ. A rough layer of clay was formed to create the base of the cowl. I am so serious when I say that my inspiration for Piggy was an artichoke. I started sculpting the “leaves” by hand, but Terry took one and made a stone mold, which he pressed clay into to speed the process up. It really helped me fill out Piggy’s headdress more quickly, as time was tight, but ultimately, all the fine detail had to be redone by hand, individually, scale by scale…
Photo 6: …by scale, by scale, and then more scales…I don’t know, I wonder why I always do that. But I know I will do the same thing next time. And the time after that! If something feels right, you can’t cut corners to make it less work just for the sake of not having to do the work. Of course, you have to be prepared to sacrifice things like, well, having a life! Note the windows. See that blackness? Can you guess what time it is? Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know! Fun fact: everybody else went home while it was still light out! Remind me to buy Dan and Terry a pint when I get back to NZ, cause they really put it all out there for the show. I mean, I can be a loser and sculpt all night cause, hey, what else am I going to do? But those guys were with me every step of the way and by no means are they losers! Hell, Dan even has a girlfriend!!! He’s my idol!Hmmm, before we leave this photo…its like a crime scene…what other interesting bits can I tell you? Well, Terry is working on molding Gruumm’s horn. Dan is prepping a foam latex mask for paint. It’s the alien that Sky, Syd, and Bridge fight in the beginning of Beginnings part 1. Its actually a demon foam run I had left over from a film I was making called “ALLEYCAT”, starring Alley Baggett, that fell through in prepro. Waste not, want not. I pulled every uncopyrighted creature foam I had to populate 2025 Earth. Yeah, but back to the photo. Oh, you can see Gruumm’s red lenses in the lower left. The small black box on the coil of cable is the rheostat to illuminate his eyes I mentioned in part 2. Ummm, and that black garbage bag behind me? That is the first alien I started sculpting for the show. I can’t remember why, we were out of good clay or something that held me up from working on the main characters for a day or so. So I took some of that funky sandy water clay and started making a background mask. It was weird. Big lips over a large nose. Bruce loved it! I kept trying to get back to it, but never did. The guys would laugh at me all summer as I watered it like a plant, trying to keep it alive. It eventually dried up and cracked apart. After like, 8 months, I had to let it go. I don’t even have a photo. I’m sad now.
Photo 7: So here’s Piggy pretty much all roughed out. Just like Gruumm, I roughed the complete sculpt on the actor’s bust. But ultimately, the face and cowl will need to be finished separately. Once again, the cowl will be reused for as long as possible, while the facial appliances will be replaced for every day of shooting.
Photo 8: The final face sculpt. Terry pulled a snap off of Barnie’s bust with the cowl sculpt on it, so I could line up all of the face scales with the head scales. Ordinarily, we would “float” the rough facial sculpture off of the cowl sculpture and reseat it onto the snap, but the process is time consuming and requires a lot of forethought! So I think I just resculpted this face from scratch, using photos of the rough as reference, and the stone impression of the cowl on the snap for guidance. It’s important to remember, if you are doing this yourself for the first time, that foam does shrink. The cowl will have spandex reinforcement in it, so it won’t shrink too much. But the face appliance could shrink as much as a ¼ inch. So I sculpted the edge scales a little fat and long so we won’t end up with a gap!
Photo 9: Finished sculpting, blah, blah, blah, made the mold, blah, blah, blah, wouldn’t fit in the oven, blah, blah, blah, like shipping a boat anchor to Wellington, blah, blah, blah, and here I am painting again. My first instinct was to make him green, like an artichoke, but it just seemed too obvious! Lots of little spots! When in a time crunch, still make it as complicated as possible! But I have to! It’s all about the end result! This photo was taken hours away from the first morning of shooting Piggy, of course! Note the windows…dark again. All I can say is, even in NZ, McD’s was there when I needed it most!
Photo 10: But, c’mon! Wasn’t it all worth it! Look how fun this character is! If I could go through a wormhole and do this all over again, I would change…Nothing! I love this guy. Well, maybe I would have taken more pictures! I wish I had a photo of every outfit Piggy wore! Gavin and the gang came up with some crazy junkyard sheik!
