The 48: Monstering

I woke up after three hours sleep to the news that I was a monster.
Well, that I was going to be playing the monster, at least. I was somewhere between excited and perturbed by the thought – all the good points (the acting, the make-up, the dramatic death scene) were remarkably similar to the bad points (acting, make-up, dramatic death scene).
But first I had to find a mannequin.
The Mannequin
At the Rumpus, good buddy and god Leon provided us with some mannequins, shop window dummies, which we used to good effect. They’re old possessions of Leon, dating back many many years. So when we were writing our script a short time after the Rumpus, I confidently said, yes, we can get a mannequin, let’s script one in. So we did. The monster now had a friend.
Except Leon didn’t have the mannequins any more. In classic Murphy’s Law style, precisely a week before the first time anyone actually needed the mannequins, he’d tossed them. Argh!
But, I thought, I’m a resourceful chap. I can do this. I fired up the old cellphone and sent out a blizzard of Saturday-morning text messages, asking for leads. Fairly soon, one of them came up trumps – the lovely Mrs Hall-Hall, who used to work in a clothing shop in Petone and gave me a name to ask there.
So I raced off to Petone, sauntered into the shop, and discovered that the person in question didn’t work there any more.
Stupid mannequin! But all was not lost. I gave them my spiel, and my most trustworthy manner, and was duly entrusted with a shop mannequin to take away into the bush. Success!
The mannequin story isn’t that remarkable, really. I know lots of our team were pulling off similar feats in order to get crucial things or make stuff happen. It’s part of the coolness of the 48 – you don’t realise just how much you can achieve in 48 hours until you get stuck in and do it.
This Morgue, This Monster
I arrived up at the rainy location, stomped through sticky mud, and wondered if we three writers were going to get lynched for writing an outdoor shoot. Luckily spirits were up, and they stayed up for most of the day (although it got a bit rough towards the end as we were losing daylight and rushing to get shots done).
I helped out with a few things, then was sat in a chair for the big make-up experience. Norm drizzled hot waxy substance all over my face and hands, and once it dried carefully painted it a grisly mix of fleshy oranges and bloody reds. This took somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour, I think – I was sitting with eyes closed much of the time. Late in the process, the cast and crew arrived for lunch, and the yelps of horror and awe at my visage were a great comfort to me. Finally I was able to see myself in the mirror, and, well – I looked pretty damn horrific.
Not too long after, I was called to set and we shot the finale sequence, where the monster hunters confront the monster. There was a bit of physical stuff in here, some wrestling, some shambling, and a lot of looming. Some roaring and wailing was involved as well. I had to be muddied up, so enjoyed the attentions of a bunch of helpers gleefully smearing my bare chest with cold, gritty mud. Yerk.
I vividly remember the struggle between the monster and monster hunter Robin Slade (Luke Walker), where I had my arm wrapped around his neck, and we were both struggling to keep our balance on the edge of a very slippery mud bank. The shot of this moment in the final cut reveals Slade’s hand reaching around to gain secure purchase on my monstrous upper thigh. It was to help us stay upright, but it does seem quite a… tender moment.
So I roared, and wailed, and flailed, and raged, and finally I bring about my own end in what turned out to be a very successful death scene – it never fails to get a reaction. And then I was done, and stomped back to the cabin to de-monster.
But, before I did that, I wandered along with Fraser to meet a couple of wee ones who were keen to see the monster for themselves. Their eyes when they saw me were enormous. I told them this was what would happen to them if they didn’t eat their vegetables. That’s me; socially responsible monster.
So that was the end of Meltyman. We ended up shooting another scene the next day, a quick stunt where the monster tackles Nick, but I wasn’t in full make-up for it. I wasn’t too happy with the tackle – I was a bit lame with the physical stuff there, I think. But all the rest I’m happy with. I decided that if I was going to be a monster, I was going to really be an awesome monster. Following in the footsteps of Boris Karloff and Kane Hodder, I went for it, and it all turned out well.
The Fate Of The Movie
We didn’t make the finals. We did, however, make an awesome short film. I look forward to getting hold of a copy so I can show it off to some people.
Meltyman happy.
Face Of A Meltyman
There are better photos of the make-up than this, but this is the best one currently online: