Whatever your circumstances is life, it’s pretty likely that at some point you’ll need to construct a fake  turkey from scratch.  Here’s how you do it:

Get yourself a block of foam.  You can buy insulation foam from the hardware store and laminate it together with some kind of non-solvent, non-aerosol adhesive, the film-ey double stick tape (as in, NOT mounting tape) or some kinds of spray glue (3M makes some specifically for bonding foam).  If you decide to laminate you need to remove any backing or coating from the foam before you start.  Pink or blue foam (the kind NOT made up of little beads of foam) is best.  You can work with the beady stuff but be prepared to yell “FUCK” a lot.

Alternatively you can also steal, or ask nicely for a block of foam from an RV lot, mobile home manufacturer or the like.  They often use good sized blocks of the beaded foam to rest their products on.  It may smell funny but it will get the job done.  For my turkey I had one block of foam that was just a bit bigger than needed.

There was limited time but I had little experience with subtractive sculpture so I actually went a bit overboard in my prep.  After gathering reference, an essential step in any sculpture project, I went to the trouble of sculpting a turkey in ZBrush to get a feel for the form.  This may sound like an extreme step to you but I’m quite handy in ZBrush.  In under an hour I not only had a good handle on the bird’s form but I also had a 3D model from which I could generate orthographics from any angle.  These benefits were well worth the effort.  If this isn’t an option for you, two reasonable alternatives would be some drawing studies if you are a competent drafts-person (ugh), or a small clay sculpture.

When it came time to carve the turkey I went overboard in yet another step:  I cut a scale block off of my foam and did a test sculpt.  For the test and the finished sculpt I used a set of hot wire tools from the HotWire Foam Factory (http://hotwirefoamfactory.com/home.php).  I like these tools quite a bit – I got a filmmaker to buy them for me in exchange for making some props.  In the future I’d probably just make all of my tools custom using one of the tutorials over at instructables.com.

There’s not too much I can say about carving foam specifically.  Take precautions – the fumes are nasty.  I worked outside with an organic filter respirator on.  They only cost about 30 bucks and if you’re routinely undertaking projects of this nature you should absolutely own one and keep the filters in good standing.

Take your time as it’s more costly to fill gouges than to cut carefully in the first place.  Work from large general forms to small details and try to keep all areas of the sculpt at the same basic level of detail.  For me this is very important because I get antsy and it’d be easy for me to half-ass one side of a symmetrical sculpture if I let them get too out of sync.

After I learned the basic working characteristics of the foam from the test sculpt I tackled the real thing.  I measured the overall dimensions of a bird at the store.  I cut the block to those dimensions with a little wiggle room using a cordless reciprocating saw (I fucking love these things).  I also used my 3D model to create full size front, top and side “plans” which I then cut out and traced onto the block in stages so that I could saw the excess foam away up front.  This is a key time saver as the hot wire tools are much slower and fiddlier.

Again, there’s not a lot of detail I can go into on the actual carving of the bird that’s not covered under the heading of sculpting or carving in general.  Work conservatively, work general to specific, yada yada yada.  The foam held up pretty well in thin areas like the wings (even in the small sculpt) but don’t take this for granted – these bits are still pretty vulnerable and it will cost you time to reattach them.  Fortunately your finished piece will likely be no worse for the ware.

When the bird is looking like a bird and the surfaces are as even and smooth as you can get them with the wire tool you can get out some 80 grit sandpaper (a sponge would be even nicer) and lightly bring down the edges of the planes to give the piece a more organic look.  If you’ve got nicely laminated pink or blue foam you can really get a nice finish this way.  I was using beaded foam (desperate times) and therefore had to use a very light touch to just round things out.

Once all of the sculpting was completed I sealed the whole thing with a thin coat of liquid latex.  I did this to create a base for the next step – patching.  To patch up cracks and rough areas I used liquid latex mixed with cabosil (which makes a nice liquid rubber paste).  Cabosil is flumed silica and is used as a thickener by make-up and effects artists in various applications.

