... 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

WHERE I'VE BEEN....

Hello, the, like five people who read my blog!

You may have noticed I've been silent for about two months now.I had lots of stuff to do, not to mention a trip to Maui. Cool place, has great green screen backdrops. I have good news and bad news. The good news is, Antediluvian is still in production and has one shot and a couple narrations left to complete. The bad news, my earlier project, Much to Fear about summer, has been scrapped for now. It was a great idea, and I applaud my script writer for making a fantastic script, but I don't have the time or resources to make it. Even worse, the computer had a data overload, and the completed animation was one of the unfinished projects I had to sacrifice to save Antediluvian. Still, surviving footage will be reused, many of the puppets made for the film are under use by Antediluvian, and I still have the script. Maybe another time...

Anyway, onto Antediluvian. I only have two shots left, of a character in makeup. His role is undisclosed, but he needed a bat-like nose. I have never tried makeup before. I knew how to do it, but wasn't exactly sure. Originally, I was going to use a foam prosthetic for the nose dipped in latex, but it didn't look real and didn't fit. So, quickly, I had to develop a latex prosthetic...

Recently, I bought some Monster Clay off Amazon, a high-grade casting clay. Before, most characters with high detailed faces had to have plasticine faces. I was experimenting with this stuff, and learning from several casting videos, I decided to try it.

I sculpted the nose piece, and built a wall of crude plasticine out of it, made from old plasticine models.

Then, I poured a crude grade plaster of Paris inside. It dried in a couple hours, then I peeled away the wall to get the cast.

This part I was worried about the most, considering this wasn't the strongest plaster, but I peeled away the clay and got a perfect cast. Finally, I painted the latex, let it bake in the summer heat, and peel off the prosthetic.

Not a work of art, but still proud of it!

However, I still have some troubles. The schedule for makeup and attaching the beard and nosepiece is still up for debate, not to mention the troubles of removing spirit gum. Fortunately, I have more than one film on my plate, which I will talk about in my next post...

Hope you enjoyed it. Please comment.

Kelston Hubler.

ACTING... WHY IS IT SO HARD?!?

So, production on live action has begun, and finally moved to green screen! Dang, I thought Stop Motion was hard! I have troubles with actors, but so far, I'm doing good! Most outfits and locations are dead cheap, going to such exotic locations as the backyard forest, the green screen, and the bathroom with the lights turned off. Thankfully, my underground explorer, Rick (played by my brother Gavin), will look great, dressed in a thick jacket, head lamp, and rope, which I got from my Dad, who's a rock climber. Makes Gavin look like a real explorer! Gavin doesn't always agree with me on planning shots (we aren't terribly great at translating ideas, we both have are own visions) but I like what he's done before in my movies, so it should be great.

On the other hand, Hemmingway finally got her due as a model. She worked well, but she had trouble walking, so I simply had her leap away on an arial wire, which was cropped out in FinalCut pro. She looks great!

See ya later!

Kelston Hubler

THE RISE OF HIBERNIA

My scriptwriter has a fantastic imagination, so he gave the name for a new l,ovation in my movie: Hibernia, where dinosaurs hibernate. It's a big cavern, with a prehistoric wall, like King Kong, around it. Thanks to Green screen, there's no need to make the full set. I just take pictures of the wall:

Then post them behind the gate, where Ray eerily crawls out:

The gate and Walls were made with project bricks, something I luckily found searching for Hot glue in Joann's. They're tiny bricks you can use to create the illusion of large stone bricks, like on the pyramids. I even used them on Mammut, for my Pop-sickle stick fort:















I also used the green screen to make Edgar look like he's flying:















I hope you enjoyed it. Please comment.

FINISHED CREATURES

Hello, everybody! Here are my finished creatures:

This is my Mothman, based off a cryptid from point Pleasant, West Virginia. He's not for the project, I just already finished my Flatwoods Monster, and decided to finish my mothman, too. I may add the membrane to his wings later.

This is my Proto-Dragon, Fafnir. I'm seriously glad with how he turned out. He will shoot fire later on, but that's another story. He will attack a human village in my story for reasons undisclosed...

He was made through a Tubers and Zots coated in wire and latex, with the head strapped on. He will help reveal a serious menace in the film.

Here's Hemmingway! The rabbit fur worked well, as my saber-toothed tiger is finally complete and ready for filming! Her whiskers were actually rabbit whiskers. Her legs aren't very good, but she will only have a small role in the film, and her head's fantastic, so I'm happy with her.

This is Mokele, my Brontosaurus. I'm not exactly happy with the way she turned out (my fault, I rushed), but again, she only has a small role, and her animation is okay.

Ironically, the one I expected to be the worst turned out looking the best. My titanavis, Tweety, looks incredible, and the paint job hides the faulty manufacturing of his crude armature. I'm happy he turned out so well, too bad his role is to essentially be Ray's appetizer.

Here's my Mylodon, finished and ready for painting. I'm not sure about him, he was sort of rushed and he looks crude, but his armature works well, and he should be a good new addition to the team.

Well, that's all my current creatures. See ya!