{"id":3540,"date":"2012-03-14T01:25:01","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T05:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/?p=3540"},"modified":"2012-03-14T01:54:26","modified_gmt":"2012-03-14T05:54:26","slug":"transmissions-monster-man-cast-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/?p=3540","title":{"rendered":"Transmissions: Monster Man Cast Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in October, Syfy held a press event in Orlando, Florida. During the event the\"\"<\/a> attending press was introduced to cast members from several Syfy shows including the brand new, Monster Man.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Monster Man is a behind the scenes look at Cleve Hall monster maker extraordinaire whose credits include movies and music videos. Cleve is joined on the show by his daughter Constance making this a true family business. The following interview gives you a glimpse at what is sure to be a fascinating look at the world of creature creation. Read the interview and don\u2019t forget to check out the show Wednesday night at 10pm. Only on Syfy!<\/p>\n

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MARK STERN:\u00a0 Our next panel is definitely going to wake you up,\u00a0 “Monster Man.”\u00a0 So we continue our role of reality series.\u00a0 This is really quite — there’s no question this is a unique one. It’s scheduled to premier in March of 2012.\u00a0 I don’t think that’s\u00a0actually news.\u00a0 So I won’t do anything about that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Telephone app plays the sound of a cow.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0When studios want a bizarre creature — I’m sorry.\u00a0 I’m having\u00a0too much fun with this.\u00a0 You don’t have to indulge me.\u00a0 I guess\u00a0you don’t have a choice.\u00a0 When studios want a bizarre creature out of this world, an alien, they turn to Cleve Hall.\u00a0 And “Monster Man” is this out-of-the-box docuseries the father, Cleve, has worked up in this very unconventional family, many of\u00a0whom work within — in his workshop, including his daughters, Constance and Elora — Constance is here with us — his ex-wife, Sonja.\u00a0 And he also works with his business partner, Roy Knyrim, who is also with us today, Johnny Saiko, and the office manager,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cindy Miller. \u00a0So this is definitely a show we are very excited about.\u00a0 I think it’s going to fit really beautifully with the other things we are\u00a0doing.\u00a0 In particular, it’s kind of a horror look at makeup effects in the way that “Face Off” is kind of playing in that space as well in a very different space.\u00a0 So we are very excited about that.\u00a0 Please welcome Cleve Hall, Constance, Hall, and Roy Knyrim.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 (Applause.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0MARK STERN:\u00a0 Come on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 How are you doing?<\/p>\n

\u00a0MARK STERN:\u00a0 Good.\u00a0 How are you?<\/p>\n

\u00a0CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Good to see you.<\/p>\n