Photo 11: Barnie was an actor. Piggy was an alien. And hardly anyone knew they were the same person! I’m serious! Of course, the alien makeup calls were always hours earlier than the rest of the cast and crew, and Barnie would transform into Piggy and stay in character all day, and then it took hours after wrap to remove the makeup, so most people never saw his real face for months. And Barnie made Piggy such a real, complete, living being, that it was perfectly normal to have a conversation with “Piggy”! He made you forget Barnie existed. He made you believe Piggy was real. It was surreal. I only had to apply Barnie’s makeup the first time, and then Dan and Terry handled it when I went off to do EP things. So I even forgot what Barnie looked like after a few months! I remember Barnie dropping by the set on his day off about 1/3 of the way through the season. He came up and said hi in a very kiwi accent, than wander over to craft service. I turned to Violette and said, “Who was that?” Chris raised his Skybrow and said, “Don’t know, brother.” I know I sound foolish for admitting that in public, but I think it stands as testament to Barnie’s incredible skill.
Photo 12: You always here stories from the big make up movies about actors in prosthetics conjugating together, like how all the chimps stayed in one group and the gorillas in another during Planet of the Apes, or how the Elves and the Uraki never mingled while filming LOTR. It must be human nature. Or in this case, alien nature! Whenever more than one of our stars was in makeup, you would always find them hanging out together between scenes. This photo makes me nervous. When these two get together, Earth could be in danger!
Photo 13: If you though your job was strange…
Photo 14: More support for the name PIGGY…
Photo 15: Here is Piggy at home. In a dumpster! Well, a space age trash receptacle. I had to come up with about a hundred “dumpster “ designs because the network was concerned about kids trying to live in dumpsters because Piggy made it cool. I could see that. Wait, no, I can’t…When I was a kid, I though the trash compactor on the Death Star was the coolest thing I ever witnessed on film. But it NEVER made me want to crawl around in someone else’s trash! And I’m from Jersey!
Photo 16: Well, eventually Piggy won the lottery and moved into the big time! Here’s a shot of his lunch truck. I’ll talk about this more when I get to SPD SETS, but I thought I’d mention it while we are talking about Piggy himself. The genesis for this whole plot line was that Bruce thought it would be funny to build a mobile trash and trinket truck, and well, ultimately drive it off a cliff! Sounded like fun. So we did!
Photo 17: Well, we ALMOST did. The cliff idea got nixed because of environmental reasons, and the fact that the cost to salvage the wreckage would be more than the cost to build the truck itself. So we found the next best thing! The steepest hill on the North Island. I drove up there in a jeep, and honestly, I thought I was going to die! The photo doesn’t do the grade justice. And just imagine this photo with Koichi pyrotechnics in it…yup, pretty cool!
Photo 18: Alright, I gotta get back to work. This “project I can’t talk about “ is consuming a lot of time. But I didn’t want to leave the blog stale for too long! Luckily, none of my clients, or my producer read this! I know that because I have yet to get a text or call saying, “How can you be writing that blog when you should be __________” (insert any of the hundred things I SHOULD be doing!) But it’s fun to recall all of this stuff. Here’s one I’m not even sure you got to see: Piggy’s long lost cousin, Snogg. He’s in Endings Part 2, when the gang goes to visit Jack and Piggy at their new business. I shot a little scene with him, but the finale was so packed, I think all that’s left of him in the cut is a quick wipe as he lifts a box out of the van as the Rangers approach. He was a bad run of Piggy’s cowl resurrected, with a background alien face I had sculpted for the first “cantina” scene when Piggy got his truck. Which brings up one last memory for this entry…
Photo 19: Remember how I was complaining that I love to make more work for myself by always doing lots of scale patterns? Well, I really do love it, so I am only kidding for the sake of dramatic blog entry when I say that. But what REALLY sucks is when you spend hours laying out all those scales, and one of your beloved Power Rangers (Who shall not be mentioned, but his name is not unlike the color violet) steps on it while climbing into the back of your right hand drive car after you graciously offer to chauffeur him home from a read through!!!! Wanna hang out? No, I can’t, because I have to spend the night RE-sculpting your footprint off of my alien’s face! Ah, memories.
Photo 20: I promise. I will reveal the good stuff next time I get a chance to return to SPD Blog. 5 rangers. 6 friends. Infinite stories to tell you…I’m gonna tweet this link as soon as it posts. PLEASE retweet it and tell everyone to follow @gregaronowitz so all the SPD fans can point and laugh with me. Or at me. Doesn’t matter, as long as you follow me!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
S.P.D. - Part 2
Thanks for all your great responses! I will definitely try to adjust this blog as we go to give you more of what you want. Number one request: more photos! Well, I have them for sure. But I want to keep it to controlled bursts, or there might be a systems overload! Plus, Kenny (AKA @geekyfanboy ((follow him! He knows all my secrets…))) is still helping me by helming this blog. I don’t want to make him crazy with a billion entries at once!
