Everything about Slasher, eh?

Gunslingers kits out the cops (and killers) in Canadian TV

Seth Rossman’s IMDB page lists high-profile television projects like Slasher, Man Seeking Woman and Republic of Doyle, but it takes a keen eye to spot his work. If he does things right, you never see him at all. That’s because Rossman and his staff at Gunslingers supply the firearms, police and military wardrobe and vehicles, and fabricate items to be used by the men and ladies in the cast.

But Rossman (on the right in the top photo) didn’t start out in the industry working with real and fake firearms. After a gig in web development, he switched over to a career in make-up artistry, then as a private makeup artist to Seth Green, Eva Longoria, Cary Elwes, Kim Coates and more before a horrible accident sent him on this path.

Tell me about the accident that lead to you beginning Gunslingers.
Seth Rossman: I was down in the Dominican Republic working with Eva Longoria and I was struck down by a drunk driver. I was headed back to base camp and riding quads because we were working in the jungle. I was sitting at a red light and then advanced into the intersection and a local on a motorcycle took me out. He shattered my right leg from hip to ankle and it was a couple of days before they were able to get me out of the country. A couple of surgeries and a year and a half later I was walking. I was going through the surgeries and the rehab and was being told by the doctors that I needed to be realistic. They originally told me I might lose the leg. Then it was I’d keep the leg but it would never work. Then it was that the leg would work, but never properly. Then they said it would work properly, but I’d never get 15 hours a day on it. They were right about that.

As a makeup artist, the ability for me to chase an actor around a film set for 14 a day was gone. I was sitting on my couch trying to figure out what to do. I had a friend in the industry that was an armourer and I had been on set with him—we were both working on the same project—and he’d been asking if anyone could help him because he was short-staffed. I had wrapped my work and was just hanging out. He needed someone with a firearms license to help him and I did. I helped him through the night and at the end of it he handed me an envelope with cash in it. Fast-forward a year and a half and I realized maybe there was something to that. I looked at the industry and started asking around and was told there was room for another armaments company because everyone was using the same houses.

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What were some challenges you faced?
We had to obtain all of the licenses, so there were a lot of hoops to jump through with the government to get those. That took a little over a year. Once that was done, we were sitting with an empty warehouse. We needed to figure out what to house to be able to service the industry. We did market research and figured out what the most popular firearms are and went to the Internet Movie Firearms Database. Then we went out and invested in the firearms and then modified them for film and TV. Then we needed to train everyone on how to work with them, take them to set, service them on set and send them out.

Then people started to ask about police belts, police uniforms. To do a scene with a police officer you need a gun, a uniform and a car. We had to expand to cover all of that. We have a vast firearms collection, a huge wardrobe selection, a massive props selection, all revolving around law enforcement, military and tactical stuff.

When you’re on-set, you need to educate these folks.
When we get to set, we introduce ourselves to the powers-that-be and check in. We explain we’re the armourer for the day and, if possible, can speak to the actor or actress for half an hour so that you get the performance you want. We meet whoever that is and go over the safety and protocol procedures. That always leads into education with regard to how they’re holding the gun and then they start picking our brain.

Let’s talk about specific projects; what did you do for the folks at Slasher?
Slasher brought us in to handle their armaments solution, so we came in to work with Dean McDermott for the pistol work on the show and provided all the firearms. We provided the gunfire effects on the show and all of the weapons that you see. You’ll see a scene involving cinderblocks and we made those, there’s a scene with a baseball bat and we made that; we manufactured all of those in-house.

What are the cinderblocks made out of?
Foam. We have moulds and produced them.

How has HDTV presented a challenge when it comes to making something look realistic?
When it comes to making props, what we make is really high-end. The cost isn’t cheap, but you’re paying for a prop that can be put two feet in front of a camera and you can’t tell the difference.

What other projects have you got on the go?
We just provided the wardrobe solution for Wolf Cop 2 and the entire law enforcement solution for CTV’s Cardinal.

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Link: Wendy Crewson Talks Slasher and Saving Hope

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

Wendy Crewson Talks Slasher and Saving Hope
“You don’t get those kinds of parts. They don’t write them, they’re not out there. In the beginning, she was a little more prim. I said I wanted to try something. ‘How about [in Brenda’s first scene], if I’ve got my back to the camera and I’m smoking?'” Continue reading. 

 

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Link: Aaron Martin Talks Slasher’s First Season and Teases the Finale

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

Aaron Martin Talks Slasher’s First Season and Teases the Finale
Slasher has become a spring favorite around here, and Friday night, the eight-episode first season wraps up for U.S. audiences on Chiller. We haven’t been able to screen the episode ahead of time, so I have no spoilers, but I do have a treat. I jumped on the phone with series creator Aaron Martin, who wrote all eight episodes, to talk about turning to horror after a relatively family friendlier early career, crafting a serial killer drama, and what’s next. Continue reading.

