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Kate Linder The Making Of the Monster House Music Video
Judy Tenuta The Making of The Monster House Music Video
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016
The Hit Recording Artist Fawn on The Making Of Her Monster House Music Video
Fawn The Making of The Monster House Music Video
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Fawn - Monster House
While filming the last scene of my music video "The Headless Horseman", THIS happened!! A little guy decided to land on my head and stay awhile!! WOW!
Here's Who We Spotted Out and About In The Last 24 Hours
By Radar Staff
Posted October 4, 2016 @ 13:04PM
Award-winning Billboard recording artist Fawn photographed with tv personality Sham Ibrahim on the set of her new music video "Monster House", which made it's youtube debut yesterday-right in time for Halloween! Check out the video at www.youtube.com/FawnTV
A wonderful connection between songwriting, filmmaking and writing.
After several years in semi-retirement, this late summer I put on my filmmaking hat in order to help my favorite holiday: Halloween. My longtime partner Fawn spent the past year recording a new record of original Halloween songs and needed me to help her shoot not one but two music videos. Wow. It’d been so long since I’d been in the mindset to take on such a huge shoot, from concept to shooting, to editing, to post-production and distribution.
For her first music video, “Monster House,” we broke out her green screen and soft light kits. The green screen is the properly tinted fabric, and needs to be hung on its frame just right, and lit evenly, in order for the action to be keyed out properly. I was nervous with this, as it’s been almost a decade since I’ve shot anything of that magnitude.
Photo from Monster House: Grae Drake, Fawn®
On top of that, I’d be doing Fawn’s special effects makeup. No pressure! The very first night I was to make her up as a zombie and a witch. For the zombie, I used liquid latex, cotton, and tissue. It’s a trick I learned many years ago in Dick Smith’s phenomenal make-up book. Second, I had to apply a full face foam latex appliance to turn her into a really ugly witch. The adhesive was tricky, but I managed to get all the edges down smooth. It worked!
I’d chosen to shoot with the iPhone 6S, as it is capable of shooting up to 4k. That’s more than double the resolution of the first Panavision digital cinema cameras that were being used for feature films not too long ago. A few camera tests proved to me it would be good, and that there’d be enough resolution to properly pull green screen footage, and also to look good. I’m beyond thrilled with the iphone as camera, although I learned very quickly that it’s similar to old reversal motion picture film in that it needs a whole lot of light to look good and sharp. Underlit shots get grainy fast.
So how does this all tie in to writing? This is, after all, a blog and an organization about writing.
Here’s how.
It all starts with the words.
In this case, it was Fawn’s lyrics. From there she brought them to life, first with her piano demos, and then, ultimately, with musicians and collaborators around the world who flesh out her ideas into these mini-epics. Then she decided on which videos to portray. She writes out detailed shot lists, and then we discuss how to bring them to life.
Shooting is its own world, and it often feels a lot more like being a construction worker than doing anything creative, in my opinion. That’s the big reason I left that aspect of filmmaking. Never cared for it, and I mostly left the shoots only having realized a small portion of what I’d dreamt up.
Several years ago things got interesting. The miniaturization of high quality cameras and production gear meant you could capture scenes easier, and with fewer people. It truly felt more like you were sketching or writing down an idea.
Where things get really interesting are back in front of the editor and effects programs. There have been studies that show editing video uses pretty much the same areas and skills of our thoughts as writing or painting or playing music. That makes sense because putting shots together—the right shot, for the right amount of time—feels almost the same as finding the right word in the right place. Just like writing, it’s best to let your first passes sit before going back to them. You clean them up. You tighten them up until you get those fleeting thoughts in your head solidified and magically
transferred into a medium you can share with others.
Now, with the videos almost being released worldwide, we can all have just a little bit more Halloween bliss to sing and dance to.
TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: John Palisano is giving away one free CD copy of MONSTER HOUSE. Comment below or email membership@horror.org with the subject title HH Contest Entry for a chance to win.
