Artistic Monsters Unleashed: TrisRex's Creative Odyssey
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Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today I have the privilege of being in conversation.
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Trisrex
With.
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Rob Lee
A creature in armor effects artist. A monster maker. Foam fabricator. Creature design and props wizard. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, where he became enamored with horror and sci fi comics, as well as action figures at an early age. He's known for his dark and dramatic take a well-known DC Comics characters paired with horror elements.
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Rob Lee
Please welcome Tristian Trisrex Johnson. Welcome to the podcast.
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Trisrex
Yo, yo, what's going on, everybody? Glad to be here. I think we could end it that that intro was kind of dope, so nothing else after that.
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Rob Lee
But I've had people tell me like, Yeah, I just need to take the intro and just chop it up as a separate thing.
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Trisrex
Yeah, like, damn. Okay, I got my cranberry juice. I'm straight. Nice. You know, I can't follow that one up.
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Rob Lee
It's almost like at times I joke because of the Chicago thing, right? I almost want to do, like, the 96 Bowl's like, intro.
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Trisrex
You know? No, no, no, no, no, no. They did that. I just. I was a hostess. Excuse me? I was a cosplay judge this past season, too, and they played the the Bulls intro when I came out and I lost it, I, I got up there and I just freaked out, man. That, that is something there's a call to action in that that that.
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Trisrex
No, no, no. That little synth. Yeah. Listen, I was at all of those ball games. I was like, listen, that to feel that energy when I come up like, oh, your hair stand up, I'm ready to run through a damn wall. When I hear that intro.
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Rob Lee
I mean, it's funny, like in watching and even before we get to the questions and the actual interview. But I remember you do I do this thing with the circle of friends that I have as to, you know, we were all watching the last dance at the same time and we're trying to pick based on the way people are depicted, who's who with that?
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Rob Lee
My circle.
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Trisrex
Of friends.
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Rob Lee
And it got really weird. It was like, you know, you're kind of Jordan, right? And I was like, Am I? It's like, no, you're absolutely Jordan. It's like, you're kind of better than the rest of us. You have a problem with letting us open up like, oh.
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Trisrex
Oh. And I took that personal, right, right.
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Rob Lee
And then it's right there that you throw there. That's what I'm always the astrology guy. And I'm like, and during Aquarius, I was like.
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Trisrex
Well, that's that's a good one. That's a good one.
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Rob Lee
So before we get too deep and embedded into the conversation, I want to open it up and, you know, ask you about, about your story. What is the Trystan Tetras rex story? Lisa Let's give it to us. Give us the story.
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Trisrex
I mean, I could give you two chapters cause it's still going right?
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Rob Lee
100% is still going.
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Trisrex
It's still the truth for x story. I'm pretty much the embodiment and the manifestation of a kid. Only child grew up on the South Side of Chicago. The hook all I had toys, video games, comics, movies, all of these things that really inspired me. Like at an early age. But I suppressed, you know, later on, as you know, you get older sports girls, girls, you know, certain things you kind of like want to keep to yourself as you get older, especially, you know, growing up in a hood, you want to have a certain you know, you want to be seen in a certain light.
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Trisrex
So certain things that you would kind of put to the back burner. As I've gotten older, I start to realize that those things are what really make me special, my connection to those things. Right. And just fast forward to, you know, mid twenties, I was just got a promotion, just got engaged, you know, all this other stuff, you know, identity changing.
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Trisrex
I'm being looked at differently throughout, you know, in the world of things. And I really needed that, that release as far as, you know, that artistic and creative release. And one of the things that I saw, I always saw ads for like Season two or Wizard World or Comic-Con. Oh, my God, that would be cool. And I was with therapists and I thought about it now, like, you know what?
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Trisrex
I think I'm just going to do a cosplay of a certain character. Like, you know, I didn't know what cosplay was at the time. I just knew that costume design was it being in set design was the thing because I come from theater, right? So I approached it as a therapy and it turned into something that I'm really passionate about because I'm able to express myself in ways that I'm not normally able to.
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Trisrex
Yeah, I'm from the corporate world and just being, you know, among my peers in like living in Chicago, you know, certain things you kind of like don't say. But as a cosplayer and as a costume designer, you could say all of those things. Yeah, unapologetically. Right. Fast forward to 2020 to now. I'm, you know, kind of one of the game changers, I guess you could say, bringing back some of those special effects, practical effects elements, but combining it with the modern cosplay techniques to create something new.
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Trisrex
It looks like it's from Hollywood, but I made it for like a couple hundred dollars. You know, it works like it's from Hollywood, but it's super, you know, household oriented. I think it's good stuff. So that's kind of like, you know, in a nutshell, I was seeking therapy and an outlet and found my calling and passion, like what I'm supposed to do forever.
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Trisrex
Like I know that I'm that confident and that confident that this is what I'm supposed to do ever.
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Rob Lee
That's, that's that's great. And, and I think being able to, you know, channel, you know, having this period.
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Trisrex
Where.
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Rob Lee
You know, I was in therapy and I remember, you know, talking about like you presenting who, you know, having that protective that armor, if you will. Right. You know, because I'm a six foot four, £300 black man, I can't judge like, yo, you watched an anime the other day, homie. It's like, nah, did you, you know, whatever the thing is, right there is a, a certain role that your cast that you didn't pick that you didn't audition for.
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Rob Lee
So to your point earlier about there, certain things you can't talk about and say and you know, as a person that is a critical, critical thinker and that's into pop culture and that is in the comics, all of these different things I definitely relate to Richards describing there of You can't be out in the hood like yo I just collected dislike rare robocop figure.
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Rob Lee
It is like.
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Trisrex
A tool now and man you got to see it.
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Rob Lee
Right?
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Trisrex
Right. And you know, and.
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Rob Lee
Getting into this point where I was doing that, many pockets of sitting there represented of of who I am and and so on.
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Trisrex
Exactly.
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Rob Lee
And it just doesn't work. And I remember the one of my friends, he reached out. We have, you know, a Baltimore Comic-Con here. And he was like, yo, we should go. And I just remember kind of being apprehensive of like, fans is going to be Wags is going to be stupid. You know, trying to be cool and not really enjoying like this is what I'm secretly watching at home, like, you know, with the lights off, you know, and I'm seeing people just really just out there unabashedly, you know, just enjoying their fandom.
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Rob Lee
And, you know, that's a thing that I do. You know, I go to the blurred cons, I go to the the Austin cons here locally and try to be within that community and being able to have exchange and connect with people on that level while I'm still, you know, kind of being cool but also still be there to connect on that level because I'm interested in it.
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Rob Lee
I remember I traveled to Los Angeles once a year for what I call my Japanese weekend. I went to Anime Expo and it was Japanese, it was New Japan, pro wrestling. That was the first time they came to the U.S. and their 45 year history at the time. So people were like, Yo, you were gone for a while.
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Rob Lee
Where'd you go? I was like, Yeah, I was watching sweaty men and people in cosplay costumes and they were like, What are you talking about? Like, Oh yeah, you know, I was just enjoying myself in California.
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Trisrex
I was having the time of my life. Yeah. So what was your.
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Rob Lee
First experience, let's say, with creatures, monsters or what have you? Was it you know, you saw maybe somebody with a really cool costume. Did you see something in a movie? What was that like? Seminole experience for you?
