How to make a Brain.

My art director, Marco Mujica, was kind enough to share his recipe for the Jello-mold brain that we made for the production. You can see the result in the trailer, for reference:

Marco's Incredible Edible Brain Recipe

Note: this recipe is for a durable brain. It was made to withstand several shots of it being dropped.

You will need:

1 gelatin brain mold
¼ stick of shortening (or butter)
1 bag of large marshmallows
3 packets (6 oz) of raspberry gelatin
1 ½ cup boiling water
1 ½ cup cold water
1 cup corn syrup
1 small bottle of red food coloring
1 small bottle of blue food coloring (optional)
1 tablespoon of chocolate syrup (optional)

Directions:

Lubricate the inside of the brain mold with a thin layer of shortening and set aside. Fill a microwave-safe bowl with a handful of large marshmallows. Microwave for 30 seconds, then immediately whip with a brush. Quickly coat the inside of the brain mold with marshmallow. Repeat till you have about a quarter-inch layer of marshmallow. Chances are that the marshmallow will begin to bunch up on the bottom of the mold. Rinse your hands with water and kneed the excess marshmallow till you have an even distribution. Leave extra marshmallow at the top to allow for shrinking. Check the outside of the mold to make sure you have no air pockets between the mold and marshmallow. Put mold into freezer for 24 hours.

After marshmallow has frozen, flip mold upside down and pour hot water on it. After a moment, delicately remove the marshmallow, starting at the brain stem and working your way around. Place marshmallow over an upside-down bowl and place back in the freezer.

Empty the gelatin packets into a medium sauce pan. Boil 1 1/2 cups of water. Slowly pour the hot water into the gelatin, stirring as you pour. Stir till the powder is fully dissolved. Pour 1 1/2 cups of cold water and stir. Pour into mold and refrigerate till gelatin has solidified. Since this recipe uses eight times more gelatin than the standard recipe, refrigeration will take a considerably longer amount of time. Allow several days for this step.

Once the gelatin is finished, flip the mold over a plate. Pull the sides apart till the brain begins to separate. Remove marshmallow mold from freezer. Allow to thaw till it is pliable. Place marshmallow over gelatin. Pour red food coloring onto marshmallow. Massage coloring into brain, making sure no white shows. Mix red food coloring and corn syrup till dye is evenly mixed. Add blue food coloring and chocolate syrup till you get the color that you prefer. Pour mixture evenly over brain. With a sharp knife, cut excess marshmallow from the bottom edges of the brain.

Prep. time: 4+ days
Serves: 6 zombies

Keep this recipe for your next Brain-themed party!


Thanks again to Marco for sharing this.

Rough cut.

I've gotten to the point where nothing about my movie is funny anymore because it's all old news. Every time I look into a cut, I think of new material I should have put in as a writer, or an emotional thing I could have changed as a director. The weird thing about editing your own movie, at least for me, is that nothing is really good enough - every time I open the timeline, something gets changed depending on my frame of mind.

That said, the rough cut is coming along nicely. I'm going to be refining it before the big screening with my instructors as best as I can. But I'm not sure if I will have time to show it to anyone else before then.

Definitely for the second pass, though.

One of the things I am curious about is how the montage sequence will play out. I think there's a nice logical structure for the most part, but right now, it's really just an experiment. The musical rhythm idea that I originally planned for isn't working out, because I simply don't have enough people getting slapped in the face. I don't have any music that I can *officially* use yet, so I don't want to restrict myself to one if I can't use it for any reason. But for now I have music laid in for tone:



It's dark enough without being too serious, and has a mechanical rhythm. Perfect(?). We'll see what my illustrious professors say, I am really looking forward to hearing and receiving their input.

Complaints aside, what material I do have is enough to make a funny montage. I won't be doing a reshoot, so that is also good news.

Music Potential.

Happy New Year!

I'm currently still working on the rough cut. The holiday season's left me lazy, and easily distracted.

I'm taking a moment to research some music to use for my film. I remember some cartoons I watched as a kid having some particularly notable music, so I did a quick google search and found exactly what I was looking for. Here's a sample:



Fun instrumentals, with a hint of creepy cleanliness. I'm going to look through the APM catalogue over to see what else is out there. I definitely need something catchy for the montage sequence. But for now, let's get a rough cut together.

So much for the twelve days of Shakespeare.

Yeah I've decided to abandon the Twelve Days of Christmas theme. Life has been kicking my butt too often lately to keep up with this thing.

Because of that, I've decided that Christmas should come early this year - here is the official teaser trailer for the film! Enjoy!

Teaser: The Shakespeare Procedure from Andrew on Vimeo.

On the Second day of Shakespeare.

Crikey! Forgot a post yesterday. Oh well.

I'm going to talk about money today. I'm going to reflect on how much money was spent and what I learned from spending that money.

Here is what the top sheet looks like for the final cost report turned in to my capstone instructor, Lisa Cook:

First off let me explain a couple things-

I had originally budgeted for approximately $2200. This is what I had projected to spend (this includes a 200 contingency). The total budget, $2500, is what I actually had to spend. So in actuality I had an extra $300 dollars that I didn't tell anyone about.

Why did I hide $300 dollars? It was more of a mind trick I sometimes do when I budget in my every day life. I only allows myself to spend a fraction of what I actually have in case of an emergency.

Though this time around it didn't really help much, because I kept thinking about that extra contingency. I didn't keep my spending down as much as I should have. But at times I had to spend a whole bunch of money at once and I couldn't really keep an accurate record of what I was spending (at the time). My mind was preoccupied with a lot of logistic problems as well, and throwing money at it was the best fix - one day I had to rent a U-HAUL to store some pieces of set dressing, and I didn't account for not knowing anyone with a truck to move it. That set me back a good $100. And renting ANOTHER, bigger truck the week of production was also pretty damn expensive. This is mentioned in the top sheet above.

We also spent more than I expected in camera gear, but I think it was probably the best purchase made, other than food. I budgeted roughly $350 on food, but a lot of the food was bought and prepared fresh so I had to spend a little more (one day we had leftovers though, which wasn't too bad).

Anyway, things I learned:
- Make sure you rent your trucks and find your transportation in advance. Really shop around for the best deals.
- Budget a little extra on food if you really want good food

Thanks to Christina for helping get this budget report together, and for helping to get all the receipts organized during the production. She's a real life-saver!