When it rains, it pours

So, I've been silent for a while. This October has been quite the unlucky month. Personal issues overwhelmed my Haunt visiting plans so I didn't get the chance to visit any Haunts or post any reviews. I did manage to totally complete my personal mask for my Slaughterfiend costume:

Tomorrow night however, I will be taking a trip over to Graystone Haunted Manor in Longview, Texas. The word on the street about this Haunt has been nothing but great, so I'm extremely excited to see it. We also have our city's annual Zombie Walk coming up on Saturday, and I'm going to be going as a Plague Doctor to throw them a curve ball, so hopefully I'll have plenty of pictures and maybe a good story or two from that event.

Cutting Edge Sneak Preview

Since I'm a huge haunt enthusiast I decided that it would be a great idea to take a trip over to Fort Worth to check out Cutting Edge Haunted House's Sneak Preview Weekend. I've been a faithful Cutting Edge patron for the last 3 years, hitting them up during the Halloween season as well on their other Friday the 13th events. This haunt does not disappoint and lives up to its great reputation.

This weekend showcased the changes that have been made to the show, and served as an actor warm up. The set were fantastic as always. Cutting Edge is an interesting experience for a haunted house. They play on all of your sense and use amazing lighting effects to disorient the customer at every turn. The things I noticed were additional massive Gore Galore (?) puppets that were great! One thing I really love about Cutting Edge is that they use a minimum of animatronics. They rely more on their timing and atmosphere to get their scares. The actors were great and moved through their scenes and kept us on our toes the entire time.

The meat processing room was one of my favorite scenes. The ceiling mounted track allows the actors to swing body bags around and constantly change the look of the scene and allows them to create multiple hiding places for quick scares. There was also a room with a mobile floor that rocked back and forth that was a great effect and really got us off guard for the actor in the next error. Perhaps my favorite effect there is a strobe light room that makes you look like you're frozen as you move through the room. The actress in that room was amazing, contorting herself and moving in time with the light, extremely impressive.

The coolest new addition was the outside area of the haunt. It was set up to look like a junkyard or prop graveyard. The atmosphere was creepy and there were multiple false paths and excellent places for the chainsaw actors to hide. The props on display in the graveyard were very cool and the whole set up was a great use of the stuff that usually piles up all over a haunt's backstage area. After the junkyard was the grand finale: The Foam Tunnel. My companion got a bit miffed because he missed the bypass but I charged through the tunnel alone. The Foam Tunnel is a great way to end an amazing experience. Cutting Edge should be on the TO SEE list of every Haunter and Haunt Enthusiast. It is an amazing show and is totally different than the typical show.

A Little Slow....

....Posting, but better late than never I guess. Alot has gone on since my last post, so I'll jump right into this stuff. I've sculpted two complete masks, and they're currently awaiting the end of my regular work week so I have the time to create my molds and cast them. I've also decided that my sculpting ability isn't nearly as horrible as I anticipated, so that while these early masks will be sorta basic, they aren't going to be awful and after I finish painting and detailing them, they are going to be great.

As an actor, no matter how great a mask looked when I bought it (and the last one I bought looked great!) I couldn't keep my hands off of it when it came down to costuming and detailing. Thats why I decided instead of whipping up enough stuff to start selling immediately in small quantities, I wanted to really get into the process and work closely with a few haunts and help bring their characters to life. I've already begun experimenting with a neat effect for both my personal mask (that I'm building a full costume around for advertising/guest acting/because I enjoy it) and on of my prototypes that I can see really taking off if I can work the bugs out of it. But I want these masks to be more than just a lump of latex in a horrifying shape, I want to them to come alive and be "3-D". So if I'm sculpting for instance, a cyborg mask, expect it to have wires and gears and tubes running all over the place, not just as part of the mold. I want to bring my attention to costume detail to the masks I create.

I promise another update this weekend, complete with pictures of the finished sculpts and the molds....as long as I don't break them.....

So why am I doing this?

Why would I want to take on another job on top of my day job? Well its simple, I love Haunting! I've been in the Industry for 8 years as an actor, manager, builder, costumer....you name it, I've probably done it at one point or another. What drove me toward mask making was my own experience as an actor trying to create a unique character. When I started looking at masks online, most of the really awesome ones were WAY out of my budget. So I've decided that I want to give back to the industry that I love so much by making quality masks at a price range that is accessible to both serious actors looking to create a unique character and smaller and growing Haunts that want to outfit their cast.

I've always been a huge stickler for details on my costumes, and that's what I want to bring to the table. I've also suffered in hot, and uncomfortable masks. Those unpleasant experiences are what I'm going to reflect on while making my masks. All masks are going to be hot, but I want to insure plenty of air flow in my products, as well as ease of removal so that there's no risk of the mask being ripped or torn when its being taken off. On top of that, I want to make them durable enough to survive life in a Haunted House, as it can get very rough sometimes. In addition to comfort and durability, I want to focus on detail. I want these masks to make customers wet their pants, and help actors bring their characters to horrifying life!

I think my experience will be key to cranking out some killer masks. Since I'm currently NOT involved with a local Haunted House (unfortunately) I'll be able to devote all my time to this endeavor to insure that everything that comes out of my studio is something I'm proud of. I welcome all of you that are reading this to stick around, I'll be charting the progress of the masks I'm making, as well as writing some (hopefully) entertaining pieces about various aspects of Haunting, and come October, I'll have some reviews of Haunts that I'm planning to visit, so again welcome everyone and enjoy!

So it begins!

I'm going to use this blog in conjunction with my Facebook page to document the progress of my mask making venture. I'll be posting pictures, probably some video and just some general chatting as this process goes along. I like to connect with the people that I'll be providing masks and hopefully at some point full character costumes, so watch the blog and Facebook to see how it all unfolds!