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Trisrex
That's a really good question. And it's something that I have been getting asked a lot. Right. And I kind of boil it down to these two these two specific scenes. So one was pretty much going to be the obvious, right? Because if you see my page in my recent work but the the in the film Aliens of 1986, the scene where Ripley is rescuing Newt and she get out, you know, she thinks she has a clear pathway, but she looks down and she notices that she's in that alien hive.
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Trisrex
Yeah. That scene where the queen is like in her like over positive. And you see her hair come out and the camera pans to a wide angle and see how massive she is and her hair comes out and she signals to her like left in her right and they get like, barred aliens. That was some of the most enamored in stuff I've ever seen.
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Trisrex
Why? Because I never saw anything like that specific creature, you know, like, there's not anything else I could point to that looks like that Queen Xenomorph. Yeah, and I was just like, I was freaked out. I was enamored, I wanted to know more. And I was just, like, in a state of shock when I just didn't know, like, you know, I didn't know, like, you could make monsters or puppets that day.
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Trisrex
Yeah. So it was really cool to see. And I, I was tiny in the second one. Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park. It was the left when the Rex broke out of the electric fence. Yeah. The build up for that. Seeing a cup of water shake, seeing a girl get eaten for when she broke out of that fence. Yeah. Uh huh.
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Trisrex
That's the level of fear and mystery that I chased. And I try to recreate. I try to recreate it throughout, throughout my work, because it's one of those things that, you know, it brings everybody together seeing that big that big, enormous monster, you know, you know, everybody has their favorite characters. Everybody has their trials and tribulations. Right. But you can't put a color or religion or political view.
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Trisrex
Oh, shit. Right. You know, the masses bring people together. And I think a lot of people had that same feeling in 93 in the theater, seeing that, because that's when you really believe they're like, Yo, I just saw dinosaurs, right?
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Rob Lee
Right. And I remember just a lot of the behind the scenes stuff for me, like, you know, it's a cartoon. And I and I just did a review of Jurassic Park after watching the latest one. And I was like, this is made wood of the island of lost toy dinosaurs under this, you know, what is this? So I was like, let me watch the good one and end up going back and doing a deep dove on it.
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Rob Lee
And you know, yeah, like I really get caught into the, the Sam Winston, the wizardry of it. You kind of you mentioned, you know, so you obviously got the Geiger stuff there. What would you say are some of those like who or what? I think, yeah, I got the who part. I mean, the what part rather as far as like a couple of those movies.
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Rob Lee
But what are the biggest influences for you, artistically speaking?
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Trisrex
Artistically speaking, I mean, you already said Stan Winston, Steve Wayne, Todd McFarlane. Yeah, another huge one. Who else? I'm looking at a lot of Rick Baker stuff. I really love his makeups, seeing how I could, you know, some less of the translate into what I'm doing just with foam. But Stan Winston, you know, I'm like, oh, I could stand Winston kid.
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Trisrex
Like, you can look at his whole cinematic portfolio and I can show you exactly where I was in Guy or like, you know, who Tristan was. And so much of my work is inspired by him, which, you know, which is why I'm doing the Alienist line right now is because I want to try to recreate some of those same feelings, but put my spin on it, do something a little bit more darker, you know, give it to aliens, feel it with the whole, you know, combat type of feeling, but make it super scary.
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Trisrex
That's what I'm good at. I'm I'm I'm good at making people feel comfortable. I'm not scared. And it has nothing to cosplay, just the human being, you know? Yeah.
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Rob Lee
Well there's a question about that a little later I think I almost almost a vision you being like Rain Man a little bit to I'll name a movie or like Tristen was doing this like pumpkinhead like so the year was 1988 and it's.
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Trisrex
A I'm a savant when it comes to horror and R&B. Wow.
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Rob Lee
Wow.
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Trisrex
Monsters and R&B is what I do.
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Rob Lee
Jodeci in Hellraiser.
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Trisrex
Jodeci in Hellraiser. Cenobites in. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You get it?
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Rob Lee
You get it.
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Trisrex
Listen, I could go to Yale Brown right now just on the velociraptor suit. Well, we course that's all we can talk about.
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Rob Lee
That's this is go ahead.
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Trisrex
We're going to talk about confessions. We need to talk about one of the best R&B albums of all time. And we're going to go here and talk about how 112 was the best R&B group.
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Rob Lee
This is amazing. Oh, you touched a little bit earlier that your background includes being a you know, having a background in theater. And, you know, I read that there's some YouTube universes in there in terms of some of the fabrication techniques. So so tell us more about your training, some of the stuff that goes into it because like, you know, I've seen people who are making something, you know, you said a lot of your stuff is like vegetable.
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Rob Lee
It's, you know, stuff that you can see around a crack. And it's like it's just wizardry. And that's the only way I can really put it. And because I've seen this stuff, I'm like, Hello, how, what? So, so tell me about some of your training and what goes into ultimately your work in bringing these creatures or effects to real life, making them come to life.
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Trisrex
Yeah. So in just a preface, just right, I was always a creative kid and creative person. You know, I don't want to mislead anyone to like, Oh, you can do it too. So you can you can do things right. But I basically started out just by like Curtis, I got the net once I was doing, you know, a technical theater classes, pretty much building sets for whatever production was coming up on the horizon right.
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Trisrex
And I started to notice that I was really good at fabricating stuff. I was really good at making things, you know, like out of cardboard or something or painting something in a certain way to make it look like something totally different. Yeah. And I always have an that in the back of my mind, you know once I started to, you know, hear about these cons and conventions, I used to go on YouTube to look at, you know, how they were building these armors and just, you know, for reference, I was like, hey, what's a video game?
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Trisrex
I like? I was really playing at Arkham a lot, so I looked up how to make a deathstroke suit and I noticed that they were doing a lot with just floor mats, exacto knives and hot glue. And I noticed that with like all the tutorials I was looking, I'm like, Wait, so, you know, like, I could just go to Home Depot.
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Trisrex
So, yeah. And I literally was like, and Home Depot, like, so decide watching these videos and price and stuff and just like making a specific list and just like trying things out. And that's just, you know, how, how I learned is just like failing super fast, you know, just like playing in the work, right? Trying to work, work to plan, but fail and fast as possible.
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Trisrex
Yeah. To do some dreams, but yeah. Just just like messing up over and over again until you get it right. It can be a little bit expensive. Right. But, you know, it's one of those things where it's like there's only one way to get good at something is to do it repeatedly, you know, just to have that repetition.
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Trisrex
And the cool part about that is certain things that I used to try, like in 2019 know, like when aging even that works perfectly now for like the bigger, broader stuff. But when you talking about the human form, you know, some stuff is like not a single work, right? You know, so the whole trial and error is like the biggest thing and like, yeah, people like evil to come to cosplay or in makes a lot of these are people you hear from now, right but they got like loads of templates you could buy and just like altar.
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Trisrex
So it's out there. It's just about how much time you willing to put into it.
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Rob Lee
It's definitely a craft, it's a maker thing. And you know, like I said, I go to these cards and I see people put together things, especially I put it this way, we got different body types, you know what I mean? And I'm like, Oh yeah, you definitely made that yours. You know, you have like the broad shoulders, the big thighs, the whole frame and people make it work.
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Rob Lee
And sometimes these sort of like out of the box options don't really work. So you have to modify, you have to have some some knowledge of like sewing, some knowledge of, all right, you know, I got to get this hyper glue because I need to have this connected to my hair or whatever. And yeah, being able to dove into it.