So every great story has a great villain. We had Gruumm. Weaknesses, sure, but that’s what makes for interesting story. I think I was most excited about designing him in the beginning. It was a challenge, because he had to be evil and scary, yet, at the end of the day, we can never forget that PR is targeted for young children. So he couldn’t be TOO scary. Plus, the show had never had a SPFX make-up department before, and the studio was concerned about making a main character a full head prosthetic. Even though that was one of the main assets that got me the EP job. But then there was concern that the EP would be doing make-up. It was a very confusing time for production, but I thought it was the plan from the beginning. Ah, that’s a tale for another time…
Photo #1: As always, I started with a quick sculpty maquette (French word meaning “small statue”, or at least that’s what I was told when I started in the business. Sounds believable enough. Help me perpetuate the myth!) If you are unfamiliar with my work, but have checked out the previous entry, ZOMBIE SCHOOL, on this blog, you may have already picked up on the fact that I dig brains and skulls. I love the organic Tetris puzzle of the brain, and there is something primal about the skull that inherently strikes fear in the viewer, yet still offers the comfort of elegance and beauty in design. In other words, failsafe creepy, go brains and skulls.
Obviously, the challenge is always how do you make these failsafe elements into a unique design? How do I separate this brain and skull alien from every other brain and skull clad intergalactic emperor who has ever reigned down tyranny on a Saturday morning live action boys 6-12 action sci fi adventure series? I mean, it’s a wide-open category. Apparently, every element I chose for this maquette was acceptable as original with the exception of the horn shape. The powers that be felt it was too reminiscant of another evildoer residing under the same studio banner. A certain dark sorceress who transforms into a giant dragon to stop a certain prince from waking his beautiful, sleeping love. Ring any bells? Well, I didn’t have much of an argument, because truth be told, that particular villain is one of my favorites, and kinda was at the forefront of my mind while whittling Gruumm. So the horns got a make over in the final, full sized sculpt. The maquette didn’t get altered, and it looks cool on my shelf!
Photo #2: The SPD FX make up department consisted of 3 people: Dan Perry, Terry Green, and myself. It’s important to keep that in mind, because if you watch the show closely, you will see almost 100 original alien creations throughout the series. Probably more than most prime time sci fi shows with actual budgets. All made by just 3 guys. And since I was writing, directing and producing, there where huge chunks of time I couldn’t get into the shop. I owe Dan and Terry a huge debt of credit, as they really towed the line and helped make the show as complete a vision as it is. Not to mention, they were a blast to work with! The first few days, they were definitely weirded out that the “EP” was working in the shop with them. But it didn’t take long before we were all “just fx guys”, and everyone working on the lot knew the FX lab was the place to go if you wanted a good laugh.
We had cast Rene Naufahu as Gruumm, and Dan and Terry did his head cast before I got to NZ. I requested that it be done down to his chest, so we could create a “cowl”. I knew Rene was a big guy, but I had no idea how massive the cast would be! I could actually stick my head inside it! Word of advice: Do not anger Rene!
This photo is probably from the end of my first day in the shop. Dan had gotten some clay on the cast, but I decided that as big as Rene was, we still really needed to build up Gruumm’s traps and neck tendons. So I added double the clay!
Photo #3: Here’s the finished cowl sculpt. (Spoiler alert!) Knowing that Omni was ultimately going to be a brain looking for a body, I tried to shadow that in Gruumm’s design. I imagined him as one time being a complete being, but from eons of warfare and stewing in evil, he had to replace a few parts. Like his face. I though it would be cool if his torso and neck were perfectly contoured metal bands. Possibly holding together more grey, rotting flesh like on top of his head. It just felt contrasty and unexpected. So I went with it. What I didn’t expect is that there was no roma plastalina (see Zombie school) in NZ! The nation keeps it prehistoric beauty by being intensely controlling about the chemicals it allows imported and/or used within its borders. So, pretty much anything FX related used in the states, impossible to get in NZ! I had to use a wax based, pink colored clay to create all of my sculpts. It starts out rock hard, but turns to custard after prolonged kneading. The super crisp troths I wanted to make between Gruumm’s armor bands ended up being a nightmare as my trail by fire to master this new medium. It was painful at first, but there were a lot of neat tricks that Dan and Terry taught me about the clay, which came in handy later.
Also note the strange bit of engineering that went into the final cowl sculpt: receptacles for the horns, and the registration tab for the forehead appliance. I knew this makeup was going to be done many times, and very quickly, so I tried to think it through and solve problems before they happened. I caught a few. There are always more!
