People that know me well, know that I have a small Amazon Prime addiction. The idea that I can order practically anything I want, at any time of the day, have it delivered to my house in 2 days, for free is mind blowing. The downside to convenience is ease of compulsiveness. Before Prime the simple hurdle of driving to the store dissuaded me from 99% of my impulsive purchases.

One evening, possibly under the influence of the sticky sacrament of Jah, I found myself searching costume masks when a light bulb turn on in my head. Ideas come to me all day everyday but because of my lazy nature can’t always come to fruition. However, every year the internet makes it a little easier for me to accomplish these random ideas with very little effort.

I added one horse mask and one unicorn mask to my shopping cart and hit order. Five minutes later I decided I needed a third mask to make up the holy trinity of my conceptual fantasy and because I love to abuse the free shipping that Prime affords I ordered a creepy baby mask just to round things off.

With wardrobe on its way I ⌘-T’d over to Model Mayhem, another tool that has made my creative life easier for many years, and posted a casting call. The casting description was simple; Looking for 2-4 models near dodger stadium to wear nothing but a creepy mask. $50 for 2 hours of shooting. Within hours I was flooded with messages. I probably could have not offered to pay and still had a lot of request but I find that when a model is payed, even just a little, their likelihood of showing up is exponentially greater. The common excuse of my mom/grandma is in the hospital almost disappears. I weeded and filtered based on look and availability and decided on four models.

The location was also simple. About six months earlier I had found a place to live on Craigslist. After returning from South America I had dreamed of a place to live near downtown LA with the feel of a hostel. I sometimes doubt my manifestation abilities but the house I found on craigslist was exactly what I had envisioned but I’ll save that for a later post. Long story short I was living in a historic house with acres of land of which to shoot.

I made no plans for the day of the shoot. The plan was to let the models choose the mask they wanted, drink and smoke a few and let the cards fall as they may. I present to you here the final product of of a random idea hashed out in a haze, organized via the internet, and executed at home with a simple camera.

A unicorn, horse and creepy baby walk into the woods...