The Hunks of Frightmare Farm

  

What to meet the type of a guy dreams are made of?  Well then, you've come to the wrong place. Here you will find the men of Frightmare Farm. These guys will haunt you in your sleep.

Looking for a loyal companion? Dogboy won't leave your side, especially if you always up for a good romp in the woods. You know what I mean??

Sometime our guys lose their heads, but not for long. 

 Some women judge their man by the quality of his bone structure. Skullface is better than good in that department.

  What more can be said about Scary Effen??? He's Effen Scary!!!  

Jedidiah has a face only a mother could love...his mother! 

And then there's Cleetus. What a charmer he is!

 

These are the hunks of Frightmare Farm. Too bad, you've missed your opportunity. If you want a date with any of these beautiful specimens of horror, you'll have to wait until next year.

Always in rush to finish your make-up!

Make-up's not my department, but as an actor I can appreciate the time and work that it takes to mash up the monsters. There's more to the process than meets the eye, but there is a method to our disguise. Here's a glimpse at how it's done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mJA6X3zIDY

The Women of Frightmare Farm

Lonely tonight? The Women of Frightmare Farm are there just for you! Looking for romance, these bevy of lovelies will not only warm your heart....they'll eat it given the opportunity.

Welcome to our world!

 

 

Frightmare Farm Week 2

This is where the mayhem begins. Magic or mayhem it's all a matter of perspective. When we started, we wanted to give you a sense of what the Frightmare experience is all about. A snippet here and a snippet there of what it takes to create an hauntingly frightful experience. Well, the first week is behind us and we are heading into week 2 with our hearts in our hands and our heads ready for those blood curdling moments that we've all come to know and love.

Watch as we unveil the beauty (in the ugliest sense of the word) of the characters of Frightmare Farm 2013.

Through the Eyes of a Doll

I'm having a great time on the Freightmare Farm.  Gerdie and I play hide and seek, peek-a-book, follow the leader, and sing all sorts of fun songs.  And sometimes in the dark I get her to sneak out so we can watch the fire performer.  Gerdie has a great big family full of all sorts of characters. They are loads of fun; but I want more friends, wont you come and play?

Lurking in the Shadows

 A big part of scaring is the element of surprise. You must know your character and know your surroundings. 

Finding the shadows
where are your hiding spots?  The human eye has a hard time seeing in the dark especially when the eyes don't have a chance to adjust. It could be a nook in the wall such as a closet or cupboard, down a dark hallway, or simply crouched in a corner.


Hidden in plain sight
Moving slowly or blending in with your surrounding is a great way to hid in plain sight.  Be a part of the crowd or camouflage with your scenery then go in for the scare. Try sitting at the fire seeming harmless and normal then once they feel safe show your true form.

Finding your light 
Angling light differently upon yourself gives for a different effect.  Light from above with cast a shadow on your face were as a light from below will illuminate your face. Sometimes this can change your appearance so greatly it's like having a whole second character.  Experiment with a small hand held flashlight and find your best angle.

Zombie Makeup 101 or How to become your own worse Frightmare!

On the way to Frightmare Farm, I stopped off at Zombie Makeup 101, a class instructed by Jason Rogers, aka Balcor Wood, the Troll, aka Tatty Boggle, aka Scary Effin Clown. Jason is a member of the team that was responsible for the Village of Terror and now Halloween Hollow's Frightmare Farm. Jason uses his creative talents to help bring the characters to life.

Jason is a master at the use and application of foam latex prosthetics and stage makeup. His talents as a visual and tattoo artist are put to good use every year about this time. Our focus has always been intent on creating the best show possible and we've been fortunate enough to be able to add excellent performers and artists to the cast every season.
 
The class presented the fundamentals of stage makeup, applying the base, adding color, blending, the different types of blood that can be used and highlighting areas that will bring out the best in any zombie.

