The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast - S2E57: Un-Conventional Horror

S2E57: Un-Conventional Horror

10/03/23 • 49 min

Experience the fun as TALES FROM THE CRYPT takes over HORRORCON LA. We brought some friends along with us: one of our favorite actors SHERRIE ROSE, makeup special effects maestro TODD MASTERS and TV producer extraordinaire ED TAPIA (back then, Ed was the best assistant any producer ever had!). And meet THE CHIODO BROTHERS! I moderated their panel celebrating the 35th anniversary of their B movie classic KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE.

We had a monstrously good time meeting fans, signing autographs, taking pictures and just plain hanging out!

Panels, Panels, Panels!

We also did a couple of panels where – How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast-style – we talked about how we soared making Tales From The Crypt and then crashed and burned making Bordello Of Blood.

I also had the pleasure of moderating a panel for the Chiodo Brothers who are celebrating the 35^th anniversary of their cult classic KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE which MGM is about to publish as a computer game.

Bravo, Chiodos – Charles, Steven and Edward!

Way, way, way back in the day, Gil and I had a couple of meetings with the boys where we explored the possibility of working together. We all love blending comedy into our horror.

If you’ve never been to a horror convention, you should! They’re a scary good time!

The Horror Community

There’s a great vibe to them because the horror community is made up of the sweetest people on planet earth.

But there IS something weird about it all.

As you look around, you notice everyone’s dressed up as Freddy Krueger or Jason or Leatherface for instance, but no one EVER dresses up as any of their victims.

Weird, huh? Except it makes total sense! The monsters are the empowered ones. They have all the fun. Just my opinion, but, I think that’s why horror fans embrace horror so passionately: because it empowers them.

This whole phenomenon began with Star Trek fans – Trekkies – which we talked about right here on the “How NOT To Make a Movie Podcast” with our guest Roger Nygard!

But, back to HORRORCON LA!

Our Crypt Panel

Our Crypt panel consisted of ED TAPIA – NOW a super successful producer in his own right – Ed produces Everyone’s All American for the CW – BUT, BACK THEN the greatest assistant a movie or TV producer could ever have... there was TODD MASTERS – Crypt’s makeup special effects maestro, and SHERRIE ROSE – our most favorite actor. We hired Sherrie three times fer Chrissakes!

While we were waiting to go on, we hung out with Tales From The Crypt alumni and fellow HORRORCON participant, actor KEVIN DILLON!

Finally, it was showtime. Here’s a bit of that first panel. We talked about “Getting naked”...

As Sunday – day two – of the convention dawned, Gil awoke feeling ill and prudently decided to stay home.

That left just me, my son Tristan and Ed Tapia to hold down the fort. I think we did a pretty good job!

Sunday, (Not So) Bloody Sunday

Sunday’s visitors were even nicer than Saturday’s!

I loved getting to have quality face time with everyone!

And – among the people I bumped into and connected with was SEAN CASSIDY – Lurch’s Son”. I’m not a starfucker in any way, shape or form. I’m not. But Sean’s dad Ted Cassidy – aside from playing Lurch in the original 1960’s ADAMS FAMILY – appears in one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite films.

He’s Harvey Logan in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.

He speaks an iconic line when Butch insist they go over the rules before they start their knife fight: “Rules, in a knife fight?” says Logan, “No rules!”

And then – oh-so-ironically (since there are no rules) – Butch Cassidy kicks Ted Cassidy in the nuts.

Stay tuned, kiddees – Sean Cassidy will be a guest on this very podcast in the very near future!

Sunday Panel

For our Sunday panel – since it was just me and Ed – we moved the chairs from the stage to the floor and we drew the audience in closer. We wanted them to feel like we were shooting the shit with em. Which was exactly what we were doing...

It was a great weekend – would have been even better of course if Gil hadn’t gotten sick – but in life as in movie productions, you zig when you have to and zag when you must and hope like hell that everything works out.

...

We had a monstrously good time meeting fans, signing autographs, taking pictures and just plain hanging out!

Panels, Panels, Panels!

We also did a couple of panels where – How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast-style – we talked about how we soared making Tales From The Crypt and then crashed and burned making Bordello Of Blood.

Bravo, Chiodos – Charles, Steven and Edward!

Way, way, way back in the day, Gil and I had a couple of meetings with the boys where we explored the possibility of working together. We all love blending comedy into our horror.

If you’ve never been to a horror convention, you should! They’re a scary good time!

The Horror Community

There’s a great vibe to them because the horror community is made up of the sweetest people on planet earth.

But there IS something weird about it all.

As you look around, you notice everyone’s dressed up as Freddy Krueger or Jason or Leatherface for instance, but no one EVER dresses up as any of their victims.

This whole phenomenon began with Star Trek fans – Trekkies – which we talked about right here on the “How NOT To Make a Movie Podcast” with our guest Roger Nygard!

But, back to HORRORCON LA!

Our Crypt Panel

While we were waiting to go on, we hung out with Tales From The Crypt alumni and fellow HORRORCON participant, actor KEVIN DILLON!

