#coteried

(Warning: Sort of SFWn’t)

Industrial techno blasts over the speakers, bass so intense the groud feels like it’s shaking along with the beat. Or it could be the crowd of people, packed tightly together with just enough space between them to move, to dance, their pulses keeping pace with the pounding of the music.

Everything seems more vibrant, more colourful, as the details blend in with the flashing neon lights, turning into a barely discernible haze as the world loses its sharpness.

“Having fun, Superman?”

That familiar smile comes into focus, voice close enough to hear even over the chaos yet with a dreamlike quality to it, cutting through the deafening music and drawing his attention to the man in front of him. 

There’s glitter on his skin and his clothes stick to him from the sweat of all the bodies around them, hair sticking up in every direction, dull blue eyes brimming with the imitation of life…

A breathtaking, beautiful, organised chaos

“Are you?”, he asks amused, although he knows the answer; it’s crystal clear in the way his body sways along to the music, and the crowd seems to part just for him as he walks closer in a slow, easy stride.

 He looks like he belongs here. 

 No, scratch that; he looks like here belongs to him. Under the colourful lights, lost in the music and the noise of the crowd, Travis seems the very picture of exhilaration and freedom, a God in his realm of revelry.

Then someone stumbles into Eliot, knocking him forward. There’s an apology, but he doesn’t hear it, almost pressed flush against Travis who’s wrapped an arm around his waist almost instinctively. 

“Careful, Superman; you already fell for me, don’t have to fall literally.”

Travis whispers, words coming out in a husky purr that’s more felt than heard with their chests pressed together, and Eliot smirks, looking at Travis again through the haze that turns everyone but him into background static.

 “Are you complaining?”

He can see Travis’ eyes darken, accentuated even more as the lights shift to bathe the club in a dark red and the music reaches a slow tempo. Time seems to slow, seconds dragging into a long minute with the two staring at one another, standing still even as the crowd moved wildly around them, so close he could’ve felt his heartbeat were they still alive…

Then their lips crash with no way to tell who started it but no reason to care. The music changes again, switching to a faster beat, lights switching rapidly between red and gold like an industrial neon wildfire. Time speeds back up, and so do they, fingers hooking into waistbands, tangling in hair, hands gaining purchase in fabric and exposed skin, bodies moving in a frenzy to get even closer, eliminating even the smallest space between them.

It’s exhilarating

Then someone else falls on them by accident, scattering with a quick apology and disappearing in the crowd, reminding them where they are. Eliot forces himself to pull away, just enough to look into Travis’ eyes, wide and dark and needy much like he wagers his own are. His lips tilt into a mischievous smirk, and his words come out breathy and teasing when he speaks;

If you were to watch the original Hellbound and then immediately follow it with its prequel, you would likely notice a few key differences. For starters, the protagonist looks younger in the prequel. The other is the difference between CGI monsters and using practical effects.

Many believe that animatronics, costumes, makeup and prosthetics are more believable and realistic than their CGI counterparts, and while it does boil down to opinion, it’s not without a backbone; case in point, the life-like monsters from Hellbound that still manage to strike fear into our hearts all these years later.

This time, we at Night Owl sat down with Travis A Burr, founder of the SFX company Final Sunset and the mastermind behind the aforementioned monsters to learn a bit more about his work and how he came to be where he is today.

Burr’s story begins in late 2000/early 2001, back when he was still a struggling artist in Santa Monica, working the night shift at a gas station. Unsatisfied with his less-than-adequate paycheck, Burr started selling the sculptures he made in his free time and showcasing them wherever he could.

Unfortunately, after a few months it became clear that his venture was not paying off, and Burr was on the brink of giving up.

That was when fortune finally smiled on him. During a small exhibition at a friend’s house, Burr’s sculptures caught the eye of a travelling SFX Artist from Hollywood. Impressed by his work, he offered the young artist a position to work for him. Some years later he started his own SFX company, Final Sunset, and the rest is history…

“Sometimes, a lucky break is all you need.”

Burr’s career really took off a few years later, starting with the work he did for the film Hellbound.

Even though a few holes in the script cost it the nomination for Best Horror Film, Hellbound was critically acclaimed and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects thanks to the realism of its special effects, which served to set the standard for Burr’s work in the big screen.

Unfortunately, even though Burr was hired to work on Hellbound’s prequel as well, his outstanding special effects were ultimately replaced by CGI whose quality left much to be desired. While that was not the only reason behind the prequel’s box office catastrophe, it was the final nail in the coffin in which lay all of the original film’s redeeming qualities.

“[…]Nine-times-out-of-ten you aren’t getting shit done the first time. Something always goes wrong or the scene is changed[…]”

Working with special effects can be a long and tiresome ordeal. Countless sleepless days and nights for the sake of a project with the risk of something changing or going wrong at the very last minute, which leads to even more hours put into it… It’s for that very reason that beyond creativity, experience, or natural talent, the most important quality for a SFX artist to possess is Patience.

“Without patience you’re guaranteed to end up rippin’ your fuckin’ hair out.”

Those were the Burr’s words, followed by him empathically gesturing at his own hair which was the textbook definition of organized chaos.

Much like most artistic careers, a career in special effects has its moments of frustration, chaos and exhaustion in every meaning of the word. Even the most hardened professional have days in which they loathe going to work to face whatever unexpected situation may have arisen or spend hours making the same prosthetics over and over again. 

But for Burr and other professional SFX artists, those days are outweighed by all the times they’ve eagerly gotten their hands on an interesting new project or discovered some new technique or seen the result of their hard work on the big screen, enthralling the audience.

In the end, CGI may not be going away any time soon, seeing as it has already carved out its place in cinema, but it still has a long way to go to reach the mastery and depth achieved in practical effects. That very statement is echoed in Burr’s parting words to us, which are as much advice for fellow SFX artists as they are a warning for the producers of todays special effects-heavy films;

“Don’t [replace] the practical with [CGI]. It’s meant to enhance not replace.”

THOUGHT MEME

{Nothing more than snapshots of blood and viscera, teeth and bone, a wild frenzy of gore dancing to the soundtrack of panicked and pained screaming of another and the snarls of an unholy beast causing the destruction. Mindless. Primeval visions of the past, present and future of meals and hobbies tucked away in some dark corner of the mind. His stomach growls, a reminder to eat soon. Its almost time for breakfast.}

"Its almost time for the Good Shit. Boss needs to give it to me real fucking quick before I rip my skin off. I need more of it, I need him. Wake up wake up wake up wakeupwakeupwakeup,"