... 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.

CAVEMEN AND MYSTERY BEASTS

Hello, it's me again. Sorry for the brief hiatus, it's just there's not that much going on. My actor is procrastinating for the THE LAST THREE FRICKIN' SHOTS and all the stop motion is complete. However, not all the creatures are finished.

SPOILER ALERT! DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU SEE THE FILM! SCROLL DOWN!

In the film, the protagonist, Rick, meets one of the cavern's few sentient species, a blind caveman, who leads him to his cave. I know it's weird that only he's albino and blind while the other creatures who lived there a lot longer aren't, but this film isn't exactly grounded in biology. Now, he will be played by me, my first attempt at makeup. He isn't that complex in design, he just has pale skin (flour), bad teeth, a robe, and arrows. However, he also has a thick beard and a bat-like nose to adapt to living in the cavern systems. For the beard, that's easy, just use the sheep wool that was used to make the gorilla:















However, the nose is tricky. I sculpted it from some foam and dunked it in latex. It sat there for a couple of weeks, but now I'm finally using it.















It's not that interesting visually, so I'm going to add fine hairs (like on moles or bats) to the nostrils and sides of the nose to indicate some sort of biological use.

Here's the fox hair, glued to the back. It fits on my nose, but falls off. I might use gum to fix that...

Here's the nostrils, now with lots of nose hair to obscure my actual nose.

Hi, Ashley! She sometimes shows up at my desk, but she'll eventually bite you if you pet her too much.

So, here's the nose, completed! I wonder if I should paint it. Anyway, you might be asking, "Kelston, what are you doing after Antediluvian?" Well, let me give you a sneak peek...















Wait. What is that incomplete foam monster?

What is that thing? Why does it have six legs and mantis-like claws?

AND WHAT'S THAT WEIRD INSECT ARMATURE FOR?

SCULPEY CLAWS?! WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?????????????

Thank you. Please comment.

ON THE GREEN SCREEN

You may have seen in the backgrounds of many of my pictures, but I haven't really talked much about it: The Green Screen.

For those of you who don't know, the green screen is the green fabric behind my dinosaur, Ray. Since the dawn of filmmaking, filmakers have attempted to increase the variation in the stories they told by means of special effect, not just to create fantastical creatures and vehicles, but to also take their person out of the studio and into another world, without ever leaving the studio. Most filmakers simply took their actors to obscure locations, or made artificial jungles and article wastes. But for those who didn't have the money, they used rear-projection, essentially the classic film version of filming your actors in front of a television, only with a projection screen and mirror. This is how King  Kong fought dinosaurs as human cowered in their presence, and how Superman flew. Still, people sought more creative ways, such as the matte, using blackened areas of two different clips as a proto green screen to form a compostite shot, and Dynamation, Ray Harryhausen's technique, which is essiantally rear-projection in reverse as the dinosaur is animated frame-by frame along with the live-action background, to be dropped into the human world. Smart, really. This technique was used (in some cases stolen) to create most stop-motion monster movies of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, where the technique was perfected by animator Phil Tippett, who replaced the animation board with a wire brace, shook the model between shots to blur the movement, and created go-motion. All these different breeds of composite shot were used to varying degrees of perfection, from excellent to B-movie level. Eventually, the blue screen was developed, most prominently used in Star Wars. A hybrid of the matte and rear-projection with digital technology thrown in, the green screen has your actors act in front of a large blue screen, and later a computer fills in the green with the background. This evolved into the digital age as green screen, and everyone from George Lucas to amateur filmakers use green screen. You can put your actor in a car, and put a moving background behind him to simulate driving,  animate your monster in front of a green screen to plop him into the real world, paint yourself green to become the invisible man, and all sorts of awesome techniques. But how do you do all this?

First, obviously, you need a green screen, which can be either a big green sheet, or green wall. As long as it's smooth and spreads past your camera's view, it's good.

Second, you need lighting. Light evens out the color recognition, without it, your green screen will look fizzy. I use a simple soft light, but if you want to get truly professional, use a real powerful light.

Third, you need a movie editing program that has green screen. It won't work without it. I suggest using FinalCut pro. It not only has green screen as an option, it works in more than one color, has a
range of options to a alter the way your characters interact with the world, and even erase
 fizzles should they show up.

I hope this has given you insight into the world of green screen. Enjoy!

Kelston Hubler

ACTING PART 2

So, on live action.

Frankly, it's very hard. You don't have complete, 100% control of your actors like you do in stop motion. For example, a couple hours ago I worked on some new shots, and my actor, Gavin, wouldn't stop giggling and didn't always do what I wanted for the shot (didn't mean it wasn't good footage, though. Gavin is still a good actor).

Today, I learned some things shooting live action. Here's what I learned:

1. You need to describe exactly what you want with your actors (unless it's a silent film, then you can be lazy and tell them as your filming). You don't have the same mind as your actor does, and he might have a different vision from you.

2. Your actors must memorize their lines. I already knew this, Gavin barely speaks at all in the film. But still, you can't just expect to give them long complex dialouge on the set them expect them to say it 20 seconds later. You need to write it down them let them practice. This will make your film seem much better.

3. Try to keep continuity. If you're shooting more than one day, try to keep your actors wearing the same wardrobe. Unless the film's shots shift in time between day 1 and day 2, it will look like they magically changed clothes. I made this mistake, when earlier in the movie Gavin's shirt changes from purple to yellow.

4. Try to keep authenticity. Unless the characters in your world live in the modern day, try to give them realistic wardrobes and sets. If they're spelunkers, give them climbing ropes and headlamps. If
they're victorians, give them steampunk-ish 18th century attire. If they're cavemen, give them fake fur

robes and rubber prosthetic foreheads. I know it's hard to get this kind of stuff, but you can ask family members, learn on websites how to make them yourself, or even search your attic for old clothing. For sets, try to look for good, realistic locations (Gavin was doing a castaway-style film for the silent film festival, so he was lucky to get his shots done on a vacation to Maui. Made
a fantastic film. I also did a silent film about Mothman, and luckily had a really creepy chicken shack, which helped the creepy factor). If not, use a green screen and green screen programs, and legally upload photos from the internet.

5. Be nice, but have a limit. You may want it to be perfect, but you just can't do that. Be nice to your actors, and accept their ideas. But if they give you the lip and complain, have a limit.

6. NEVER, EVER, EVER FILM, if your actors have the giggles.

They won't be able to function if they just laugh. Unless you want an impossibly long out takes reel full of the giggle fits of actors and curse words of directors, just don't film if they keep laughing.


So, any way, except for GIGGLING FITS (I told you), acting on set has been okay. Gavin had to survive by setting some mushrooms in the script, so I got some raw mushrooms from Mom, who's a cook. Gavin ate the mushrooms, then promptly ran into the bathroom to spit them up.

Antediluvian is currently going well and filming is almost complete!

Antediluvian, coming to a prehistoric, dinosaur-infested cave near you

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