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Rob Lee
And to your point, it's is having some money I guess, but it's really having an interest and a desire and a time to really figure it out and that's what part of this is, you know, of, you know, there are times where I'll go back to my editor and I'm like, Yo, audio's trash. I know is trash. And he's like, No, it came out great.
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Rob Lee
And I was like, Cool. I don't know how I stumbled into that. And are other times where I'm like, I know acoustically this is going to be great and it is just great, and it's just kind of like having a sense just through what is it? It's almost like creative muscle memory.
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Trisrex
Yeah, most definitely. Most definitely. It's it's it's one of those things that just like any other job or any other, like trade writing just is certain things just written out an instruction book for you and there's certain things that you just got to learn. You just got to learn that picking it up good and yourself, knowing how to measure stuff, you know, knowing how much fabric to get, know which glue to use for what type of adhesion, you know, it's it's a very, very intuitive skill to have.
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Trisrex
And then it kind of transcends, right? Because now when something, you know, need to fix something in the house like, oh, I know how to fix that. I've got a sander, I got Rotary Tool, I got a heat gun, I got all this other stuff and it just keeps expanding. Yeah. So it's a really cool, really cool knack to have and just like, you know, with the budget thing, right?
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Trisrex
You give somebody means dollars and you know, they might not make anything with it. Yeah. Depending on the right person, you know, you give them a couple of million and next thing you know, it's something totally different. So it's about the mind of that person. Yeah. And, you know, just what they want to do because execution is key and especially when it comes to what I.
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Rob Lee
Want in person.
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Trisrex
You know, execution is, like I said, we can't execute. We don't even try.
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Rob Lee
What would you say is your like all time? And I know it's going to be like picking picking a kid, you know, you know, what is your all time favorite creation that you've made? And, you know, talk about some of the steps within the process of bringing it to life.
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Trisrex
Oh, man, I know, I know. I that changes. That change just because I'm gonna be honest with you. My latest. The Alien. The alien, the Royal Guard alien. Um, that whole long line of creatures like the facehugger over Jasper. And I think, you know, I want to say if I had one, right. Yeah. The Royal Guard, he's 12 foot, 15 feet long.
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Trisrex
He's pretty much the creature I've been waiting to build since I saw that Queen Amy. Right. Um, a lot of that was just me being like. There was a sense of freedom, I felt, because in the DC line in that portfolio, you saw a lot of anthropomorphic characters, right? Like half man, half bad, half man, half anglerfish, you know?
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Trisrex
And then, yeah, Scarecrow. And you had this other dude, you know, atrocities was just pretty much like the devil. All right? So this was my first time really being able to break out of the human form and just say, screw it. None of that. No. Like, we're going to do this old school style with PVC pipes and a crapload of foam, and we're gonna learn some new techniques as far as, like, how to make things move without you being in it and being in it.
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Trisrex
So it's like a suit and a puppet. So this is like a new form of freedom, which is why it's my favorite. Not necessarily. Okay. Mooks, everything else. Yes, it's great. One chef's kiss. Right? But this was like this was I did all of the other DC work and everything else was to create this. Yeah. So a lot of the patterning that I tried out specifically like say for example, if you look at King Trent's, you could see a lot of like the way that elongated arms are like the way to hell bent to my Batman suit kind of has like the piping and the shoulders and like, that's H.R. Geiger, all day.
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Trisrex
Right. You know, if you look at certain parts, I mean, if I just took close up shots of it, it looks like a xenomorph. And to you pan out.
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Rob Lee
Gotcha.
00;24;23;10 - 00;24;44;16
Trisrex
Yeah, yeah. So a lot of that stuff I've been, you know, aspects of the Royal Guard alien are gearing up to like New Years now. So it's a hard question because I really love Lord Atrocities of the DC line to the big bad seven foot villain idea there.
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Rob Lee
I mean, that's the one that that really is popping for me because one like that's just my personality type. If I'm not on a podcast.
00;24;53;23 - 00;24;53;26
Trisrex
You.
00;24;54;24 - 00;25;13;12
Rob Lee
Know, but I think just the sheer scope of it because I'm looking at this, this picture with what looks like you're in a shed with just everything around you. I was like, This is fire. I see the bad seed. I see like the I think it's like a whole like bad head with the lab coat. I was like, all of this is fire.
00;25;13;12 - 00;25;36;11
Trisrex
Yeah, it's that's that's that's who I truly am. Yeah. You know, that's those characters are depictions of me throughout a certain time. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they're like wearable journals and I love them so much where it is. Like, like you say it's picking keywords literally. I'm kind of.
00;25;36;11 - 00;25;36;21
Rob Lee
Working it.
00;25;37;04 - 00;26;00;29
Trisrex
Myself. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like picking versions of myself throughout time too. And you know, those I love all of them, but, you know, they're alien. It's just it's a new celebration and a rebirth of me, you know? And I'm pretty sure that'll change. I'm working on the Queen, my version of the Queen right now, and that's one that's done.
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Trisrex
I don't know who's going to be the favorite.
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Rob Lee
And it's funny because that's one of my Rapidfire questions. I'm going to go inside baseball before we even get to it. Just letting you know that that might have something to do with a rapid fire question I got for you later.
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Trisrex
Oh, okay. Okay.
00;26;15;03 - 00;26;16;10
Rob Lee
So let's let's talk.
00;26;16;10 - 00;26;17;26
Trisrex
About your.
00;26;18;02 - 00;26;27;16
Rob Lee
Preferred like material, what have you. So is it true that you prefer to work with foam? If so, what are like some of those benefits working with foam above, like other materials?
00;26;28;03 - 00;27;03;06
Trisrex
I love foam. That is very true. Foam is very addictive. There's plenty types of foam. I use EVA foam and upholstery foam. Mostly a policy foam was like, what you sitting on the couch, bed, all of the stuff in EVA foam is like the floor mats or the craft foam that I was telling you about. And one of the most addictive parts of working with Eva Foam was that literally, literally, you can make it look like anything is like fabrication heaven because you can make it look like tree bark.
00;27;03;06 - 00;27;35;28
Trisrex
You can make like scales, you can paint it up real good to make it look like metallic silver, you know, armor, all of that stuff. And it's it's addictive. You know, once you figure out how to cut it in certain angles, detail it and really get it to look like things that it's not, it becomes addictive opposed to using latex or, you know, weird foam, excuse me, wet clay and things of that nature.
00;27;36;12 - 00;28;03;04
Trisrex
And those are things that I am going to get into a little bit more down the line. But right now, you know, as I said, my mission is trying to marry some of those old special effects techniques. Yeah. And looks and characters. Great things that you can easily buy from this new cosplay line materials that's that's really popping out.
00;28;04;11 - 00;28;30;22
Rob Lee
So and thank thank you for for sharing it and yeah, because I think we have a preferred mode of what we want to work in like, you know, using different recording equipment, right? I know how to use three or four different ones, but I prefer to use my mixer and I prefer to use this sort of setup. But I think knowing how to do other ones is like, Yeah, I can do other ones, but this is why I prefer to work in and this is what I'm most skilled in, and that's ultimately kind of how that goes.
00;28;30;22 - 00;28;53;00
Rob Lee
We all have the things that we like. You know what it maybe it's the current project, but what is the most challenging project you worked on and what was particularly challenging about it like was it like I couldn't figure out this adhesion here is like the foam is all wrong. This is the scope and the scale of this or like the deadline doesn't quite work.
