R.I.P -- They Walk By Night Productions

They Walk By Night Productions was a collaborative effort between myself and make-up fx/costume designer Morgue Anne. It was started on April Fools Day, 2007 and officially ended on Valentine's Day, 2009.

They Walk By Night was started by chance. April Fool's Day, 2007 I was working on a film shoot in Manhattan. My sister told me to come to Morgue Anne's house in Astoria after the shoot to hang out. They were going to dress up like zombies and run around the neighborhood. I had met Morgue Anne a few times before. She was a good friend of my sister from their years at FIT together. She had helped me with some graphic work before. We had never really hung out though. A friend and I headed to her house that night.

We all met and the process of transforming into zombies began. As things went on, I kept getting ideas in my head. Camera in hand, I pulled people into the hall or bathroom and setup little scenarios to photograph. We grabbed whatever "props" from around the apartment that we could use. I kept thinking, "if we had some lights and some good props and did some planning we could really make some interesting stuff with this." We spent the rest of the night snapping photos. We never really made it out to the neighborhood except to catch the train back to Jersey.

The next morning, I called Morgue Anne and pitched the idea of starting a company in which we would dress up people in horror-esque scenarios and photograph them for charge. Something like the Old Time photo huts on the boardwalk, except with a much darker tone. We would combine our respective skills to specialize in high quality photography focusing on high production value and interesting concepts. Classic horror motifs as well as elements of pin-up, vintage hollywood, film noir and crime scene photography would be utilized. We decided on the name They Walk By Night, inspired by the 1948 film noir, He Walked By Night. Brainstorm sessions that lasted well into the morning hours and the obvious reference to zombies, made They Walk By Night the perfect moniker for us.

Immediately, Morgue Anne pitched a great concept for a prospective photo shoot. A fascination with the lyrics to Chris De Burgh's 1986 hit "Lady In Red," would provide the inspiration. Together, we worked out an idea that focused on our own Lady In Red, a enticing zombie babe and her efforts to seduce an uncooperative date. The set would start with Lady primping in the mirror, then serving dinner to her guest, attempting to seduce him and eventually end with killing him out of frustration.

It was decided a test shoot would be appropriate to see how our style's meshed and prep lighting scenarios and framing for the Lady In Red shoot. We wrangled together three models, two of which flaked the day of the shoot. The only one that did show, came the furthest. Morgue Anne's friend Sin D Vicious arrived ready to work after a 3 hour train ride up from Point Pleasant, NJ - our first They Walk By Nighter. We got things underway, Morgue Anne modeled as well and we ended up with some interesting stuff. Less fx heavy than our later shoots, the shoot focused around an amazing "dark heart" mural Morgue Anne had painted in her bedroom. Soon after, I coined the tagline "Dark Art For The Dark Heart." The results of that session can only be described as "high fashion horror." We asked Sin D if she would be our Lady In Red, she accepted and we set about preparing for our first concept shoot.

Lady In Red

We enlisted the help of my friend and talented illustrator Tim Fernandez. He drew up some storyboards for Lady In Red to help pre-visualize the framing and composition I envisioned for the set. Morgue Anne got to work creating the dress and lingerie for the shoot, all hand made from scratch. Early on it was decided that each shoot would have specific color scheme. A muted olive green tone would establish the mood for the set as well as accentuate the red dress and white lingerie of Lady In Red. Lighting would be high contrast, with deep shadows. A straw colored gel was used to alter skin tones further.

Meanwhile, the search was on for our male victim. Morgue Anne met Ace at a show in NYC. The line "So do you like zombies?" was thrown out there and the latest addition to the They Walk By Night brood was made. A few days later a test shoot was setup at my house in Jersey. Completely off the cuff, we quickly setup some lights and made up Ace in some zombie gear. With no real concept, it was more of an effort to see how he tested on camera and if our personalities clicked. It was clear from the beginning that Ace was a natural. With no formal modeling or acting experience, he instinctively knew how to portray a character and the mechanics of modeling for the camera. Ace was soon locked as our male victim for Lady In Red. One selection from this session and featured selections from the first test shoot would go on to form the gallery "Sex, Brains, and Rock &Roll," a phrase coined by Morgue Anne.

