Death Grave - Monster Blood
DeathGrave. A Metal band from out of the Oakland/San Jose area. I had never heard of em before but was introduced to me through collaborator Fritz Bitsoie. Big Fan. With the release of their upcoming album, It’s Only Midnight, they needed some videos to help promote it. For me, everything fell into place very succinctly. It seems effortless looking back. I reached out through Instagram and before I knew it I was sitting drinking a pint with all four of em. That’s Andre, Fern, Greg, and Clint. I sat prepared with a notepad at my side with a number of songs to be considered for a video. Each one brought something different, wild, and crazy that I would be able to bring to life. Once I heard the track Your Rulers Are Here, I knew that was the one I wanted. It’s short and fast, strong to its finish. Would be nice jumping on a project that only need run 3 minutes tops.
"A being of slime from a malicious unworldly kind...Amorphis, ancient, impossible to comprehend.It has come here to feed on human waste - in the same act enslave the human race.It came from the stars, landed in the dumpster behind the bar."Concept art using Mid journey AI
The lyrics gave me all the direction I needed. It radiated Cosmic horror. It demanded to be a bloody horror show. More than happy to deliver. And a perfect opportunity to jump back into black-and-white shooting. Capturing the lighting and drama of the Classic Universal Horror pictures; taking the time to experiment with shadow.
First things first, I drew up what I wanted to see and showed it to the band. They were in line with everything I wanted to do. Great support, easy going. The hard part was, once I have the monsters conceptualized, what next? How was I going to get these things? Would I build them? Of course I was going to build them Just needed to figure out the materials.
At some point early on I went to a seminar in Sonoma County where I met a wonderful woman who made a living out of puppeteering. Lee Armstrong, soft-spoken, kind, and incredibly enthusiastic, was the first of many people I would meet in this journey. Long discussions on the process of making puppets swayed my expectations and my approach toward what I was going to do. Armstrong would use puppets like those from Fraggle Rock or The Muppets. Hand puppet designs, some with rods for the arms. After messing around with some of her puppets I wanted to make a disgusting one with a mouth full of teeth...
Materials were Mold Star 20T Silicone and Smooth Cast Resin. I wasn’t familiar with them. On top of that, Silicone is expensive. You need to buy it in bulk for it to be worth it, so I didn’t want to make too many mistakes…which made me slow. Nevertheless, I ended up figuring out some techniques. The part I enjoyed the most, truly, was sculpting out what I wanted the monster to look like. I used Monster Clay, which is cheap and reusable; doesn’t dry out like normal water-based clays, it just hardens. Pop it into the microwave for a minute or two and it softens nicely.
Gums and slimy skin were made from Silicone while the teeth were made from Resin. The resin didn’t want to stay inside the silicone gums for anything, no glue would work so I had to basically trap the teeth in like a real tooth with a sort of root that was fed into the gums. Still lost a lot of teeth during shooting but looked ok in the end.
We made a bunch of different mixtures of slime and fake blood. Kids love making this slime stuff from Elmer’s glue. This worked like a charm, I mean, it was outstanding. Not only did it look fantastic on screen but it was easy to clean up after it dried. We made another concoction that used Tide detergent, also great. We all got covered in it. Leo Maco (Director of Photography) had to remind me to be careful around the camera equipment, but we both agreed, we shot some of our best material when we got a little nuts with the blood and slime.
From a visual standpoint, Doug had two absolutes for the film; a 4:3 aspect ratio and it had to be shot in black and white. Aside from that, he was very much open and interested in seeing the approach I would take. I really appreciate that about working with Doug. He’s a director who knows what he wants but also gives you enough room to experiment and “play jazz” as he so often says.
For this project, I really liked the idea of shooting on a Laowa 12mm wide-angle lens, there’s something larger than life and slightly off-putting about the combination of that particular lens and aspect ratio. We also incorporated an S16 Canon 8-64mm lens to add zooms to some of the band and gore inserts. In terms of lighting, I elected to primarily use hard sources to accentuate shadows and increase contrast, which also served as a throwback to the classic horror films we were referencing. Shooting handheld at a 90 and 110-degree shutter angle also added a frenetic energy to the monster and tentacle scenes and was much needed given the songs speed and intensity.
There’s never enough time on set and this film was no exception but by the time we wrapped Doug and I were completely in sync and managed to capture many images that we’re both really proud of. Had a blast working on this one and I’m always so impressed with the imagination, originality and artistry that fuels all of Doug’s work.
-Maco ‘22
I got so much enjoyment out of this project. It was a goddamn bloody mess. A self inflicted Crash Course in making monsters for the camera and damn exciting bringing them to life. You better believe I will make more work like this.
Cheers!
Douglas LawlorCheck out DeathGrave
Your Rulers Are Here will be released in February 2023.
The new album It’s Only Midnight will be released by
Tankcrimes Records, Vinyl/CD/Digital and Transylvanian Tapes - Cassette in 2023.
