BOARDMAN, Ore.-Fall is a busy time for professional pumpkin carver Roger Pope, of Boardman, and this year he had the opportunity to carve for the Pokémon company.
“It was one of the highlights of my carving journey,” said Pope, of shooting an Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) video for his most recent project.
Pope has been a professional carver for about 12 years now, and competed on season 13 of “Halloween Wars,” a Food Network reality show where teams comprised of pumpkin carvers, bakers and sugar artists compete in challenges, in 2023.
The Pokémon Company, International (TPCI) contacted Pope via email and asked if he’d be willing to carve the character Marowak on a pumpkin for a Halloween-themed project.
TPCI provided the artwork, and Pope resized it to fit on the pumpkin, taping it to the surface and tracing the outline with an exacto knife before starting the carve.
“I realized it was surface sculpting, which is something I don’t do often,” said Pope. “It’s out of my comfort zone, but I was up for the challenge.”
There are three types of pumpkin carving, cut-through, surface sculpting, and 3-D sculpting, according to Pope, who usually specializes in 3-D sculpting.
The TPCI project required surface sculpting to create the image of Marowak on the pumpkin.
By scraping away layers of the pumpkin without cutting through it, Pope was able to create the light areas the image needed, while leaving the pumpkin’s skin thicker for dark areas, before illuminating the image from behind.
ASMR pumpkin carving video
TPCI wanted to create an ASMR video of Pope performing the Marowak carve and designed a set that combined elements of both Pokémon and Halloween, to shoot the hour-long video at the company’s headquarters in Bellevue.
For the video that would be mostly macro shots of his hands as he carved, Pope had a small microphone under his shirt and a larger mic about head-level, just out of the camera frame.
“They did my hair and makeup and even gave me a manicure,” said Pope. “My girlfriend said my ‘nails never looked so good.’”
Although Pope has appeared on TV before and was used to the full set that included a director, camera operators, hair and makeup artists, and sound technicians, the ASMR set was unlike previous experiences.
“The silence was pretty crazy,” said Pope. “There’s an intensity in being in a room full of people but having it be absolutely silent.”
The process of filming an ASMR video was rather arduous at times, according to Pope, with starts and stops as the camera and lighting were repositioned for shots, but the finished product is a seamless video and a perfectly carved likeness of Marowak.
“It was lit and filmed beautifully,” said Pope. “The scratching, scraping and carving sounds the microphones picked up were remarkable.”
The full ASMR video of Roger Pope’s Marowak pumpkin carve is available on Pokémon’s official YouTube Channel.
Carving season winding down
Pope is almost done with a chainsaw woodcarving project depicting a series of flowers and leaves with a ladybug and butterfly at Bennett Botanical Gardens and plans to have the carve sealed by winter.
“They gave me creative license and I’m really happy with how it’s coming out,” Pope said of the wood project. “I love the fact that it’s way over-scale, almost like an Alice in Wonderland dreamscape.”
An alien-themed carve by Pope will be on display at the City of Umatilla’s Trick or Treat on 6th Street on October 24 from 4:30 until 7 p.m.
Pope will also lead a Pumpkin Sip & Carve event from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. at the Echo Corn Maze on October 24.
Tickets for the event are $35 and include a drink, pumpkin, tools and carving instructions. Tickets are available online.
“People should bring their energy and a willingness to learn,” said Pope. “It’s a way to pay it forward like others in the industry did for me.”
On October 25 Pope will be carving at Middleton Farms in Pasco for the final time this fall, and on the 26th he will be at the Echo Corn Maze.
Pope will then team up with a fellow professional carver for a private “Passport to Pumpkins” carve for the Expedia Group in Seattle on October 29 and 30.