00;28;53;00 - 00;28;53;21
Rob Lee
Tell me about that.
00;28;54;02 - 00;29;20;09
Trisrex
Yeah, I mean, I will I will say that there's there's like multiple like I could give you an example like man bat. Oh, his wings. His wings were something for me to really wrap my head around, mainly because I haven't made anything that long or that I'd seen before either. As far as like the actual flaps of the wings, I made those out of like two Mm.
00;29;20;26 - 00;29;42;28
Trisrex
Foam and then I was using like got some crutches and like PPC pipes to them and it was just, it was one of those things where it really taught me how to account for weight. When you're acting in a suit and things that you couldn't, it was like, yo mop forms and delts are like burnt up just from this one character.
00;29;42;28 - 00;30;16;17
Trisrex
Like skeleton every time you got a suit up and then, you know, like right after that, atrocities was like, I don't know, everybody that I created was relatively my or, you know, I could get away with in platforms. But that wasn't the first time like actually adding new platforms and kind of like mod and things of that nature and just like move in totally different know like overcompensating certain movement that you think like, Oh, I'm probably doing too much to the outside.
00;30;16;17 - 00;30;45;14
Trisrex
It looks just right, you know, it's just like those big larger than life characters. And I would say without doing those too, the alien wouldn't be what it is, right? Because I had to walk my head up against that wall four times. And one of the things I but I will say one of the hard things. So if you look at that Batsuit, you'll notice that there is a a red symbol in the chest.
00;30;45;14 - 00;31;07;24
Trisrex
Getting melting acrylic is a little bit harder when you don't have like a dedicated of in or tool to do it with cutting coordinate the right shapes is a little bit harder if you don't have like the dedicated stuff. So that was one of the ones where it took me about like four times to actually get it right.
00;31;07;27 - 00;31;14;16
Trisrex
Wow. And let me tell you this, acrylic sheets add up very quickly.
00;31;14;16 - 00;31;16;03
Rob Lee
I can imagine. I can imagine.
00;31;16;07 - 00;31;20;21
Trisrex
So some of those mistakes hurt. Some of those mistakes are so.
00;31;20;22 - 00;31;21;20
Rob Lee
So how tall are you?
00;31;23;01 - 00;31;24;28
Trisrex
I'm only 511. I'm not tall at all.
00;31;25;01 - 00;31;34;13
Rob Lee
Oh, God. I got I'm like because I'm trying to because I'm trying to it don't have the scope. Like, people think I'm short. And then when they see me, a person say, Oh, you're a monster person. I was like, in language, you know.
00;31;34;21 - 00;31;49;11
Trisrex
Just, yeah, I'm not. I'm not the tallest guy. Yeah, you could see me, but I, you know, I'm Jersey, but I'm not tall. I guess you could say curvy or I don't know if.
00;31;50;20 - 00;31;53;19
Rob Lee
I would show a to Grover. I don't know what it is.
00;31;53;25 - 00;31;55;11
Trisrex
I'm not sure. Not a grower.
00;31;55;27 - 00;32;11;26
Rob Lee
I remember going to one of the conventions and I was like, if someone asked me, they'd seen me a few times that maybe blurred con and they were like, Yeah, when are you dressing up, bro? It's like you. It's hard to find a lot of material for this big frame. There's like, yeah, you're, you're kind of. I was like, Yeah, just give me a bunch of sheets, I'll figure it out.
00;32;12;12 - 00;32;14;28
Trisrex
And I gave you a bunch of sheets. Wrap it around you.
00;32;15;00 - 00;32;17;13
Rob Lee
Yeah, I'm just like, ooh, I'm a ghost, you know.
00;32;17;13 - 00;32;42;19
Trisrex
Like, yeah. And it's one of those things where now nowadays I've been, you know, because of all my commitments, you know, at cons now sometimes it's harder to suit up. But it's funny because when people see me out of out of the sun, like Danny kind of big man, I'm like, Well, yeah, you know, you know, the gym, you know?
00;32;42;19 - 00;32;43;19
Trisrex
Yeah, I lifting.
00;32;43;27 - 00;32;44;23
Rob Lee
Few weights here and there.
00;32;45;07 - 00;32;50;07
Trisrex
Yeah. Like, so it wasn't just the form like, nah, man, narborough.
00;32;50;13 - 00;32;56;04
Rob Lee
It's like, it's like what Dwayne said, you know, it's not pads. This is actually my body. And that is a black Adam costume, you know?
00;32;56;13 - 00;33;04;28
Trisrex
Yeah. So some of this stuff is like, Oh, these are huge. I want you to set me.
00;33;04;28 - 00;33;11;14
Rob Lee
Oh, I joke on occasion because I wear, like, weird cutoffs, and I was like, Oh, yeah, you know, I took a little trend before I came out here. Like, what?
00;33;12;08 - 00;33;15;19
Trisrex
Yeah, yeah. It's like shrimp pop and get the veins popping.
00;33;16;16 - 00;33;18;24
Rob Lee
Just admitting to steroid use is ridiculous.
00;33;19;04 - 00;33;21;00
Trisrex
That's good old trend below. Yes.
00;33;21;17 - 00;33;22;22
Rob Lee
There is a DECA.
00;33;24;25 - 00;33;25;03
Trisrex
So.
00;33;25;22 - 00;33;46;25
Rob Lee
You so I read that you had so again these this is overlap you know early inspirations include you know turtles and street sharks which three sharks is a deep cut for some. I may have done a lost podcast about anthropomorphic teams of characters who are fighting to look up when you have the chance. Look up tiger sharks. You're going to have a great time.
00;33;47;20 - 00;33;50;06
Trisrex
Oh, Woodward, what about.
00;33;50;06 - 00;34;03;05
Rob Lee
These properties that really, like, sticks with you? Because, you know, I would imagine your your your your kid of the early nineties, like like I am. And, you know, these things are like is a formula that works and ultimately you're like, hmm.
00;34;03;16 - 00;34;04;22
Trisrex
I want to maybe.
00;34;05;04 - 00;34;15;13
Rob Lee
Go to these things that are with like minded people. So what is it about that type of content that really kind of stuck with you and really kind of maybe got you interested early, early, early on.
00;34;15;27 - 00;34;38;26
Trisrex
I would say when it came to those anthropomorphic characters, yeah, I never really felt all the way human. I've always had this deep connection to nature. Okay. Which is why I got so many reptilian children of my own. You know, I always felt that it was like something deep inside of me. Like I could almost transform. I could feel it by my eyes.
00;34;38;26 - 00;34;58;23
Trisrex
If I just concentrate, twitch, twitch. I could. I could just turn into a raptor or something like that. That and just like the toys in the market and behind it, you know, they really made you feel a part of the game back then. Whereas nowadays it is like, Oh, okay, you know, you're just this program.
00;34;59;15 - 00;35;00;25
Rob Lee
That'll make them like they used to.
00;35;00;26 - 00;35;09;17
Trisrex
Yeah, no, they don't. No, not at all. They don't really care. It's like, okay, how many viewers do we get? How much money before we're done? And I don't think.
00;35;09;17 - 00;35;26;00
Rob Lee
They were as if you look at in the eighties. Right. I don't think they were is obvious about it. You know, like you know, like you do the transformers, right? You look at it, no doubt. You're like, this is this is just a fire sale for toys. You know, we need to sell these or exactly the same thing with He-Man.