After making the surface reasonably even I set to work texturing the bird.  Since I was making it for a stage play I knew that I didn’t need to go overboard but I like to push the boundaries of what is necessary, for myself, if there’s not a lot of cost or time constraint to be concerned about.  To texture the surface I used a plastic mesh orange (the fruit) bag and experimented with pressing it onto a layer of thickened latex, painting latex over it and pulling it out and various, similar scenarios.  I can’t recommend one over the other – they have different effects.  Try it out for yourself as the working time of thickened latex is pretty generous.  Sometimes the result was too “spikey” so I wanted until the rubber was firm but not set and patted it down to smooth things outn.  Keep in mind that the texture of a cooked turkey is not very regular – I used plenty of reference.

Painting started with an airbrush. I use a dual action Paache but any reliable airbrush that gives you pretty wide coverage should suffice.  I like to use transparent paints so I started with yellow and added successive layers of red, orange, and brown.  Turkey’s get pretty dark when cooking but overall retain a considerable amount of saturation in their coloring – chances are they are more orange in reality than in your memory.  The cooking direction of the heat in the oven means that the turkey tends to be darker on top but this isn’t an absoluate rule.  Use reference.

After airbrushing I used a wadded up paper towel to stipple on some mottled dark brown here and there to break up the “gradient” quality of the surface color.  I considered painting or gluing on some charred “spices” but at this point, time was running out (in fact, it was really only a few hours till the final tech and dress rehearsal).

For finishing touches I sealed the piece with Krylon Crystal Clear which gave it a nice greasy look.  Perma-wet might have been an even better choice but would have been too much work.  I also tied some twine around the ends of the drumsticks and used some ink give it a “cooked” look.

So that’s what I’ve got for you.  On a scale of hungry, but ultimately disappointed Dickensian orphans, I’d give this project four out of five.

UPDATE: A few people have asked about buying fake turkeys. This turkey was a one-off but I’ll make more if the price is right. The price for a custom made, hand sculpted and painted fake turkey is $250. Contact me at my website ianstrandberg.com

Ahh, just reading that title probably evokes images of Julie Andrews spinning in circles in the Austrian Alps as she sings all about music in the hilltops.  And while I enjoy The Sound of Music as a movie, that’s not really what this post is about.  It’s about movie music in general.  You see, I’ve always enjoyed movie music, yet many people don’t realize what a huge part of the soundscape movie music is.  When it’s done right, you might not even notice it’s there, but it really influences how you experience a movie.  It’s a part of the story telling devices we film makers have at our disposal, and it can help us cue the audience what they are supposed to be feeling during a particular scene.  Be it some tense notes right before the killer pops out and scares you, to the theme for a hero as he comes flying to the rescue.  It can make you feel sad, tugging on the heart strings, or make you feel happy as two characters finally realize that they’ve fallen in love.

Just think about it, would Psycho be the same without Bernhard Hermann’s screaming violins as Marion is stabbed to death during the shower scene?  Or would the shark have been nearly as scary without John Williams iconic theme to Jaws?  A simple alternating pattern of just two notes, E and F, played on the tuba, yet it’s a classic score of American cinema.  And while I did come to discover those scores later, the first one to really grab me and make me a fan of film music was another John Williams score, his classic work for Star Wars: A New Hope (or just plain Star Wars back in the day).  As a matter of fact, they played the Throne Room music from the end of Star Wars as we entered the reception at our wedding.  Yeah, that’s right, I’m that much of a geek.    and I haven’t even told you about the lightsabers…

Anyhow, I digress.  The main point of this post is film music, and that doesn’t always mean just score.  Sometimes it’s the producers trying to get a hot recording artist to write a song for their movie so they can sell more soundtracks (a process I’m not entirely fond of), and sometimes it’s some great songs that really pull the movie together and reflect it’s personality.  And that’s what I think we’ve done with trippin’.  I love the soundtrack to this movie.  I mean, how can you not love a soundtrack that has songs such as “Holly’s Tits”, “Teenage Zombies” and “Heavy Medication”?  It’s great, and they all help to capture the spirit of trippin’ and make this movie that much more entertaining.