\u00a0CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Hey.<\/p>\n

\u00a0MARK STERN:\u00a0 Hey.\u00a0 How are you?<\/p>\n

\u00a0ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Hi.<\/p>\n

\u00a0MARK STERN:\u00a0 Have a seat.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 I almost wore that today.\u00a0 So I’m really glad that I didn’t.\u00a0 I went another way.\u00a0 So welcome, you guys. Thank you.\u00a0 How are you doing?<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Your contacts are freaking me out right now. (Cleve was wearing red contacts)\u00a0<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Freaking you out?<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Thanks so much for doing that.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 At least you recognize that they are contacts.\u00a0 Some people are like, “Are those your eyes?”\u00a0 And I’m like, “Yeah, devil eyes.”<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 I called him earlier.\u00a0 I said, “Your eyes are a little red today, Bro.”<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 You’ll see these later.\u00a0 Let’s cook something.\u00a0 So we actually have some footage.\u00a0 You guys are in the middle of shooting the show now.\u00a0 So some of this is — actually, most of this is stuff that the marketing guys have done because they are still in the midst, but I will tell you that what we are seeing is really, really amazing.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 This is just the big half of it.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Check it out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Clip shown.)<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 So that’s, like, just a various glimpse right there.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 I know.\u00a0 That’s pretty — catches it pretty much right there.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 So please tell us.\u00a0 Where did this series come from?\u00a0And where did the idea for this series start?<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Well, I’ve always been a firm believer of being in the right place at the right time.\u00a0 Roy called me at midnight one night, and production needed the back of a huge whale for a shoot for a reality show about animals that attack.\u00a0 So I’m like, “Okay.”\u00a0 I’m out at a nightclub, and so, about 2:30, the club closes.\u00a0 I went back to the shop and made it.\u00a0 6:30 rolls around and I tried to put it in my hearse, and I can’t fit it in my hearse.\u00a0 So I strapped it to the top of the hearse.\u00a0 And I get out, makeup smeared, and I’m covered in latex.\u00a0 And I said, “Who is this?”\u00a0 And they just thought that was hilarious.\u00a0 They said, “We are doing a reality show about you.”\u00a0 And I’m like, “Yeah, right.”\u00a0 And they did.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Yeah, that’s not usually how those reality shows start.\u00a0 I know.\u00a0 And I think what’s amazing about this is, you know, obviously, this is a real workshop.\u00a0 Your\u00a0 relationship with your family is fascinating to watch.\u00a0 Also, I think what’s really great, just watching the footages, you know, you are a fabricator in your own right.\u00a0 There’s a really\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 interesting dynamic with you and your dad that, you know —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 She’s been working with me since she was 13.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Ten years.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Ten years now.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 And there’s this great — I think what’s really relatable is that fact that you have your own way of doing things there’s.\u00a0 This real push and pull.\u00a0 Talk about that a little bit.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Sometimes we get along and, you know, like, work perfectly, you know, like a well-oiled machine, and sometimes we don’t.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s a little more difficult, you know.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Like, I get really, really focused on creating these\u00a0 things, and a lot of it I do in my head, build in my head.\u00a0 And I’m staring at the foam and stuff, and she’s just like, “Come on.”\u00a0 I have my way of doing it, and then she starts to work on\u00a0it.\u00a0 And I say, “Don’t do that.\u00a0 That’s not the way I want it. Yeah, Whoo.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 And does she surprise you?\u00a0 I mean, are there things\u00a0\u00a0that suddenly come out?<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Actually, she does some of the things that when I don’t — when I don’t do the project, I run — like, totally stay away from making it and she does it herself, it’s\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 awesome, you know.\u00a0 If she’s working with me, sometimes then she’ll rely on my skills and stuff to kind of to show her what to do.\u00a0 But if I just pretended to die or something and she was left on the run, then she does a great job.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 We just have different ways of doing things. I’m all about trying new things, and he’s all about keeping it —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 I sent her, actually, to a really good makeup school to, like, learn a lot of new stuff, materials and stuff that are out there.\u00a0 It turned out some of the teachers — Guy Psycho was one of the teachers at the school, and I was in there going, “Her dad taught me how to make molds.”\u00a0 She’s was like —<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 I was just trying to skate through without anybody knowing it.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 He ask if her daughter was in there.\u00a0 It was like, “Okay.\u00a0 I blew that one.”<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 And, Roy, where are you in this whole mix?<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Well, I own and operate SOTA F\/X.\u00a0 Cleve and I have been pals for, like, 20 years.\u00a0 She’s been my head designer\/fabricator for probably, like, 10 now?<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Ten years.\u00a0 And it’s kind of all in the family. It’s just been a long, crazy run.\u00a0 He started bringing Sonja and Constance, his own daughter, around.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 I have my team that I use, which is basically of my family and Johnny, and it’s like, you know, we come in.\u00a0 And he gets these great jobs because a lot of this stuff is with bands.\u00a0 I was working for —<\/p>\n

