Psycho Potato

It only took a few moments of brainstorming with Ivy (media university student and helpful daughter) to come up with an idea for the video competition that I had been thinking about. My ideas so far for a re-enactment of a scene from a movie or television moment had been these:

• the Susan Boyle 'Britain's Got Talent' audition featuring Susan Boyled Potato
• a Jedward moment featuring King J-Edward Potatoes

Ivy suggested the iconic shower scene from Psycho. I failed to come up with any potato related puns for this but the creative juices began to flow!

I am already sure that Taylor's boyfriend thinks I'm insane. Did he need any more proof than to find me in the middle of building a shower set whilst cooking up some mash potato in the microwave? I absolutely loved making a miniature knife out of cardboard (as I mentioned yesterday, I have a bit of a passion for scaled down things that make me feel like a giant!) Sorting through 5Kgs of spuds to identify the perfect Norman Bates and Marion Crane was my moment as a casting director and the technical issue of a working shower head was solved when I rooted through my 2yr old's sandpit toys to find a little plastic watering can.  I was glad that my girls had persuaded me to buy them an array of Sharpie Markers as part of their 'Back to School' requirements because they were perfect for detailing the eyes of my characters and then there was the ketchup.....

As soon as I was ready and the 'actors' were impaled on skewers, it was just a matter of persuading my long suffering daughters to come and help. Daughter number 4 is generally my most willing accomplice and she didn't let me down. I made her watch the clip of the original 1960 shower scene on YouTube despite her reservations (she is the jumpiest person I know and hates horror films). It was 4minutes of hell for her but she stoically endured it for the sake of the project. She really drew the short straw as Ivy 'called dibs' on operating Norman (it was all her idea anyway!). It was unavoidable that Marion's puppeteer would get water poured all over their hand and arm - and we hadn't had the foresight to use warm water! To make matters worse, I acted on a piece of information that my dad had shared. He said that when 'Singing in the Rain' was made, the 'rain' did not show up very well on camera so milk was added to the water. If it was good enough fore Gene Kelly, it was good enough for me. So freezing cold, slightly milky water poured half way up your arm - would that be anybody's idea of fun?

By the end of the project, the whole family had got involved in one way or another. 'Psycho Potato' is destined to become part of our family folklore. Even the 2yr old now runs around making the famous Psycho stabbing sound effect!