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As a teenager I was a cook at a local seafood restaurant back in Florida. Through all the thousands of pounds of 'gator tail I cooked back then I never thought I'd later in life be called on to provide 10+ feet of dismembered alligator tail! Here for SyFy's Cajun RedNeck Gators [2012] is my "tale". If I remember it correctly this was one of those desperate Friday or Saturday night emails from the producer's office needing this 10+ feet of flexible dismembered alligator's tail on set the next week by Wednesday or Thursday or something like that. Whatever the particulars, I know it was something like 5 days from contract to completion. We were able to fabricate the model, mold it, run the copy and have it painted, shipped and on set one day early☺. Man, what a pressure cooker those days were. Especially since I was still in the process of finishing the GhostShark animatronic which it & us were due in Louisiana on set the very next week for filming it! This was I believe just the next month after I returned from Jawsfest 2012. Those were some SERIOUSLY Fun times!☺
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It just never gets old for me. Every time I open up one of these production molds out comes another perfect shark casting. And boy, do I mean perfect. Seams that can practically be rubbed off with your finger nail kind of perfect! These are not those crappy one-copy plaster molds that you see from how-to videos or the product of some fevered rush given some poor pressured contestant on a reality show. These are premium production molds. Everything about them crafted to last hundreds of copies.
Spared no expense, as the saying goes. And the care doesn’t end with the molds but extends into each casting. Multiple layers of varied premium resins and materials. Sort of like a dollar bill with varied materials used together to make the shark last the tests of shipping and ravages of time. I honestly don’t know how many sharks we shipped last year, but we only had one shipping damage. One out of many hundreds. But from every shark and every unexpected result such as that one shipping damage we learn. Now our sharks ship with even another layer of material embedded in them to make them stronger than ever before. Stronger than any foreign-made polystone knick-knack, and stronger than most fiberglass taxidermies! But the reason for this article is that we still receive great satisfaction from what we do. From cracking a mold open and seeing yet another perfect casting, to that overjoyed customer writing us and posting photos of them and their new prize of their shark collections. Just never gets old. We have quite a bit in store for the shark lover this year. A few hopeful movie deals being discussed, some long overdue sequel sharks to release and maybe a surprise along the way... you never know around here. We hope that this family and especially this fun fan community never gets old for you either. Be safe out there everyone, and try to live this week like it’s truly something special.. Mike Hi Everyone!
It is definitely a busy time of year for all, and we want to stop and take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We hope that you all will have a happy and healthy 2014! Exciting things are coming folks! More movies ... more new releases ... continuing collection sets .... and much, much more! We also want to say a big "Thank You!" to all of you that have sent cards and email greetings to us. We will answer each one as soon as possible. They have been so uplifting and such a blessing to every one of us here! It sure has been a great year full of really fun times and making all kinds of new friends. These are certainly trying times for our country and for many struggling to survive, but it has really helped us to see so many good people pulling together and encouraging each other. I have seen a lot of friends on Facebook finding themselves in difficult situations also being encouraged and helped by others all year. It does my heart good to see people caring for each other like this. It helps offset all the bad news that "The News" can only report. Just to find the good, you really have to be looking for it. I guess what I am saying is that I just hope that each of you is able to focus also on the daily good things. The media's job seems restricted to keeping people stressed out and apparently some politicians seem to live for this also, but you either decide to let them devour you or you decide to smell the roses along the way. I vote for you all to sniff more roses in 2014. And maybe, just maybe if we are all really-very lucky then maybe things will smell more like roses next year than what they smelled like much of this year.... The Schultz family wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a SAFE New Year celebration. See you all in a year! All our best to you and yours! The Schultz Family Mike, Cathy, Stef, Jake, Samuel, Rachael ... and our furry kids Trippy, Jackie, and Tater Hi All!
We just posted a teaser trailer on SCO's Home page for a sneak peek at our latest movie on the SyFy Channel! This beast was a challenge, but we thrive on a good challenge around here! We are not sure how much of our Beast will end up on the cutting room floor but it was an incredible experience all the way through! For this blog update I thought it would be fun to post some forgotten photos that I just found on my cell phone photo archive. * First we have a "selfi" of me in my shop working on the Ghost Shark Hero Animatronic that we built and operated for Active Entertainment’s film "Ghost Shark" for the SyFy channel. Being located in Missouri is no hindrance for providing FX for Hollywood in today’s high-tech world. For all these films that we work on everyone is kept in the loop electronically as if their offices were just down the hall from our workshops. Via Smartphone, Skype, Facetime etc. directors, producers, investors and other contracted FX artists have current and instant access to us. This makes the constant changes always being made possible.  * The Eyes of Ghost Shark. Yes, they rolled back white. One was removable for the arrow wound and the socket modeled for such and blood tubing piped in. Most of the gore for the shark himself never made it into the final cut or was printed so transparent that it was invisible. Kind of frustrating. Now I know how actors must feel to have their work cut or out of frame etc... sigh.  * Another thing having to do with an eye, or lack thereof. Ben Gardner’s Head. This was one of Greg Nicotero’s contributions to Jawsfest 2012. One of several life-sized displays that he provided out of his own pocket just because he is such a fun Jaws fan himself - and a great guy to boot! He made this event truly memorable for all of us. There should be an award for someone like him that goes out of his way for fans like he does. It is one of many things that makes him so beloved in many a fan community.  * The Chest Burster sculpt for SyFy’s upcoming Bering Sea Beast film. We were contracted to make several small chest-bursters and one 9-foot long adult Sea Beast. Timing was horrid on this feature. We were contacted to build these beasts 11 days before shooting started with no design settled on. We spent 3 of those days, night and day, submitting creature designs to some very busy execs for approval to build. This process is best summed up and most politely described as trying to balance wet noodles vertically on end while juggling a Thesaurus's while tap dancing and smiling as if you are not out of breath or patience at all, because it is all so fun and so exciting to be a part of.  After 42 sketches one of our very first designs from 3 days earlier was finally approved and we spent the remaining 8 days, once again night and day, sculpting-molding-casting-articulating-painting and finishing the adult and baby beasts. We are still unsure at this point how much of the Beasts will remain our work and how much will be supplanted with CGI. Viva-La` Practical FX!
How’s this for a fun little blog update? Mike & Cathy SCO |
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