00;35;26;00 - 00;35;41;24
Rob Lee
But now it just feels like there's there's less of a soul in it. Or maybe I don't know, I think in kind of dealing in nostalgia because like, you know, I'm looking at some of the stuff that you've you've worked on. You look at, you know, you mentioned Jurassic Park. You know, that's 30 years old at this point.
00;35;42;01 - 00;35;51;06
Rob Lee
In terms of the movie, you mentioned aliens. That's 36 years old, what have you. So, you know, going back to that nostalgia and growing up, it's like, is it a.
00;35;51;14 - 00;35;51;27
Trisrex
It's the.
00;35;51;27 - 00;36;02;17
Rob Lee
Lack of soul in it at times when you see something that might be CGI versus something, that's a practical effect because that's where you're at. You're in the practical effects. Like you're a wizard, dude.
00;36;03;02 - 00;36;38;08
Trisrex
Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I think I think that you hit the nail on the head. Lack of soul, I think, is because it just seems like we were more creative with the less technological advancement that we had. It just one of the things I always tried to create for the camera, which is one of the saints, and I always say in like even when I'm asked advice, you know, at a con or anything might try to create like for the camera, like kind of know what shots you want to hit.
00;36;39;00 - 00;37;02;22
Trisrex
And it's just one of those things I would say to this day, you know, shooting certain creatures, certain armors and all this other stuff, it just hits different when it's actually in the camera. Yeah, when it's actually in the camera, it's undeniable. I did some test shots the other night with one of the characters for this little Halloween special.
00;37;02;22 - 00;37;26;14
Trisrex
It's like, there's no way in hell they can make this CGI me of my wife. And I was just like, Yo, this because she's my partner as well. It's kind of like a family business trust. But I was like, Yo, you can't fake this. There's no Photoshop up or anything. It just has to be raw and in-camera and the soul part of it.
00;37;27;24 - 00;38;03;26
Trisrex
Listen, I love this culture that we have today where the geeks or whatever you want to call us are the popular. You know, I never thought I'd see the day, but when it comes to the actual soul, it kind of begs the question, like, what's real? Like, like, who's in? Honestly, if you look a little bit deeper, it's easy to see what's real and what's not.
00;38;04;18 - 00;38;32;03
Trisrex
You know, it's just one of those things where if Hollywood isn't gonna do it, I'm doing. Yeah, I'm not going to wait for anyone to, like, bring me on their, you know, basketball team or effects team to to get something done. You know, I must show you how this will really go through my layers, right? Because my stuff is really coming from the soul.
00;38;32;03 - 00;38;56;28
Trisrex
And a lot of the times, just like the characters I create with these some of these stories that I'm going to be telling in the future has nothing to do with aliens. It has to do with me. But if you don't know, you don't know. You know what I'm saying? Like the Royal Guard is is a symbol for the monster that I've become or the character I've become in order to serve the queen.
00;38;57;06 - 00;39;23;17
Trisrex
Who's the queen? That's my wife was home. The hive. That's who I take care of. And being the guardian and protector of that and becoming this big monster, because all of the roles and duties that you've accumulated over time when you were in your drone and warrior stage to now you're the Royal Guard, you're pretorian of that, which means nothing goes.
00;39;23;17 - 00;39;46;03
Trisrex
Everything got to go through you, you know what I'm saying? So really, it's just a synonym with the growth of me as a human being and as a man, it has nothing to do with aliens at all. It's just easier to tell that coming of age story in a aliens universe. Yeah, but that's the soul that I put into the masses.
00;39;46;27 - 00;40;06;25
Trisrex
Like a lot of atrocities, it's going to be in seven foot. What? All the volcanic, volcanic armor and all of that, and how you see that pulsating red lantern and all that just has to do with me be dealing with anger and rage. And that's who I would be if I was to let go. Has nothing to do with the Red Lantern itself.
00;40;07;04 - 00;40;11;00
Trisrex
I just choose it because it's more palatable then.
00;40;11;18 - 00;40;41;03
Rob Lee
I mean, it's more in some respects. In some respects like this iconography, whether it's pop culture, whether it's comics, what have you, those are parables, you know, those are the psalms that we have these these sort of connections or what have you. And we use it to mean something else. Like, I definitely connect with atrocities. I definitely connect in that way because, you know, when I was younger, I had the whole like, yeah, I got to hold it as wall sort of thing as a of Delaware and then, you know, you get a three and a pound dude going it's it's a lot.
00;40;41;04 - 00;40;43;24
Rob Lee
It's a lot to kind of say, I need a D hawk, you know.
00;40;44;03 - 00;40;44;14
Trisrex
Yeah.
00;40;44;27 - 00;41;05;19
Rob Lee
And that's a thing or what I feel like I relate to most is Marv from from Sin City. You know, it's like that's more of where I'm at or what have you. It's just like, you know, if we start looking at characters and what they represent as maybe facets of who we are from a personality standpoint, that's how people cope.
00;41;06;02 - 00;41;21;05
Rob Lee
That's how, you know, it's like, Oh, I see myself in this person or what have you and yeah, it's not 100% obviously, but when I'm at a given stage and I like the way that it was described earlier about it being like a diary, a journal where you're at.
00;41;21;13 - 00;41;22;06
Trisrex
An in.
00;41;22;06 - 00;41;37;19
Rob Lee
Your life or what have you. There are you know, I look back at my podcasts and going through that whole history of 14 years of it, I can't be the same guy I was when I was 24 versus being 37. Okay. Yeah.
00;41;37;19 - 00;41;38;09
Trisrex
Campy.
00;41;38;09 - 00;41;47;11
Rob Lee
And the references, the differences, the references, the different, the, the, the, the thing is I was into are different and I think, you know, you might look back at it and.
00;41;47;11 - 00;41;47;28
Trisrex
Like, damn.
00;41;48;19 - 00;41;51;22
Rob Lee
I can't believe I used to say that or Oh, I'm a different do you.
00;41;52;05 - 00;41;53;16
Trisrex
Know or yeah.
00;41;53;17 - 00;42;16;08
Rob Lee
It wasn't the most Yeah. Way of thinking and yeah, I mean it's is really interesting and is in it's a vulnerability there too. So, you know, big shout out to you in that regard of really putting yourself out there and taking that sort of chance and having the courageousness in that, the courage to create. Because, you know, that's a thing, especially when it's coming from that, from the soul in that way, you know.
00;42;16;08 - 00;42;39;10
Trisrex
Is very vulnerable. Yes. This is thank you. I appreciate that is very vulnerable. You know, you say you're not a grower. There's like that. This is me being butt naked on stage, like each creation. This is like, oh, my hopes, my dreams and failing. And they're just, you know, wearable journals is kind of what I calling them as.
00;42;39;22 - 00;42;51;29
Trisrex
And they will be funny. It will be fun to see like maybe like five or six years from now. Like if I recreate it some of these characters, they probably are totally different. And what what do you say with the growth?
00;42;52;10 - 00;42;59;09
Rob Lee
I'm waiting for the book. I'm waiting for the book with the the images, the journal entry. And that's that's a natural thing I see you doing.
00;43;00;05 - 00;43;03;10
Trisrex
Oh, yeah. There's going to be some some some more visual stuff, too.
00;43;04;19 - 00;43;10;09
Rob Lee
So here's the last real question I have for you before I get to those rapid fire ones, which I've been adding to it. We've been talking.
