DRAGO!!!

The very worn out original below and remake above.

Ahhh yes Rocky IV we meet again. Considered by many to be the best of the Rockys, not by me, the first Rocky is still king in my book. however I would dare say it holds solid second in my book. This design was inspired by the exploding gloves in the films title sequence.

I was watching this film again recently on the Netflix and It made me realize that at least a good 35% of this movie is made up of montages. It's amazing how quick the actual story flies by, really watch it again, if you cut out all the montage and the opening sequence that was from the end of Rocky III the movies at most an hour long maybe shorter. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I actually kind of admire this movie for it's simplicity. What's the story you say? Rock fucks Russia's shit up.

This is bullshit I cannot loose

The Russian Ivan Drago kill Rocky's best friend Apollo Creed, so what does Rocky do? He flies to Russia to knock that bastard and communism the fuck out. That's really all there is to it, basically a 91 minuet excuse for emotional charged training sequences and bad cold war metaphors, but god damn if it ain't glorious.

Get Him A Body Bag!

Who doesn't love The Karate Kid? Assholes that's who. One of my first clips where I really started to get a bit more advanced with the design. this is a remake I did, you can see the comparison with the original on the right. 

 The original is done in sharpie and you can really see how poorly that holds up over time, in the remake I made the switch to acrylics and ink which I've stuck with ever since.This movie get's some crap for  being  cheesy but there's some fantastic fucking stuff in this film, I mean you got the Oscar winning director of Rocky, an amazing Oscar nominated performance by Pat Morita, plus the fine ass Elizabeth Shue, fuck yes. Now for one of the greatest kicks in cinematic history...

Seven Samurai

This is one I did for a Japanese movie from 1954 called "Seven Samurai". This one is really worn out but I like the effect gives and I could easily make a new one if I really wanted to. The design is a copy of a flag made in the film by one of the seven samurai. The six circles represent six of the Samurai and the triangle if for the the character of Kikuchiyo who's the misfit of the group.

Considered to be the one of the first "modern" action films Seven Samurai is the masterpiece of director Akira Kurosawa. Basically it's the tale of a poor village of farmers who hire seven hungry samurai to defend them against a group of bandits that will be attacking at the end of the yearly harvest. This movie set a lot of action film staples like the assembling of a team for a mission and the use of slow motion in action sequences.

Left Hand, Right Hand

So this guy was my second clip "left hand, right hand" and it's from a 1955 movie call, "The Night of the Hunter". The design was a little simple but that's what I like about it. On top you can see the original set made clip that's had some wear and tear and under it is a remake I did not that long ago so I could retire the original and still have one to wear on set. It's one of the first ones where I really tried to fit in some fine detail with the L-O-V-E and H-A-T-E on the hands.

Now the film "The Night of the Hunter" is really something quite unique. First and foremost it's is an amazing film. I 'll never forget the first time I saw it I was blown away by some of the things being done. Hell it opens with a helicopter shot flying into a back yard and this was in 1955. Not only that but it's got some of the most amazing black and white cinematography ever put on celluloid.

Roughly it's the story of a psychopath killer played by Robert Mitchum who takes the guise of a preacher in order to marry a local widow who's children know the location of $10,000 given to them by their recently executed father.  The preacher ends up hunting down the children when they run away from home and it's like something out of "The Terminator". It's an intensely dark and scary film and really worth checking out if you want to see something ahead of it's time.

The Space Coyote

  

  Might as well start at the beginning. This was my first real clip "The Space Coyote". It's not some of my best stuff but, was never really happy with how the coyote came out, but it's one of my favorites and not bad considering it was done on set. This guy came from my favortie episode of the Simpsons titled "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer) ."

  

  In this episode the Simpson family drives to the annual chili cook off. While there Homer eats a Guatemalan insanity pepper and goes on an acid trip where he encounters the Space Coyote.