Photo #4: Just in case you ever wondered what Gruumm’s brain looked like up close…
Photo #5: Gruumm’s cowl would be a one piece pull over that was used as many times as possible before it was unshootable (and the first foam pull did last almost over half a season!) but the facial appliances would need to be made fresh for every day of filming. Terry took snaps (see ZS again if your curious!) off Rene’s face WITH the cowl sculpt on, so I could create the appliances as they would ultimately lie, over face and cowl. Here is the chin. I had a bit of chavant auto clay with me, so I made the chin spikes from that in order to keep them geometric and pointy. The wax clay rounds very easily, especially in the warmth of the molding process to come!
Photo #6: Here’s the brow. You can see where I was trying to create a sense of tension as the brain gasket is stressing the skin. Or whatever…
Photo #7: Ah, the Quay West. Home, sweet NZ home. Yeah, that’s my apartment in Auckland. When I wasn’t on set or in the shop, I was there sculpting. I think I ended up doing Gruumm there because producer Sally said, “You have to take weekends off! You can’t be at the studio every day!” So, I did what any other EP would do to relax: sculpted make-ups for the main villain of the show that was weeks away from shooting!
Photo #8: Oh, yeah! This is why I had the chavant! There was no way I was going to sculpt the iron mask in the bubble gum clay. I really wanted the end product to have strong bone lines, and look very machined. I toyed with the idea of roughing it out, molding it, pulling a hard copy and tooling it, but there wasn’t enough time. So I went with the automotive design clay and got it as refined as possible by hand. So, just to back track a bit, this mask was a key element in the reasoning behind Gruumm’s design. Practically speaking. Knowing that the main villain ultimately has to do battle with the heroes, there was concern with having our actor in full head prosthetics all day while under physical strain. So my solution was to design a full head makeup with removable parts! I though if I had a forehead and chin glued for expression, but a removable face so the actor could breath, with possible vents at the top of the head, Rene could endure much more of a day while still being a cool designed character. I think it had its merits. But if you see Rene, and he feels differently, don’t give him my address!
Photo #9: HA! This is one of my favorite pre-pro photos! Classic! My face tells the whole story! But, incase you don’t read face, basically, we realized the Gruumm cowl was too big to fit in our foam oven, so we needed to send it out to a vendor. Easy in Hollywood, lots of FX shops have the equipment. How many shops in NZ? One. In Wellington. If Auckland is Sacramento, Wellington is San Diego. We shoot in a week. It will be about 5 days round trip with rush fees to get a foam pull back. So the mold needs to be done…yesterday! Middle of the night, trying to wall up this massive sculpt. Crisp sculpted lines I belly ached over going all squishy from the mold wall. Oh, and the water clay. Anybody take ceramics out there? Have a good eye for clay? What kind of clay is that ochre colored playdough we are using there? I DON’T KNOW EITHER! Its sandy, gritty, non-adhering, quick drying mud clay or something. I love NZ, but, man, do they have some funky art supplies! That’s Terry, BTW. Great mold maker. Great sport! I’m sure his wife was not happy that he was out playing with clay at like, 2am! So it can only be Dan taking this photo. My expression is no doubt in response to one of his curry jokes…
Photo #10: Before Terry got into special effects, he was a dental technician. So he made all the crazy teeth for our future Earth. Here we have his sculpt for Gruumm’s menacing choppers. I wish they had more screen time, but there wasn’t much call to be that CU on Gruumm’s mouth!
Photo #11: Here we have Gruumm’s make-up in all its splendor, moments after I finished painting him, which probably means moments before he shoots! I’m not a procrastinator, really! I just like to use ALL the time available…no, thinking back, I did get Gruumm done ahead of time. Not days, but probably THE day before. I know the network heads were coming to NZ to check on progress before the first day of shooting, and the FX makeup dept was first on the “things to panic about cause we don’t know how they work” list. So Gruumm was our best foot forward to ease the minds of those concerned. I think it looks like it’s under control…
Last note about this image: check out the window in the background. Torrential down pour. So common in NZ. Sunny and wonderful one moment, run to build an arc the next. I kept wondering what we would do if that happened while filming exterior scenes. That’s a story for a rainy day…
Photo #12: A close up of the final mask. It was cast in fiberglass. There was foam padding in back, with porous black sponge in the nose. The eye lenses were vacuum formed PETG sprayed with Tamiya clear red.
