LMC: What type of budget did you have?

RK:  I am not at liberty to discuss the exact amount of the budget, but let's just say with that amount of money you might be able to buy a used car, and if you saved up some more money, and if you're lucky, you might be able to get it to run. I ended up investing some of my own money in order to assure a higher quality production value to the makeups, but even with that, the money we had to work with was very low.

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LMC: What makeups/FX were you responsible for?

RK:  I did all of the designs of the creatures, and all of the makeups were based on my designs. I personally sculpted and molded the Frankenstein monster as well as the Amphibious Creature's mask, and the Wolf man. I sewed the Wolf man's fur suit myself and his wig was cut and styled by crew member Felvi Hernando. The dentures for Frankenstein and the teeth for the creature were created by Rufus Hearn, and the Wolf man teeth were created by Thad Whitley (of Dental Distortions) all based on my designs. The Ghost of Dr Frankenstein mask was brilliantly sculpted by Neal Kennemore and Ross Tallent and I sculpted the finishing touches then molded, casted, painted and added the hair. The Bride's makeup was sculpted by my brother Robert Wesley Knight and my assistants Arriane Meade and Casey Dion, and applied by myself and Neal Kennemore. The Creature suit was a group effort and just about all of us took part in the sculpting, but the main contributers were Ross Tallent, Robert Knight, David Fahy, Choi Ho-Chul, and myself. Parts of the suit were hand sewn by my girlfriend Nina Markert. Nina also made all five gallons of blood used in the film made from my recipe. The suit was painted by Rufus and myself. The creature horns and fins were sculpted by Scott Randall and John Hart according to my specifications. All of our foam latex was run by John Hart (of Haunted Faces). I threw together most of the working effects myself the night before they were needed on set. I was the only makeup artist that was on set every day of the production shoot, and I pretty much did the majority of appliance applications, although on the bigger days I brought in crew members to assist me. As you can see I had my hand on every makeup and effect that was in the film but it was truly a team effort. Without the help of my talented crew this film would have never been possible.

LMC: Wow!  That is a big crew.

RK: Yes - there was thirteen of us all together, not including friends and family members that were dragged in to help on the busiest of days.

LMC: How much time did you have?

RK: We had one month and two weeks to do all of the work. We started production on December 15, 2004 and during the week between Christmas and New Years it was just me working on the fiberglass body cast, life casts and the flexible molds started by myself and my crew just days before the holiday. The bulk of the work started at the beginning of the new year when my crew members returned from the holidays, so we truly had only a month to create all the effects and makeups. It is nothing short of a miracle that we were able to accomplish what we did on this project.

LMC: Why is there never enough time to make FX? It seems every project is a race to the finish line.                        

RK: I think that comes mostly from the production companies. In most cases an average production house has no idea of the time and work that is involved in creating special effects makeup. They are used to dealing with camera crews and makeup and wardrobe departments that are usually able to work out of their own kits, or as an independent contractor. Most production companies make the mistake of scheduling everything else first, then they look for the FX artist. This puts the FX artist in a position of limited time before any deals are even made. The other mistake I have witnessed often is that they will procrastinate before giving you the greenlight, not realizing that they are wasting precious time that could be used for pre-production. This has become a scenario that most FX artists have come to expect and accept. I on the other hand will always try to educate directors and producers about the process. Sometimes my advice falls on deaf ears, but occasionally I'll get a director that understands and wants to make their film the best that it can possibly be. The smart producers and directors will offer more money and more time than is needed as a form of insurance. The others usually end up learning the hard way.

LMC: How did you divide the work, hire others, manage the project?

RK: Being that the budget was so small I had to seek out volunteers for the project. It was not easy to coordinate the project as very few people are willing to work without a salary. I knew that there were others out there like myself that were interested in opportunity rather than just the money so I put out advertisements all across the Internet seeking volunteers and interns. After sorting through many flakes and no shows I was able to put together the most amazing group of talented artists that were eager to work on the project. I tried to keep the time commitment to a reasonable number and only asked for a three day a week commitment or more if desired. It was a tough choice going with volunteers as I was well aware that everyone needs to make a living and pay bills. Unfortunately there just wasn't any money for salaries, not even for myself - it all went into supplies. The only reason any of us did this I think is because it was a Frankenstein remake and it was dedicated to being a homage to the classic films of the 30's and 40's. Due to the three day commitment I was not really able to assign projects to most of my crew members so we did things on a day to day basis. I was basically doing everything one project at a time, and when I had some help I'd jump to the next project and let my crew members finish what I had started. On some days it was just me working in the shop by myself. Rufus and Thad were dental techs so they volunteered to make the teeth. John Hart volunteered to run the foam latex and his expertise in foam made him a perfect candidate for the job. The remaining crew members helped out on whatever project needed to be done on the day that they were available, and occasionally some of my crew members took work home with them to finish.

LMC: Do you find it difficult to manage someone who is working for free?

RK: What is most difficult is finding someone that is reliable and dedicated and willing to volunteer without pay. I was looking for people that were like myself. When I first started I was willing to work for free to gain the experience and add credits to my resume. I did a lot of student films and independent films as a volunteer crew member. I know there were others out there in my same situation and I was determined to weed out the flakes and find the perfect volunteer. I dealt with a lot of no-shows and flakes in the beginning. There were three people that came to the interview and wanted to volunteer then simply disappeared. They never returned the emails or phone calls I sent them either. I had others that would try to talk me into paying them, despite the advertisement of a no pay job. I even had a couple people come on board for a couple days then just quit. So in this case I think the word "difficult" may be an understatement. This crew worked out because I made a schedule based around their schedules. I only asked for a commitment of three days a week or more, and we rotated the crew throughout the week. I didn't usually have more than four people in the shop at a time. On some days during pre-production I was the only one available and I would just continue doing each project day to day until everything was complete. I was really lucky to have the crew that I had, because the truly were dedicated and excited about making the project work.

LMC: Any crisis along the way?

RK: The biggest problem we encountered during pre-production was caused by the heavy rains we had here in Southern California. They hit us right at the time we were running fiberglass. Anyone that has ever worked with fiberglass knows that water and resin just don't mix. This cost us a lot of time, time that we could not spare, and set us back about two weeks. We also encountered the same problems on set as heavy rains halted production at our beach location as well as our cemetery location. As well, we had problems in the early stages of life casting. In order to save time the director asked us to try to get all of the life casting done on one day. Against my better judgment I attempted to accommodate the director's request. We life casted one full head and shoulders, one half face, one set of upper and lower teeth, a torso, two hands and a full body. By the time we got to life casting the full body we experienced a sudden temperature drop which made it too cold for the actor, causing us to have to do the full body cast on two separate days. We did an amazing amount of work, all while being filmed for the behind the scenes documentary. This was more life casting than anyone should have attempted in one session, but we pulled it off. Fortunately the actor was a good sport despite the stress of such a long day of life casting.

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