Riding the Pantsless Bus

So, it's my second post-vacation blog entry so I'm going to do the most logical thing and write about events that took place a week before I even left.

Because I'm cool like that. And also because I hinted at them in an earlier post so I feel kind of obligated. Plus they're cool. Like me.

Anywho, about a month ago I spent basically an entire day wearing no pants. And no, I'm not talking about Hair (I promised no more Hair entries).

It started when I went down to South Jersey to film the teaser trailer for Sorrow Hill. For those of you that don't know (I mentioned it briefly in a post a long time ago) Sorrow Hill is an indie horror movie I have a supporting role in.

It's so great. If you know me well enough, you know that I have a small list of things that I need to do before I die and that "Appearing in a low-budget horror movie" is at the top of the list (other entries include learning French and playing Hugh Hefner in a bio-pic about his life). Back in high school, one of my favorite things to do would be to get some friends together, get a little messed up, and watch the trashiest slasher film we could find at the video store. And every time I saw some young actor get ripped up by some masked assailant, a little piece of me always wished I was the one covered in karo syrup.

Anyway, a few months ago, Mike asked me to join he and Nicole down to Vineland for an audition and I jumped at the chance once I heard it was a horror flick. Miraculously, we all got roles and I knew once I read the script and talked to the director that I was in bloody heaven. The premise is basically this: four female journalism students (including Nicole) and their gay cameraman (Mike. Ha!) travel to an abandoned insane asylum to film a documentary. Only...get this...the place isn't actually abandoned!

The best part is I get to play one of the killers, a raving lunatic named Charlie! Whoo. I was up for two roles and apparently the director and producers liked me so they just ended up combining them to give me more to do. So great.

We filmed the trailer a month ago (a lot of times in independent films, you film a trailer or a couple of scenes first to drum up more funding). We shot it at the Atlantic City Race Track which is soon to be demolished and so is half abandoned and run down. I can't begin to tell you how creepy that place is inside. No pictures can do it justice but maybe some from the production company's blog will help.

So why was I pantsless? Well, my character is a mental patient, so I spent all of my scenes in a dirty hospital gown covered in mud and fake blood (the lead stabs me in the leg with a glass shard during our big fight scene).

Here's a fuzzy picture Mike took on my phone:

It's a shitty picture, but you get the idea. Too bad it's too fuzzy to really see the fucked up make up I had. The make up girl was great. The girl behind me in that picture gets all her piercings ripped out in the movie and the fake rips they put in her ears were really fucking good looking. Gross, gross stuff.

Anyway, as you can imagine, I was having the time of my life. However, filming my first shot was a little awkward. In it I had to grab the girl playing the lead and pull her head up close and snarl the line "I'm gonna make you scream!" at her. That's all well and good (seriously, that's one of the most fun lines I've ever gotten to deliver) but I had literally met the actress 30 seconds earlier on the way up the stairs. A little bit uncomfortable at first, but she was very nice and didn't seem to mind when the director kept telling me to be more and more vicious.

I can't wait to see the trailer. It premieres this Saturday at the Garden State Film Festival. Of course, I'll be doing Zipperface that night so I won't be able to see it but I'm sure it'll be up on the Grindhouse Pictures website before long. Anyone interested should keep checking that site and the blog on it for upcoming news on the movie.

By the by, anyone curious as to what Zipperface is should look forward to my next blog entry some time in the next couple of days. If you can't wait that long, feel free to check out either of these sites for info.

Anyway, back to being pantsless.

A few blog posts (and three weeks) ago, I mentioned buying a whole bunch of loaves of Wonder Bread and said I'd explain why eventually. Well, after the filming, I headed back to New Brunswick and went to an Anything But Clothes Party at Jamie and Holly's house. For the uninitiated, an ABC party is one where everyone has to make their outfit out of things that aren't clothing. After much soul searching, I decided to make some pants out of Wonder Bread bags. It was a pretty rocking idea, although I decided it would be a little too cold to just wear what looked like a plastic diaper so I got out some garbage bags and set to work on something to wear over it.

Now, usually I'm a fairly humble guy (shut up, I am!) but I'll readily admit that my costume was awesome. I made an entire tuxedo out of garbage bags, complete with a napkin hankerchief coming out of a pocket I taped on. Half way through the party, I went out on the dance floor and said "It's really hot in here. I'm gonna make it hotter." and ripped off my pants, revealing my Wonder Underwear. I'm rarely very cool, but that a bad ass moment. I even snagged a girlfriend out of it.

It was a great night. Here are some pictures. I apologize for looking like a drunken asshole in them. I was a drunken asshole.