THE DUAH: ON CRYPTIDS AND KAIJU

Boy, have I been busy!

Not only is Antediluvian finished (in rough draft form), but many new projects can now take the spot light! However, before I elaborate, I must discuss my most recent puppet for my kaiju flick, Kyoryu: the Duah.

In Kyoryu's world, the kaiju (known collectively as "Serpents"), are complete mysteries. Nobody knows why they exist or even how they could support their weight. However, almost all of them resemble mythical monsters from across the globe, making many believe they are the first sign of the apocalypse. Though this isn't exactly the main plot of Kyoryu, it's still heavily relevant. The Duah, or Ropen, is based off a flying demon reported by the native tribes of Papua, New Guinea. Described like a lizard with bat wings, a long beak full of teeth, and a long tail, as well as bioluminescence. A living pterosaur that evolved over the milenia? An unknown species of bat? A hoax? Anyway, it's a cool legend, and it would make a cool kaiju. When sculpting Kyoyu, I used a sketch of a flying beast for the basis of the sculpt and made the head.

Like all reports of living Pterosaurs, a very common theory is that it's an unidentified species of giant bat, a theory endorsed by famous cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson. I decided not to remove the bat nose from the sculpt to indicate the Duah could be both Bat and Pterodactyl. It's not a natural creature anyway, and it looked strange.

however, disaster struck. The plaster was incredibly poor and I could only save half the sculpt, losing the crest and using the latex cast off it to build his neck. Even worse, his eyes aren't straight!

My mistake was sticking the armature inside the latex cast and filling it up with hot glue. Not only did one eye sort of sink into the skull, but I couldn't fix it! Despite this, it at least looked okay when I added teeth.

In fact, it was easier to add teeth than it ever was before. The roof of the mouth was hot glue, so I melted it and stuck the teeth in the holes! I also like the two teeth at the very tip of the lower jaw. It gives purpose to the distended lower jaw and looks more bat-like.

I then used black sculpey to sculpt obsidian plated growing off his back, which I glued to the spine. So far, the Duah looks truly amazing.

The third creature in the film is the parasite, hanging off Kyoryu's stomach. He is not stop motion, but the first of many parasites that will be in a truly disturbing scene. While I'm working on how to build the other parasites, this one is built to be hand held, and if successful, will make a truly memorable scene. I cut the teeth off the original sculpt for the head, and casted it. It came out perfectly. Then, I simply poked holes through the top where teeth should be, shoved toothpicks up them, and glued them in place.

I have to say, this is a truly awesome head. It looks wonderfully creepy and will only look creepier with a paint job!

However, Kyoryu is not the only project on my plate. I have scripts for a cartoon, an idea for a future film, and a fantasy world I will write some short stories on. However, that is for another time.

Thank you for reading. Please comment.

Kelston Hubler

... AND WHERE IM GOING. ON KYORYU THE KAIJU

Most giant monster fans often talk of three great movie teams who made the genre what it is today. The first is Ray Harryhausen, the stop motion animator who made Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, and the Beast from 20,000 fathoms. The second is Willis O'brien and Marcel Delgado, who made The Lost World 1925, King Kong, and Mighty Joe Young. The third is Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsubaraya, who made Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra. Some of the most famous Kaiju flicks.

Kaiju cinema is quite fascinating. Kaiju cinema are movies about, well Kaiju, giant monsters who trash cities. The most famous of them are Godzilla and Gamera, who, with no one knowing stop motion in Japan, used Tokatsu (men in suits) stomping miniatures to create their monsters. Despite the genres reputation of camp, many Godzilla films are extremely good, Godzilla 1945, Ghidorah, the Three headed monster, and Destroy all monsters my personal favorites. Now fans of genre are more excited than ever, with Pacific Rim and Godzilla 2014 showing some truly amazing CGI kaiju trampling cities and, once again, exciting pretty much everyone. In fact, when Godzilla came out, I was so excited when the director stated he wanted a Destroy all Monsters type sequel, I created all these character redesigns! (characters owned by Toho, obviously)

Ghidorah

Ghidorah's heads

Mothra

Mothra up close

Rodan and Megaguirus

Rodan

Kiryu

Varan

Baragon

Anguirus

Anguirus head

Hedorah

Titanosaurus and Manda

So, with all this hype on kaiju, I thought it best my next film be about kaiju. And so, Kyoryu was born. The project began as sort of an experiment in January. I watched Pacific Rim, and seeing all the amazing creative monsters sparked my ideas. The project has changed in themes many times, with bits of test scripts and sculpts of Kaiju heads in monster clay, but Kyoryu has always remained pretty much the same: a gigantic, dinosaur-like creature with four arms that is slowly pushed into moral dilemma as his homeland is attacked by invading kaiju. Im not sure if this exact theme will be the base of the short film, but if the project is a success, it may lead into more films that deal with Kyoryus perspective and worlds mythology Ive been developing. More on that later, first, lets get to my in-development Kyoryu puppet.

Kyoryu is Japanese for dinosaur, and is a kaiju of my own design. Kyoryu is the first puppet to use new techniques and ways of building monsters, and so far, he's going quite well. Originally, he was a puppet for my unused idea for a technothriller, PHOBOS RISING, about tardigrades who evolve into a new ecosystem after being left in an abandoned earth colony with some really resourceful martian algae. Kyoryu was going to be the super predator of the ecosystem, but as ideas changed, so did he.

Its sad when a project dies off. You want it to grow, but for whatever reason, be it lack of resources, unwilling actors, or even sheer boredom, sometimes a project gets scrapped. Fortunately, you can always go back to your unfinished scripts and puppets, search for ideas, and reuse them for current projects.

One day, I read from the DAIKAIJU GIANT MONSTER TALES book, an anthology on kaiju which never stops in creativity. I wondered if I could create an original kaiju of my own design. So I designed Kyoryu on my iPad. realizing the potential, I took my old phobos rising monster, and added eyes, claws, and distended legs, like clover field. His eyes were simply a sculpey clay ball cut in half, the cornea added, and a bead of hot glue attached for reflection. His hands were aluminum wire dipped in hot glue, and wrapped in string. However, I wasn't happy with the design.

Kyroyu had his hind legs lengthened, his arm shortened, and his body more upright. Finally, I attached the face.

I have been experimenting with Kyoryu characters in monster clay for a while. So, I used Kyroyu's head sculpt, based off a komodo dragon.

For my first ever character to use casting, I have to say, Kyoryu looks awesome. His skin was too tight on the upper jaw, so I had to cut it, but I can paint over it to look like a scar he got fighting another kaiju. Aside from Ray, he's the only creature with teeth that can completely conceal them, which will only make him look more realistic.

This film will possibly be submitted for the local silent film festival, which I have went to for the past few years.  As for the current plot, it needs working, but here it is:

In a world where kaiju, mysterious beasts based off creatures from myth, return to defend the country they come from. When a kaiju attacks the US, a reporter goes into the city to take photos of the mighty beasts.

Of course, its not the most original plot, but I'd love for anyone to give ideas. The world is well developed in my mind, but the story hasn't really been fleshed out yet, but aside from Kyoryu, there are two other creatures: the mighty pterosaur kaiju Duah:

....and the leech parasites that hang off Kyroyus back, their eyes and teeth currently rendered in sculpt.

Yes, its creepy, but the scene I have planned for it is awesome.

Kyoryu is still in script development, so if you have any ideas for the story or sequels, please comment. As Antediluvian is wrapping up, I want to try something more ambitious.

Thank you for reading.

Kelston Hubler