SPECIAL MAKE-UP FX | ANIMATRONICS | BODY & FACE ART ISSUE 6 SPRING 2017 £6.95
IN THIS ISSUE… >> The 101
Year Old Man Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
FX CRIBS The new
Atla premise nta so Blue Wh f ale Studios
on the prosthetics for more of Allan Karlsson’s misadventures
>> Deconstructing
Disguise Makeup Neill Gorton on the skills and
psychology behind concealing identity
>> Fact Finding
FX contact lenses, fixing spray, photography, foam latex and finding the right oven!
>> Spectral Motion
Part two of our portrait of the animatronics trailblazers
Adventures in the
Creature Trade Dave and Lou Elsey discuss their decades of stellar success as a partnership in special makeup FX
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SPRING 2017 PUBLISHER Neill Gorton EDITOR Lisa Gorton DESIGNER Mike Truscott EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Laura Barnes ARTWORK ASSISTANT Stuart McDonald
Welcome
to issue six of Prosthetics Magazine
SALES Laura Hargreaves
“It’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle!”
PROOFREADER Mary Loveday
This phrase is very much suited to a career in film and television. The subject has been on my mind recently because I’ve noticed an increase in the number of people I speak to who are aspiring to have a career doing prosthetics and makeup FX, but struggle with the idea that they will have to relocate to do it. Just this week I’ve had a member of staff start work with me who has relocated from Scotland to Cornwall to take up a position.
Contact Prosthetics Magazine 59-61 Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall, UK. TR11 3PF Email info@prostheticsmagazine.co.uk
Thanks to social media making communication so much easier the world is now on your doorstep, and thinking globally has become second nature to all of us. The problem with this however, is that if you choose a career in film and TV makeup FX you have to be prepared to go to the jobs, as the jobs rarely come to you.
Subscriptions Subscribe to the magazine and online library at www.prostheticsmagazine.co.uk Cover image Theatrical makeup created for The Wiz Live! TV special (NBC) by Dave and Lou Elsey, for a performance broadcast live from Grumman Studios New York, see pages 21 & 22. Image courtesy of Dave Elsey.
CONTRIBUTORS Our sincere thanks to everyone who provided material for this issue and shared their knowledge so generously, in page order: Thomas Surprenant, Joe Nazzaro, Laura Barnes, Mike Elizalde, Mark Setrakian, Stuart Bray, Todd Debreceni, Stuart Conran, Karen Hughes, Jonah Levy, Matthew Silva and Vincent Damyanovich.
I was born and bred in Liverpool in the north west of England and when I was first looking to enter the industry the idea of doing this kind of work locally seemed impossible. Nowadays however there are certainly a far greater number of people who are managing to carve a career out regionally, but it can be tough. Most of those people are doing low and no budget jobs or, like my good friend Davy Jones back in Liverpool, work as a straight makeup artist too rather than relying solely on prosthetics to pay the bills. The problem with remaining local and regional is that you have very little choice of the kind and scale of productions you get to work on and the opportunities for career advancement are slim. In order to have the most opportunities you need to be prepared to go to the work and make personal sacrifices that can include relocating your entire family, leaving behind loved ones and friends in order to follow the jobs. In this issue we feature Dave and Lou Elsey. In a stellar career this dynamic duo have worked right across the globe, from the UK to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA and more. Dave and Lou are truly international and make their home wherever the work is. This dedication to their craft has garnered them fantastic opportunities taking them to the top of their game. I hope issue six holds lots of interesting content for you!
Content, instructional material and advertised products: The publisher is not responsible for unsolicited material, technical/artistic instruction or materials cited or promoted herein and does not endorse, guarantee, provide assurance of or recommend any products advertised or techniques described.
Neill Gorton Publisher
All contents © Prosthetics Magazine (a subsidiary of Neill Gorton Prosthetics Studio Ltd) or published under licence. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without prior written permission from the publisher, including for storage and transmission purposes. All rights reserved.
