A Day Working For Insane Clown Posse

I’ve been looking for a new job or internship lately, and I applied to one at a “sports and music” company. When I received an e-mail back from them, it still didn’t indicate what “sports and music” company this was, but thankfully I had the sender’s e-mail address, which was from an “@psychopathicrecords” account. After having to look them up and discovering they were the record label I.C.P. founded, I spent some time pondering whether or not to take this offer. I finally came to the decision to do it for the lulz.

I scheduled a meeting at the office, and a few days later arrived at a nondescript building in Farmington Hills. I walked in and was instantly greeted by life-sized portraits of Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope.

The video department walls were filled with photographs throughout the years of Juggalos excitedly celebrating their favorite clown-make-up-wearing, white rap group, including some of topless Down River girls from the ‘90s. The head of the video department soon put me to work ripping old I.C.P. videos off of YouTube, because none of the workers actually felt like going through their own video collection to legally get the videos they needed for the project they were working on.

They also gave me my first official assignment, which was to help with production of their “pay-per-view” Juggalo Championship Wrestling event. Until this moment, I had not realized Juggalos wrestling each other was a thing, but it seemed logical.

*****

I arrived at The Modern Exchange in Southgate, not really knowing what to expect, as I had previously assumed I.C.P. to be a thing popular when I was in 5th through 7th grade, and didn’t realize anyone cared about them anymore other than to make jokes about things being “fucking magic” and asking “magnets; how the fuck do those work?”

Staying on the Ball

The other day I made myself a project to motivate myself to make more projects.

Camera Dolly

Over the past several months, I've been slowly building a dolly for my camera based on one I saw being used on a shoot I was working on awhile back.

I first built the platform with scrap wood, including notches at the top to hold the tripod and some triangular pieces at the bottom for the wheels. I bought some skateboard wheels for about $15 from eBay and screwed them in with some large bolts and washers I picked up for a few bucks from Ace Hardware on Trumbull. I then took a long piece of PVC pipe my Dad had laying around in his basement and cut it in half.

Next I built two saw horses with lumber I bought new for about $10.

And finally, here it is in its fully-functioning form for about $30. The one I originally saw from Dana Dolly retails for almost $900.

Relief Carvings

Since my last line carving, I've been working on some simple relief carvings. So far they've all been Michigan-themed. I got all of the wood from The Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit so parts of the wood were faded looking or pre-chipped, which I like in some cases and not as much in others.

This is the first one I did. I ended up not really liking the lettering because a) I free-handed it, which was stupid and b) they're just too large. Either too large or I shouldn't have carved out the whole letter and just left an outline.

The water tower in Ypsilanti.

I added a bear to this one, but didn't end up liking the carving around the bear and thought it would look better just around the state, which I changed in the next one. Also, I gave the bear an ear, which shouldn't have happened.

The most recent one I did and also my favorite.

A Plush Whale

I have a niece coming soon, so I made her a plush whale. I hope she enjoys it.

Line Carving

I got a wood carving kit for Christmas and attempted my first beginner-level project, a line carving. For a line carving you basically just draw a picture on wood and then carve the outline. It's pretty simple, no three-dimensional stuff, but it got me familiar with some of the tools.

I took a scrap piece of wood I had laying around and went to work on a scene of musk oxen in the arctic tundra. Musk oxen are pretty rad dudes as they're a lot like bison, but they live in the tundra and get snow on them.

I obviously haven't added color yet, so the image is sort of hard to make out, but there is a way to get color in the grooves, so I'll be figuring out how to do that next.

Generation Why: A Damn Good Night

I recently shot some footage at a party and then slapped a trailer together using a new feature in iMovie that requires little effort and guarantees the cliche-est trailer possible. Some of the best stuff I couldn't fit in because the segments were longer than would make sense in a trailer. Maybe I'll find a use for them someday.

Either I don't know what I'm doing or Blogspot has an inability to embed videos without cutting off the ends, so here's a link: Generation Why: A Damn Good Night

Bison Bookend

I added a shelf on my wall a little while ago so I'd have a place to put the rest of my books, but I quickly realized I needed a bookend to actually keep those books up.

I got a couple pieces of scrap wood that I thought would make a good bookend from Arts and Scraps and just nailed them together. I then added a bison from Learning Express Toys in Ann Arbor just to make it rule a little harder.

The shelf was recycled from an earlier shelf I had in a closet in Chicago, having cut it in half for this, the wood was free for helping clean up from the car that ran into Arts and Scraps' building, and I got the bison at cost since I used to work at Learning Express Toys and still have an "in" with the manager. This made the total expense for shelf and bookend three dollars.

Holiday Blog

I started a blog for the holidays called People Taking Pictures of People at a Mall. I figured as long as I was stuck working in a mall this winter, I might as well start a blog about the obnoxious number of people taking pictures of their children in front of a mall holiday display. I will hopefully have a new photo each day until Christmas.

Production Shoot and Upcoming Projects

Last weekend I ventured out to Hartland, MI and worked as a production assistant on a Belle Tire commercial for Rare Medium Well Done, a production company based in Troy, MI. Despite having graduated over three years ago, it was the first time I was actually paid to work on a set.

There was not one time during the day when the back of the dolly didn't have snacks on it, including at one point a giant sausage the crew purchased themselves because they didn't think craft services had enough meat.

