Special Double Update: Jim-Bob

This weekend we have a special second update because news this hot can't wait until next week!
A new character will be introduced in Hookman: Redemption, a character who plays a key role in the early part of the story: Jim-Bob.  Up until this weekend, that role was to be filled by Molly (aka Tum-Tum) because she has such a good dramatic range.  However, an opportunity arose to cast that character with another actor who is well-known as a creepy character actor in B-Horror movies: John Karyus.

John Karyus as "Freddie the Holy Hobo"

"Scaryus Karyus" has been in such films as The Summer of Massacre, Poultrygeist, and Silent Night, Zombie Night, among others.  We are lucky enough to catch him after he wraps acting as a demonic clown in a new Full Moon movie.  You can see his partial credits here.


Look for "Jim-Bob" in Hookman: Redemption!

Progress Report

Mr. Robert Downs, Jr. on May 15, 2011 - Day 1 of shooting Hookman: Redemption

May 15th marked the one-year anniversary of the first day of production on Hookman: Redemption - and what do we have to show for it? Well, quite a lot, actually.  We started out with 52 scenes to shoot. As it stands right now, there are 26 scenes left. When you look at page count, we're at about 32 out of 60 pages.  Crap, that's like half the movie!?  

Well, sorta.  We started out with seven poker scenes to shoot, and they're ALL complete, thank god.  We also started out with ten songs to shoot, and eight of those are complete.  Songs in the script occupy about 2 lines on a page, but can take up to four minutes of actual screen time. Plus they take much more time to shoot than a standard dialogue scene.  So maybe we're a little over halfway done.

That's good, because as of this past week, everything that has been shot so far has also been edited into a rough semblance of a movie, and that clocks in at about one hour. ONE HOUR OF HOOKMAN GOODNESS.

The edit in its current form - clocking in at 56 minutes with half the movie left to shoot.

Two weeks from now, we'll just be wrapping up a three-day shoot aimed at knocking out the rest of the scenes that require all the main cast.  In three days we plan on completing nine additional scenes, totaling 18 pages of script - comprising two fight scenes and two songs, among other things.  Therefore, in two weeks time there will only be about 12 pages left to shoot over the course of four or five short pickup days with only partial cast - the scraps.

That's pretty good progress, I'd say. It still needs a TON of sound work, and many hours of visual effects work put into it, but that's what the fall is for.

Here's the edit in it's current form (sped up twenty-five thousand percent):

The Many Faces of Hilary: Part 1

This weekend, the actress who plays Mrs. Svletfanzi is graduating from college.  As such, we thought this would be the perfect time to launch the first in a multi-part series, "The Many Faces of Hilary."

Hilary has this special gift whereby she can seemingly turn her face into plastic and mold it into strange and grotesque shapes.  The plasticity of her face allows her to achieve a wide range of expressions and shapes not normally found in nature.  What follows is a glimpse into her unique talent - moments often caught by accident in between takes, or when she didn't know the camera was rolling.  This is but a small sampling of her facial tableau; her true range is so full and diverse we could never dream of taking them all in, nor could we be lucky enough to have a camera rolling to capture them when they spontaneously occur.  And keep in mind: these are just from one scene!

How-to Horror: Blood FX 101

Spatula getting a face full of blood spray

The one thing lacking from most mainstream movies is good blood spray, preferably hitting other actors, making neat patterns on the walls, or covering the lens.  Hookman: Redemption will of course have good blood spray.  But how do we do it? It's easy! 


Today we'll teach you the simple way to get quality blood spray for under $10, in no time at all!


The first thing you need is a sick sense of humor. This cannot be bought or obtained, you must be born weird.  Then, these items:
- A turkey baster 
- A couple feet of plastic tubing 
- Corn syrup
- Red food coloring
You should be able to find all of these at a grocery store, except the plastic tubing.  It's typically less than a dollar per foot at home improvement stores (Hookman Top Tip: plastic tubing is free if stolen off of IV drip bags in hospitals!)


Next we'll deal with assembly. Mix a bottle of red food coloring with 16oz of corn syrup. Add about 2 oz. of water to dilute it somewhat for easier spraying. Then jam the plastic tubing onto the end of the turkey baster (electrical tape might help secure it if it's not a perfect fit). Pour some fake blood into the turkey baster, stick the end of the tubing where you want blood to spray from, and you're ready to rock!


