Vanity Vamp 2021 Blog & BTS Photos

Hey guys, welcome back!
This week I wanted to share my stories and BTS of bringing my character Vanity Vamp to life. This project was three years in the making before she finally made her debut last October of 2021. Vanity, like all my characters, was an idea that lived in my head until finally introducing her to the world.

Earlier in 2021, my cousin Laura, who I adore, sent me a text message asking about the upcoming Halloween season. Laura is a huge fan and supporter of mine. She's very invested in my projects and is always asking questions trying to find out what's coming next! While we were texting, she was talking about my characters Trixy Treats and Misty Macabre, and then asked if there was a new character in the works. Hesitant to text anything (I'm a little superstitious), I asked if she'd like to jump on the phone for a call. Long story short,  I told her that there was a new character coming, but all I was willing to share with her was that the new character's theme was purple. Trixy's is orange, and Misty's is green.

I explained to her that years ago I had this idea for three Halloween characters that would be from the same world. They would have their own identity, personality, and story. Initially, I wanted to bring them all to life the first year that I created Trixy in 2018, but Trixy ended up being so successful that I didn't have time to bring any other characters to life until 2020.

My cousin and I wrapped up our chat, and she said that she felt like I should try and go through with this mysterious purple themed character. After our call, I felt very inspired and ran straight to my sketchbook. I drew up a few costume ideas and named the character right then and there. Sometimes all we need is a little encouragement to help develop our ideas and go through with something we may be unsure of.

A few months after speaking with my cousin, I reached out to my friend Britney and sent her a few of the sketches I drew. I wanted her opinion on what I came up with so far. She ended up going with one of my very last quick sketches, which is funny how that works sometimes. With my drawing as inspiration, Britney then began drawing up a costume based on what I sent her. After adding a bit of her own flair to the design, it was complete!

Once we had the costume design set in stone, I sent it off to a latex designer that I have now worked with multiple times. In the meantime, I had already spent months searching for the perfect location. I kept looking around and emailing people, but had no luck. When I finally came across the location we ended up going with, I had my mind made up as soon as I saw it. There was one picture in particular where I gasped and thought, "we have to shoot there, it's perfect!".

We had some trouble at first reaching out and getting in touch with whomever could grant us permission to shoot there, but after weeks of trying, we did eventually get into contact with them! Before hearing back from the chosen spot for Vanity, I did find another location that I really liked, but while going through the process of figuring everything out, something didn't feel right about it. Luckily, after deciding to walk away from the idea of the other location, we finally got in touch with who we needed to speak with in order to get the project moving along.

After finding a new contact for the location I had my heart set on, Steve reached out and quickly responded to our email. We met up with him just days after speaking on the phone. He gave us a full tour of the location a few weeks before our shoot, which was incredibly helpful because I could then plan the entire day and decide on exactly what poses I would choose to help the shoot go a little more smoothly.

There usually isn't an opportunity to visit a location ahead of time. You have to use your imagination from what you see online and come up with the best shots possible, and usually it works out! The opportunity to see the property ahead of time and learn some history was very beneficial before shooting the following month.

The location I'm speaking of is The Saratoga County Homestead, and I will just say that the pictures online do not do this place justice! As soon as we pulled up, I became overwhelmed with excitement and felt at ease about our upcoming shoot. We completed our tour that afternoon, and were now just waiting on the costume to arrive in the mail so we could come back!

Normally for our big Halloween shoots, we have everything done in the summer time, or at the very least, our projects had always been completed before October. Last year, there were quite a few delays, and though Trixy's shoot was completed early, we did not get to wrap up the project for Vanity until mid October, which was very stressful.

While getting ready very early the morning of the shoot I felt good about everything. We arrived at the location, and of course it started raining, because why wouldn't it? There always has to be several things that go wrong until everything starts going in the right direction, but that's the beauty of this wild ride!

As you can imagine, this location is very dark, which means you are relying completely on natural lighting unless you have equipment. It can be a bit tricky to get the perfect shot that you're looking for with just natural lighting in a dark setting, so in order to avoid this issue, we got a portable battery for all of our lighting equipment that we could use that day. We carried everything inside and got set up. It was officially time to shoot and I was very excited!

Brendan had the lighting ready to go, the portable battery was fully charged, and it was showtime! I stepped up onto the staircase with my little pumpkin pail and we began shooting. We must have been shooting no longer than 5 to 10 minutes, when suddenly the light stops working. Brendan went over to the portable battery to check everything and while doing so, he looked up at me and said, "It's dead..". Now, remember, when we arrived just minutes ago, the battery was completely charged. We checked before leaving our home, and upon arrival.

I knew that we didn't have all day to shoot at this location, so I told Brendan that we should go ahead and move on to another shot. At this point, Brendan was very stressed out and panicking because of the battery dying. I remained positive and told him which shot I was interested in completing next.