00;43;10;24 - 00;43;13;06
Trisrex
Oh, so I watched and you probably.
00;43;13;06 - 00;43;31;24
Rob Lee
Seen it too that it's a I think it's either black or noir maybe. But it was a slasher horror documentary where Jordan Peele mentioned that black people tend to root for the villain in stories and horror movies, because that's how we it's almost like representative of how we're treated in society. You know, we're always the villain, the black guy did it.
00;43;33;06 - 00;43;42;10
Rob Lee
What are your thoughts on embracing the villain in a story? Because, you know, most of your your guys, they're Dr. Horror character. They're they're the villains. So tell me about that.
00;43;43;07 - 00;44;20;05
Trisrex
Look, there they were the villains. Somebody just somebody somebody wrote them. And I don't see listen, I said in this, everybody's the hero of their own story. Yeah, I don't believe they're villains at all, because if you look at some of the backgrounds as far as what drove them to go down the specific paths that they went down, you know, it's like, hey, you know, if if most of us were, you know, presented with that type of situation, a lot of us would fall into that villain category.
00;44;20;21 - 00;44;49;22
Trisrex
I look I look at them all as heroes. But in this case, as far as like rooting for the villain, yeah, I definitely see myself doing that more because, one, we are treated that way in society a lot, way more than often. You are six foot four, £300 black dude from Baltimore, right. It yeah, he saw I am the embodiment of the Southside of Chicago.
00;44;50;20 - 00;45;17;01
Trisrex
You know when you think about where you probably won't think about somebody like me, you know what I'm saying? I'm I'm a bigger black guy, you know, I'm muscular, you know, probably like the people that you don't want to see in a dark alley near you. But it's one of those things where I see myself rooting for because I want some form of like just doing for the people that have been done wrong.
00;45;17;10 - 00;45;52;22
Trisrex
Yes. And one of the reasons why I find myself creating villains in Monster is because for 34 years of my life, I've been looked at as a monster. So I know what audiences in what mainstream media and people fear because I know the reactions that I get when I'm walking a little too fast in Target or when I got black on all black on enjoying fabric, or when I got the skull at the gym, you know, I look a little bit like, Oh, artist on cosplay.
00;45;52;22 - 00;46;22;05
Trisrex
Oh yeah, okay, cool. But I know that feeling that those monsters have. And then like I said before, I always felt a little bit more in tune with nature. So in a lot of the movies that I, you know, watch and study are more creature focused. And I'm always for them. Yeah, I try to, you know, I try to stay away from the slashers because there's a lot of bad people in real life killing people.
00;46;22;05 - 00;46;26;26
Trisrex
Being from Chicago, I'm kind of like, okay, I don't need to see nobody get shot. I mean.
00;46;27;24 - 00;46;28;08
Rob Lee
They hear.
00;46;29;10 - 00;46;30;21
Trisrex
I'm good.
00;46;31;07 - 00;46;32;06
Rob Lee
I think I'm all set, guys.
00;46;32;26 - 00;46;51;25
Trisrex
Yeah. So I tend to and no, you know, that's not nothing against that section of horror because I learned I got to see how it ends because it's part of my job. I got to watch all horror. But when I have my choice, right? Yeah. Even some creatures, you got to have some monsters. And I'm always looking for them.
00;46;51;25 - 00;46;53;15
Trisrex
I'm always looking for the underdog.
00;46;53;15 - 00;46;56;06
Rob Lee
In this case, I'm looking for a dude in a rubber suit, you know.
00;46;56;26 - 00;46;57;29
Trisrex
Doing a rubber soul or.
00;46;57;29 - 00;47;00;04
Rob Lee
A foam suit. If, if, if there's your word, you know?
00;47;00;05 - 00;47;02;01
Trisrex
But I'll try to make it out of foam. Yeah.
00;47;02;24 - 00;47;03;28
Rob Lee
So, so, so.
00;47;04;08 - 00;47;09;18
Trisrex
But yes, I definitely agree. That was a long answer and long way to say yes.
00;47;09;26 - 00;47;27;02
Rob Lee
No. And I appreciate it because as you know, we don't we don't do short answers. Well, we about to do short answers, but we don't generally do short answers in the real part. We like to get the real answer, you know, and that is the real answer, a 100% agree. And yeah, so I've added.
00;47;27;27 - 00;47;28;00
Trisrex
A.
00;47;28;00 - 00;47;37;20
Rob Lee
Fair bit like for Rapidfire questions. So I got guys go, I got like eight Rapidfire questions for you. So brevity is key here. Don't overthink it. Don't overthink it.
00;47;38;01 - 00;47;38;26
Trisrex
All right. Gotcha.
00;47;40;09 - 00;47;48;24
Rob Lee
What's a monster movie design? A creature design that you would want to have a crack at, like a major movie that you're like, you know what could do that better?
00;47;49;23 - 00;47;55;06
Trisrex
Oh, better. Or want to add to whatever your interpretation is.
00;47;55;26 - 00;48;00;05
Rob Lee
You just want to crack at it. You're like, You know what I wish? I wish I did that.
00;48;00;05 - 00;48;24;14
Trisrex
But that's Olga from Relic. From The Relic. It was I think it came out in 95 or 96. Mm hmm. Chicago based movie here at the Film Museum. Super dope. I love the design. I just. I love the design. It was so different. Mm hmm. I just think that with my set in, my we being super in tune with nature.
00;48;24;20 - 00;48;38;08
Trisrex
Yeah, I think that I could create something that would be super dope. Not to say it's not dope. I love that. That character and creature design. Right? I just like, yo, I really wish I could have had a crack at that.
00;48;38;20 - 00;48;42;25
Rob Lee
One as 97, by the way, 20th anniversary, 25th anniversary.
00;48;43;14 - 00;48;49;26
Trisrex
The relic is a very super sleeper. One of the best creature reveals too.
00;48;50;19 - 00;49;06;08
Rob Lee
And then this is apt because like I said, I've been doing some deep dives and you know, I see the alien thing. And what usually goes with the alien is, maybe predator, for better or worse. I love the pantheon of predator. What is your favorite predator movie?
00;49;07;08 - 00;49;09;08
Trisrex
One Predator. One.
00;49;09;08 - 00;49;10;05
Rob Lee
You get it. You get it.
00;49;10;05 - 00;49;21;19
Trisrex
The the mystery in law. Yeah. In the actual build up of not no one who's hunting you it's almost is something very mysterious about that first movie.
00;49;22;16 - 00;49;30;18
Rob Lee
Now take now I'm talking black. Not as in title, but as in the demographic. Right. What is your favorite black horror movie.
00;49;32;02 - 00;49;58;07
Trisrex
I'll be honest with you, is probably get out. Okay. The super racing, super racing get out was very scary to me. Very scary to me. And one of the things that freaked me out the most is the one scene where they had everybody over at the house and he was getting all of the compliments and there was like there was speaking about him as if he weren't there.
00;49;58;13 - 00;50;19;03
Trisrex
Yeah. And being, you know, these are things that people joke about and sometimes you hear them in subtle ways from like your colleagues that who are not black and it's like, damn, that's how you think of me. You know what I'm saying? And it was very it was very scary. Very scary.
00;50;19;14 - 00;50;23;23
Rob Lee
For for a brief second, I thought you were going to say because you did some stunt work in it is L'Oreal, how.
00;50;27;14 - 00;50;30;01
Trisrex
Shot in this? I mean I.
