A Blob Named Bob

I seem to have a learning disability that shows itself in an innate failure to recognize when I’m licked. For instance, last movie’s monster fight was. . .how shall I say this? . . . a bit disappointing. Why? Because of my failure to make a really good monster. (Aside from the fact that our cave was very obviously a garage.) Have you ever tried building an animatronic monster head out of cardboard and fabric?

I should have learned my lesson, but look what crops up in iSundae 2. You guessed it. A swamp monster. This time I thought I would be smart. I started with a little model. Actually, I started with drawings, but then I made the model. He turned out pretty good. The idea was for him to be waterproof so we could portray him rising from pools of camouflaged sawdust and water. That never happened. Little Bob simply served as a prototype for Bob the Elder.

Bob needed to say lines, so I created a larger scale model of Bob’s head with a moveable jaw. I really should have given him a moveable tongue, as it would have added much more to the general effect. We mounted him on blue screen and commenced filming. All told, I probably put eight hours into the two Bobs, start to finish.

We reviewed the footage and, guess what! We promptly assigned someone with the job of making a computer-generated Bob. Sad, isn’t it? Not really. I had a fun time making him. . . (or should I say “hims” since there were two of him?)

Hopefully I’ll either learn this time and keep a monster out of the next movie, or I’ll improve my crafting skills. Which is more likely to happen remains to be seen.