"Monster Man" with Richard Elfman Part 3

In Part 1 I described the recording process of Princess Polly's song for the "Forbidden Zone 2" music video promo. In Part 2 I described the experience of getting a life cast of my head. Now Princess Polly's hideous face is created & she comes to life...

I met with Richard & the entire SOTA creative team to look over various sketches of what Princess Polly could look like. The sketches had crazy eyes and chins and noses and foreheads. One version had eyes all over the face. Creepy! Richard wanted to make sure the head utilized my own eyes and had a movable mouth so I could perform when we did the music video shoot. But he wanted Princess Polly to be grotesque. The SOTA team smiled. They know how to do grotesque.                                                                                            

What kind of sick, twisted people are they?

                                                

The following week I showed up at SOTA early in the morning. I sat down in the makeup room where we originally made the mold for the life cast. That's when I first met Princess Polly. That nose! That chin! Those lips! Definitely grotesque. 

Becoming her was quite the process. They slicked my hair back and glued a bald cap to my head. Then they put Vaseline on my eyebrows and anything else they didn’t want to stick to the prosthetic. Then they attached her face. She was smelly. They worked quickly to get the prosthetic glued around my eyes, on my lips, my chin, and neck. They had to pull and poke to get it to sit right. They blended makeup foundations together to give Princess Polly the same tone as my skin. Then they added blush and lipstick to Princess Polly & put lots of makeup on my eyes to match her face. They also cleverly attached a chunky necklace to hide the neck seam.Then they styled a wig to go on Princess Polly and attached it. Three hours after I first sat in the chair, I was ready to work. 

I put on a gold lame bikini and some amazing gold sequenced boots and strutted towards the stage. Suddenly I was stopped. We were filming in front of a green screen and the shine from the gold would cause reflection problems. I was sent back to the makeup chair while Constance ran to the nearest bikini shop. Half an hour later I was given a cute purple bikini and the beautiful gold sequenced boots were painted with a flat lilac color. Sad. But now I was finally ready! 

I marched out in my boots to greet Richard. He was ecstatic! Two crews were assembled in front of a green screen, ready to shoot the music video. We even had the animator there to supervise the green screen process. I performed the song over and over again as the crews shot it from far away, up close, at low angles, & at high angles. They wanted to make sure to get as much coverage as possible. Again everyone on the crew was really sweet. They made sure I had a place to sit with a fan nearby and plenty of water in between takes. Even though I wasn't wearing much on my body, Princess Polly's face was pretty hot underneath. 

After many, many takes of the song I finally heard "That's a wrap!" And the celebration began! Unfortunately for me I was running late to the opening preview of a play I was performing in and couldn't stay. But I hear Richard's BBQ that night was legendary!                                                                         

Here is the complete music video in all it's glory!

                                                                   

*This episode of "Monster Man" airs TONIGHT on the SyFy channel: 3/21/12 @ 10pm/9pmC  

"Monster Man" with Richard Elfman Part 2

In Part 1 I described the recording process of Princess Polly's song for the "Forbidden Zone 2" music video promo. Now the process of creating Princess Polly's grotesque face begins...

I was invited to SOTA F/X to have a life cast of my head made. This is where I first met the SOTA F/X crew: Roy, Cleve, Constance, Cindy, & Johnny. They were all super nice despite their tough looking exteriors. 

 Who would want to mess with these guys?

Putting the molding material on was an interesting experience. I didn’t have to sit with straws in my nose like most people expect. They slicked my hair back and basically glued a bald cap to my head and they put globs of Vaseline on my eyebrows and eyelashes to keep them from sticking to the mold. Then everyone made sure I was ready and told me to expect it to be very cold. Boy they weren’t kidding! We ended up having to do it twice because the water they mixed with the molding material wasn’t cold enough & it started to stiffen before they could get my head covered with the goo. The 2^nd attempt was definitely cold enough! I was freezing under it. But they worked super quickly to mold the goo around my nose, over my eyes, ears, mouth, chin, neck – I heard Johnny exclaim, “Her nose is so small!” They were having a hard time making sure there were holes for my nostrils to breathe. After they got the goo situated they wrapped the entire thing in bandages like a cast you get from the hospital.