The Coyote was voiced by Johnny Cash

    The Coyote tells Homer that he is his spirit guide that he must go on a quest to find his soul mate. For some reason this episode always stuck with me, anyways when I had the idea on set to make this one it worked out perfect cause all I had on me was a black vis-a-vis marker and a red sharpie so it worked out perfect. In retrospect I never should used vis-a-vis because while they have a very fine tip and are great for detail work they never really dry out and the slightest scratch or bit of moisture can cause them to smudge as you can see on the clip.

 

So what the fuck is a C-47?

  For those of you unfamiliar with the craft of filmmakerism a C-47 is a common name given by members of the film making community for a clothespin. C-47's are an extremely helpful tool on set. They have a myriad of uses but their main job is to attach sheets of diffusion and colored gels to the front of lights.

That shit gets hot

  Since lights get very hot a wooden C-47 is the prefect tool to use since a plastic clip would melt and a metal one would be to hot to be handled. Due to their cheap and disposable nature C-47's are often used up and rarely last very long, because of this they are commonly referred to as "Bullets" or "Ammo" by members of a lighting crew who will often "load up" by clipping  them onto their sleeves and tool belts.

Another busy day on set

So why the fuck don't you just call them clothespins?

  Cause fuck you that's why. Well actually there is no real reason why. Legend has it that an old Hollywood production was attempting to hide the cost of equipment from cheap studio heads looking to cut corners so they renamed the clothespins C-47 on the budget list to make it sound like something important. This story has never made any sense to me seeing has how a bucket of pins would probably cost you 30 cents back then and who would really be that fucking cheap right? But then again I wouldn't doubt a producer being cheap about anything.

Okay so why the fuck do you draw on them?

  Well for shits and giggles I suppose. It all started one day on set when we'd play this game where we would clip 47's onto the backs of fellow crew members to see how long it's stay on before they would notice.

Make-Up department make the best targets

   From there the next natural step was to write on the clips so as to leave a message for the unsuspecting victim to find when they pulled off their little wooden parasites. Ya know we'd write nice little things like "P'wnd" or "Fuck You".  It was then that I realized if I could write things like "Fuck You" then there was no reason I couldn't write something slightly more inspirational.

  At first I'd just write little phrases, anything that would have some kind of meaning for me. I'd use whatever was available on set which mostly consisted of a black or maybe red sharpie, not exactly my most fine tip tools for working on a canvas of such small size. One day however I managed to find myself a fine tip ink pen and shit just got crazy from there.

Oh Snap!

  This was what I consider my first real C-47. Notice it's not exactly in the best condition. That's because at the time these were working tools that I'd use and take with me from gig to gig so a little wear and tear was only natural. Since then though I have instated a rule that all clips must serve their time on set and would be retired after whatever I've decided to be an appropriate tour of duty.

You can see the evolution from left to right

  Anyways from there the designs grew and became more elaborate, ya see it's very much in my nature try and challenge myself. I made rules to follow such as I could only work with materials found on set and I would have to make clips in between takes and during downtime.

Lots of down time on set, also notice I'm the only one not wearing a face mask in the abandoned water treatment plant 

  Also the subject matter should be something referential to the movies and things that I love and have influenced me. Fuck all that abstract bullshit.

Fuck that abstract shit, give me a beer

  Eventually as the designs grew as I would try to top myself with each new clip. I started find my rules to hold a great challenge(which was part of the fun, I love a challenge) but they were becoming an obstacle for the greater and greater level of detail I was trying to achieve. So I just ended up saying "fuck that noise" and started making them at home in my free time (cause thats how awesome my life is).  I dropped the sharpies and picked up some acrylic paints and some fine tip ink pens it just grew from there.

Tools of the trade

  I wear these things on set and people really seem to like em. I've been told I should sell them online or do an art show. I'm not sure that my stuff is quite ready for that yet but I thought it might be cool to start this blog and see if there would actually be any interest in these things and to have a place to showcase my clips and some of my other bullshit art.