\u00a0ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

\u00a0CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 — KISS and Alice Cooper and Devo.\u00a0 So it was like, you know, I come in to him, and he’s like — he’ll come to me first with stuff, and I’ll be, like, “Yes, let’s do this,”\u00a0because I love the jobs he gets.\u00a0 It’s a lot more fun than doing big food for Snapple, big fruit, you know.\u00a0 That was what I used to do.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Although we love Snapple.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 I mean, we are very fortunate.\u00a0 I mean, about\u00a0 12 years ago, when digital started taking over for a lot of things, so I made a really conscious effort to try to do a lot of\"\"<\/a> live-production stuff.\u00a0 So I started working with bands like Alice Cooper and Devo and The Insane Club posse, and we’d get to\u00a0\u00a0 do touring sets.\u00a0 So a lot of monsters we do are for live stage shows, which is great because all of us kind of have a theatrical background.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 And a rock ‘n roll background because my first album\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 was Alice Cooper and building a lot of sharkies (ph).\u00a0 And, you know, when I say the cyclops and everything, that’s iconic to me.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Last year we got to —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 We got to rebuild it.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 We rebuilt Alice Cooper’s cyclops from his 1975 tour.\u00a0 For Cleve and I, it was dream.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 And, suddenly, it was like KISS doing a Gene Simmons drum roll.\u00a0 It was like, this is amazing.\u00a0 This is stuff from when I was in high school and everything as a rock ‘n roll kid.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 I mean, doing the ghoul monsters and everything just — a lot of low-budget clips and films have come through there, and we get to do all kinds of creatures.Everything you see on the shows is perfect.\u00a0 Actual films, you come through, you know.\u00a0 It’s like —<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Well, what’s great is we are a very working-class shop.\u00a0 We are always busy.\u00a0 We don’t — every once in a while, maybe every year or two, we will do one pretty-big-budget show,but we do a lot of lower- to medium-budget shows.\u00a0 Consequently, we have to do a lot of them at the same time.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yes, on top of each other.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 So there’s monster after monster after monster that comes through the stop.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 It’s crazy.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 And do you feel like there’s this sense of it is a dying art with digital and CG?<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 For sure.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 We are survivors.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 And it’s interesting that you are kind of passing this on now to your daughters as well.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 You know, I don’t think it’s going to die.\u00a0 I hope it doesn’t die.\u00a0 There’s always room for it.\u00a0 I think CG is — you know, it’s a good compliment to the physical effects.\u00a0 It\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 shouldn’t replace them.\u00a0 And to them, for those new CGs, it takes out the “how did they do that” aspect of special effects because I grew up with Ray Harryhausen, and those films just — those gripping scenes, these amazing effects, it’s like now you know how they were done.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 We’ve been doing a lot of stuff for Syfy original movies.\u00a0 We did “Swamp Shark” —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 We have.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 — “Monster Wolf” —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 We just did “Naked Spider.”<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 — “naked Spider.”\u00a0 And what’s been great is we’ve\u00a0 been doing a lot of practical stuff augmented digitally.\u00a0 And I think the actors really like this because they have something there that they can work with, and then, later on, they go, and they augment it to make it better imposed.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 And also, for some of these directors, if you bring in something that is a physical effects and you show them, “Hey, \"\"<\/a>you don’t have to shoot this digitally.\u00a0 You can do this on set with this thing.”\u00a0 Actors love working with it.\u00a0 You bring in cool things — Tony Randall was awesome because he’s — these older school directors who work with physical effects, they are the ones — they really want it.\u00a0 Some of these newer guys who have never done physical effects are kind of stared of them.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 It used to be the rule was when he first filmed, never work with children and animals.\u00a0 Now it’s children animals and physical effects.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Interesting.\u00a0 Why don’t we — why don’t we open up the floor.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:\u00a0 Hey there.\u00a0 You mentioned Ray Harryhausen, and there’s a lot of guys out there in the past that have done some amazing work.\u00a0 But, for you, who really, like, set the bar?\u00a0 What is the — let’s say this:\u00a0 Who created the creature that, for you, is like the Mona Lisa, the thing you always inspire for?\u00a0 Like, what is that?<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Eiji Tsuburaya created Godzilla in 1954, and that was like — that was the iconic creature to me.\u00a0 My mother loved monster movies.\u00a0 I hated baby-sitters.\u00a0 So she was taking me to movies when I was one year old.\u00a0 I saw “Mothra” and “Gorgo,” but\u00a0when I saw Godzilla versus the thing in, like, ’65 and that was Godzilla fighting the giant Mothra, it was like, from that moment on, I knew who I wanted to be.\u00a0 I wanted to be Godzilla.\u00a0 And I\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 finally got to be Godzilla because I did Huey’s big adventure and I got to play Godzilla in that.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:\u00a0 That was you?<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 That’s me.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:\u00a0 Awesome.\u00a0 And, Constance, what are you aspiring for? Like, what’s your ultimate creature?<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Honestly, I’ve already done, like, a lot of dream jobs, as it were, like geeks and stuff.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 You are very fortunate.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 But it’s like, what I’m inspired by, those kinds of creatures, classic universal monsters, I love, you know, the creature from the black lagoon, Freddy Frankenstein, and, I mean, that’s kind of what I’m into, you know, like –yeah.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 The old-school monsters because, you know, monsters from the ’70s when it turned into slasher films, it’s just not the same.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 I’m not a big —<\/p>\n