At the lovely Saratoga County homestead there is a hole in the roof, which I am grateful for (no sarcasm), because it helped us get this next shot that I'm going to tell you guys about. Luckily at this point, the rain had started to ease up so we were good to go. I was standing on the staircase looking as though I was walking up, while Brendan stood at the top of the stairs which is beneath where the hole in the roof is. Of course as soon as he stands on the top step, it starts raining again haha! Though it was raining, I had my heart set on this particular shot, and after just a few minutes of shooting, I reviewed the photos, and we nailed it! This photo is known today as "Phantom".

I handed the camera back to Brendan, and began walking up the stairs when all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye it looked as though a brown translucent figure passed behind him. While this happened, I was walking up the stairs (in heels) and it frightened me. I felt my heart begin to race and I blurted out "What was that?!"

I explained what happened to Brendan, but he unfortunately is one of those people that isn't sure if he believes in anything paranormal. He's open to it, but because he hasn't experienced anything for himself, he's on the fence. Since I was in work mode, I brushed it off and we continued up the stairs, and went up a level to shoot somewhere that had better lighting.

Now at this point we haven't been there that long, maybe an hour at most. We got set up in the next room, and Brendan had to run up to the gas station to grab a lighter for our candelabra. Luckily, there was no policy here that banned open flames haha! While Brendan was at the gas station, I decided to stay behind, because being in that costume was very uncomfortable. I "sat" there sort of leaning back in my lawn chair and waited until he came back. While I was waiting, and sitting awkwardly, I took a moment to relax and look out the window.

I could see the beautiful autumn colors in the trees and hear the rain while watching the leaves fall. It was very relaxing, and at no point did I feel scared to be there alone, because Steve was walking around the property doing some maintenance and making sure no one was trying to break in. For the record, people were actively trying to break in the entire time we were shooting there. Saratoga Homestead is a very popular spot, and I understand why!

As I'm sitting there chillin, enjoying the beautiful autumn day, I suddenly hear a woman right outside of the window, talking. At first, I assumed it was another trespasser, as people had already tried to break in within the first hour of us being there. I very awkwardly tried to maneuver myself out of the lawn chair to where I could lean out of the window to see who it was. Yet, after looking, I realized that no one was there.

At the time, I didn't think too far into anything I was experiencing because I was in work mode. About 10 minutes later, Brendan returned with the lighter and we continued shooting. Later on we met up with Steve again, I asked him, "Hey, so was there a woman up here earlier checking out the property and trying to break in?". He quickly responded with no confusion, and said, "Nope, no one's been up here." I said "That's really strange because I could hear a woman talking right outside of the window while Brendan went to the gas station." Steve responded and said, "Oh yeah, that happens all the time."

He told us during our tour that the place was haunted, which I knew from researching online, and that only made the location more exciting to me! I didn't think much of what he said, and we moved to the last spot we were going to shoot at for the day. At this point, the sun came out. I was sitting on the steps at the front of the building and the sun was beaming down on me. After a moment, a friendly lady bug flew down and landed on my leg.

I'm kind of a weirdo in that I think ladybugs are a sign of good luck and a good omen. So after a long stressful day of shooting, it felt like the universe was sending me sign. I very gently removed the ladybug because we had to continue shooting. After a few moments, my ladybug friend returned, and this time landed on my shoulder. This happened again a few more times and was a nice way to wrap the shoot with a sign of good luck.

Once we wrapped the shoot, I felt really confident about everything. When it comes to my work, I can be critical. In the past, I have been someone who felt like what they're doing wasn't enough and that I could always be doing more. Though I have grown a lot from those ways of thinking, I still have my moments, as I believe we all do. When we uploaded these photos later that night and we began I looking through them , I felt differently this time. I felt confident and proud.

I hadn't felt this way about many of my projects prior to Vanity, other than the first time we shot for Trixy Treats in 2018 and our photos from Lake Shawnee in 2020. I felt really good about everything and immediately thought back to the ladybug, and how it was in fact a good omen and sign of positive things to come.

We released the photos just days after our shoot at Saratoga Homestead, and the response was amazing! I had a few fans tell me that looking at the photos of this new character gave them the same feeling they experienced the first time they saw Trixy. Hearing that meant the world to me, because this was a project that I had been wanting to complete for years! The response was very overwhelming in the most amazing and beautiful way possible. I am so grateful and excited to have this character out in the world.

Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of patience, and knowing that when you have to wait for something, it more often than not is typically worth it! Now my vision of three Halloween characters is complete!

Thank you guys for taking the time to hang out with me and listen to the story and journey of how we brought Vanity Vamp to life. I'm glad that you love her and I will be talking with you guys soon!

Much love!
Angelica