Photo #13: Here’s a photo I know no one’s ever seen before! This is the LED rig that makes Gruumm’s eyes glow. Obviously, there are many times in the show where the glow is enhanced by George Port and PRPVFX. But most of it was done practically with this. One of my dearest friends, Simon Tams, came on board to do all the electronic noodling for the SPD stuff I built in the barnyard, and he lent a hand by rigging this from a tracing I faxed to him. He fedexed the final rig and it fit perfectly! Simon set it up so there was a quick disconnect leading to a long cable with a rheostat at its end. The intensity of Gruumm’s eye glow could be controlled by someone off camera, and match the level of energy Rene was putting out there. It worked wonderfully on set, and it always made me smile knowing Simon put all of that together on his dinning room table! What the audience never knows…
Photo #14: A rare look at what goes on behind the mask. Certain close ups in the show, like the reveal in EP 1’s opening, give you a glimpse of Rene’s contacts through the red lenses. Here’s what he looked like in person!
Photo #15: The last element to the headpiece was the horn. Horn and a half. Or nub. I will be honest and admit that when I sculpted the left horn only, I never saw it coming that there would be a “de-horning” sequence in which the make-up team would need to pull another all nighter and make a complete right horn! I may have created a more symmetrical design if I had…
Photo #16: But enough complaining! In the end, we got this, and I think it was all worth it! Gruumm may not be “Best PR villain” in the polls, but he was fun to make, fun to film, and he looks pretty freakin cool in this picture!
Photo #17: I love directing. Film, television, dog food commercials. Anything. I wouldn’t trade it for the world! The only drawback: 5am call times! I hate having to wake up early. So what makes that worse? When you are directing AND have to apply the make-up for the first time hours before filming starts. I barely remember that morning…
Photo #18: So this photo could be from the first day, and Rene is saying, “I think I’m going to like being evil”. Or it could be from mid season, and he is cautioning me, “Don’t talk to me unless my character is getting a bigger role.” Most likely it if from the final block, and he is holding back from screaming, “Aronowitz, if you ever come near me again with so much as a tube of mascara, I will break your spleen!!!”
Photo # 19: Gruumm phone home! Get it? Cause he’s an alien. Never mind. Rene has a beautiful wife and daughter, whom he was afraid to invite to set in fear of traumatizing them! But he called a lot to say, “Don’t worry, daddy’s not really going to destroy the Earth!”
Photo #20: I took this picture before we cut the “scissor lift of doom” from the show. Not really. I just thought this image showed some not often seen costume detail. I know Gruumm is not who you had in mind when requesting costume pix, but c’mon, make my day! Show up at Morphacon in full Troobian Overlord garb! It would be awesome!
Photo #21: Uh, I’m serious! And in case anyone wants to take me up on that, here’s some more detail. This image shows the bone vest pretty clear, along with the strapped leather gauntlets.
Photo #22: Gruumm and I always pray before filming. Keep in mind that I write these blogs late at night, so my humor gets stupider by the keystroke! Just wanted to show this photo because it proves that Gruumm does wear a cape. Sometimes. Maybe only when I direct episodes…
Photo #23: “No, honey, daddy’s not going to keep the ugly purple dog lady in a cage anymore!” Actually, his wife is probably talking him down from killing me! This is the final day of shooting for the whole series, and Rene couldn’t wait to get that make up off. Forever! But he toughed it out all season, and put a lot of amazing energy into that character. Thanks, man!
For the costumers, note the under jerkin texture and the racing gloves.
Photo #24: Rene occasionally added his own accessories. Cyclops threatened to sue!
Photo # 25/26: A signed Drew Struzan SPD poster to whoever sends me pix of their cosplay Gruumm! Here are some detail studies of his staff to help you out!
Photo #27: It’s no wonder Gruumm hates the universe! I’d have a complex, too, if I were a whole head shorter than my dog!
Photo #28: If you can’t beat’em, bring in a stunt double! Nothing the make up team likes better than to have to do the same make up twice at the same time. Crazy action packed scripts. Who writes this stuff, anyway? Oh, wait…
Photo #29: Another fav photo. Maybe not as cool as Spielberg with the T-Rex, but if you told a 10 year old me that I would actually be directing aliens for Power Rangers on TV, I would have been as excited as, well, as I am in this photo. Kinda cool job.
All right, that’s it for now. Having fun? Tweet your thoughts. And get your friends to follow me @gregaronowitz. I swear the first thing execs ask these days when you go in to pitch a show is “how many followers do you have on twitter?” Uh, 200? FAIL! I need at least 6 figures if I’m going to get another TV show! Campaign for me! Cause there’s more Gruumm where that came from…
Catch you soon!
