April Meeting

I say we all just ignore Sharon's availability whenever she posts it. We know it's not going to stay that way the closer the date gets.

I'm available any day, including Easter. Maybe a projecting showing what Jesus would have really looked like three days after rising from the dead would be appropriate. He was the original zombie after all (if you ignore Lazarus, that is).

On our ride home on Saturday, Jeff and I discussed it might be fun to have a makeup discussion at one meeting, perhaps with some prosthetic appliques. I volunteer Jeff to lead the group.

I also vote for the skull mold-making tangent that FrightGuy tried to send us off on earlier. Since I can't imagine a hand-making class will occupy a full day, perhaps the two projects can be done, one earlier in the day, one later, with Sharon's Easter egg hunt in between (so Sharon, are you going to be getting to Pattie's at 6 a.m. to hide all the eggs so we don't see where you put them?).

Looking forward to the meeting, though, wheneva!

Rich

Why don't you just spend the night and that way you don't have to leave so early..lol. Or I can just go ahead and hide them before y'all get here! We will use PLASTIC eggs, just in case someone wanted to be a smartass and find an egg, then stick it somewhere that will be impossible to find as it slowly starts to rot! I'm determined to sell the house, so I have to make sure it isn't contaminated..lol. Anyway....I'll take care of the egg part Sharon. Just tell me how you want to do it. Do you want me to put numbers in some of the eggs that coordinate with the prizes that we get? That's how we did it when the kids were younger. I just need to know how many prizes there will be. I know I've got stuff around here too that I wanted to get rid of.

Also, we're available all weekends as of now.

One more thing...the first rummage sale is this week, and Friday is fill a bag for a buck day. (I think they raised it to 2 bucks, but that's OK). I got a request for men's suit jackets but is there anything that any of you may need that I can look for? I can't guarantee that there will be anything left that we can use, but I'll give it a shot. I got 2 shiatsu's one year, so occasionally they have good stuff. BTW...IF I find the Shiatsu's, they're mine...lol. Does anyone need books for a library room? Toys for a nursery? Shoes for props? Let me know before Wednesday or Thursday so I can make my list. They usually have tons of picture frames too. Shoot...I may need to take someone with me to help me carry this all...lol.

Here is what the So Cal make and take group did for their video project (link below).

What they shot was primarily for projection or straight video use so we can be less technical in having to use a green screen. A simple black backdrop will do and then we decide on the ghost images we want to do and act them out against the backdrop. It could be fun. I would edit the videos and have the DVD's for the next meeting. Everyone could act our their own peppers ghost routines. This may not take all that long but it could be great if combined with the makeup techniques that Jeff and Rich are talking about...we can make ourselves up into zombies,corpsed ghosts etc. and then shoot the videos.

I am also all for doing a life cast but I have to note that it can be expensive and if everyone wants to go home with their own cast to work with that day then it may not be feasible. Below is a tutorial video along with the website for the materials they use.
http://www.shop.brickintheyard.com/category.sc?categoryId=3

We could always do just one or two casts and work from those or if everyone wants to buddy up we could do that as well. Once you have a mold created it can be cast in a number of materials. Foam, Plaster, Silicone etc. You could use the casts for heads on pop-ups, tombstones, faces on pillars and the list goes on. All stuff to think about.

I also just got the How To Haunt Your House Vol. 2 book and there is some great stuff in here. There is an awesome tutorial to make a chicken wire ghost bride that is clothed in white fabric and illuminated with a blacklight that looks pretty neat.

I'm up for anything and am looking forward to some other ideas...if anyone likes any of what I suggested and wants more info just let me know.

PS..Greg..the grave grabber has been doing great! Ran it for half the day on Sunday to test it out and it worked like a charm! Can't wait to do more motorized props...I'm hooked!

Wow, those SoCal haunters are freakin' professionals, Jay. Green screens. Specialty lighting. Directors! Not to mention cameras. They've got money to burn out there. And that life casting (or was it lufe casting, I forget?) looks like a special kind of torture.

For future projects, I'm looking to add some height to my graveyard this year, which will probably take the form of some foam insulation obelisks. I'm not sure how high I want to make them, but because of their size it may be a limiting factor in people getting them home, so this might be something I have to do on my own.

I was also considering doing a Grave Escape prop too, using a shiatsu massager for the motion. Here's a video for the one I'm thinking of. I've seen a bunch of these on the forums, but I think the original by SpookySam had the best movement (maybe it's just the great .wav file he chose along with a good skull).

zombie_finished video by Spooky_Sam - Photobucket

Of course, I also saw half your names attached to the various threads discussing this prop, so maybe you've already built this. I do want more movement in my yard and mechanical props like this are fun, but I would like to explore pneumatics too.

Rich

I like all of the Ideas comming in so far.

Here's the link to the obelisk that I was talking about. Rich mentioned he'd like to build one. Obelisk .

This is a great tutorial. Very complete with accurate measurements etc. It could be done at a MnT since it will be pinned together as the glue dries, enableing us to take it home after only a few hours of dry time (Dinner?).

Obelisks are a GREAT addition to any graveyard since it adds some height to your cemetary, which adds a lot of dimension and realsm.

I also like any shiatsu prop for a build.

I would also love to demonstrate my wire hand technique which would only take 2-3 hours for everyone to build, including the latex (a morning project so it can dry?).

As far as a video project??? I've been talking with Sharon for a few months about doing a fake newscast for my Mine disaster/ Mutant mist theme. Since we apparently have talented video editors, I'd love to talk with Jay (lite) and Sharon about this. What I originally envisioned would be SUPER simple for a skilled video editor to accomplish, BUT, some group participation could take it to the next level. When is that Zombie walk again??