Halloween Set Visit Exclusive – Interview 1 of 9 - Anthony Tremblay
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On the set of Michael Myers' room in the insane asylum. [pictured: Rob Zombie with Daeg Faerch, by Marsha LaMarca]
Staci Layne Wilson: These masks are really organic-looking — obviously he's made them out of things he's found. What did you use to make them?
Anthony Tremblay: Paper plates, paper mache, foil, tape, newspapers, and there's one made out of popsicle sticks.
Staci: Are there any of them in homage to the original Halloween movie?
Anthony: There actually is... there's one right here. It's kind of like Michael struggling to remember what "that" mask looked like, and it was his closest attempt to date.
Staci: This one looks like something I've seen before...[laughs] Like William Shatner! I like this one, too.
Anthony: This one? That's actually the joke mask. That's called "my day at the spa" mask. See the little cucumbers in the eyes and the avocado...
Staci: [laughs] So in spite of the subject matter, is this one of the more fun movies that you've worked on?
Anthony: I would say its the funnest film I've ever worked on. Easily.
Staci: What other things have you done that have been... probably not as interesting as this room, but what are some of your other favorite aspects of the sets and visuals?
Anthony: We did a nice guard station outside the sanitarium… or, the VA hospital turning into the sanitarium. That was just a nice architectural piece to try to change the whole complexion of the VA hospital, which was pretty bland [to begin with].
Staci: Have you ever been surprised when you have seen the finished product through the camera, or does Rob show you everything as it's being shot? Do you get to look at the monitors all the time?
Anthony: Oh yeah, I watch the monitors every time we establish something. I check on the monitor and make sure there isn't any weird tangents or strange things in there that don't look right. The other day I went up there, and they were shooting an unscripted scene. They were looking down the hallway and we were doing a flashback to 1978, and there were all these LED exit signs in there that they were about to roll on, so we covered those up because they didn't really use LED exit signs then. I look at everything as we go just so there's no mistakes, nothing falls through the cracks. Ultimately things do fall through the cracks, though. We try.
Staci: So for this particular set, will it be fairly light in here? Will the audience that's watching the film actually be able to see all these masks?
Anthony: I think it's going to be pretty moody. But the lighting right now is just put up for us to dress with, so we can get an idea what it will be like.
Staci: I recently saw Dead Silence, which I had done a set visit on in Toronto when they were shooting, and they had those 101 ventriloquist dummies, had the dollmaker shop with all kinds of stuff in it... and then the finished movie was all dark. I was like, "I saw that set and I know how great it was. Too bad I can't see it now."
Anthony: And it was shot very dark. Yeah, we tend to do that. We tend to keep things a little dark so that it's the "less is more" approach, and the corners fall off into shadows.
Staci: So, you think that the audience's mind fills in what they may not actually be seeing?
Anthony: It absolutely does, yes. You just make sure that the good stuff really reads and then if something goes off into the shadows then you know that there are things in there that even if you see a little detail you know that it's good detail.
[end]