My duties on set included: holding a cable so the dolly didn't run it over, standing between the director and someone else and then repeating the director's commands more loudly so the someone else could hear them, putting tape over the make and model names on cars, strategically placing plants to cover up a sign, and taking dinner orders from the talent and crew. Overall, it was good experience, easy money, and I ate free food all day long. Also, this guy was there not doing anything other than enjoying the craft services.

He's that dude that talks to the tire. 

Otherwise, I've started a few projects, including a new script, a bookend, a top secret project, and probably something else I don't even remember starting right now.

In search of supplies for some of these projects I visited Arts and Scraps here in Detroit. Here's my favorite box from there:

Unfortunately, the contents were less exciting. It didn't even have mustaches inside.

What was exciting was the car that crashed through the building while I was there. It backed up through the building, shattering the window, knocking shelves and buckets of crafts all over the floor, and literally shifting the wall of the building. The driver came in after being told he had caused serious structural damage, looked at the obviously crooked wall, and said "I'm not an engineer or anything, but that looks pretty straight to me." They had to show him the door no longer could shut in the doorway to prove it to him. He then said, "Well, accidents do happen" and left. I didn't get any pictures as to not be a d-bag who takes pictures of an accident and then posts it on his blog, so I helped an old lady clean up crafts from the floor instead, thus degrading the quality of my blog, but making me less of a terrible human-being.

Anyways, got a little off track, but it was a great store with lots of cool stuff for super cheap. Go there and support them so they have money to fix their newly concaved wall.

New Bedroom

I recently moved into a house in Detroit and (mostly) have my room set up. Space was a big issue, but I managed to find some work-arounds. Since my bookshelf ended up being used mainly for office supplies, you'll find I have books in various places all around my room. I have one shelf to put up that will probably be mostly for books, as I still have some without a home.

The bed I built a couple of years ago, and though it takes up a decent amount of space and is extremely heavy to move, I refuse to part with it.

I bought a dresser from Salvation Army for $20 that was wide enough so I could also use it as a stand for my turtle.

Bar doubled as a night-stand.

I used my bookshelf to keep most of my office supplies on since I don't have a desk with storage.

Because I couldn't fit a desk in the room, I just bought a recycled piece of wood from The Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit and mounted it on the wall. The wood and brackets cost $2, the hardware and anchors to mount it properly were about $20.

Jamerson - Sunday Morning

Albeit not a real musician, this is technically my first stab at putting together a music video. I've been talking to Jim, a friend and local musician, for some time about doing a video for one of his real songs, but when he played me this and the ideas started flowing, we decided we'd use this as a sort of practice video.

It was fun just to shoot it, but I'd have to say I was most happy at finally having an excuse to use those slide, wipe, and iris transitions that are so wonderfully cheesy.

Exploring Detroit

In an awful limbo-mode this month both job and living situation-wise. Waiting for paper work to get processed for my job transfer is taking longer than I thought and trying to find an apartment that is affordable/in a good area/not ugly is harder than I expected it to be too.

Having apartment viewings today at 2pm, 4:30pm, 6pm, and 7pm, I had lots of free time to explore the city in between viewings. Above is the often photographed/filmed-in old abandoned train depot on Michigan Ave. Click below for some more.

Bison Painting

I'm not sure if I'm finished with this yet, but I remembered I'm going to be internetless for the next two weeks or so starting tomorrow, so I figured I had better post it now. Anyway, I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this past weekend and was disappointed to find a lack of bison art (though I was later corrected). I decided to make my own bison painting using a random piece of wood and the paint I had laying around the apartment. It's very simple and looks like a child drew it, but I think I'm ok with that. I used a bison cookie cutter I had as a stencil for the bison.

And that is a box it's sitting on. Currently in packing mode as I prepare to move to Detroit. So long, Chicago.

Re-Painted Cabinet

I bought this cabinet just over a year ago now and modified it a bit to become a TV stand. Basically, I drilled some holes in the back of it for various cables to go through (DVD player, VHS player). I had always meant to re-paint it, but never really got around to doing it. Now that I'm getting ready to move once again, I finally gave it a fresh coat of paint today.

Before

After

Transition

Going through a transition right now. I've been writing/recording some music recently, but nothing I feel comfortable posting yet so for now here's this video:

Photos from Home

I took a much needed trip home to Ypsilanti this past weekend and here are some photos documenting my trip.

Storage Boxes

For some time now I've been looking for a storage solution for the miscellaneous junk I have in my office and have had to resign to using an unsightly shoe box to hold it all. Recently I found a couple of nicer looking boxes at Salvation Army to use. They originally had some sort of built in calendar filing system, but I tore that out and just use them for storage.

Below is the box for "Office Supplies," otherwise known as random junk. I also created labels for them with a stamp set.

The second box I used for "Audio Equipment," like my XLR adapter, XLR cable, and headphones I have for my video camera.They also needed a home and had previously just been left lying out or shoved into my video camera's bag.

                                      

"The Missing Children" Improv Performance

I recently shot a performance of my friend's improv group, The Missing Children, at the Playground Theater here in Chicago. Below is the group's performance in its entirety. Soon, I will be editing it down to create a promotional video for the group to help them get more gigs.



The Missing Children- 5/3/2010 from Trevor Walters on Vimeo.

Web Page

I've been working on designing a web page to host my portfolio of video projects I've done and I guess I can say that at this point it's mostly complete. I still would like to register my own domain name and, of course, continue to improve the actual material on the site, but this is what I have for now:

Trevor Walters' Video Portfolio