The class also described how to take those same basic concepts and use them to create various  types of zombies: freshly killed, brain eating, or the back from the dead variety. These basic skills can also be used to create other characters such as, asylum inmates, vampires, prisoners and any characters that tend to inhabit the world of horror and fantasy.

The informal style of the class did not hide that fact that even first time participants were grasping advanced makeup concepts easily. The Sunday night storm became the perfect backdrop as the newly minted zombies were unleashed into the Eau Claire nightscape.

Bringing It Up to Speed.

We all have busy schedules and work to do, and the Festival grounds at Halloween Hollow are no exception. The scare-crew at the grounds have been working extra long days to assure that we have fright in our nights this October. They've covered a lot of ground since the festival was resurrected for yet another year of thrills and chills. Here's a glimpse at how the Hollow looked in it's early stages this year, as well as a preview of what we're in for this Halloween...of course we wouldn't want to give too much away now would we?

Unfortunately the video file was too big to post directly to this blog, so here's a link to it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGXHuzrb5fI

Character Research aka Scary Movie Night with Maybelle

 In the next couple of weeks I will be watching movies to get a feel for my character.  Here are a few from my list that I'll be watching:


Horror movies with Creepy Children
1. the Omen
2. The Orphan
3. The Grudge
4. The 6th Sense
5. The Ring

Horror movies with Frighting Families and Farms
1. Deliverance
2. House of Wax
3. Hillside Cannibles
4. Survival
5. The Roost

What are some of your favorites?

What's in our closet?

Clearing away the cobwebs in my head, looking at the site. What's going to work? How is it going to work?

Traffic flow, safety first! If we scare the crap out of them and they run for their lives in this direction what are the obstacles? How did that work last year? Good, not enough though...has to be even better this year.

There's so much to do and the clock down below is ticking, ticking, ticking! Deadline for this and deadline for that....DEADLINE...how appropriate!!!

Well, time to blow away the dust, rip open the boxes, and bring all the ghouls and goblins to life. For it is their time,

our time, a time when everything Halloween comes back to this world and is so ready to scare again. I'm dusting off the actors and creating some new characters (insert the soundtrack when the Frankenstein monster comes to life here.) Time to come out of the closet!!!

Make-up Mayhem

What can I say about the make-up tent at Frightmare Farms, well.... It can be a bit hectic.. it is also a hot spot for the actors. I love the process and the make-up team.. I have gained a ton of experience and made tons of new friends. I even got to be a character and got a few scares. I am really looking forward to this year and the advances in our make-ups. I have been working many events over the summer that has allowed me to work with AMC's Walking Dead Makeup artists! I have event coming up that i hope will help promote me and Frightmare Farms. The event is October 24th at the Fine Line Cafe in Minneapolis. To purchase tickets and to check out some of my work visit my profile http://www.rawartists.org/dangerousbeautydesigns

Hope to see you there and at Frightmare Farms!

Wont you come and play with me?

Gerdie Night is the childlike character from Frightmare Farm.  She is the youngest member of the mutated kin of Mortimer Night. Gerdie loves to play games and sing songs with her doll companion Maybelle Morning. For the next week I will be looking up children rhymes and songs as well as simplistic games that we may play.  What are some of your favorites?

As Gerdie my voice "changes" rather dramatically which can be harsh on the vocal chords.  Being outdoors and the changing weather also take their toll on your voice.

Simple tips for taking care of your voice:
*Stay hydrated
*Eat foods containing vitamin A, E, and C
*Warm up your vocal chords before use with some scales
*avoid caffeine, smoke, spicy food

Underneath a Costume

Sometimes what is underneath a costume is just as (or more) important than the costume itself. Take the French Court Lady for example. If you didn't see the sketch its this one:

In order for her to get that hourglass shape, we have to shape the person first. Enter the stays. Stays are an early version of the corset, before bras and modern undergarments where created. I'm using a commercial sewing pattern because I'm going to be wearing it and its pretty close to my body measurements. For somebody else I would draft a pattern.

