A: Well, while growing up, my Father would take me to see every horror movie that came out in theaters. I HATED them. Would have nightmares for weeks after each one. Then I saw the movie FX. I realized that it was all a “trick” and started to look into it; reading Fangoria Magazine, watching any Behind the Scenes special that existed (which were a lot harder to find back in the 80’s) and then just experimenting with some latex and make-up kits I picked up.

          I dabbled like that from when I was like 16 until about 21. Just making people up for Halloween, goofing around, doing some student films, etc. I put it all away for about 10 years or so and then built a small webpage where I would show pics of my travels and adventures (www.spatcave.com). One page was just pics of some of the make-up I had done in High School and College.

          A filmmaker saw the pics, thought they were recent exampled of my work and hired me to do FX on his Zombie movie. I hadn’t touched fake blood or latex in 10 years and really had to re-learn everything I never knew about make-up. It was a true learning experience.

          It all started there. Since then, it’s been a bit of a Roller Coaster where I literally “Fell” into the career I always wanted to grow up to be when I was a kid.

          A: I was called in by Eric because his make-up and Art people didn’t know how to make prop weapons. He really needed a Rubber Stunt Axe that someone could fall back onto safely. I’m not sure who he got my name from, but he gave me a call and I built a Fiberglass “Hero” Axe, a rubber “Stunt” Axe, and a broken Axe Handle “Stump” that would be rigged to a harness and attached to an actor to make it look like he had the Axe Handle protruding out of his chest.

          I showed up on set the night of the shoot and rigged the actor up, ran a blood hose (so that the chest wound would bleed), and the regular on-set make-up artist (whose name I’ve forgotten) and I covered the wound with blood and made it look nice and gruesome.

          A: The Axe scene is AWESOME!! Watch that part! And then rewind and watch it again!

          In all honesty, I didn’t watch the whole movie.

          :(

          I know, I’m bad. Eric sent me the DVD and I skipped ahead to the Axe scene. I keep saying I’m going to go back and watch the rest, just haven’t had the chance yet!

          A: Sadly, all my acting roles have come from being on set of movies I was doing make-up or props for. Someone doesn’t show up, or they need one more guy in the shot, so I end up getting dragged in to take the role.

          The only things that wouldn’t count in there are the shorts I produces myself. Like “Jedi House”; the Star Wars fan film that was banned by LucasFilm and AtomFilms for being too dirty, and”The Adventures of Captain Bucky and His Space Marshals in Outer Space”. That was a retro Sci-Fi serial spoof that we did. It was a lot of fun!

          A: I kind of went into that above. Just fell into it. I was working a real job at the time, making costumes for myself and friends on the side. That grew into a small business of making costumes and props to sell on the internet. Then that grew into being able to quit the real job and just work on movies and making costumes full time. It took about six years to really become what it is today. And it’s been a very interesting six years!

          A: The most grueling so far was a web series called Trenches. Since it was being produced by a subsidiary of Disney, it was my first real “Studio” pic. What a nightmare. It was a Sci-Fi war series about 2 armies clashing on some distant planet. My team and I were in charge of making every costume, every prop, every gun and every make-up effect for both armies.

          And we only had 7 weeks to custom make everything, and then only 4 weeks to film it all.

          It was hell. But it looks damned good on film!

          So far in my short career I’ve had the pleasure of killing Lauren Valez (Dexter), and William Sadler (Die Hard 2). And splattering Daz Crawford (Blade 2) with blue applesauce. Got to work with Richard Leparmentier (Admiral Motti) and Paul Blake (Greedo) from Star Wars. And have had the chance to meet almost everyone one of my childhood idols!

          You can’t beat that!

          A: Hmm… Considering how green I was, and how new I was at using Foam Latex, I’m very impressed with how well our Alien Hybrid from “Hangman’s Noose” came out. We must have had to apply that make-up about 30 times over the course of like 4 months. But it still holds up to me!

          http://www.spatcave.com/hangman8-11-04/mDSC02186.jpg

          Of course, the poor actor wearing it couldn’t see a damned thing! The eyes would fog up almost instantly when we installed them.

          A: Well the economy hasn’t been kind to the low budget and indie filmmaker. So these days I spend more time renting out props and costumes to films than actually getting on set and killing people.

          I did build some prototype space gear for a film called “Shockwave Darkside”, which should be going into production in 2010. We recently wrapped a dark comedy called “Last Day of Summer” with DJ Qualls, Nikki Reed and William Sadler. It was mostly a gun and prop rental job, but I did get a few days on set to blow stuff up and splatter blood all over a restaurant.

          Other than that, just perfecting the art. Always looking for new materials to use, and new ways of doing things that will be easier, safer and cheaper than the way we used to do them!

          A: I plan to be living on an island with a bevy of gorgeous Massage Therapists and wanna be actresses and models. You guys wouldn’t even be allowed to look at my island, let alone talk to me on it!

         

          A: Well, I spent quite a bit of time in my life as a professional Magician! And those skills are actually quite similar to being an FX artist. It’s all about misdirection and making you believe you see something that you don’t! I would suggest that any budding FX Artist look into learning a few magic tricks!

          A: I don’t watch horror movies. They scare me.

          My all time favorite films from back in the day run the gamut from “An American Werewolf in London” to “Frankenhooker”, to “Near Dark”, and then all the way back to “The Thing”. As far as obscure stuff… “Killer Clowns from Outer Space”, “Rawhead Rex”, and “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”. I’m sure none of those are very obscure to you guys and your readers, but they’re pretty obscure to the average person.

          A: Thanks for asking me!