Monster House Halloween Party Songs album (iTunes) https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/monster-house-ep/id1148253107
Fawn: http://www.fawnmusic.com
Bram Stoker Award® winning author John Palisano is currently serving as the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association. His non-fiction has appeared in FANGORIA and DARK DISCOVERIES magazines. He won the Bram Stoker Award© in short fiction in 2016. He’s got a pair of books with Samhain Publishing, DUST OF THE DEAD, and GHOST HEART. NERVES is available through Bad Moon. STARLIGHT DRIVE: FOUR HALLOWEEN TALES was just released in time for Halloween, and his first short fiction collection ALL THAT WITHERS is due out soon from Cycatrix press. John Palisano’s short stories have appeared in anthologies from PS Publishing, Terror Tales, Lovecraft eZine, Horror Library, Bizarro Pulp, Written Backwards, Dark Continents, Darkscribe, DarkFuse, Dark House, and many more.
www.johnpalisano.com and http://www.amazon.com/author/johnpalisano and www.facebook.com/johnpalisano and www.twitter.com/johnpalisano
DIRECT LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE
andwww.facebook.com/johnpalisano and www.twitter.com/johnpalisan
Recording Artist Fawn Releases Monster House Music Video for Halloween
By Debi Moore
October 14, 2016
As is typical for this time of year, our inboxes are overflowing with Halloween-themed goodies to share with you guys; and today we’re bringing you a new music video titled “Monster House” courtesy of recording artist Fawn, which is chock-full of celebrity cameos.
From the Press Release:
Stonedef Records, Inc., is pleased to announce that Billboard hit recording artist and singer-songwriter Fawn (also known as “Songirl”) has released the
second music video, “Monster House,” from her 2016 Halloween EP of the same name. Her first music video, “FrankEnstein,” has already begun being played in school classrooms in England as a tool to spread its “love one another as you already are” and subtle anti-bullying message.
“Monster House” is about a haunted house where all the spirits get to come out once a year on Halloween night and party. Inside the house a person may see the likes of Prince, Elvis, Whitney Houston, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Freddy Mercury, Dracula, Godzilla, Chuckie, Bigfoot, and many others. Any living person is able be invited and go to the monster house, but once they are inside, they can never leave. Celebrity cameos include Judy Tenuta, Kate Linder, Grae Drake, Johnny Venokur, Sham Ibrahim, and Brooke Lewis.
Fawn (official site here) said, “The song and the entire EP are good-hearted, fun songs that are perfect for Halloween parties and kids of all ages. They are in the vein of classics such as ‘Monster Mash,’ ‘Purple People Eater,’ and ‘Thriller.’ There just need to be more spooky, fun songs out there for Halloween so I decided to write some!”
Iconic actress Kate Linder added, “The album Monster House sounds like a bunch of amazing Disney Halloween songs – so well done and memorable.” When asked what made her get involved with the music video, Linder explained, “Let me tell you something… when Fawn asks you to do something, the only answer you want to give is yes.”
When groundbreaking comedian Judy Tenuta was asked what brought her to the “Monster House” music video, she said in her beloved comedic style, “Fawn told me to do it!”
Film critic and Rotten Tomatoes senior editor Grae Drake expressed, “Halloween is so fun, and Fawn’s music embodies fun!” while Scream Queen Brooke Lewis said, “Fawn and I met years ago, and I’ve always thought she was amazing and talented so when she called me, I of course said yes! I am always motivated by her; she rocks.”
Johnny Venokur stated, “Fawn is a great friend; I love Halloween, and I love Fawn. She’s an amazing singer and artist so when she gives me a call, I’m there in a flash.”
Sham Ibrahim said, “I always ran into Fawn at events, and she was so gorgeous and sweet. This was before I was anybody or anything. I was such a fan of hers; I used to watch her on Logo and VH1 so to be in a music video with Fawn is a dream come true. I’m very honored and grateful and was shocked when she called me! I love the song; it’s super cute and fun, and I love Fawn!”
Other cast members in the music video include Cher Rue, Christine Jace, Mr. Outrageous, TheTru Story, Leo Palisano, and John Palisano.
To hear Fawn’s Monster House Halloween EP and other songs, be sure to visit iTunes or Amazon. If you dig it, stop by her YouTube page later today (Friday, October 14th) at 4PM PT to watch her third Halloween music video from the EP, “The Headless Horseman.”