Death Sentence / Bacon Massacre
In August of 2006, James Wan, the writer and director of Saw, rolled into town with his crew to shoot the gritty talkie entitled Death Sentence starring the one and only Kevin Bacon.
One night at a local tavern, my friend No Rules, who was working on the film’s set, informed me that the Death Sentence art deparment was in search of a ”wolf logo” for the film’s fictional high school hockey team that Kevin Bacon’s “son” was to play the star of.
So, although the doppleganger of Legolas was dishing out the most sapidly piquant Bloody Maries I’d tasted in recent memory, a strange opportunity had arisen so I diligently retreated to my computer and immediately initiated work on a “wolf logo”.
The following day I went to the production office with my wolf sketch in hand. The art director in charge, Julie Berghoff, liked my direction but had a few suggestions. After a few rounds of revisions, she and I arrived at what seemed like the appropriate solution. She then asked if I could handle a rhinocerous for the opposing team. So, that was the next task.
The wolf actually ended up seeing considerable screen time, even in the movie’s trailer, but I think I might enjoy the rhinoceros more. The manner in which its nose horn thing intrudes the visual space is just too hilariously pornographic to not wallow around in.
View the screen shots below.
- Screen Time with Kevin Bacon
- Screen Time with “Brandon Hume”
- Screen Time with ” Goalkeeper Number Two”
And, although my name did not make it into the movie credits and I only got paid a a cool C-Note for the visuals (spare no expense, Hollywood), my efforts were totally worth it because I annhilated the 6 or 7 or how ever many degrees of separation there used to be between Kevin Bacon and myself.
Not to mention, I got allowed on to the film’s set later that November to watch the crew toss a car off a parking garage for one of the movie’s wilder moments.