As you can see here, we wanted blood to spurt from this hook-hat, so the tube ran up Jimmy's back and up to the tip of the hook-hat.  All he has to do is squeeze the bulb and blood shoots out.

This is the correct face to be making while spraying blood for optimal effect, and fun!

Other ideas for blood tube placement are:
- under clothes
- inside pumpkins
- behind your car
- behind the showerhead
- fridge
- toilet
- your desk at work
- in "the cloud"


It may take you a few tries to get the blood to spray properly.  Try practicing on a friend who doesn't mind being sprayed. It's better if you have a relative who feels compelled to be shot with blood in order to complete a movie.  Just mock up a video camera and go to town!


Here is a look at what it took to get the effect right on the set of Hookman: Redemption. Enjoy!

Disturbing News

This week's post was going to be a brief discussion on the merits of alpacas vs. llamas, but something in the news this week caught my eye.  If you read the Baltimore Sun online, you may have also seen this story on Tuesday - before it was taken down on Wednesday!

luckily I had the blog in mind so I took these screenshots

It's easy to miss it at first, but the middle story at the bottom of the homepage for Baltimore County reads "A Monster at the Loch: Mysterious deaths at Loch Raven Reservoir, manhunt begins..."  When I saw this, my jaw dropped.  I clicked through to read the story:

The article is astonishing - two brothers were fishing at the reservoir when they were attacked and killed.  The attacker apparently used a fairly blunt object to stab them repeatedly, and the forensics point to an ice pick or hay hook, just like we use for our Hookman!  This was too crazy to be true! 

The article goes on, saying that one of the permanent patients in psychiatric custody at Sheppard Pratt had escaped his handlers just twelve hours before the attack occurred... check this guy out:

holy crap - an eyepatch?

The article ended by saying that the manhunt continues, and seeing as how the article was taken down 24 hours later, it must have ended...? I had no idea why the Sun would have taken down the link without comment, so I emailed the author.  Mr. Ronald O'Neill said he was legally bound not to comment on the article because, basically, the police don't want open investigations reported on, and that he had (in their opinions) disclosed "too many gruesome details."  The only thing he would say is that last he knew, the police were still looking for this guy, and weren't reporting any more deaths. 

I think the most overlooked part of the whole story was that the guy carved an "H" into a tree, then filled the carving with blood and dumped the bodies below it.  I asked Mr. O'Neill about that, and he just said "it was a disturbing piece of vandalism."

The original "H" - still stained red from the blood reported to have been rubbed into the carving

This was crazy, I thought.  There's a guy running around Loch Raven killing people wearing an eyepatch, and possibly using a hook. Not only that, but no one was being allowed to report on it!  I thought this whole "H" business was the icing on the cake - like he was taunting the police, or marking his territory.  Apparently the suspect's name is Christian Danielsson - why would he be carving an "H" (I immediately thought Hookman!).  So I did something incredibly stupid - I know the trails around the dam pretty well from filming there for the movie, so I decided I'd go check out a real Hookman crime scene!

I went into the woods Thursday afternoon around 4pm.  There were signs everywhere about trails being closed, and a lot of reservoir police trucks patrolling the roads, so I hiked in the long way.  I got close to the original crime scene, but that was swarming with cops so I took a different trail.  I wasn't 500 feet down a side trail when I saw another "H" and took a picture:

"H" number two

Holy crap.  I probably should have turned back, but I kept walking.  Another 500 feet, another H, then another:

This was without a doubt the same trail the psycho had gone down at some point, marking the way.  I found another "H" that looked more freshly carved than any of the other ones and was about to take a photo of it when I heard someone coming from down the trail, so I ran away.  I didn't know if it was a cop or the hookman, but I didn't care - I didn't want to meet either of them!  I took a side trail to shortcut back to my car (it was getting dark by this point) and I kept seeing "H"'s on every couple of trees, and they were all fresh...

I stopped to catch my breath for a second and noticed the next tree was bare except for one letter, but it wasn't another "H" - this one was an "O"... The next tree, another "O" carved into it.  This was it! The guy was about to spell out "Hookman"!  Man, I wish I had my video camera! 

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