Leah's Tale
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"The Dark" production was my first experience with Empty House Film.
Leaving the project and having developed friendships with people who have as much natural passion and love of film as I do is a sincere bonus.
Getting into "mama" make-up took about three hours. Special FX master Bob Diepentarantino let me see my transformation step by step. It was truely amazing. I arrived on set and was able to watch the Empty House crew and Molly (as Sarah) and Jake (as David) finish up a scene. Molly came over to check out my make-up and I got to try out my evil smile. Off to dinner. Trying to eat with a full face foam-latex mask on was an experience all by itself. I felt that I should go sit some where by myself so the others didn't have to look at me while they were eating and I was trying to eat. We headed to the next location which none of the cast was able, actually, allowed to see before hand. Darkness came and I got into "mama" wardrobe. I considered rolling up on someone in the woods and scaring the hell out of them. We were allowed to explore the location and I was thinking "this place would be creepy even in the day light -- and it was. That night brought many obstacles and my 12th hour in make-up. Just when everyone was ready to shoot, the power strip died -- that sucked. Andy and Scott decided they would try to get an earlier start in the morning and try to make up some time. So I decided to offer to stay in make-up over night because Bob wasn't scheduled to be back on set until later the next day. Andy and Scott agreed after making sure I understood how long I was going to be in make-up. Sleep was hard. I was afraid of rolling over and ruining my make-up. The mask wasn't uncomfortable at all. At that point it almost felt like my natural face anyway. Unfortunately we weren't able to make up much time the next morning. Bob arrived and touched up my make-up. He had expected to re-apply the whole mask so he was surprised to see me still in mama's face. I was really anxious to get to work. I had spent quite a while motoring around in the wheelchair and felt really good about maneuvering it. Eating lunch was interesting. Bob had already stayed on the set longer than he had planned and it was too late to re-apply mask and make-up. He touched up my make-up and left some supplies for me. Shooting the scenes at the straw house was very cool. Andy had sent John (as Baby) to get into character. Baby came back. He handed mama some berries he had picked for her. It was wild. I had been using a "sippie cup" and Andy's son to drink out of and I guess around 10pm a friend of Andy's family brought me some regular straws -- he was my hero. Andy and Scott were setting up a scene and I heard Scott (I think it was Scott) say "Yes, she can do it" and then Andy called me into the house. On my way into the house I was thinking like the little engine that could "I think I can, I think I can." It worked. It took some trial and error, but worked out very well. I was surprised to learn it was around 2am. We worked pretty consistantly to finish up scenes, especially when it started to rain. Everyone was exhausted but kept going with out hestitation or complaint. It was the best team work I had ever seen. I was hoping to be involved with more Empty House projects before I was even off of "The Dark" production. We wrapped around 5am after some really creepy scenes, 22 hours on set, more for others. Andy asked me if I was ready to get the mask off and called everyone into the kitchen of the straw house. Most people had forgotton what I really looked like. Scott filmed the re-birth of my face while Andy tried to help me peel the mask off. I haven't seen the footage and don't think I want to. They said my face looked like a newborn's. In a way, it was. "Mama" is the twisted essence of nightmares. She is crazy, hideously ugly, terrifyingly evil; and waiting in the darkest corner of the deepest woods and blackest forest where terror, horror, and insanity are born, bred and become a relization of those unaware. She has been waiting...patiently. |
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