00;50;30;01 - 00;50;40;11
Rob Lee
Mean for me it goes a little further back is the initial tail slowed? It's okay. It's rough with the puppets. I can't I can't jam with the puppets.
00;50;41;02 - 00;50;47;07
Trisrex
You know, tails from the hood. It's up there. It didn't scare me, though.
00;50;47;21 - 00;50;52;17
Rob Lee
I'm not grinding. I saw what it was. Take me. Yeah, that's the thing I saw when I was ten. So, you know that first time you like.
00;50;53;03 - 00;50;55;10
Trisrex
When they jump out the painting? I was like, I get it.
00;50;55;12 - 00;50;56;05
Rob Lee
Yeah, like that.
00;50;57;08 - 00;51;02;14
Trisrex
But it's always it hits a little bit different when I look like you two. Yeah, yeah.
00;51;02;20 - 00;51;23;02
Rob Lee
That's the thing. Because at one point, even that sequence in it where the politician that day, he's like a zombie. I was like, Nah, I'm good. I think I'm good because, you know, I haven't really like I'll put it this way, I was Jason because of my size for like five straight years. That was my Halloween costume. So it's just like I wasn't hanging around white people in the projects.
00;51;23;02 - 00;51;26;18
Rob Lee
This is like, Oh, this is this white person. This is a fictional character.
00;51;27;11 - 00;51;30;05
Trisrex
Yeah. But when you saw Candy, man, they had different.
00;51;30;14 - 00;51;32;03
Rob Lee
100%. 100%.
00;51;32;03 - 00;51;44;08
Trisrex
Yeah. You know what was freaky about Candyman? There is a couple of scenes. Oh, that was shot in my old university's library.
00;51;44;08 - 00;51;44;21
Rob Lee
Oh, wow.
00;51;44;21 - 00;52;06;16
Trisrex
And I used to be in my. I you know, I was at UIC University of Illinois at Chicago. Sometimes they would get late and sometimes, you know, be with a study group or something and you just are having those flashbacks like remember when she got dragged out, okay, cool. We don't get back to this fringe. And then for the latest one.
00;52;06;18 - 00;52;24;24
Trisrex
Yeah, as well as the oh one Cabrini-Green projects. I used to work, I'm all companies to be right across the street from it and just like some of those flashbacks now. Yeah, you know, it's a very Chicago centric film.
00;52;25;12 - 00;52;43;15
Rob Lee
Those I I'll just say this those movies because I'm about to do a screening as we as we're talking I'm going to do a screening around this time of the most recent one. And I was struggling between it because I did a review on the original and I was like the most recent one definitely pings on that button a bit more.
00;52;45;01 - 00;53;06;23
Rob Lee
The first movie definitely tickles the Gothic notes a lot more, which I really like. You know, like this is a tragic figure. It feels like it's a gothic story. Like, Oh, this works in this way. Whereas the update it, it works in different ways and there's an effect in it that I don't like that I'm going to make fun of.
00;53;06;23 - 00;53;15;14
Rob Lee
I don't like the A.J. I'll just say that I don't like the aging. This is like, look, just, you know, to say, look, he's just don't don't the aging he's you know I'm only tired is that the house and let that man live.
00;53;16;02 - 00;53;40;22
Trisrex
Yeah. Um, one of the things that I was really able to appreciate in his later one is the use of Cabrini Green as a character. Because if you're from Chicago, you know exactly what that project and what those buildings actually represented. And you also know the aftermath of it as well. So a lot of talk, sort of gentrification, things of that nature.
00;53;40;22 - 00;53;58;12
Trisrex
I, like Ty, was used as as a bigger character. There than just the first one. So yeah. And that might be some stuff that you might have to holler me about. I got to like, why did they? I'm like, Oh, I could tell you that. See, first of all, you know the glasses. But I've been I've seen some things, you know.
00;53;59;16 - 00;54;04;22
Rob Lee
I think eventually when I do the actual movie review, that's the movie review, you're going to be honest. That's the one is going to happen.
00;54;05;10 - 00;54;06;26
Trisrex
That they had me for that one.
00;54;08;03 - 00;54;29;02
Rob Lee
I got four more. I mean if I for more want to knock out favorite Halloween candy factory apples. Okay, I'm going to save the very controversial one for later. The scariest movie you've seen the last five years in technically get out is in there. But let's exclude get out from this this scenario one.
00;54;29;02 - 00;54;37;07
Trisrex
Not really I don't really get scared. I don't know if I can answer this question or surprised.
00;54;37;07 - 00;54;38;12
Rob Lee
Maybe, maybe surprising.
00;54;39;10 - 00;54;45;13
Trisrex
I'm not really surprised either. I'm not. I listen, it takes much it takes a lot to move me.
00;54;45;28 - 00;54;46;28
Rob Lee
Okay?
00;54;46;28 - 00;54;59;00
Trisrex
Mainly because, you know, being in this realm, in this industry, you know, I consume and I see and I create. So much, I'm like, this is going to take a lot to scare me.
00;54;59;08 - 00;55;01;05
Rob Lee
This next question is going to be really worry that.
00;55;01;22 - 00;55;02;12
Trisrex
All right.
00;55;03;04 - 00;55;04;11
Rob Lee
Have you ever been scared.
00;55;04;11 - 00;55;30;15
Trisrex
By one of your own creations? Have I ever like, damn, I did a good job on it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I trusted it. I'm be honest with you, atrocities took some getting used to see the grittiness, the eyes up. Yo, listen, my boy, he came over. We were doing some stuff, I think it was. He was just in the studio with me.
00;55;30;22 - 00;55;55;17
Trisrex
He was like, I can't look at him for two long. I'm like, I got it. I got it in eyes. I know what it is. It's the high cheekbones and the eyes and the t and the yeah, yeah, yeah. He takes some time to get used to. And just as a menacing figure, I really hit the nail on the head with that.
00;55;55;26 - 00;56;00;12
Trisrex
When I brought him to see to read through, he was little kids. Aiden like him.
00;56;01;11 - 00;56;18;04
Rob Lee
I would say at one point when the pandemic first started, I have this aerosol airsoft only mask. It's got a big teeth, a bugged out eyes. And I was just wearing it in a very white friendly area. And I was like, this was my this is my mask. And then someone who sees me walk up, dissolves.
00;56;18;18 - 00;56;21;23
Trisrex
You know, like in a big phony mask.
00;56;22;01 - 00;56;24;23
Rob Lee
Is a who's this Tom Cruise, this large doll.
00;56;25;22 - 00;56;27;04
Trisrex
Right?
00;56;27;04 - 00;56;45;05
Rob Lee
Here's the last one, kind of a two part. And it's it's going to sound a little similar to one of the early ones. But this is not necessarily one I think you would want to do. But that you would want to see done in a practical way. So is CGI cheating? And if so, which CGI monster would you see?
00;56;45;05 - 00;56;47;08
Rob Lee
Would you want to see done over some practical effect?
00;56;47;18 - 00;57;11;16
Trisrex
Oh, yeah, yeah. All right. Okay. So first to answer, CGI is not cheating. It is to supplement the art. Oh, it could be overused at times. I think it's best use when it's paired with practical. Jurassic Park 93 proves that my favorite movie pretty much changed everything.
00;57;11;25 - 00;57;19;24
Rob Lee
Stranger Things that are recently too with the friggin yeah yeah that was that was a really good combination of the two.