With a shoot budget of about $500 (including food and transportation) we set out looking for props. We found the serving tray, knives, forks, chalices and Ace's wardrobe at a Salvation Army. The speckled blue plates came from Pier One, the curtains and tablecloth from a discount store and Morgue Anne crafted a fake brain and liver to round everything out. I fashioned the "dinner table" out of a circle cut piece of cardboard and some milkcrates. Morgue Anne pulled an old mattress from her building's basement for the bedroom scene.

We did the shoot at Morgue Anne's place in Astoria over the Memorial Day weekend of 2007. We started Friday night at about 9pm and shot until 5am. A bottle of whiskey was smuggled onto the set despite Morgue Anne's strict "no alcohol" policy. As Sin D's make-up was applied, Ace proceeded to drink himself to sleep before even the first shot. With Ace awoken, we went to work shooting the set in sequential order as we only had one of each costume and therefore no opportunity for re-takes after the blood had been spilt so to speak.

The next afternoon we all grabbed some breakfast at the Neptune Diner and got back to work around 5pm. The mysterious whiskey bottle made a return appearance, establishing the tradition of every TWBN shoot of being just one bad decision away from turning into a porno shoot. With every thing we needed in the can, we wrapped at about 4am. Though certainly not the easiest shoot ever, it was definitely not the hardest and that is in no small part due to our excellent models. More than models though, it was not uncommon to see Ace setting up a light or Sin D adjusting props on set. From the very beginning we knew we didn't want our models to just be people brought in for the shoot, we wanted people who shared the same enthusiasm and passion for the project. We got that with both Sin D and Ace.

Overall, the Lady in Red shoot produced stunning results. The shot of Sin D in the doorway is one of my favorite images I've ever shot. It's beautiful, everything in the shot - composition, lighting, makeup, costume, photoshop effects by Morgue Anne - all come together perfectly. The expression on Ace's face as Sin D enters the room with dinner is fantastic. There are some hiccups - I didn't get the depth I was shooting for in the dinner table shot. But it all ends in a terrific explosion of gore. We had so many options to pick from (some of which are featured in the outtakes gallery) for the gore shots, it was hard to select the final one. With the success of Lady In Red we set sights for our next shoot.

Hard Love

From the beginning it was agreed that each shoot would change style. If we shot a zombie or monster set the next set would be film noir, pin-up, or glamour and vice versa. I have always been a fan of pin-up photography. When I was younger, my dad had a Time Life book on the Vietnam War. Two images from that book have been burned into my memory since the first time I saw them. The first was a water color painting depicting one infantry soldier's "thousand yard stare." The second image was a voluptuous model, bare back to the camera and opening an old fashioned hat box. Hard Love was TWBN's first take on the genre, and in all honesty missed the mark. Lack of a solid concept on my part was most likely the cause. While Lady In Red had been conceived as a series of choreographed images to tell a story, I went into Hard Love without a solid plan. I didn't want to be as locked into what needed to be shot. It was an experiment in improvisation. While I do think we got some good images out of the shoot, aside from the pin-up doll crying on the edge of the bed, it never really captured the darkness and depravity of the film noir style I hoped to portray.

Lady In Red's color scheme was decidedly a desaturated tone. In contrast, I wanted Hard Love to have an over-saturated look, thus the reddish-pink color scheme. Modeling for us was fellow photographer, Erika Mann. I had only discussed the idea with her in a general fashion previously, but she agreed to do the shoot immediately. She took it upon herself to handle make-up and costuming and showed up on set looking like she had stepped out of a 1940's movie. Everything from the hairstyle to fishnet stockings fit the part perfectly.