\u00a0ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Well, except for — I mean, the pinnacle of makeup effects, I think, was\"\"<\/a> 1982, with “The Thing” —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 — John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”\u00a0 That’s never been surpassed, and there’s not one digital optical effect in those creatures.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 It’s unbelievable.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:\u00a0 Over here.\u00a0 Our audience is really excited for the show, and we’ve kind of been pulling through the helipoint that\u00a0you just did a couple weeks ago.\u00a0 But I just wondered if you could talk about, what’s the premise going to be?\u00a0 Are you going to do kind of like one movie or one effect per episode, or how does it work out?<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Well, the structure right now I believe the show is going to follow is that we have one A build, we call it, one main creature that we are working on, and then there’s usually a B build, which is another project we are doing at the same time. And that’s like, you know — the only thing that lacks realism there is there’s actually three projects going on at once.\u00a0 Yes, it has us losing our minds and ripping our hair out, trying to\u00a0get everything done by the deadlines, but the show will focus on one main creature and then a secondary project going on at the\u00a0 same time.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 And the way we work, there’s literally someone at our shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 We never go home.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 There’s no way we would ever get the things done in\u00a0 the time schedules that we get.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 They send in cat food at times so that they can feed\u00a0 themselves.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 I will say that it’s been very interesting shooting this show, at least from what I’ve heard, as if I’m standing on set with you guys, that so much happens in your head that getting it out on paper —<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 — to see your process has been a very interesting experience.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 It’s really different for me because I am very much — I do build things in my head.\u00a0 I’ll stare at foam for two hours and build it in my head.\u00a0 And working on a reality \"\"<\/a>show, that doesn’t make for good television.\u00a0 They want me to explain what I’m doing.\u00a0 So I’m like, “Help.”\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 The first three days, I locked myself in my room, and then I finally came out and was like, “Okay.\u00a0 I can do this,” and it was awesome.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Was that — Constance, was that like wish fulfillment for you?\u00a0 Like, finally, he gets to have to put it on paper?<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Well, he doesn’t even actually put things on paper as much as I do.\u00a0 Like, he just —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 She draws better than I do.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 You just kind of like — he’ll tell you what to do, like, “Oh, make this.\u00a0 Make that,” and it will be like,”Where is this going? until the very last moment.\u00a0 It all comes together.\u00a0 I like to draw things and try to, like, plan it out and have schematics or whatever.\u00a0 I just like to plan it and have it there.\u00a0 So —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 The reason for this being also — sometimes I don’t\u00a0 have a finished thing in my head.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 I have a visual idea in my head what I want, but I create as I go, and it’s not until the last 48 hours, okay.\u00a0 Bam. It suddenly hits me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 This is what I want.\u00a0 This is what I’m doing.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 And that’s not great to have a series of.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 That’s why I was having a hard time.\u00a0 He’s crawling across the floor, touching his chest.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 It’s like, “Hey, Cleve, Tony Randall wants to come\u00a0 over and see his creature.”<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 And I’m like, “Fine.”<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 It’s a pile of foam sitting on the table.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 He’s always seen something in his head that he couldn’t describe or draw.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 And he looked at my big pile of stuff and saw it, you know.\u00a0 He was awesome to work with.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 But the other thing, too, is that’s what’s magical about it is that you’ll see it go from a pile of foam on the table to a creature that’s in a movie, and that’s —<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Sometimes in the last 24 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 But for all of us that have been doing this — Cleve has been doing it for 30 years, and I’ve been doing it for almost 30 years.\u00a0 And to this day, that still magical for me to see this pile of stuff turn into a monster.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Because I will canoodle something until the last half an hour.\u00a0 For 24 hours, Constance and I are like this machine, four arms and it goes — and it always — we always make our deadlines.\u00a0 We always have it there.\u00a0 Sometimes you are an hour late, but it’s always there to shoot.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 It points to Roy for being so, you know, understanding and trusting.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 This guy doesn’t want to hear the truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 It’s probably like, “This suit needs to be done\u00a0 there’s nothing” — you’re like, “Oh, yeah.\u00a0 I just need to do this.”\u00a0 He’s like, “Okay.”<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 He’s running — you ask me anything, and you are going to get my answer.\u00a0 “How is it going?\u00a0 Awesome,” because I will never accept the fact that things aren’t going awesome.\u00a0 I know, in my head, it’s going to be done.\u00a0 I won’t accept the fact that it will not be done no matter how stressed I am.\u00a0 So — and he doesn’t want to hear the truth anyway.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 He just wants to hear that everything is awesome.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 It is awesome.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 That’s good.\u00a0 At least he has your back when it comes to talking to business people.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Which is why my -ex, Sonja, drives him insane because she’s like, “This will never going to be done.\u00a0 It will never be done.\u00a0 You might as well call him and tell him it’s\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 never going to be done.”\u00a0 And he’s, “Don’t say that.”<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 On Thursday, when we get back, I’m directing a music video for Devo, and Cleve is making creatures for it.\u00a0 And he’s in with the creature suits.\u00a0 And the stuff is almost done, but it’s not done.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 And Sonja, his ex-wife, is like, “It’s never going to get done.”\u00a0 It’s like, “Gees, don’t tell me that.”<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 He can’t handle that.\u00a0 Please don’t do this. You are killing me, Roy.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 All right.\u00a0 We are getting under Cleve tonight, then, apparently.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:\u00a0 What’s the craziest creature you’ve ever created in a while?<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 The what?<\/p>\n