00;57;20;18 - 00;57;48;16
Trisrex
A really good combination of two. Now the second half of that question, is there a CGI character that I think will be done better practically? Right. That's hard. That's a hard one because use is hard for me because usually I'm so like dialed in to what I'm working on being like Ed, you know, predator, alien, all of that stuff.
00;57;49;02 - 00;58;12;25
Trisrex
There was I was just rewatching the Resident Evil with Milla Jovovich Yeah, there was a couple of scenes with the liquor, not saying that they could have did the whole entire thing, but I'm like, Yo, if they would have shot that one scenes, it was practical, even if it's just like the front torso of it. They could have been made.
00;58;12;25 - 00;58;38;10
Trisrex
It could have hit way harder as far as like believability because sometimes, you know, in that early 2000 snack, we got some really wacky CGI acting, but it was dope for the time. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there was a couple of things in a couple of really, really. I only cared about it because I'm a huge resident, evil fan.
00;58;38;15 - 00;59;01;14
Trisrex
Yeah. You know, so I'm not even going to talk about like the recent stuff they've been putting out because if that's the case, all of that should be done practically. And I could do it for low so holler at me cap com and Netflix it was good Netflix. I could do it for real. But yeah, there was a scene with the liquor.
00;59;01;18 - 00;59;21;29
Trisrex
Yeah, I think it was either the second or third movie was the one with Mike Epps in it might have been the third movie because that's when they introduced Nemesis. But there was a couple of things that I saw. I'm like, Know what I could do that practically and shoot that and make it look better. So that's that's one of the things.
00;59;21;29 - 00;59;34;05
Trisrex
And plus, it's just, you know, as a as a resident evil fan, you know, just like, you know, now that I do what I do, it's like, hey, we got to put some respect on these creatures because you.
00;59;34;05 - 01;00;00;16
Rob Lee
Want to you want to see the needle pushed in a way that if like, I like I have a, I have a yokai tattoo. I have like an I have a few dog, I have like an Oni. I got some wild Japanese tattoos or what have you and you know, it's one of those things where you we're starting to see more and more of these things that could be done in a way like I'll put it this way when I watch Shang-Chi and that fu dog pops out, I'm like, Yeah, I like lost my mind.
01;00;00;16 - 01;00;19;22
Rob Lee
I was like, Let's go. But a lot of, a lot of CGI, voodoo dogs. And if it was a practical effect, I don't know how they would do it or what have you. But, you know, just because of my knowledge base. But yes, give me all of it. Give me all of it. So it's like I want to see these things that, you know, it doesn't feel like it's a video game because I agree.
01;00;19;22 - 01;00;43;23
Rob Lee
I don't think it's cheating either. But I think to your point, it is overused in instances and you know, barbershop conversations, I always go back to 20. So we're 20 years removed. And you're talking about those 2000 CGI. I do remember watching Blade and it's a bad fight. It all CGI and it's kind of cheap because everyone is wearing black and it's shot at night.
01;00;43;23 - 01;00;58;16
Rob Lee
And I was like, This is a shortcut. I was like, It's fine. Yeah, I'm sure there's talent and all of that attached to it, and I'm not legislating that, but I'm like, You guys didn't need to use that here. You could have just did some choreography get back to filmmaking versus, you know, the digital.
01;00;58;16 - 01;01;34;28
Trisrex
Yes. Yeah. That's you know, that's one of the things that I really been watching for and studying. Like the only way in this case, you know, just making it, you know, plausible in this case, you see, is if I physically can't make a puppet or a actor doing or safely make a puppet or actor do it, you know, because there's a lot of Karen Church that, you know, in different ways of editing to to pull things off.
01;01;34;28 - 01;02;12;00
Trisrex
Like, for example, the scene in Aliens when they're in the bedroom and Hicks looks he, you know, they see them coming closer on a monitor and Hicks goes up and he looks underneath the air vent. He sees them crawling upside down, whatever, really crawling on all fours. They just need to flip it and shot it. But once you see it, it looks like, you know, so it's like the flesh kind of going back to what I said, it's like the less technology we had, the more creative we were forced to be.
01;02;12;18 - 01;02;32;19
Trisrex
And I think it's just one of those things where it's like now you can see like, Yo, we're going to write this big budget, CGI blockbuster, and it's like, No, stop, don't stop. That's why I don't believe you. That's why we don't believe you like at all. It takes me out of so many movies.
01;02;32;22 - 01;02;37;08
Rob Lee
That's that's why people, you know, that these older filmmakers, they get in their old Manhattan.
01;02;37;19 - 01;02;37;27
Trisrex
And.
01;02;38;19 - 01;03;04;02
Rob Lee
Not making movies and you know, there is like a at times a overreliance on it. And I think the way that you described, if you're able to use that sort of filmmaker approach, do some camera tricks because, you know, you start looking at stuff from like back in the day, like, you know, looking at old Hitchcock, you see camera tricks, you see different types of shots to get a certain and a certain reaction in, you know, and I'll leave on this before we hit this wrap up.
01;03;04;11 - 01;03;18;08
Rob Lee
But, you know, it's one movie that I dug a lot that actually elicited a response because it keyed in on one of the things that I can't jam with is scope and size. When something is a lot bigger than me, I can't deal. Is this movie called Underwater?
01;03;18;20 - 01;03;20;17
Trisrex
And I noticing.
01;03;20;29 - 01;03;21;04
Rob Lee
I'm.
01;03;21;24 - 01;03;22;07
Trisrex
Seeing.
01;03;22;10 - 01;03;24;01
Rob Lee
Other I think I'm all good. I think I'm good here, guys.
01;03;24;02 - 01;03;28;07
Trisrex
Yeah yeah. That, you know that was a sleeper film so yeah.
01;03;28;08 - 01;03;28;25
Rob Lee
I love that.
01;03;28;26 - 01;03;56;14
Trisrex
Movie for 2021. I don't think obviously we know what happened coming up to to to 2020. Right. But I don't even remember seeing too much marketing for the film. No, it was I so I heard about it doing a live audience on Instagram and then I did some research on it and watched it on HBO. Max But yeah, that I already know what you talking about.
01;03;56;14 - 01;04;11;13
Trisrex
I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it, but if you are afraid of things that are much bigger than you, there's a couple of sequences that you're just not going to like straight up. I loved it. I loved it. I love things that are bigger than me and I scary. That's how I'll make my money on a side.
01;04;11;13 - 01;04;21;16
Trisrex
And hey, you know, I'm like one of the bigger, the better. But I understand where size could, like, really freak you out. Yeah.
01;04;21;27 - 01;04;37;21
Rob Lee
It was great, though. The way that I make my money on a side is talking to super, super interesting individuals such as herself. So I want to thank you for being on this podcast with me this evening. And I want to invite and encourage you to tell the fine folks where to check you out, your work, social media, all of that great stuff.
01;04;37;21 - 01;04;40;20
Rob Lee
The floor is yours for show.
01;04;40;20 - 01;04;52;05
Trisrex
I am Trist Rex, Tristan Tryst, Rex Johnson. Thank you all for having me. I appreciate it. You can find me on all social media on the Tryst. Rex or Tryst Rex Studio.
01;04;53;02 - 01;05;15;14
Rob Lee
So there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Tristian Trisrex Johnson for coming on to the podcast. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, scary things, spooky foam in and around your neck of the woods from the really talented people. He's got to look for it.