Once everything was in place I probably sat there under the cold stuff for about 20 minutes. It really wasn’t that long at all.


It’s hard to explain what the experience was like. It mostly reminded me of the few times I worked in a character costume during my days at Disneyland. I could hear and feel vibrations if someone touched the top of my molded head, but I couldn’t feel it on my skin. I could hear everything in the room, but it sounded distant and muffled. It was kind of comforting actually. I could hear my breathing & I was tucked into an intimate space with myself. Ah, so serene.

But then I got an itch on my chin …and I couldn’t scratch it. Ugh! I’ve never had a broken bone before but now I understand the pain. However, I knew I just had to hold out for a few minutes and I would get some relief. The itch got more intense and I tried to focus on some other part of my body, my ankle, my knee, my arm, anywhere but my chin. Oh the itch!


Then finally I heard “Ok, we’re ready to take you out.” Yes! I think 4 people were all around me working. They cut a seam up the back of the mold and I moved my face all around to loosen the mold from my skin. Then on the count of 3 they pulled me out of the cocoon mold. I had been wearing a little mascara and lipstick and inside you could see a perfect imprint of my lips and eyelids. Totally creepy!!! During that week they made a cast of my head. 

 My new wig holder

Next time: I perform as Princess Polly with my new SOTA-designed face!


*This episode of "Monster Man" will air Wednesday, March 21st @ 10pm/9pmC on SyFy

"Monster Man" with Richard Elfman Part 1

This story begins in Spring of 2010 when I performed for the first time at Sacred Fools Theater in a crazy, rockin' musical called "Forbidden Zone: Live In The 6th Dimension" or FZ6D for short. This musical was a stage adaptation of the cult movie "Forbidden Zone" produced and directed by Richard Elfman and starring his brother Danny Elfman. If you've never seen the movie, here is a scene with Danny & the character I portrayed, the "Princess:" Squeezit The Moocher

 

Artist, Jeret Ochi's depiction of me in FZ6D

I met Richard on a few occasions & I heard he was planning "Forbidden Zone 2" but there were no other details at the time. Then fast forward to August 2011. 

I was working the annual Sacred Fools Theater season opening fundraiser. The theme was Midsummer Nightmare or something. So my interpretation of the theme was to wear little blue shorts, a “What happened in Vegas?” tank top, pink knee-high socks, giant mismatched cloven feet I bought from the UCI costume shop a million years ago, a curly blue wig, pink butterfly clips, and blue wings on my back. I thought the night was going to be particularly boring because I was tucked away from all the action working the food room, but I was unexpectedly offered free whiskeys and it all went into a blurry haze from there. However, before I got too faded, I remember running into Richard Elfman. He took a look at me in my crazy outfit, with my emotions & thoughts leaping from one topic to another, and apparently thought I would be the perfect Princess Polly for a "Forbidden Zone 2" promo he was working on. He told me to email him before he left. Two days later, when I finally came out of my party fog, I received an email from him saying “Email me!!” So I did. 

Richard is going to be featured in the new SyFy show "Monster Man." It's basically a reality show about a special effects studio in Los Angeles.  He wanted to promote his next movie, "Forbidden Zone 2," with a music video of his new princess character, Princess Polly. We started with a meeting at his cool Beachwood home under the Hollywood sign where I also met with the amazing composer, Ego Plum. Ego then collaborated with both Richard and Richard’s brother Danny. A few weeks later I met with them again at the Beachwood home. This time would be the first of many when I was invited to wear a silly hat while I visited (a tradition at Richard's home). I chose a Peter Pan cap. The song was pretty fun. Some of the racier lyrics never ended up in the final product, but I think the final is probably the better choice to air on SyFy. After that I went home to learn the song. 

Sometime that next week we all met at Ego Plum’s studio in East LA. He has a really cute studio tucked back behind a residential house in a quiet neighborhood. Within 1 hour we had the song recorded. Bam!

Next time: Richard takes me to SOTA studios to get a life cast made of my head!