This Is Halloween — VoicePlay music video
The approach of spooky season is always special with VoicePlay. In 2018, it meant that it was time for their second visit to Halloween Town, which involved even more elaborate makeup than the previous one. It also contains an important reminder — don't take unwrapped candy from strangers, no matter how little and cute they might be.
Details:
title: This Is Halloween
original performers: cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
written by: Danny Elfman
arranged by: Layne Stein
release date: 5 October 2018
My favorite bits:
the legato opening chords from Grim Grinning Ghosts under the intro section transforming into the more rhythmic opening of this song
the halftime echo of Earl and J.None's harmony lyrics behind Eli's lead melody
everybody's concerned reactions as their voices and bodies start to change
Geoff reflexively flinging the spiders from his hair at Layne
the syncopated wails of ♫ "HAL-lo-ween HAL-lo-ween" ♫
Eli's semi-operatic tone on ♫ "the next sur-priiise" ♫
the onomotopeia of ♫ "pounce pounce" ♫
their precise diction starting with ♫ "I am the clown..." ♫
Layne's little scamper behind the pumpkin tower
that bouncy ascending bass line that leads them through the key change
the driving percussion giving way to a full measure of straight double kick drums
♫ "That is our job and no we are not mean." ♫, so crisp
Eli's incredible breath control as he belts for over 10 seconds
their mischievous giggles as they scurry away
Jude's intense stare straight into the camera
Trivia:
VoicePlay originally recorded this song for their 2012 Disney album, "Once Upon An Ever After".
This is the second of four Halloween videos they've made using music and imagery from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It also happened to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the movie.
Each of VoicePlay's video projects is usually handled from start to finish by whoever does the music, but for this one they spread their duties out a bit more. Layne did the vocal arrangement, while Geoff handled the video production process.
The guys are once again representing characters from the original movie — J.None is the wolfman, Eli is the mayor of Halloween Town, Geoff is one of the vampires, Earl is the behemoth, Layne is Lock, and the trick-or-treater is dressed as Jack.
The YouTube description contains another important safety tip — "There is only one Earl Elkins and he is not exactly human. Do NOT try to smash YOUR skull-meat with an axe… it will hurt."
The filming process for this video spanned two days — one for the framing scenes and the start of the singing, and another for their monster morphing.
The full transformations took more than 12 hours because of the extensive prosthetic makeup involved, not to mention contact lenses and costume changes. Their shot list was "the spreadsheet from hell" by necessity. Once a step in someone's monster makeup was added, it couldn't be taken off until the end.
The impressive makeup and prosthetics were designed by Andy Wright and Lia Forestner from Makeup & Creative Arts.
One of the trickiest parts of the makeup process was the fact that Layne turned out to be very ticklish when it came to being airbrushed and had trouble sitting still.
Among the carvings in the jack-o-lantern tower are an Oogie Boogie face, a Jack Skellington face, and a VoicePlay logo.
There was also a hidden bottle of Diet Mountain Dew on the back side for emergency high tenor hydration.
The onesies Eli and Earl are wearing at the beginning are references to their respective roles in "The Chicken Song".
Geoff's dragon onesie made another appearance four years later in a short of "I Put A Spell On You", dueting with Winifred Sanderson from PattyCake's Hocus Pocus videos.
The group created individual character posters in the style of Stranger Things to promote the video on social media.
The jowled prosthetic was added to the MCA / Morphstore collection as a custom item, with Eli as the model and the more generic product name of "fat boy".
The trick-or-treater is Layne's nephew, Jude. Though the over-the-shoulder shot of him knocking on the door is actually Kathy wearing the top of the costume and kneeling on the stoop. Apparently giving a young child lots of candy and then trying to get him to do something slowly isn't the best plan.
J.None had a late-night gig booked after the shoot, and was still wearing parts of his costume when he rushed out to get to that.
Rek Dunn, the guys' longtime friend and production collaborator, made a behind-the-scenes video as a project for a continuing education course he was taking.
The Makeup and Creative Arts team also made a behind-the-scenes video focused on the prosthetics processes.
Some aspects of the makeup made it a little difficult to enunciate. (Good thing their audio was prerecorded.)