Burlap Bubba

Here it is. I'm VERY excited to share pics of my latest acquisition, the burlap Bubba scarecrow mask. This just may be the holy grail in my mask collection. This was a one of a kind piece made by Cameron Scholes, an extremely talented artist who hails from Canada. Although several latex versions of this mask grace my collection, this one is latex free and made from burlap like the mask seen in The Dark Night of the Scarecrow film. Cameron really captured the look I wanted while adding his own special flare. I can't thank him enough for how remarkable this turned out. Future blog entries will feature more of Cameron's stunning work. 

Bad Move

Bubba never met a fan he didn't like. Except this guy....he tried to come between me and Marylee.

Convention Memorabilia

Chances are that if you attend a horror convention it means getting some pretty cool stuff. Here is what came home with me from Fright Night Film Fest.

Movie poster signed by JD Feigelson, Larry Drake and Tonya Crowe

Laminated poster

Signed 8x10 by the cast

Soundtrack and promotional cards

The Bubba mask I had signed by the cast

Another highlight at the con was meeting John Carpenter. Here is a man whose work I adore. The meeting was very brief but it was pretty cool to meet such a legendary man. Items at his table were a bit pricey and he was charging separately to get a picture with him so I passed on the photo. Kinda kicking myself now. I'm also ashamed to admit that I left my Halloween III poster at home.  Carpenter was the last one I needed to complete it. Bummer. At least I got him to sign a Halloween poster. Hopefully I can run into him at another con.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow Reunion

Well I made the trip to Fright Night Film Fest this past weekend in Louisville, KY.  A long drive but so worth it. I attended this convention solely because of the 30th anniversary of Dark Night of the Scarecrow film. It was the first reunion ever featuring: JD Feigelson (writer of the film), Larry Drake (as Bubba Ritter) and Tonya Crowe (as Marylee Williams).

JD was so gracious, he personally introduced me to Tonya Crowe and Larry Drake. This was Tonya's first convention ever! And Larry Drake, can you say Darkman and Dr. Giggles? Tonya and Larry are such genuine people. It was fun to hear their experiences with making the movie.You could tell they were glad to be there and meet the fans. Chris Rowe was there from VCI Entertainment promoting the movie, another super nice guy. We all talked about the movie for a while and I made sure to get all their autographs (watch for a separate post on this) before I donned the Bubba costume. I made some improvements to the costume itself to be more screen accurate (also separate post to come). All in all the costume was well received and it was amazing to see so many fellow fans that appreciate this movie as I do. I had a great time posing for pictures with everyone. During the Q&A panel, JD even asked me to stand near the stage in costume. What an honor. Afterward he invited me to dinner with the cast. How could I say no to that?
What a lasting experience I will never forget. Needless to say, I had THE  BEST time. I sure hope Larry and Tonya decide to do more conventions.
On with the pics...

Bubba making his debut

Larry Drake, Tonya Crowe and me

The Scarecrow, Tonya and JD Feigelson

The two Bubba's

Tonya, Larry, the Scarecrow and Chris Rowe

Re-enacting last scene in the movie

Yours truly in the flesh with the beautiful Tonya Crowe

The cast and me

Bubba Comes Home

Here is another great picture from Horrorhound weekend. This is the second time I've had the privilege to meet J.D.Feigelson, writer of Dark Night of the Scarecrow. JD's table was filled with dvd's, pictures and memorabilia from DNOTS. He also had the original mailman hat worn by Charles Durning's character Otis Hazelrigg in the movie.
When he saw me in full costume, he was thrilled! At times it was difficult to tell who was more excited, him or me! He liked my costume so much he gave me an autographed picture free of charge! I happily posed for several pictures and JD even let me wear the Otis mailman hat.  I was a bit surprised to see so many people taking pictures of the scarecrow. I'm glad to see just how well loved DNOTS is after all these years. What a fun experience!

Thought I should point out that there are two things missing from my costume. A keen eye will notice there is no rope around my waist. Yep I forgot it at home. And I left the pitchfork home too. JD said I should definitely bring the pitchfork next time.

VCI Entertainment table

JD Feigelson and me. JD was wearing the infamous Otis hat .
Oh and I really like how my eyes can't be seen through
the mask even with the camera flash.  : )

Me posing next to a Bubba bust

Me with mask artist Jeremy Bohr
who sculpted the latex version of the scarecrow mask

Poor Boy

Just For Kicks

I wanted to make a pseudo movie cover of DNOTS. The image on the left
is an original VHS cover, the one on the right is what I came up with
using Picnik.

Vacant

"There wasn't any scarecrow, I looked. There wasn't anything out there."

The Bubba Scarecrow

This week Ames and I were able to do a photo shoot of my Bubba Scarecrow costume. I felt the chopped cornfield behind our woods would serve well, plus it's a short walk over there. We couldn't have picked a better November day...partly sunny skies, a slight breeze, and 60 degrees. My goal was to pay tribute to the Dark Night of the Scarecrow film. All photos taken were by Ames. The man in the mask..........................................................yours truly.

See more pics of Bubba here

Bubba Didn't Do It

Lovely rendering of the DNOTS scarecrow.

Image source

A Little Behind

I haven't posted more updates on the DNOTS costume because I haven't done any more work on it. Eeeck! Been busy with, well, things. I'm not fretting though because there really isn't that much left to do. All that's left is to add straw to the pants and do some more weathering. I hope to be done by this weekend and get some pics up soon.

It Has Arrived!

Finally, my copy of Dark Night of the Scarecrow came in the mail on...you bet, October 1st. Oh how long I have impatiently waited for this. Going to watch it tonight in all it's restored beauty.

Costume Update

You just gotta love thrift stores. There's always something I find there that I could use. I found a trenchcoat there and except for the tan color the look is good. I broke out the rit dye and gave it a good soak of blue. The color turned out pretty good. Then raffia was glued to a few spots on the sleeves. The last step was weathering. I may do some more on it yet. I don't want to go overboard since the coat in the movie doesn't appear to have much weathering it.

Sorry, I forgot to take a before shot. The flash washed out alot of the weathering but here is what I did so far.

Costume Progress - Mask Screening

Here is how the mask looked before I started screening. For those who want to know, I got this mask at a Horrorhound con last year. It was sculpted for the publicity of Dark Night of the Scarecrow's upcoming dvd release.
























First I had to cut the latex out of the mouth and eyes. Then I took two layers of window screen and hot glued them to the inside of the mask. The second layer is glued on offset to the first layer. A fellow mask aficionado told me of this technique. Thanks Travis!
The nice thing about using hot glue is that if you ever want to take it off, it just peels off and doesn't damage the mask.
Note: Do not use hot glue on the outside of a mask unless it is a mask you don't care about. If you try to peel off the glue it will take paint with it!

Here is how it looks screened. From a distance you won't see the screen, it will look like empty black holes.

Idea For This Years Costume

After thinking long and hard about it, I think I'm going to make a Bubba scarecrow from Dark Night of the Scarecrow. It's such a classic movie and the costume is so simple yet very creepy. One of the major factors for my decision is the dvd that to be released end of September. I adore this movie and feel compelled to honor its release.

Items needed: mask, trenchcoat, flannel shirt, blue jeans, boots, gloves, straw, rope and pitchfork.

Fortunately I already have the mask, which would have been the most difficult piece to acquire. My plan is to start screening the mouth and eye holes on the mask tomorrow. I'm going to try real hard to post pics as I make progress on this project.

The Harvester

Here is an awesome scarecrow mask by Sinister Studio. Obvious Dark Night of the Scarecrow resemblance and they nailed it.

Sinister Studio