I can't recall where the idea for "Hunter of Hyperborea" came from, but the general notion was to make a film starring a hunter or a hero who recorded his successful exploits and clearly lied about the whole thing. I already had a bunch of prehistoric creature puppets, some of them not featured in films posted on my YouTube channel, and that kind of decided the plot.
Instead of posting the same info twice, I'll just post links to older blog posts detailing the making of the puppet in question. Regarding the "terror bird," it was featured in a film called "The Age of Invention", made with my special needs people film group, and that film isn't posted on my YouTube channel. You can read about that puppet HERE.
The mammoth (there's just a single puppet) was also built for "The Age of Invention," and you can read about making that puppet HERE.
The big yeti-like ape monster was made for a film that is on my YouTube channel; "In the Ooze of Ubbo-Sathla." This puppet was only very briefly featured in that film, so I thought it deserved to have another go. I added a little horn to its forehead in a nod to both "Trog" the giant Neanderthal in Ray Harryhausen's "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" as well as the "orangopoid" from the 1936 "Flash Gordon."
You can read about the making of this puppet HERE.
So, over to the puppet that was actually built specifically for this project, namely our hero, the hunter of the title.
The character was sculpted in medium-grade Monster Clay (well, the head and neck.) I tried to make him look meek and maybe a bit comical.
After creating a hard dental plaster mold over the sculpture, I cast a copy of the sculpture as a latex skin. The eyes are made from small plastic fake jewelry pearls, placed in sockets made from silicone clay. Since this puppet was fairly small -about six inches tall- I only used single 2 mm aluminum wires for the armature. 3 mm threaded nuts are attached to the feet with a mix of super glue and baking soda. A 3 mm t-nut was also stuck to the puppet's behind so I could attach him to my flying rig for certain scenes.
The body was padded with a wrapping of very thin and soft polyurethane foam. Fingers were made with crochet yarn wrapped around aluminum wires and dabbed with tinted latex. And also, he got some hair.
I used crepé hair for the beard and hair. It's sheep's wool boiled and tufted, then braided. Stage productions use it for fake beards and mustaches on actors.
Liquid latex was used to glue down the hair, one tuft at a time. To press down the hair I use a dental spatula tool.
To make the application of eyebrows easy on such a small puppet I simply painted them on.
The clothes of our hunter are actually based on what Ötzi the Ice Man was wearing. So I'm beginning with giving him a linen diaper-like loincloth. this is made with tissue paper dabbed with latex.
The rest of his clothes would be made with leather -or, rather, small bits of latex cast in a texture mold.
The hunter's tunic is made from thicker leather and I resorted to using the thin foam I wrapped the armature in. These are washing pads I bought at a local drugstore.
To make "leather" out of the foam I soaked each patch with tinted latex, applying the latex with a piece of foam sponge.
The shoes were also made from these foam pads.
Apparently, during at least a part of the Neolithic age, nobody wore pants but rather used leg hoses, like many native American people.
Our hero is equipped with three spears made from simple wooden flower pins.
I roughed up the surface on each pin by rubbing it against a coarse abrasive pad so it'd look a bit more worn and hand-made.
The flint spear points were simply made from scrunched-up tin foil and then painted with hobby paints.
Of course, he'd need some cool hunting trophy so I made a claw necklace from plumber's epoxy and a bit of flexible garden wire.
The hunter would be wearing a rather makeshift deer skin disguise, which apparently was a thing according to established archeology. I made two small horns from tissue paper and latex.
The actual deer skin was a piece cut from an old winter hat made from short fake fur. I added a 1 mm aluminum wire along the edge of the skin, so I could animate it flapping and folding when the hunter was making fast movements.
So, here's our finished protagonist. I also made a flint knife from tin foil, but I can't recall if I ever used it. It was a while ago since I made the film, or even watched it. It seems my little stone-age drama was well-received on YouTube. People got the joke at the end. I used the word "Hyperborea" in the title mainly because it had a suitable pulpy connotation. My hunter had adventures not unlike those endured by hardier heroes like Conan the barbarian, but without any of the success of a legendary champion. The moss he eats at the end of the film was plucked from a branch on a very old oak tree standing at the edge of my garden.
Here's the finished "Age of Invention", warts and all. Due to various technical issues and some problems during the filming, it's not as polished as I wished it would be, but I hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless. Since all dialogue is in Swedish, it's subtitled in English.
In my last post I talked about a caveman comedy, featuring two guys that were a part of a special
needs people media project I worked on a couple of years ago. I also included a shot from the film featuring an animated character. The puppet in
question is one of those terror birds, the huge flightless monster
birds that appeared after the extinction of the dinosaurs. I decided
early on that this film wouldn't have any dinosaurs in it, but rather
primitive mammals and other creatures of that age, which are not featured very often in films.
As
per usual I'm using monster clay medium grade to sculpt the head,
adding bits and taking away bits using loop tools. I actually can't
recommend this material enough. It's the most versatile sculpting
material I've ever used, and works well for both small and big
sculpts. As you can hopefully see I've sculpted the mouth slightly
open, and this is so I can cast the whole head, including the jaw, in
one piece, having the edges of the insides of the beak slightly
visible, which will create a better-looking mouth than sculpting the
beak closed. Having the whole head in one piece allows me to control
the overall look of it.
In the case of this sculpture I've added
slightly drooping corners of the mouth, which adds a permanently
scowling or frowning look to the puppet. Because it's a grumpy bird!
Small plastic beads stand in for the eyes. I'll simply paint on the
eyes on this puppet and the glossy surface of the bead will create a
smooth area in the cast latex head, which is perfect to paint eyes
on.
Jumping
ahead a bit, I've built up a plaster mold and the clay has been
cleaned out of it. I'm adding drops of tinted latex using a pipe cleaner as a brush to get the liquid into all areas of
the mold. I'm adding three layers of latex, and then another layer of
latex and cotton to most areas. In fact, the only parts not covered
with the cotton/latex mix are the corners of the mouth. And after
some pulling and prying the cast latex head skin finally comes out.
I'm using a very sharp, pointy-nosed pair of scissors to cut away the
excess latex in the mouth and around the head.
As you can see in this photo I've added a horn to the head to make the bird look even more exaggerated and primeval. The horn was also sculpted in clay and cast as a separate latex piece. The armature is my usual bundle of aluminum wires, held together with crochet yarn and Polymorph thermoplastic. The screw at the back shows where a flying rig can be attached to make the bird jump when animated.
The legs and neck are covered with thin polyurethane foam, though I did remove the foam around the neck when I noticed that it would look too bulky when the "plumage" was added on top of it.
This bird actually has no real feathers at all, but is instead covered by fur from an old fur hat. I figured I might just get away with that look.
The finished bird puppet is airbrushed over the furry sections, but the same acrylic paint has been hand painted onto the latex parts for a more detailed look. The claws on the feet are cotton dipped in latex, and shaped by being rolled between my thumb and index finger.
Soon to come are the other two caveman-era monsters, but you'll have to wait and see what sort they are :)
