Battles With Bits Of Rubber

Contact lenses are pretty easy to find nowadays. It wasn't always so, and the increased use of lenses has meant an increase in opportunities to have problems with eyes caused by them. We chatted to Cristina Patterson of Eye Ink FX about eye care and lenses, especially in the light of many people around us who had created characters for Monsterpalooza using lenses. Many conventions will have extensive makeup characters with lenses bought online or in costume stores for not a lot of money. These lenses may be available in stores, but is it wise to buy and use them? We also chatted to Bob Smithson, a lens tech with many years experience fitting lenses on set and dealing with the front line of lenses on a production. http://www.learnmakeupeffects.com/33lenses/    

Todd and I had a great morning chatting with Allan A. Apone and Brad Look at MEL headquarters (Makeup Effects Lab) based up in North Hollywood. MEL now occupies a huge area of workshops and produces effects for shows as well as products used by artists in the industry, including PAX paints, baldcaps and appliances. Starting out as a small lab in 1978, it now boasts some 18000 square feet of facility. Their website is MEL Products USA and is worth checking out! Our tour took us from machine shop to foam room, silicone lab and woodshop, all surrounded by a million artefacts from jobs in the past. We sat and talked about the recent Monsterpalooza weekend, as well as the business of makeup and what really counts. As seasoned makeup artists with many years experience on set, Allan and Brad made this episode of the podcast a gold-loaded listen for makeup artists. Like Brad says, "If you don't know highlight and shadow, it doesn't matter what you are putting on - it won't look right!". Despite the noise of compet

One of the great things about Monsterpalooza, and other makeup FX heavy trade shows is you get to meet the people who make a life around doing the work, and who care enough to help others do it too. For my money, this chat with sculpting and creature legend Steve Wang was the most potent use of 20 minutes anyone could have. Steve was in high demand, but Todd managed to get him for a short timeslot on the mic and we jumped straight in with the sculpting talk. I wanted to get a grasp on why ZBrush was still a mystery to me (and many others) and there is some golden wisdom in here which is worth hearing if you have been left blinking at the apparant dearted ship of digital creativity. If you feel like you are on the dockside, waving sadly at a ship of endless creativity disappearing into the distance and cursing yourself for missing the boarding window, then you need to it down, listen up and dry those tears! Putting this together and listening to it put me right back there and fired me up, so get stuck in and

Chris and Fangs FX is who we call when we need teeth, but there is a lot more to Fangs FX than just...well...fangs! This is the first of a series of interviews Todd and I did at Monsterpalooza 2018, a three-day event in Los Angeles which was busting at the seams with visitors, demos and vendors. It was amazing, and Todd and I applied my Bela Lugosi makeup for the Rick Baker Tribute on the enormous PPI Premiere Products Inc stand. Blogpost: http://www.learnmakeupeffects.com/fangsfx/ We grabbed Chris for a chat outside the venue as it was far quieter than inside, and talked teeth, drill bits in the mouth, loose teeth, missing teeth and how much hiding in plain sight takes place. Making and fitting teeth requires the use of some pretty serious chemicals and hardware, and putting these things into performers mouths is a serious responsibility as you will hear. Fangs FX was established in 1984, and has an outstanding list of credits. If you have never heard of Chris or his team, then you will certainly have se

So, this is my turn at soloing for a brief episode of Battles with Bits of Rubber. And, depending on responses to my musings, perhaps Stuart and I can extend this into a longer broadcast with tips from you all on how to get rid of unwanted and no longer needed stuff. Hi. My name is Todd. And I’m a pack rat. (Hi, Todd!) Let’s face it, most of us have too much stuff. Stuff we don’t use, stuff we don’t need, and stuff we don’t even remember getting. So how do you get rid of it?! I can look around my office, shop and studio and wonder when the crew from Hoarders is arriving. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, because at least I’m not navigating through canyons of stacked magazines and newspapers, but… it’s easy to lose sight of my office from certain vantage points because of props, molds and masks… I can be looking for something - and it can even be in plain view - but it will take me a bit to see it amidst everything else. I either need more space, or less stuff. The answer is less stuff. But how do you p