We had some props for the shoot, an old fashioned lamp, telephone and radio. Halfway through the shoot and a couple of glasses of wine Erika demanded to have a male co-model to pose with. I called up my friend Rudy to invite him to help out. He declined, as he was at the bar and chose to stay there instead, a choice he would later regret after seeing the photos from the shoot. Ace was given a call and he was on set not a half hour later, participating in his now third shoot with us. We wrapped about 3am and headed to the diner for a nightcap.

The Feast

The idea for the Feast was conceived shortly after the Hard Love shoot and would prove to be our most ambitious endeavor yet. I had thought of the image as a centerfold of a book. While
certainly not the most original concept, I knew that our execution of the concept would make it definitive over other artist's versions. Inspired by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the original concept featured a family of zombies feasting on an unfortunate female victim. Two adult zombies, one teenage zombie and a toddler zombie would be featured around a large dining room table with one seat left open. Why one seat left open? I don't know, it just felt creepy.

Unable to find a parent willing to have their young child dressed up as a flesh eating zombie, the concept evolved into a group of four male zombies devouring one female victim, a waitress. The obvious sexual undertones and tongue in cheek reference to the "server being served for dinner," brought a certain level of subtext to the imagery. I specifically saw the whole scene with a mucous like yellow hue to it. There's a certain disgusting yellow film that develops on the belongings of life long smokers. I first experienced it in my youth, sifting through bins of old 45s at record shows. I wanted to capture the smell and feel of that in a visual sense. I also wanted the scene to have a documented feel to it, the lighting coming off one practical source within the frame.

Morgue Anne set to work crafting a cavalcade of prosthetic appliances to give each zombie's decay it's own distinct personality. The waitress would feature the most demanding gore effect, a disembowled stomach with complete entrails. Pre-production was started the second week of July, with a shoot date of August 25th set. The set would be shot on my living room table in Wayne, NJ. A budget of about $900 was allotted. I told my mom it might be a good time to visit a friend for the weekend.

Props were procured from a number of different sources. The gold table cloth was selected for not only it's color but for the texture the embroidered pattern offered. The brown curtains were from Linen's & Things and were returned to the store following the shoot. For some reason, quite a few stores began to carry Halloween merchandise in August. We made one huge score at Big Lots. We grabbed about six lifesize plaster cast human skulls and a complete foamcore human skeleton. The skulls were used as set dressing and can be seen stuffed into the top of the cabinet frame right. These were also returned following the end of the shoot. The foam skeleton was dismantled and repainted by Morgue Anne with some pieces outfitted with some additional gore. Most of the costumes were found at the Salvation Army expect for the waitresses' uniform which was partially the models own clothes and partially altered by us.

Lighting was generally simple. The overhead chandelier on a dimmer was used as the key, a fill was placed camera left and kicker at about the 10 o'clock position, camera left.

The cast featured Lizzy Daggers as the waitress and Ace, Rudy, Lou & illustrator Tim Fernandez as the zombies. Makeup began at 3pm, shooting commenced about 8pm, and we wrapped at about 3am.

The Feast was a by far our most challenging shoot and I think it's safe to say we met the challenge.

The End of They Walk By Night Productions

The months after the Feast held a tumultous move to Brooklyn for me. Around May of 2008, with things on my end back in order, we moved into the next phase of TWBN.

For various reasons, plans for TWBN merchandise, a clothing line, and short film collaboration would never come to fruition. It was clear it was time to close up shop.

Looking back, I'm amazed by how much we accomplished in such a short period of time. In really just a few months we had established a visual style second to none and created body of work that will hold up for years to come.

The work that we accomplished and the art that we produced together is something I will forever be proud of.

To everyone who ever sent a message, left a comment, or told a friend, thank you. You're support kept it going as long as it did.

-- Lobo

You can check out all the They Walk By Night stuff as well as some behind the scene & outtake pics here.