Finally, it was showtime. Here’s a bit of that first panel. We talked about “Getting naked”...

As Sunday – day two – of the convention dawned, Gil awoke feeling ill and prudently decided to stay home.

That left just me, my son Tristan and Ed Tapia to hold down the fort. I think we did a pretty good job!

Sunday, (Not So) Bloody Sunday

Sunday’s visitors were even nicer than Saturday’s!

I loved getting to have quality face time with everyone!

He’s Harvey Logan in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.

He speaks an iconic line when Butch insist they go over the rules before they start their knife fight: “Rules, in a knife fight?” says Logan, “No rules!”

And then – oh-so-ironically (since there are no rules) – Butch Cassidy kicks Ted Cassidy in the nuts.

Stay tuned, kiddees – Sean Cassidy will be a guest on this very podcast in the very near future!

Sunday Panel

...

Previous Episode

S2E56: “From HAIR To Eternity”

PAUL ABASCAL went from being a super talented, highly sought-after movie set HAIR STYLIST (he was MEL GIBSON and SLY STALLONE’S hair guy!) to being a super talented MOVIE AND TV DIRECTOR whose very first dramatic directing credit was the “Oil’s Well That Ends Well” episode of “TALES FROM THE CRYPT”. Paul saw hair architecturally. That’s one reason he took to directing so well.

Good directing, like good hair, is all about structure.

Teasing Hair To Teasing Stories

So, how do you go from teasing hair to shooting movies and TV shows? It always helps if you’re observant, eager to learn and capable of thinking outside the box. It helps, too, if you know how to tell a story – and that Paul absolutely does.

The quintessential Hollywood hair stylist character is George in Hal Ashby’s classic “SHAMPOO”. But whereas George was simply riding the wave of his own charisma, Paul approached hair styling with a perfectionist’s drive.

We talk about learning the hair trade from VIDAL SASSOON’S MASTERS (which Paul did), how knowing how to do one actress’s hair exactly the way she wanted it done got Paul hired onto “STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK” and into the union (vital if you want to work in Hollywood), how he and Mel Gibson became tight, and how Paul eventually got the Crypt episode that launched his directing career. Then we’ll talk how directing that Crypt episode changed Paul’s life.

Stories With Style

Well, kind of. Paul also tells a great story about handing STEVEN SPIELBERG his Crypt episode while giving Spielberg’s wife KATE CAPSHAW a perm. The payoff’s pretty awesome, too.

We’ll trade MOLLY RINGWALD stories (Paul worked with her on PRETTY IN PINK (which is revered among hair stylists), DICK DONNER and JOEL SILVER stories. Paul will tell his own “How NOT To Make A Movie Story”. He was hired to take over directing the Mel Gibson movie PAYBACK and more or less saved it.

And, finally, Paul tells a story from the DIE HARD set that we hadn’t heard before – about a location shoot in CENTURY CITY, a catering worker who got drunk (and fired for it), a stolen prop machine gun and a visit from the President and his SECRET SERVICE detachment.

By the time we’re done, you’ll feel like you’ve traveled from hair to eternity!

Next Episode

S2E58 (Production) Designer Genes

Quick! What do TOM CRUISE, FREDDY KRUEGER, DAMIEN (from “THE OMEN”), THE OSCARS and Progressive’s MOTAUR have in common? PATRICK LUMB was their PRODUCTION DESIGNER. Not only is Patrick a remarkable, innovative production designer, he’s a great STORYTELLER, too. And, this episode features some amazing stories from the sets of VALKYRIE, 2006’s THE OMEN and 2010’s NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET reboot.

Gil first met Patrick when he hired Patrick to take over as Valkyrie’s production designer.

Production Designers

Production designers are the people who first visualize what a movie, TV or advertisement world is going to look like. Their eye will touch every aspect of production because everything has to look like it’s part of the same world. PD’s have no control over the story or how the director (and producers) will tell it (which can be maddening at times). PD’s like Patrick hate watching great sets end up on the cutting room floor for reasons having nothing to do with them.

Patrick never set out to be a production designer. He thought he’d grow up to be a painter. His story is a kind of “Odyssey” that led Patrick to a remarkable life.

We cover everything from soccer (Patrick’s a MANCHESTER UNITED supporter) to what it’s like living in Italy (Patrick lives in the beautiful, historic Tuscan town LUCCA, Italy). JAMES BOND was Patrick’s gateway drug to movies. He got the medium’s awe and power. He still experiences “pinch me” moments where he gets a little giddy about what he’s doing (and who with).

Ads We Actually LIKE!

But, for our money, Patrick’s production design work for advertising clients like PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE, GEICO, TOYOTA, CHIK-FIL-A, ALLSTATE and GE is the coolest part of his production design oeuvre.

Check out his portfolio here. While there, don’t miss the mind-blowing installation he PD’d for the Toyota PRIUS!

Patrick’s a perfect example of how one artist’s vision spreads out across the whole media spectrum.