QUESTION:\u00a0 Craziest, whackiest.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 The craziest creature you ever made.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Craziest?\u00a0 I think the craziest might actually be –oh, no, the terrorism monster would probably be craziest.\u00a0 Tony Randall’s thing was crazy in that that was, like, nothing, no design whatsoever, and we were just trying to pick each other’s minds as to what we were seeing because he had more of a feeling of horror that he wanted to convey but could not describe this biomechanical creature.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 We get — a lot of times the worst thing we want to hear is when a producer comes in and says, “I want to have a creature that’s never been seen before.”<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 And, usually, my answer is that “99.9 percent of the time that we’ve never seen this creature before is because it sucks.”<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 That’s a good point.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 So that’s the hardest thing for us.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 We’ve got one more — time for one more question.\u00a0 Michelle?<\/p>\n

QUESTION:\u00a0 Actually, I have a two-part question.\u00a0 The first question is who are your influences?\u00a0 And then the second question is how collaborative is the monster-making process with\u00a0the producer?\u00a0 Like, generally, what percentage of producers come in knowing exactly what they want the monster to look like, and then you push back and say, “No, no.\u00a0 That’s not really correct,” or do you just say, “Okay.\u00a0 If you want to have it with a hand,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 we’ll give it to you.”\u00a0 And then what percentage of producers come in who have no clue as to what that want?<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Well, the first part of your question, my influence is Eiji Tsuburaya, who created Godzilla, Jack Kevan, who did the “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and Rick Baker, “American Werewolf,” and stuff.\u00a0 He’s actually been a friend from like the ’70s.\u00a0 Those are my main influences and Ray Harryhausen because he did start out as an animator before he got into makeup.\u00a0 But that’s also bring a creature to life, just in a different style.\u00a0 As far as — what was the second half?<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Producers.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Oh, producers.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 It depends.\u00a0 Some actually are very incredible. Like, some are very insistent in, like, they know exactly what they want, and it cannot differ in any way from that design, whereas some are just, like, we want a werewolf-type thing and let you go for it.\u00a0 So it really depends.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 I would say it’s almost half-and-half.<\/p>\n

CONSTANCE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 It seems like more and more people now don’t have an idea when they come in because they try to do so much imposed.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 It seems the people that want to do their practical stuff have at least some kind of idea when they walk in.\u00a0 But when you work more of the old-school directors — Cleve ended up working for, like, Tony Randall, who did “Hellraiser II”; Shawn Cunningham, who\"\"<\/a> did “Friday The 13th”; Richard Elfman, who did “The Forbidden Zone” — they know what they want.\u00a0 Like, those kind of directors walk in, and they know almost exactly what they want.\u00a0 It’s kind of the newer people that don’t.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Yeah. \u00a0It’s like — because, I mean, I brought myself — when I nail a design, I nail it.\u00a0 If it’s a design that I feel is bad, I will try and convince them not to do it that way, maybe do something a little different.\u00a0 But if push comes to shove and I can’t convince them otherwise, then we do that creature.<\/p>\n

ROY KNYRIM:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 I mean, ultimately, what’s very hard for us and for Cleve is it’s commercial art.\u00a0 I mean, we are being hired\u00a0to build their vision, and we try to steer them in the direction of what we want to do, but ultimately, we have to build it.<\/p>\n

CLEVE HALL:\u00a0 Because we figure we have pretty good taste in monsters.<\/p>\n

MARK STERN:\u00a0 Yes, you do.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 With that, thank you, guys. They’ll be down here to chat with you.\u00a0 Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Applause.)<\/p>\n

Don’t forget to tune into Monster Man premiering this Wednesday at 10pm only on Syfy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in October, Syfy held a press event in Orlando, Florida. During the event the attending press was introduced to cast members from several Syfy shows including the brand new, Monster Man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1028,968,969,1021,14,1027,970,481,39],"class_list":["post-3540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transmissions","tag-behind-the-scenes","tag-cleve-hall","tag-constance-hall","tag-devo","tag-james","tag-mosnter-man","tag-movie-magic","tag-reality-show","tag-syfy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3540"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3562,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540\/revisions\/3562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}