So every great story has a great villain. We had Gruumm. Weaknesses, sure, but that’s what makes for interesting story. I think I was most excited about designing him in the beginning. It was a challenge, because he had to be evil and scary, yet, at the end of the day, we can never forget that PR is targeted for young children. So he couldn’t be TOO scary. Plus, the show had never had a SPFX make-up department before, and the studio was concerned about making a main character a full head prosthetic. Even though that was one of the main assets that got me the EP job. But then there was concern that the EP would be doing make-up. It was a very confusing time for production, but I thought it was the plan from the beginning. Ah, that’s a tale for another time…
Photo #1: As always, I started with a quick sculpty maquette (French word meaning “small statue”, or at least that’s what I was told when I started in the business. Sounds believable enough. Help me perpetuate the myth!) If you are unfamiliar with my work, but have checked out the previous entry, ZOMBIE SCHOOL, on this blog, you may have already picked up on the fact that I dig brains and skulls. I love the organic Tetris puzzle of the brain, and there is something primal about the skull that inherently strikes fear in the viewer, yet still offers the comfort of elegance and beauty in design. In other words, failsafe creepy, go brains and skulls.Obviously, the challenge is always how do you make these failsafe elements into a unique design? How do I separate this brain and skull alien from every other brain and skull clad intergalactic emperor who has ever reigned down tyranny on a Saturday morning live action boys 6-12 action sci fi adventure series? I mean, it’s a wide-open category. Apparently, every element I chose for this maquette was acceptable as original with the exception of the horn shape. The powers that be felt it was too reminiscant of another evildoer residing under the same studio banner. A certain dark sorceress who transforms into a giant dragon to stop a certain prince from waking his beautiful, sleeping love. Ring any bells? Well, I didn’t have much of an argument, because truth be told, that particular villain is one of my favorites, and kinda was at the forefront of my mind while whittling Gruumm. So the horns got a make over in the final, full sized sculpt. The maquette didn’t get altered, and it looks cool on my shelf!
Photo #2: The SPD FX make up department consisted of 3 people: Dan Perry, Terry Green, and myself. It’s important to keep that in mind, because if you watch the show closely, you will see almost 100 original alien creations throughout the series. Probably more than most prime time sci fi shows with actual budgets. All made by just 3 guys. And since I was writing, directing and producing, there where huge chunks of time I couldn’t get into the shop. I owe Dan and Terry a huge debt of credit, as they really towed the line and helped make the show as complete a vision as it is. Not to mention, they were a blast to work with! The first few days, they were definitely weirded out that the “EP” was working in the shop with them. But it didn’t take long before we were all “just fx guys”, and everyone working on the lot knew the FX lab was the place to go if you wanted a good laugh.We had cast Rene Naufahu as Gruumm, and Dan and Terry did his head cast before I got to NZ. I requested that it be done down to his chest, so we could create a “cowl”. I knew Rene was a big guy, but I had no idea how massive the cast would be! I could actually stick my head inside it! Word of advice: Do not anger Rene!
This photo is probably from the end of my first day in the shop. Dan had gotten some clay on the cast, but I decided that as big as Rene was, we still really needed to build up Gruumm’s traps and neck tendons. So I added double the clay!
Photo #3: Here’s the finished cowl sculpt. (Spoiler alert!) Knowing that Omni was ultimately going to be a brain looking for a body, I tried to shadow that in Gruumm’s design. I imagined him as one time being a complete being, but from eons of warfare and stewing in evil, he had to replace a few parts. Like his face. I though it would be cool if his torso and neck were perfectly contoured metal bands. Possibly holding together more grey, rotting flesh like on top of his head. It just felt contrasty and unexpected. So I went with it. What I didn’t expect is that there was no roma plastalina (see Zombie school) in NZ! The nation keeps it prehistoric beauty by being intensely controlling about the chemicals it allows imported and/or used within its borders. So, pretty much anything FX related used in the states, impossible to get in NZ! I had to use a wax based, pink colored clay to create all of my sculpts. It starts out rock hard, but turns to custard after prolonged kneading. The super crisp troths I wanted to make between Gruumm’s armor bands ended up being a nightmare as my trail by fire to master this new medium. It was painful at first, but there were a lot of neat tricks that Dan and Terry taught me about the clay, which came in handy later.Also note the strange bit of engineering that went into the final cowl sculpt: receptacles for the horns, and the registration tab for the forehead appliance. I knew this makeup was going to be done many times, and very quickly, so I tried to think it through and solve problems before they happened. I caught a few. There are always more!
