-It’s a little over a week ago, but I finally made the time to do my recap on my last day filming on TALES OF DRACULA: Dracula Meets The Wolfman” from 10/24/2020. It’s been about a year since we last filmed. Obviously delays occurred mainly due to Covid-19, but we finally got this all done.
-I got up quite early for this and headed out towards the Binghamton area in the early morning. It had been raining before and, since one of the main scenes involved being outside in a graveyard, I was really hoping the rain would hold out till we got done filming. Imagine my surprise when I arrived to find out that the graveyard was all inside of a building to simulate being outside. No rain to worry about. That was awesome and made things much less stressful. The only thing was the building was near a highway so most if not all the dialog said this day has to be redone via ADR. Unlike a lot of actors in the CNY area, I love doing ADR and look forward to doing it. So while this was my “last day” filming, it’s not my final day with the film.
-The first step after arrival was getting into costume. For some reason, I didn’t think there was a pair of pants there for me so I brought my own. Can you imagine me as Dracula with no pants? Isn’t that Von Helsing’s (Mickey Ray) job? (HA!) 🙂 Following that was getting made up by acclaimed horror make-up artist Ron Chamberlain. It seemed to go a little faster than before but, as he himself told me, he has put on Dracula make-up on me so much he could do it in his sleep. One nice addition I brought were almost-prescription strength FX contacts. No more being led around the sets by others for me 🙂 They fit very well and caused no problems. It was then time to meet new cast members as well as talking with past members, catching up on various things. So much can happen in a year’s time. I was also taking some pics of the set-which looked great. I actually didn’t take as many pics as many would expect. Maybe I’m just getting old…
-Then came time for filming, which for the most part went smoothly. I didn’t change my lines too much and the ones I did didn’t mess with scripty too much (HA!) There was a fight scene which I can’t describe but I can say too awhile cause while there was a framework, it took time to flesh it out so to speak. As per normal for me on set, I did get slight injured-a scrape on my right hand-as well as me almost going thru the wall at the top of the stairs cause I forgot it wasn’t a real wall. I also did a stunt that some of the people involved weren’t prepared for my intensity but what happens on set stays on set right? 🙂 Also, FYI-when it comes to the Dracula cape, there’s usually two (one that is normal and the other with wooden poles on the end so as to help when Dracula “spreads his wings” so to speak. Unfortunately, all we had was the one with the poles and during on take of the fight one of those poles jammed into my shoulder. OUCH! :O It was just a “flesh wound” and just walked it off 🙂
-From leaving my home to getting back there lasted 19-20 hours total (!). It’s all worth it though and I really miss it since this year I’ve hardly done any acting-mainly due to Covid-19 as well as personal issues. It was great working with everyone and I think people will enjoy this film even more than the first. Director Joe DeMuro has said that this is the last “Tales of Dracula” film to be made. He has also mentioned that there might be a “Tales of Dracula 3.” I hope there is and that I still can bring it on set to be a part of it.
Below is a link to the pics from last weekend. After that is a link to the pics from the 2019 shoot. Enjoy
WAYNE W. JOHNSON 