The Hookah Scepter (Patreon)

Sometimes it's really fun to go overboard with a random background thing- in this case we're making a weird kinda cult group that wanders by in the background.

I recently got a ton of cool props and assets from 'Prospect' (a really rad indie sci-fi I got to VFX supervise a couple years ago- I'm going to make a post about it later!)- like 25 boxes worth. So we're implementing a bunch of the costumes to make The Prospectors, which is just a shambling hookah-and-presumably-prospecting-obsessed cult.

We wanted the lead guy to have a kinda hookah walking staff thing, so Nate and I got a closet rod and started attaching stuff. 

The hardest thing with things like this is making stuff look designed, as opposed to just "a bunch of random stuff attached to a stick". And honestly the first attempt wasn't particularly strong; mostly a bunch of stuff attached in a row, but we kept working the silhouette, and I'm pretty happy with it (big cables are great for defining silhouettes and keeping them interesting). 

The second hardest part of stuff like this (and the thing I always forget), is that getting the objects is only half the battle. You have two things and want to attach them together, how do you DO that without using, like, lost of tape? 

I usually use (too many) zip ties. They're just quick, dependable, and surprisingly strong- but a lot of times we use wood glue, screws, and- errrr- that stuff where you plunge out the two chemicals at once (I'm really tired right now- only slept 5 hours last night and it's 1am now- but I kind of liked updating this thing daily (at least for now), so... words are gone. A lil' bit). 

There we go! That's a decent silhouette, I think. 

Also we rejuvenated the gravel a little bit too. I've gotta re-gravel the drive way; it's basically mud :/ 

Also made a tiny extension cable to snake into the vending machine in case we want to add additional LED lighting (or integrate a monitor into the front face... we'll see! That'd be rad.)

Nate made a foam core moon for the top- it looks crazy good (he's great with that stuff). 

We've still got to paint the top bit (and add specific paint details to the base, all the soft paint makes it look particularly spray-painty (also I really want to darken the entire thing a bit))- but  I think it's off to an alright start! I'll post the final thing tomorrow.

We'll be filming the scene with it tomorrow- we'll see how it goes! Should be a fun day. 

Also the scepter doubles as a deer elimination ray. 

AH! Epoxy. 

Sleep now.