Halloween

by Christopher on Nov.28, 2011, under Halloween

Its here! The 2011 Video highlighting my yard display. I shot this all over a couple hours after our trick or treat night. Check it out below!

by Christopher on Oct.30, 2011, under Halloween, HDR photography, photography

Thursday Night, October 27th we had our Trick or Treat night in Kenton. I spent the day putting the final touches on the yard, setting up music, and fog as well as characters in the yard. The evening started with a short downpour of rain that lasted maybe 10 minutes but we still ended up with a pretty good turn out. As I do every year I spent 2 or 3 hours after taking photos and video for the site. It was wet and cold and I was down in the mud taking photos so it came as little surprise when I got hit with a bug that saw me trying to vomit up the lining of my Stomach on Friday and into early Saturday. Today I’m finally feeling 100% again and its time to post all the new HDR photos from the Thursday. You can Check out the full Gallery on my flickr account by clicking here
A few Favorites below:





View More Photos Here

by Christopher on Oct.25, 2011, under Halloween, HDR photography

High Dynamic Range photography has become very popular in recent years. Basically HDR photography is a bracket of several photos taken at different exposures that are combined to make one highly detailed photo that looks insanely detailed or even like a painting. I’ve never been a big fan of it because it brings almost every detail to life in a big way so if your shooting photos of something scary then all those spooky shadows often get blasted out. However it has become a very popular way of taking photos of rooms, houses, scenery etc. So last weekend I decided to learn this bitch and add it to my list of skills. The photo you see above is a shot of my Halloween yard display taken at 3 different exposures and then combined to and HDR photo. For stuff like this I think it works pretty well. So this is another service I’ll be offering now on Rogues Hollow. If your interested in having my come out and shoot your haunt, event, house, etc in HDR then email me and lets see what we can do.

Want to see more? Visit my Flickr Page for MORE HDR HALLOWEEN PHOTOS

by Christopher on Oct.23, 2011, under Halloween

Ah, Halloween safety videos, it takes me back to my childhood when we had to watch similar videos every year before Halloween at School. The first is from 1977 and features a Halloween costume that goes from classically spooky to stupid over the course of a few safety tips.

This second video is from 1985 and features an animated pumpkin that explains the safety of Halloween. Best Part: when the pumpkin gets his insides scooped out and says “Getting my insides scooped out tickles.”

Both of These great videos were uploaded to Vimeo by Jason Willis.

by Christopher on Oct.04, 2011, under dark art, Graphic design, Halloween, Haunted Houses

A while back Los Angeles Haunted Hayride asked me to send them artwork for a car wrap and today they sent me the photo of the finished wrapped Mini Cooper! Looks pretty amazing!

by Christopher on Sep.26, 2011, under Halloween, Haunted Houses, HDSLR Filmmaking, horror movies

Just finished this 2011 Trailer for Night Terrors haunted house. The video was provided by Night Terrors and then we edited it all together and added all the music and titles. Its a great example of what we can do when clients provide us with some great video! Check it out below:

by Christopher on Aug.21, 2011, under Halloween, John Carpenter

Anyone who knows me knows that I have been a fan of John Carpenter since I was a child. I knew at a pretty early age who this man was and what movies he made and they were my favorite films. From the classic Halloween in 1978 all the way up to Prince of Darkness in 87′ Carpenter had a pretty great run of movies. Even his silly films like Big Trouble in Little Tokyo and They Live are great and well worth checking out! In the 90′s however Carpenter had more misses than hits though I still defend Vampires and I love In the Mouth of Madness. Then after the terrible Ghost of Mars in 2001, Carpenter pretty much dropped off the Radar for nearly a decade, returning only to film 2 episodes of the showtime tv series, Masters of Horror.

But now the man is back and doing a film that feels and looks like a Carpenter movie. The Ward isn’t the triumphant return to Horror I would have liked to see but it is definetly a nice warm up. The film follows a girl named Kristen (Amber Heard) who we meet at the beginning of the film burning down a house. She’s taken kicking and screaming to a mental institute where 4 other young girls are locked up in the same ward. Soon Kristen is told about the ghost that haunts the ward and the girls are getting picked off one by one.

Visually The Ward looks pretty amazing! It feels more like a classic Carpenter film with its slow low tracking shots down hallways, strong production design and cinematography that is on par with that of the great Dean Cundey. Carpenter feels like he’s back on his game here and smart for choosing a small and quiet horror story like the Ward. The film feels very polished and Carpenter uses the Anamorphic widescreen like only he can and it makes the film feel bigger than it is. The performances in this film are strong, Horror favorite Amber Heard isn’t my favorite actress but she does very well here. Jared Harris, who plays the seemingly cold and oblivious Doctor, is terrific as always. I will say for a movie that features an almost entirely female cast the girls are all fairly likable. One of my biggest irritations in modern horror films are characters that have all this attitude that makes them all seem like a bunch of bitches. Hollywood has a real issue with making strong female characters. They seem to always interpret “strong” to mean “bitch” and that’s very unfortunate. The characters in The Ward feel appropriate and tied to the period that this movie takes place and there’s something to be said for that these days.

The ending however is where people will polarize on this film. It has a twist ending and if I compare it with the movie its most similar to then I’ll immediately give it away so I won’t be doing that. For me coming from a background in Psychology, I really liked the ending and the film overall.

I hope this is the beginning of a great comeback for the director, but as of yet there is no definite word on his next film project so we’re left wondering for now what’s next for the director. The Ward isn’t a perfect film but it feels like the director is finding his style again and I really hope this rekindles his passion and he makes us a few more horror films before calling it quits again.

by Christopher on Aug.06, 2011, under Halloween

Just got my first shipment of Yankee Candle goodness today! The Halloween collection that Yankee puts out each year is a must buy for me. This year I tried not to over indulge and just got a few things. My favorite has always been the spiced pumpkin candle but it seems that its availability is pretty random. In fact I haven’t found it in quite a few years, though I haven’t looked that hard for it. But, this years “Pumpkin Patch” candle I’m happy to report is the good ol’ Spiced pumpkin scent! Definitely my favorite of the bunch!

I wasn’t sure about the Witch’s Brew candle, so I only ordered a small one to try out. The scent is that of patchouli and it has a little bit of that earthy moss scent as well. I’m not a huge fan of it but I’m sure I’ll put it to good use. “Candy Corn” is also a favorite and its hard not to like this sweet and delicious smelling candle. It just smells like trick or treat!

No year would be complete with out some additional display ware for you candles. This year I was a little dissapointed to see the decorative Halloween toppers of the last few years were missing. But the “Boney Bunch” skeletal hand holder just about makes up for that! This is one of the coolest jar holders they’ve ever done!

So there you have it. The Halloween Collection at Yankee Candle is available now so go buy it or click here for their website.