Photo #4: Just in case you ever wondered what Gruumm’s brain looked like up close…
Photo #5: Gruumm’s cowl would be a one piece pull over that was used as many times as possible before it was unshootable (and the first foam pull did last almost over half a season!) but the facial appliances would need to be made fresh for every day of filming. Terry took snaps (see ZS again if your curious!) off Rene’s face WITH the cowl sculpt on, so I could create the appliances as they would ultimately lie, over face and cowl. Here is the chin. I had a bit of chavant auto clay with me, so I made the chin spikes from that in order to keep them geometric and pointy. The wax clay rounds very easily, especially in the warmth of the molding process to come!
Photo #6: Here’s the brow. You can see where I was trying to create a sense of tension as the brain gasket is stressing the skin. Or whatever…
Photo #7: Ah, the Quay West. Home, sweet NZ home. Yeah, that’s my apartment in Auckland. When I wasn’t on set or in the shop, I was there sculpting. I think I ended up doing Gruumm there because producer Sally said, “You have to take weekends off! You can’t be at the studio every day!” So, I did what any other EP would do to relax: sculpted make-ups for the main villain of the show that was weeks away from shooting!
Photo #8: Oh, yeah! This is why I had the chavant! There was no way I was going to sculpt the iron mask in the bubble gum clay. I really wanted the end product to have strong bone lines, and look very machined. I toyed with the idea of roughing it out, molding it, pulling a hard copy and tooling it, but there wasn’t enough time. So I went with the automotive design clay and got it as refined as possible by hand. So, just to back track a bit, this mask was a key element in the reasoning behind Gruumm’s design. Practically speaking. Knowing that the main villain ultimately has to do battle with the heroes, there was concern with having our actor in full head prosthetics all day while under physical strain. So my solution was to design a full head makeup with removable parts! I though if I had a forehead and chin glued for expression, but a removable face so the actor could breath, with possible vents at the top of the head, Rene could endure much more of a day while still being a cool designed character. I think it had its merits. But if you see Rene, and he feels differently, don’t give him my address!
Photo #9: HA! This is one of my favorite pre-pro photos! Classic! My face tells the whole story! But, incase you don’t read face, basically, we realized the Gruumm cowl was too big to fit in our foam oven, so we needed to send it out to a vendor. Easy in Hollywood, lots of FX shops have the equipment. How many shops in NZ? One. In Wellington. If Auckland is Sacramento, Wellington is San Diego. We shoot in a week. It will be about 5 days round trip with rush fees to get a foam pull back. So the mold needs to be done…yesterday! Middle of the night, trying to wall up this massive sculpt. Crisp sculpted lines I belly ached over going all squishy from the mold wall. Oh, and the water clay. Anybody take ceramics out there? Have a good eye for clay? What kind of clay is that ochre colored playdough we are using there? I DON’T KNOW EITHER! Its sandy, gritty, non-adhering, quick drying mud clay or something. I love NZ, but, man, do they have some funky art supplies! That’s Terry, BTW. Great mold maker. Great sport! I’m sure his wife was not happy that he was out playing with clay at like, 2am! So it can only be Dan taking this photo. My expression is no doubt in response to one of his curry jokes…
Photo #10: Before Terry got into special effects, he was a dental technician. So he made all the crazy teeth for our future Earth. Here we have his sculpt for Gruumm’s menacing choppers. I wish they had more screen time, but there wasn’t much call to be that CU on Gruumm’s mouth!
Photo #11: Here we have Gruumm’s make-up in all its splendor, moments after I finished painting him, which probably means moments before he shoots! I’m not a procrastinator, really! I just like to use ALL the time available…no, thinking back, I did get Gruumm done ahead of time. Not days, but probably THE day before. I know the network heads were coming to NZ to check on progress before the first day of shooting, and the FX makeup dept was first on the “things to panic about cause we don’t know how they work” list. So Gruumm was our best foot forward to ease the minds of those concerned. I think it looks like it’s under control…Last note about this image: check out the window in the background. Torrential down pour. So common in NZ. Sunny and wonderful one moment, run to build an arc the next. I kept wondering what we would do if that happened while filming exterior scenes. That’s a story for a rainy day…
Photo #12: A close up of the final mask. It was cast in fiberglass. There was foam padding in back, with porous black sponge in the nose. The eye lenses were vacuum formed PETG sprayed with Tamiya clear red.