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Slasher cuts another character

With the Season 1 finale airing on Chiller this Friday, fans in Canada watching Slasher on Super Channel are still seven weeks behind. Sarah and Dylan have just moved to Waterbury, and Verna McBride (Mary Walsh) and Justin Faysal (Mark Ghanimé) are The Executioner’s first two victims. That is, if there is in fact just one person committing the crimes, something Police Chief Iain Vaughn (Dean McDermott) was hoping when Heather Peterson (Erin Karpluk) was arrested last week.

Clearly, as “Like As Fire Eateth Up and Burneth Wood”—Friday’s new episode—shows, the wrong person was put in jail. That’s not all we learn during the instalment; here’s a sneak peek at what’s to come.

Brenda confesses
We love Wendy Crewson in everything, but she really shines in Slasher. Creator Aaron Martin has written a sassy, cigarette smoking chick who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, especially when things get a little tense. When she and Sarah find themselves in a dangerous position, she pulls out a gun, stating: “You think I’d return to this shit-hole without packing a little heat?” Line of the night. There is one thing that scares Brenda, and that’s the past: her confession, revolving around an incident in 1968, threatens to ruin the relationship she’s got with Sarah.

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Tropes twisted
Horror movies contain some of the most hackneyed scenes and dialogue ever. Running and hiding in a closet. Calling “Hello, is anyone there?” into a darkened room. Hitting re-dial on your phone and having it ring the killer hiding inside your house. Martin’s nods to those well-worn customs are rife, but subtle twists on them result in truly scary moments.

Shout-out to Mr. D
Booth Savage, who played Principal Callaghan on Mr. D, gets new life on Slasher as the mayor of Waterbury. It’s pretty safe to say we’ve never seen this side to him before.

The Executioner vs. Sarah
Turns out The Executioner isn’t merely killing everyone. There is method to his madness and Sarah discovers what that is during the show’s closing moments.

Slasher airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Super Channel.

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Slasher’s latest suspect/victim: Brandon Jay McLaren’s Dylan Bennett

If Sarah Bennett would seem an unlikely suspect, her husband Dylan would make for the perfect killer. With all of the secrets around Waterbury, it’s more likely to suspect someone from there than outside the town. And, let’s be honest, dead folks can make a man’s newspaper career, something the industrious Dylan is certainly looking to do.

In our second instalment of interview with the cast of Slasher, the Vancouver native talks Dylan, his friendship with showrunner Aaron Martin and Harper’s Island.

Congratulations on Slasher. Before we talk about that, though, you were fantastic on Harper’s Island.
Brandon Jay McLaren: Thanks. I feel like Harper’s Island was a little ahead of its time. Now that show would kill. It’s the perfect binge-watch. We were just a little premature. That was on CBS back when live ratings numbers meant something. I think our premiere was 10 million, and then we got 7 million for the second episode and they moved us to Saturday nights.

Talk to me about Dylan and his relationship with Sarah.
We met under a very strange circumstance, and she wants to come back to her hometown where her parents were murdered and she was pulled out of her mom’s womb. It’s very gruesome. She’s grown up with this about where she’s from and her past and we decide to move back to her hometown and move back to her parent’s house and fight her fears. Let’s move back and move on, because it’s been a debilitating thing in her life. We move back and the murders start happening again in a very similar fashion.

I play a journalist from the city and I move to this small town and take over the paper. These murders are terrible, but they’re good for me because I have this huge international story on my hands, so I’m pushed and pulled. Dylan’s career is skyrocketing, we have a Nancy Grace-type character come up and I’m put on TV. That’s why I took the role, because it’s different from what I’ve done on Graceland.

What are Aaron Martin’s scripts like?
They’re different. I worked with Aaron on The Best Years and a couple of seasons of Being Erica, just in and out, and this is a complete departure from anything I’ve ever read of his. I didn’t know that he was this sick in his head and I told him that. [Laughs.] He’s very good with relationships and you have that, but it’s gruesome and terrible. It makes for some really good reading.

Because you’ve known him for so long, are you more apt to read something Aaron has written?
Oh sure. He’ll contact me. He’ll be like, ‘Hey man, I’m doing this thing up here. When are you wrapped on Graceland? I’d love for you to take a look at this.’ Anytime he calls I’m fair game if I’m available. He always lets me play something that I haven’t played before, so this was another opportunity.

Slasher airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Super Channel.

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