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Contents “…she was this sexy rock chick, who just happened to be a werewolf.” Lou Elsey
06 WORDS OF WISDOM Thomas Surprenant, Emmy Award
winning makeup FX artist sets the scene for this issue
08 ADVENTURES IN THE CREATURE TRADE
Joe Nazzaro talks to Dave and Lou Elsey about their incredible, enduring success as collaborators in screen prosthetics
JARGON BUSTER 27 Laura Barnes clears up the confusing
45 A LESSON IN LATEX, OR FUN WITH FOAM
The second of a two-part tutorial from Stuart Bray and Todd Debreceni, combining experience from both sides of the Atlantic on working with foam latex
THE 101 YEAR OLD MAN 52 Love Larson and Eva von Bahr talk to
Joe Nazzaro about creating the prosthetics for the further misadventures of a centenarian
and educator Stuart Conran’s top ten uses for Kryolan Fixing Spray
72 SPECIAL FX CONTACT LENSES
Part two of our in-depth discussion with Spectral Motion’s Mike Elizalde and Mark Setrakian about their work at the forefront of animatronics
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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT 63 Long-standing UK prosthetics designer
34 ANIMATRONICS RENAISSANCE
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terminology surrounding taking and storing good quality images of your work
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Industry-leading contact lens manufacturers Cantor & Nissel give us an essential education in the issues surrounding special FX contact lenses
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52 78 FX CRIBS Jonah Levy and Matthew Silva lift the lid on the new
Atlanta premises of Blue Whale Studios, now running in tandem with the company’s Orlando workshop
WHAT’S COOKIN’? 83 California based artist Vincent Damyanovich’s expert
opinion on choosing and using ovens for FX work
88 DECONSTRUCTING DISGUISE MAKEUP
Neill Gorton examines the considerations, skills and psychology behind successfully concealing identity
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Image by Deverill Weekes
FOReWORD
Words of Wisdom An industry leader sets the scene for the issue
Thomas Surprenant, Emmy winner for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup* on the fire and inspiration that fuel FX artists
I
suppose my beginnings were not the ‘norm’ of a lot of makeup artists, having family that have been in the film industry for many years and being around talented people who were working professionals. Early on I was encouraged not to pursue a film career but rather a ‘normal’ profession. The turning point for me was the film An American Werewolf in London; I was hooked and felt that making monsters could actually be a job…jump to my grandfather’s pals doing makeup in the studios telling me that just doing monsters won’t pay the bills. Their advice was to learn everything - hair work, ventilating, beauty makeup and so forth. This brings me to what I feel was something that separates my contemporaries getting into the business at around the same time as myself from those entering it now… Back in the 1980’s there were no pre-made prosthetics, encapsulated silicone, ProsAide transfers etc, so many products and techniques just weren’t around and it took us years to develop them.
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I myself have a line of PAX-like* prosthetic paint that is readily available; I developed it because I needed a higher pigmented, adhesive type paint that could be thinned for washes and airbrush use. On the way I discovered cosmetic pigment and dyes that would greatly improve the original formula.
Now I find that so many things are taken for granted and the passion seems to be lacking, not from us artists, but sadly from productions. So many products are readily available, premade prosthetics are abundant and some shops are production lines.
“Those were amazing times - so many shows hiring us young wizards to create magic. There was such a passion and such fire in our blood.” The love for me when I first started was definitely the R & D [research and development] in the makeup lab surroundings, the chemistry and the creativity of coming up with things to improve your work and simplify applications. Throughout the 80’s most all of us shared a great deal of ideas and enthusiasm, we were in contact with chemical companies and many companies that dealt with industrial type products such as silicone and urethanes. Those were amazing times - so many shows hiring us young wizards to create magic. There was such a passion and such fire in our blood.
I think the newbies getting involved in FX makeup should be inspired to pursue the technical side of lab materials, research what they are and why they do what they do. It’s very rewarding to gain that knowledge and the research shouldn’t stop there - research classic films and the more obscure and older films, there is a wealth of knowledge to be had from those early works. Thomas Surprenant Makeup FX Maestro * Award for work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine * The original PAX paint was developed by the late, great Dick Smith, with a formula of 50:50 Pros-Aide and Liquitex acrylic paint
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An early design for the 2014 film Wolves