I'm making the one in the top left corner. The pieces have to be cut out,

(sorry blurry, smart phone is dying)

Then sewn together.

 Then all the channels were the bones (stiff rods that give the "corset" squeezing power) go in. Take a look at the pic. Every space between the lines is a space for bones. That's a lot of bones.

Which of course need to go into the corset. Estimated time to put bones into stays: 6 hrs.

Then the corset needs to be finished, which has to be done by hand, since the bones come so close to the edge of the seams. Time to hand bind seams: 18 hours.

Then the grommets go in so you can lace it to give you that "I love to compress my ribs" look.

And then when you're about ready to poke your eyes out because you're so sick of hand sewing and hammer pounding you have a set of stays. That looks like this:

Ignore the messed up lacing. It's hard to get back there by myself.
And the sweatpants, it was comfy time...

Done!  Total Time estimate: 40+ hours. (A season of Supernatural). Also whipped up some bloomers and a chemise but didn't take a picture (you all don't need to see me in my historical undies...) Next step: the dress.

How did we get here?

This is going to be our 4th year of creating characters for a Halloween haunted attraction. It all started with the ill-fated Village of Terror, an experiment in fright that took a number of Halloween themes and put them in one big rustic theme park. The Village of Terror with its imposing and iconic evil clown, carny-like atmosphere, and varied scary characters captured the imaginations of it's patrons and cast alike. Unfortunately, VOT met with an untimely end and Frightmare Farm became our new home and Mortimer Night and his brood of mutated kin and farmhands became our theme. Although the venue changed, the desire to create an unforgettable Halloween experience is not only growing, it is also becoming more refined as our actors, makeup artists, and scare technicians have become more adept at giving all who enter the Farm the Frightmare of their lives.

 

Meet Maybelle

Maybelle Morning is a sweet little doll. With her long braided brown hair, darling little freckles, and flowered gray blue dress she reminded me so much of my character, Gerdie Night, that it seemed like it was meant to be. She seemed to call to me from the thrift shop display that I couldn't look away.  She needed to be Gerdie's companion for this years show.  I knew that's what she wanted. So meet Maybelle everyone.

Costume Sketches!

Here's a few of my concept sketches for the costumes I'm making for the show. I'm still learning to draw so the real costumes will look way scarier- promise. 

(The scanner did that weird background thing not me. Apparently I'm still learning to scan as well) 

Couldn't wait to show you this sparkling new graphic. This is the Frightmare Farm billboard that will be gracing Clairemont Avenue. This is getting the word out in a BIG way. Of course, we want to scare everyone in Eau Claire! Everyone who can't wait for Halloween to get the spine tingling sensation, the adrenaline rush, that momentary gasp for air! You know who you are. We can't wait to see you or have you see us when you least expect it. Expect it!

10 Things We Like about Halloween Shows

Some people wonder why we love our Halloween shows so much. Why would anyone put so much work into something so seasonal? Well here is our top 10 reasons we adore Halloween shows.

1. We can dress like weirdos.

Or zombies. Or anything scary. 

2. It's way cooler than trick or treating.

We don't ring doorbells. We hide in closets and dark places.

3. Dust and cobwebs are encouraged.

Because Who likes to clean?

4. We can get all that maniacal laughing out of our system.

The rest of you have to keep it bottled up year round.

5. The weirder you are, the more we like you.

 We're all special here...

6. We glue stuff to our face. Enough said.

7. We are the scariest thing in the dark.

Nothing to be afraid of when you are the bump in the night...

8 .People pay us for this.

Not that we're getting rich. In fact we're hungry. You should feed us.

9. It's a never-ending game of hide and seek.

And you get to do the hiding....

And the number one reason.....

10. We make you pee yourselves. 

We keep count. Really. There's a chart.

What are your favorite things about Halloween shows? Tell us, so we can make it scarier!

Don't forget to follow us to see the magic come together!