Hypercast #2: Unmasking Mr. Punch

Say hello to our sweet, sweet second Hypercast!

Listen in on a conversation with Patrick Rubio, mask designer for our latest production: The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch. We'll learn about the craft of creating masks, chat about the relationship between fear and memory, and be a fly on the wall for an actual mask making session.

The face!!!!!! What we do for PUNCH!

OK so last night I had my "face done." Ha! And between the whispers of "oh man its not drying" and "it's gonna take longer" and "hold the straws up in his nostrils so he can continue to breathe," I found myself in a very surreal situation. So here's pics of the process.

Kerr Seth Lordygan ("Morton")

Frankenstein Build: Week One (and a Half)

More Frankenstein!! building is afoot in the Rogue workshop. I'll skip the introduction for today and just give you the pictures...they just about speak for themselves.

Here's Becca (we met her when she worked on the crew for Mr. Punch) working with a puppet head. Pat glued several layers of foam together, then sculpted out the shape he wanted. Now Becca is covering the whole thing with tarlatine and Sculpt or Coat to make it stronger.

Our mess of a worktable. You can see the puppet head Byron was working on last time, a candelabra Pat made, lots of coffee filters (they're good for papier mache), and--if you look closely--the Frog Belly suit hanging in the background.

Pat considers a job as a pizza delivery man while standing in front of a large cardboard tree.

Tyler, just back from Disneyworld, is working with the removable werewolf features that attach to the mask I made last weekend. You can see a closeup below.

Frankenstein Build: Week One

So far, my predictions about 2008 have been right on the money: the Rogues have never been busier, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. Every time we finish a project, something new comes along and we're right back in the workshop, building more puppets and masks and generally making a mess. I'm tired, but it's pretty satisfying to be able to tick off a half-dozen projects already, less than two months into the year.

Last weekend, we started really working on Frankenstein!!. Pat and Joyce have been working hard on this project for weeks, but we're just now starting to work together as a group and crank out the bulk of the stuff we need. Friday, we filmed this insane video about Batman, Robin, and Superman...I can't even describe it; it has to be seen to be believed. Joyce made this incredible two-room set and had all these tiny props, and Pat, Byron, and I puppeteered the action figures while Joyce's friend Mike filmed the whole thing. I wish I had taken pictures, but the video (once we edit it and get it uploaded) will have to be enough. It's hilarious.

Saturday, Pat, John, and I met up with Byron and Elizabeth (two of our students from the UCI workshop) to start building the puppets and masks. I started sculpting a full-face werewolf mask (I called dibs on that project, inspired by my recently renewed obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Pat worked on a three-foot rod puppet, and everyone else...well, why don't I show you.

Here's Byron (possibly the nicest young man I've ever met, for the record) adding layers of Sculpt or Coat and tarlatine to a puppet head. I've been assured it's going to be a girl, but right now it just sort of looks like something from Pan's Labyrinth. Or a wet football.

Here's Elizabeth, doing the same to a mask. We have big foam eyeballs to stick in those eye sockets, but not until the Sculpt or Coat dries. I think it's going to look pretty cool.

And Pat, getting ready to cut PVC pipe for his rod puppet.

That's all for now, but we've got a full week's worth of building ahead, so expect more updates in the days to come.

UCI Masks: Part 2!

Last week, Emily and I blogged about the masks we'd been working on for the UCI workshop (which starts today...oh man!). At the time, they were just soggy piles of cloth, wire, and glue. But check them out now:

Wow! That's me on the left, holding maybe the scariest mask the Rogues have ever produced (I guess I have issues?). Emily's on the right. You can't see the detail in this photo (click it to enlarge), but she sprayed this amazing rock-texture stuff on the surface, and it's actually all pebbley like it was made from stone. It's incredible.

Crag Man

I made my first mask last night (see pics below)! I was hesitant at first, since I don't consider myself a very "artistic" person, but what the hell--it's only clay. If I did a terrible job someone else could come along and save it.

Guess what though?!

I didn't do a terrible job! I did a pretty good job (if I do say so myself--and I do). It took a while to get zen, but after I coated the face in clay and started futzing around with adding various facial features, the personality of the mask emerged in surprising spurts. I had an odd "I am god" moment when I realized that the mask had a definite personality, separate from myself (yet of myself).

While the mask did not end up where I thought it was going, I am very happy with the result. We didn't have any archetypical "strong man" masks so I was aiming for Patrick Swayze/Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (modeling, of course, from Tyler's face). He ended up more like a slightly confused, unintentionally mean Neanderthal (sorry, Tyler).

Butchering the word Cro magnon and inspired by the awesome mountainy look that he had when sculpted from marbled clay, I have named him Crag Man.

UCI Workshop: Behind the Scenes

The UCI workshop is about to start next week, so the Rogues are in full prep-mode getting everything ready before then. Last night, a bunch of us met at Rogue HQ to build a set of brand-new stock masks for the students to learn with. I took pictures.

Here's Emily building her first mask ever. It's impressive. I hear it's supposed to look like a combination of Patrick Swayze, Tyler, and a rock, but I guess only time will tell.

Sean is pinning the wire frame to the back of his mask with clothespins before he applies tarlatine and Sculpt or Coat to keep it in place. It was Tyler's great idea to use the clothespins...before that, it took ages to hold the wire in place. Now, of course, the clothespins seem totally obvious. Also, I took three pictures of Sean, and this was one where he was making the least-obvious "I'm posing for a picture" face.

Pat is working on a zombie puppet of his own design for the workshop. Here, he's contemplating its head in a very "poor Yorick" moment.

And here's me, checking out our friend Richard's mask. It's in the clay-only stage right now, but by next week it'll be covered in tarlatine and Sculpt or Coat, reinforced with wire, painted, and ready to go.

So there you have it! Mysteries of the Rogue build process revealed. Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes updates next week when we meet with Michael York, start our UCI workshop, and more. Man, 2008 just does not quit.