Filming in London and the South East - page 12-13

“When I think of my
favourite movie monsters
they are still people
in costumes, they are
all practical
physical effects.”
The process of using
prosthetic sculpting, moulding
and casting techniques to
create advanced cosmetic
effects are a staple of horror
and science fiction stories.
Ever since Thomas Edison
Studios produced the first
Frankenstein film in 1910,
movie make-up artists have
been shaping the faces of
Hollywood monsters.
For Guillermo del Toro’s 2008
supernatural superhero film Hellboy
II - the Golden Army, filling the
world with monsters and magical
creatures was a substantial
challenge. Producers turned to
Nigel Booth, whose Nigel Booth
Studio based in North London was
tasked with creating the character
Silkard, the fish vendor built for the
troll market sequence. The head
was fully articulated with radio
and cable control mechanisms,
operated by two puppeteers and
is a wonderful example of the
possibilities and potential of old-
school practical effects.
The industry has come a long way
since blood was a cocktail of jam,
mayonnaise, gelatin, cream corn
and whatever else they used in
the good old days. Creativity has
propelled new technologies into
those moments in movies that
continue to thrill and transport
audiences globally.
For a start, the silicone is much
improved and the overall quality
of the prosthetics is much higher.
“Materials have come along
substantially since foam latex,” says
Booth, “the new silicones make our
jobs more straightforward and allow
us to achieve the realism that gives
us a better chance of competing
with CGI.” The latter is a field which
has also witnessed surprising
developments in the use of
breakthrough software techniques
such as film input scanning, digital
compositing, wire removal, motion
control, Imocap and EXR file format.
For Kristyan Mallett who has
worked in the industry as a
prosthetic make-up artist for ten
years, the biggest change for the
industry has been high definition.
“Everyone has had to up their
game,” he says. “More colour tests
have had to be done and colours
have had to be added to work well
on screen, especially when it comes
to the reds in the blood and its
specific consistencies.”
The niche specialities in prosthetics,
such as punching hair into the
prosthetics to create hair styles,
eyebrows and animal fur, or
creating contact lenses that
provide extreme dramatic effects,
have also witnessed changes and
developments. Jemma Puri from
The Reel Eye Company a leading
supplier of SFX contact lenses to
the film industry, says they have
witnessed a surge in business in the
last five years. Both in the number
of films requiring contact lenses
and the volume of actors needing
to wear them. This is mainly due to
the genre of the films being made:
zombie, werewolf, vampire, fantasy
comic-book movies have very
much boomed. “If they need a lot
of make-up, chances are they will
need contacts”, says Puri. “There
aren’t a lot of contact lenses in
Westerns.”
Yet, despite the increase in make-
up heavy movie genres, work for the
artists has been offset by a heavier
use of CGI - there is now a constant
stream of remakes of classic films
where directors re-imagine films
using CGI. In make-up terms it’s
a tendency that replaces visceral
prosthetic blood and gore for that
of the digital variety. A practice
that leaves very little room for that
strange hybrid of artist-chemist-
mouldmaker who are today’s
prosthetic make-up artists and
Thechanging
faceof film:
SFX, Make-up
and
Prosthetics
By Emily Wright
masters of practical effects.
Booth, with his twenty-plus years
of experience, is realistic: “It is an
industry after all. Producers want
to find a franchise they can pick up
on, be it computer games or comic
books, that will generate a lot of
revenue. Within that pool of material
there is a lot more work, but there
are also more people involved in the
process than there used to be.”
And half of those people are part
of the CGI department. “Once
upon a time it was very much us
and them,” says Mallett, “but now
we work simultaneously with the
VFX apartment to achieve the best
overall effects for the piece.”
Despite innovations of CGI-led
special-effects over the past thirty
years, Mallett sees little danger
of prosthetic make-up becoming
obsolete. “Practical effects stand
the test of time because they are
the real thing,” she says, “whereas
computer graphics date more
easily.”
The intangibility of CGI has also
left audiences wanting a return to
the days of real blood and gore.
The sense of a direct connection
between the horrifying object
depicted, the characters interacting
with it and the audience out here in
the real world has been distanced
with CGI. And the actors feel it too.
In The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button there are a reported 52
minutes of the film where there is no
actual footage of Brad Pitt. As Nigel
Booth points out: “A large part of
acting is reacting. By reacting to a
computer graphic that is done later
on, the acting is compromised. With
prosthetics they are right there in
front of you and it’s easier to have a
connection.” What’s more, make-up
not only contributes to a character’s
on-screen credibility with an
audience, but can also provide a
jolt of confidence for the performer.
It can help actors understand a
role and discover nuances in the
character.
“There will always be practical
effects,” concedes Mallett “but
what we will see more of is practical
effects and VFX working hand-
in-hand; a marriage of the two to
achieve the best outcomes for
the characters.” A
sentiment echoed by
Puri, who says: “CGI
works really well with
practical effects - it
works well enhancing
reality.”
Used sparingly as a tool to
supplement practical effects,
CGI can serve horror’s purpose
to shock. While CGI can achieve
effects previously unimaginable,
they can’t replace the sense of
reality of practical effects that
render the films more tactile. A
much debated example is the cult
figure of Yoda in the Star Wars
franchise. The CGI used in the more
recent films expands his range
of abilities but it also takes away
the ‘realness’ of the performance
that a puppeteer produced in the
franchise’s heyday. “When I think
of my favourite movie monsters
they are still people in costumes,
they are all practical physical
effects,” says Booth, “I haven’t
seen anything that tops that kind of
stuff.”
Whether practical effects or CGI,
what is certain is that a palette of
creative resources is now available
to ensure that each project can
achieve the desired visual effects
on time and within a given budget.
“The best directors are happy to
use every technique available,” says
Booth, “as well as a combination of
techniques.” A typical project now
will be a mixture of concept design,
make-up, prosthetics, computer
graphics effects, models and
miniatures, digital environments,
and state-of-the-art animation all
working to make those monsters
that grace our screens all the more
scary. The endless debate about
which of the two - practical effects
or computer generated ones -
instills more thrills is one destined to
continue.
A typical film project
now will be a mixture
ofconcept design,
make-up, prosthetics,
graphics effects,
models and miniatures,
digital environments
and state-of-the-art
animation
Nigel Booth Studio
designed this Silkard
animatronic for Hellboy 2
Barrie Gower of GBFX
sculpted the old age
prosthetics for the
elderly Margaret
Thatcher character for
actress Meryl Streep in
The Iron Lady.
Krityan Mallett, a
prostetics make-up
artist is preparing an
actor for the camera.
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Filming In London and the South East
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