Behind the scenes at Purebred Studio's Monster Hunter photo shoot

Remember Purebred Studio's magnificent phantasmagoric photographs that I posted last month of artist Alex Pardee battling a tree monster? By popular demand, Purebred's Stacey Ransom and Jason Mitchell posted amazing "behind the scenes" documentation at their Fake Believe site. They've explained everything from the monster construction and set build to the make-up, studio lighting, and Photoshoppery. From Fake Believe:

The beast for this shoot needed to be large and foreboding, but it also had to be a wearable costume. So the framework we built the beast upon was a basic aluminum external frame backpack. These can be found in most sporting goods stores. I found the one we used on craigslist.org and paid about $40...

The shape of the beast was achieved by fanning out a series of hand cut “ribs.” The majority of lumber used was cut out of 1/4” Luan. This is a thin plywood that is available at specialty lumber yards...

The mouth actually opened and closed. This was achieved very simply. The back of the jaw was attached to the main frame with zip-ties that were laced through eye hooks. The zip ties are adjustable. Transparent 100lb filament (fishing line) was laced through a series of eye hooks that led from the center of the lower mouth to the top of the mouth, to the back of the frame, and down the back.

"Monster Hunter Series"

• [Joseph Francis]

  I love those guys

• [KBert]

  “The majority of lumber used was cut out of _1.4”_ Luan. This is a thin plywood”
  Mebbe 1.4 mm? Now, that’s thin. EDIT: OK, read the story – 1/4″
  Beats me, but this is inspiring.

  • [ransom notes]

    KBert! – thanks for catching my typo. yup – it’s 1/4″ luan. 8X
    I can build monsters, but these keyboardy thingys trip me up every time. go figure.

• [David Kilfoil]

  1/4″ Luan maybe?

• [cymk]

  Sweet monster suit.