Photo #13: Here’s a photo I know no one’s ever seen before! This is the LED rig that makes Gruumm’s eyes glow. Obviously, there are many times in the show where the glow is enhanced by George Port and PRPVFX. But most of it was done practically with this. One of my dearest friends, Simon Tams, came on board to do all the electronic noodling for the SPD stuff I built in the barnyard, and he lent a hand by rigging this from a tracing I faxed to him. He fedexed the final rig and it fit perfectly! Simon set it up so there was a quick disconnect leading to a long cable with a rheostat at its end. The intensity of Gruumm’s eye glow could be controlled by someone off camera, and match the level of energy Rene was putting out there. It worked wonderfully on set, and it always made me smile knowing Simon put all of that together on his dinning room table! What the audience never knows…
Photo #14: A rare look at what goes on behind the mask. Certain close ups in the show, like the reveal in EP 1’s opening, give you a glimpse of Rene’s contacts through the red lenses. Here’s what he looked like in person!
Photo #15: The last element to the headpiece was the horn. Horn and a half. Or nub. I will be honest and admit that when I sculpted the left horn only, I never saw it coming that there would be a “de-horning” sequence in which the make-up team would need to pull another all nighter and make a complete right horn! I may have created a more symmetrical design if I had…
Photo #16: But enough complaining! In the end, we got this, and I think it was all worth it! Gruumm may not be “Best PR villain” in the polls, but he was fun to make, fun to film, and he looks pretty freakin cool in this picture!
Photo #17: I love directing. Film, television, dog food commercials. Anything. I wouldn’t trade it for the world! The only drawback: 5am call times! I hate having to wake up early. So what makes that worse? When you are directing AND have to apply the make-up for the first time hours before filming starts. I barely remember that morning…
Photo #18: So this photo could be from the first day, and Rene is saying, “I think I’m going to like being evil”. Or it could be from mid season, and he is cautioning me, “Don’t talk to me unless my character is getting a bigger role.” Most likely it if from the final block, and he is holding back from screaming, “Aronowitz, if you ever come near me again with so much as a tube of mascara, I will break your spleen!!!”
Photo # 19: Gruumm phone home! Get it? Cause he’s an alien. Never mind. Rene has a beautiful wife and daughter, whom he was afraid to invite to set in fear of traumatizing them! But he called a lot to say, “Don’t worry, daddy’s not really going to destroy the Earth!”
Photo #20: I took this picture before we cut the “scissor lift of doom” from the show. Not really. I just thought this image showed some not often seen costume detail. I know Gruumm is not who you had in mind when requesting costume pix, but c’mon, make my day! Show up at Morphacon in full Troobian Overlord garb! It would be awesome!
Photo #21: Uh, I’m serious! And in case anyone wants to take me up on that, here’s some more detail. This image shows the bone vest pretty clear, along with the strapped leather gauntlets.
Photo #22: Gruumm and I always pray before filming. Keep in mind that I write these blogs late at night, so my humor gets stupider by the keystroke! Just wanted to show this photo because it proves that Gruumm does wear a cape. Sometimes. Maybe only when I direct episodes…
Photo #23: “No, honey, daddy’s not going to keep the ugly purple dog lady in a cage anymore!” Actually, his wife is probably talking him down from killing me! This is the final day of shooting for the whole series, and Rene couldn’t wait to get that make up off. Forever! But he toughed it out all season, and put a lot of amazing energy into that character. Thanks, man!For the costumers, note the under jerkin texture and the racing gloves.
Photo #24: Rene occasionally added his own accessories. Cyclops threatened to sue!
Photo # 25/26: A signed Drew Struzan SPD poster to whoever sends me pix of their cosplay Gruumm! Here are some detail studies of his staff to help you out!
Photo #27: It’s no wonder Gruumm hates the universe! I’d have a complex, too, if I were a whole head shorter than my dog!
Photo #28: If you can’t beat’em, bring in a stunt double! Nothing the make up team likes better than to have to do the same make up twice at the same time. Crazy action packed scripts. Who writes this stuff, anyway? Oh, wait…
Photo #29: Another fav photo. Maybe not as cool as Spielberg with the T-Rex, but if you told a 10 year old me that I would actually be directing aliens for Power Rangers on TV, I would have been as excited as, well, as I am in this photo. Kinda cool job.All right, that’s it for now. Having fun? Tweet your thoughts. And get your friends to follow me @gregaronowitz. I swear the first thing execs ask these days when you go in to pitch a show is “how many followers do you have on twitter?” Uh, 200? FAIL! I need at least 6 figures if I’m going to get another TV show! Campaign for me! Cause there’s more Gruumm where that came from…
Catch you soon!
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