AN UNABASHED RANT

G'Morning folks....
I never ever wanted to go negative anywhere here in my blog, but theres something I really need to get off my chest.... I'm really spurred to write this because I've had to explain my feelings on a particular matter a few times in the past week.

See theres this supplier of special effects makeup and mask making supplies (who will remain nameless), and i really despise him and his company. Ive never met this person in the flesh, and he's probably very pleasant to be around, but i still have very good reason for feeling the way i do.

My first encounter with this guy was in the late 80's, when Bill and I bought a 55 gal. drum of latex from him. He told us it had shipped, and we wasted a whole day running around from shipping terminal to shipping terminal trying to find it. In the end , it turns out he hadn't shipped it out at all yet. We just said "putz", and determined to never buy from him again. When the latex came in, we found it was virtually unusable (the skin it built up inside the molds... that skin is what becomes the actual mask.. was of an inconsistant thickness, so you'd end up with a mask with very thick and very thin areas). Well we had already determined never to buy from him again anyway.... but none of this is why I am angry with him; it just set up some feelings that this guy wasnt exactly on the ball.

Over the years, this guy has been very very good at self promotion, and advertising, and has built his company into one of the best known SPFX makeup/mask making supply houses. During that time, friends of mine have dabbled in mask and prop making, and occasionally they have bought stuff from his company. EVERY time (and I do mean EVERY), if the material wasn't some medical company brand name that he couldn't substitute for some substandard eqivalant, this guy has sold them bad materials that were virtually unusable.

Heres a few notable examples:
Modeling clay he sold was crumbly and inconsistent.

What he was selling as "flexible foam urethane" (the stuff seat cushions are cast of, that is sometimes used to fill rubber props) was actually the cheap foam that is used to fill boxes for shipping plaster decorations or other fragile items.

What he was selling as burlap for reinforcing gypsum cement molds was actually upholstery burlap. (the difference is that mold making burlap has a very loose weave, so that the cement compound can get between the fibers, whereas upholstery burlap is a tight weave, so any mold made with it will break apart into layers.)

Those are just a few examples, and whenever someone tells me what they are doing in advance, I tell them "just dont buy from "Company X". Sometimes they ignore my advice because his catalog makes it seem like he knows what he is doing, and because his prices are very low (his prices are low for good reason... his stuff is cheap junk), and the results are predictable. This is a very consistant pattern.

Now you can ask me why I care, because I dont buy from him. I care because I care about the whole field of mask making and FX makeup. It's not that theres a disreputable character in the bunch... there always has been those, and there always will be. The reason I care is deeper.

Here's the deal: no experienced mask or model maker buys from him more than a couple of times. Any repeat business he gets from anyone who knows what they are doing is a customer who got very lucky in their first purchase. This means that his success (and he is successful) is from selling to newbies. Let me paint a scenario for you: Imagine some talented teenager who is making his first monster mask. He's read all the books, and now buys his supplies from "Company X" because of their slick advertising, one-stop shopping, and low prices (which fit his limited budget). Now he gets his materials, and follows the instructions in the books/videos to the letter. He pours his heart, mind, and talent into it, and, makes his monster, but, because the materials bought from "company X" are cheap junk, it doesn't work out. Instead of his beautiful monster he's got a pile of crud. The thing is, the kid doesn't know that the materials he bought are cheap junk. So he tries again, and again buys his stuff from "company X", thinking "I mean look at that catalog, the supplier must know what he's doing!". So again he follows all the instructions to the letter, and again because the materiels are bad (and the teen doesnt know that) it doesnt work out. So after a couple of failed attempts, this talented kid, who might have gone on to great success in the entertainment or Halloween industries, he gives up on it, thinking "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this".

If you think I am exaggerating or fantasizing with this scenario, my occasional assistant is just about 16, and I know how he can be encouraged or discouraged easily, how he relies on those he thinks are more experienced, and how much he thinks the successes of failures he has when making the things he creates is caused by his talents and abilities, as opposed to those of the materials he has used. Using my assistant as an example, the scenario I have painted is very plausible.

Meanwhile this guy goes blithely along, selling his stuff to kids who don't know any better. (i don't know if he actually uses the stuff he sells... I know he is a mask maker, but have a hard time believing he uses the same materials he sells. If he does, he must have developed techniques that, with his experience, allowed him to compensate for their deficiencies.) And every time he sells either the wrong type of material to some kid that doesnt know any better, he hurts the field.

Again, why should I care? I mean, he might be protecting me from competition for work some years down the road. Well I have said, here and other places, I care about this field deeply, and I really hate anyone or anything that harms it, and that is exactly what this guy is doing.

Ok gang, thus ends the rant. I wont do too many posts like this, I want this to be an upbeat blog, but this subject has come up a few times this week, and I needed to get it out of my system. I wish I could tell you who this company is, but I think there might be legal ramifications if i do so. Let me say that if anyone here reading this wants to know who to buy from, just drop me an email and I'll give you a list of reputable suppliers that will cover about any contingency.

Next time I'll tell you about this week and the adventure of getting in almost $24G in Halloween supplies at once!

Mr. Halloween Man & The Halloween Bros.