ADG Perspective

July-August 2016

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applied in several layers of red and black with a crackle glaze between to give it a melted and layered texture. Once assembled and dressed with working levers, wheels and gauges, draping chains and piles of bones, the train took on a dark, sinister aesthetic, whilst still maintaining the whimsy and cartoony shape of a toy train. One of the most visually striking sets, and for me the most stimulating to dress, was the carnival set in the past. The past in hell was seen as an incomplete vision, a work in progress, a not-yet-fully-realized carnival made up of gypsy-style wagons and transient beings gathering to summon a fanciful vision of hell. One glimpse of this transition is a monochromatic set with white-and-black carnival pieces arranged in a torn, decayed, swiss cheese of a tent. In stark contrast to the saturated red and yellow hues in the present-day carnival, the monochromatic past really shows another side of Lucifer's world that we hadn't yet been seen. One of the most unconventional aspects of these two films is its distribution pipeline. Normally, I would not have much interest in how a film reaches its audiences. As long as it reaches them, I'm usually happy. This dissemination technique, however, is unique. Darren, Terrance and some of the crew took the film on a two-month-long, 69-city tour, premiering at up to 1,000-seat-capacity venues, sidestepping the normal distribution avenues and solidifying a cult following. Screenings became media happenings when the carnival came to each city, with costume contests, cast and filmmaker meet and greets, Q&As and performances. Fans decorated the venues with homemade set pieces modeled after designs from the film. Seeing these re-creations and understanding how directly our craft affects its viewers was an enlightening realization. These films capture people's imaginations and The Devil's Carnival has become an event film like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, one that plays on year after year, inspiring fans to create costumes and act out parts and songs from the film in shadowcasts. It's truly a phenomenon and shows how the worlds that we create from our imaginations can develop into these wild extensions of film fans' lives. The experience in making these cult musical films, The Devil's Carnival and Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival, was a total whirlwind and challenging on every level. It is immeasurably rewarding to be a creator, moving through (sometimes literal) sandstorms with a sense of humor, a sense of wonder, a will to make leaps, push boundaries, take chances and to come out the other side with a project that truly entertains and inspires. In collaboration with a dedicated and massively talented crew, we created a complete world with very little money out of the magic of imagination and resourcefulness. We created worlds where the unreal and the timeless cross into the realm of the real, where viewers could enter into the carnival, face the confines of their own fears and explore the limitless stretch of their own imaginations. ADG applied in several layers of red and black with a crackle glaze between to give it a Derrick Hinman, Production Designer Hunter Brown, Paul Bickel, Art Directors Whitney Whetstone, Assistant Art Director Sean Scoffield, Graphic Designer Brandi Kalish, Patricia Sullivan, Set Decorators , one that plays on year after year,

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