So, to all of the artists who contributed work to this film (and I won’t try to list them all here, lest I forget one), a big hearty Thank You from trippin’s Sound Designer.  Without you, our movie would be only a shadow of it’s current self.  Great work and thanks again!  Trippin’ rocks!

(Share with us below, what’s your favorite film score or soundtrack?)

Yes, that’s right, I admit it.  I should be flogged.  I don’t know exactly how or why it came about, but I had never seen Pan’s Labyrinth.  Much to the chagrin of our directrix Devi Snively and probably even our FX wizard Ian Strandberg, if not others on the cast and crew, I had not seen Pan’s Labyrinth, a movie I have now watched and can say with full authority that it is an awesome flick.

Now, this isn’t a movie for everyone, and even though the main star is a young girl (played brilliantly by Ivana Baquero), it is NOT a movie for young kids.  The movie is rated R, and rightfully so.  And, I hesitate to even mention it, but it is in Spanish.  I know, this may turn off some people who don’t like to “read” their movies, and honestly, it’s probably one of the reasons why I hadn’t seen it yet.  I myself love to watch the imagery in the movies, and when you’re busy reading the movie, you don’t tend to see as much.  At least, that’s what I had thought, but honestly, this movie was brilliant, so much so, I forgot I was even “reading” the movie.  The imagery is spectacular (as is the sound, which, being a sound guy, I must note), the story is compelling, and all of the actors do a spectacular job. I would shudder to see these performances dubbed into English.

And I can’t go without mentioning the great job done by Doug Jones as the titular character Pan (or Fauno in Spanish).  Pan is so well realized in his character, you forget that you’re looking at movie magic most of the time.  And I’m also honored to say that I’ve worked on a movie with Doug Jones, and I give my apologies to him as well for not having seen this great performance earlier.  (For those of you wondering, I did post sound design for a flick called “Carnies“, which had Doug Jones in a starring role) Great job, Doug!

I would also be amiss not to mention the direction by Guillermo del Toro, a real visionary.  I had seen other works of his, namely Blade 2 and Hellboy, and while you can see bits of genius in those movies, it comes out fully in this flick.  Absolutely spectacular.  If anything, it makes me even more anxious to see his vision brought to life with “The Hobbit“.  I loved the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I think Peter Jackson did a wonderful job bringing those classic books to life, but now I’m very excited to see what GdT can bring to the table.  We should be in for a real treat.

So, once again, yes, I should be flogged for not having seen this movie, and we can thank the Free Preview weekend on AT&T Uverse and our DVR for finally getting me to watch a great movie.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend you go get it now.  Really, stop reading this and go rent it or buy it or whatever.  Oh, and let my flogging commence.

Devi sent out some marketing materials for me to review today and I noticed that the Zed puppet picture featured wasn’t too hot.  It was kinda over exposed and was taken before my lovely wife had taken the time to give Zed the proper hairdo.

(As an inveterate collector of skills I’d like to take responsibility for this homage to television housewives of the 50’s whose husband’s just unexpectedly brought the boss home for dinner but alas, leave it to the nuclear physicist of the family to upstage me at least one more time.)

Anyway, the point is that after going through the puppet pictures I already have, I resolved to take a couple that we can use for one-sheets and other materials going forward.

Now, regarding “smoking the mail” — I’m quite the square it turns out.  Here’s a hint:  The bottles in the background of the hairdo picture are from a rootbeer tasting I had a while back.  Anyway, to make Zed’s “joint” I grabbed the nearest credit card return envelope I had and wrapped it in masking tape.  In order to get it going a bit I puffed on it.  This wasn’t bad until I hit the plastic window in the envelope.

Our ridiculously talented and supportive team of Chinese VFX artists are sending over some group and individual men-and-women at work photos for us to use in press-kits and whatnot. I’ve never seen any of their faces! I’m so excited I could spin until I barf.