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!

Where does the time go? Halloween is so close, I can smell the fear in the air.

 We are all very excited about the next round of Frightmare Farm. Everyone is anxious to start scaring scores of Chippewa Valley victims, I mean patrons this season.  There are some changes ahead but down in the Hollow it's about all things Halloween.

Right now, I'm in the process of assembling the cast. Looking forward to working with last year's cast as well as any new creepies to hit the scene. Honestly, I'm only a little trepidatious about the time that we have left and what we have to do in that time, but, oh well, it's like that every year.