crabapple
09-29-2006, 11:35 PM
Yes, I will tell you a story about "Freaked." 1992, I think it was? Well, it was a little while after I did "Gilbert Grape." I don't remember much because there was very little time to sleep on "Freaked"--so I was really walking through the experience in a zombie sort of state.
They didn't know quite what level of weird they wanted so they came up with a lot of extra stuff that was photographed but never made it into the film--like the collapsing Bill Sadler head I built. It had all kinds of mechanical facial expressions and was supposed to melt into a puddle while screaming. It was complicated--basically, it was mainly operated through a hole in the floor. One person gripped a handle and puppeteered the head itself and made the jaw open and close, and then cables ran off of the skull to little controllers. Two or three people worked the smaller facial expressions (eyebrows, cheek muscles) with these controllers.
The idea was: Whoever was under the floor would slowly lower the mechanical head down into the hole. While this was happening, puppeteers off to the side would pull on monofilament lines to peel the skin off the head starting at the back of the head. The further the head was lowered, the more the skin would be peeled away and outwards. To the camera this would look like the head was flattening out as it melted. But the mechanics in the center of the face would allow it to keep screaming and making facial expressions. It didn't work perfectly, but it worked well enough when we photographed it. I don't have any pictures, because there wasn't time to take them!
This was a big day when many effects were being shot, and I was bushed--hadn't slept for days. So when we were done photographing the head I was asked if I could lend a hand with some other effects. I declined, and asked my supervisors if I could find a building somewhere and lie down. I'm sure I looked pretty awful, so I was given the okay to get some sleep somewhere, but I was asked not to go home, since I might be needed in an emergency. This was at some small studio in Hollywood somewhere, I don't remember which one, but a small place.
Okay: So I find a bungalow that's open and go inside. But there's no furniture. It's like 9:00 in the morning, I've watched the sun go down and come up several times without sleeping...so things are pretty unreal. I notice that the bungalow is FREEZING COLD. It's the air conditioner--it's broken, and can't be turned off. It's been on all night and the place is like an ice cube. No place to lie down except the floor, where it's even colder. No blankets or anything like that. But there are some big plastic garbage bags. I have seen people sleeping in garbage bags on the street in Los Angeles, so I figure, there has to be some advantage to this... I crawl into one of them and find it makes me feel a LITTLE bit warmer. Well, it's better than nothing.
I am lying there shivering, and I look up at a nearby window. There's a breeze outside and it's whipping the branches of two trees around. Tree branches, waving in the wind! In my sleep-deprived mind, I imagine that the tree branches, in the odd shape they are, look something like gunfighters in an old western movie, squaring off in the middle of the street, like High Noon. The one farthest away looks more evil, and seems to have a face, like a Snidely Whiplash character. The one closest to me seems to be the hero. They square off, wave around, go back to their starting position. They square off again, face each other, go back to position one. This happens over and over and over, and I find myself oddly entranced by this weird image. I can't look away! I can't fall asleep!
An hour later, the door opens and the other members of the effects crew come in. Everything's done and we can all go home. I drive home in a terrible state and pass out.
They didn't know quite what level of weird they wanted so they came up with a lot of extra stuff that was photographed but never made it into the film--like the collapsing Bill Sadler head I built. It had all kinds of mechanical facial expressions and was supposed to melt into a puddle while screaming. It was complicated--basically, it was mainly operated through a hole in the floor. One person gripped a handle and puppeteered the head itself and made the jaw open and close, and then cables ran off of the skull to little controllers. Two or three people worked the smaller facial expressions (eyebrows, cheek muscles) with these controllers.
The idea was: Whoever was under the floor would slowly lower the mechanical head down into the hole. While this was happening, puppeteers off to the side would pull on monofilament lines to peel the skin off the head starting at the back of the head. The further the head was lowered, the more the skin would be peeled away and outwards. To the camera this would look like the head was flattening out as it melted. But the mechanics in the center of the face would allow it to keep screaming and making facial expressions. It didn't work perfectly, but it worked well enough when we photographed it. I don't have any pictures, because there wasn't time to take them!
This was a big day when many effects were being shot, and I was bushed--hadn't slept for days. So when we were done photographing the head I was asked if I could lend a hand with some other effects. I declined, and asked my supervisors if I could find a building somewhere and lie down. I'm sure I looked pretty awful, so I was given the okay to get some sleep somewhere, but I was asked not to go home, since I might be needed in an emergency. This was at some small studio in Hollywood somewhere, I don't remember which one, but a small place.
Okay: So I find a bungalow that's open and go inside. But there's no furniture. It's like 9:00 in the morning, I've watched the sun go down and come up several times without sleeping...so things are pretty unreal. I notice that the bungalow is FREEZING COLD. It's the air conditioner--it's broken, and can't be turned off. It's been on all night and the place is like an ice cube. No place to lie down except the floor, where it's even colder. No blankets or anything like that. But there are some big plastic garbage bags. I have seen people sleeping in garbage bags on the street in Los Angeles, so I figure, there has to be some advantage to this... I crawl into one of them and find it makes me feel a LITTLE bit warmer. Well, it's better than nothing.
I am lying there shivering, and I look up at a nearby window. There's a breeze outside and it's whipping the branches of two trees around. Tree branches, waving in the wind! In my sleep-deprived mind, I imagine that the tree branches, in the odd shape they are, look something like gunfighters in an old western movie, squaring off in the middle of the street, like High Noon. The one farthest away looks more evil, and seems to have a face, like a Snidely Whiplash character. The one closest to me seems to be the hero. They square off, wave around, go back to their starting position. They square off again, face each other, go back to position one. This happens over and over and over, and I find myself oddly entranced by this weird image. I can't look away! I can't fall asleep!
An hour later, the door opens and the other members of the effects crew come in. Everything's done and we can all go home. I drive home in a terrible state and pass out.