I had the great privilege to be asked to teach some masters degree students at Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich, Germany recently. I had a splendid time! The three students I worked with all had ambitious, figurative projects which they had been working on for some weeks when I arrived for my five day stint there. Daniel Riedl had made a full-size figure leaning out of a bath and was in the final sculpting stages preparing to make ready for moulding. Julian Hutcheson had just moulded his sculpt of a male torso, and in the week we mixed and cast out the silicone in the chosen flesh tone (Moldstar 20 from Smooth-On). Caterina Veronesi had sculpted a scale figure of herself which will be cast in silicone and was also in the final sculpting stages and preparing to make the mould. We had a great group chat to discuss how things work there, the education system (It's a free, government paid education which requires an extensive interview process which is a completely different model to the business-st

Seven hours is a big time difference to deal with when trying to synchronise a podcast with two people. To help with that, Todd and I figured adding some extra single features to help keep the show moving. ------------------------------------- At Pinewood studios, I was teaching a great class which had me thinking a lot about what we teach and why. I seized the moment to share my observations which briefly were: When and why to premake pieces way in advance versus fabricating something up directly onto the skin. The difference between knowing about something and mastering it. Keeping a record of your efforts when trying to solve a problem. It's hard to be subtle - heavy handed is way easier to do. The importance of mixing the correct base tone to your appliance material. Making v buying fake blood. ------------------------------------- Links you may find useful which were mentioned: Neill Gorton's Make-up FX 911 Rob Smith - Blood Podcast Part 1 Rob Smith - Blood Podcast Part 2 Maekup - David Stoneman's F

Most people learn techniques and perfect them. Some people then take those techniques and look at what can be improved. Sangeet falls into this camp. He is now pretty well known for creating high quality prosthetic transfers, moulds made which contain the appliances and are used directly in their application. As far as I can ascertain, this system was developed by Conor O'Sullivan and Rob Trenton and involves making silicone mould inserts which contain the appliances during application, speeding up the process in the chair and allowing multiple appliances to be run from the same sculpt. Sangeet has taken this process and developed many techniques and methods to push it even further. The transfer technique involves a lot of moulding and remoulding, and is not for the faint of heart but the results can be fantastic. Check out his website studiosangeet.com/ and his range of anatomivcally accurate injury appliance flat moulds.   I chatted with Sangeet in his home studio in North London, and we spent four hours

3D printing is having an effect on the way things are made. This episode talks about what those things are, how it benefits us all and how you can get involved. Chris Dombos knows a thing or two about 3D printing, and he is also a massive FX nerd so we got on rather well. Having met him first at LA IMATS in Jan 2017 (I discovered he had some of the original Lost Boys moulds), it made sense to catch up when he came over to London recently. Of course, I figured bring the mic and make a podcast out of it. We recorded in a cemetery in London, so there are background noises. The whole gamut of life - cars, sirens, passing people, kids, birds in the sky, aircraft, wind – it’s all there in a place of the dead. It's all background, our audio is clear and we chatted about a number of great topics which matter to anyone who makes things. This includes: There have been a number of auctions as big FX shops started scaling down! This means that the larger shops have all but disappeared but more smaller operations openi

This podcast was a lot of fun to do. I met up with the Mekashes (Eryn and Mike) at their hotel as they were over for The Prosthetics Event here in the UK. I was lucky enough to squeeze in a face to face interview and had a frankly wonderful time chatting with a couple of lovely people who also are amazing artists and FX nerds. Listen here, or on Apple Podcasts/iTunes. Soundcloud or whatever podcatcher you like to use. Her credits include TV shows Glee, Nip/Tuck & Movies such as Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, My Sisters Keeper. As per her IMDb bio: Eryn Krueger Mekash has 30 years of television and film industry experience as a makeup artist and is diversified in beauty, makeup effects and design. Her credits cover a wide range of productions. Eryn started her career in the special makeup effects field in Los Angeles. Eryn has won 6 Emmys and 6 Artisan awards and well as 29 Emmy Nominations for outstanding makeup, prosthetic and non-prosthetic. She is the department head for FX's anthology,

5 THINGS YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW (OR WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE KNOWN) WHEN LEARNING PROSTHETIC MAKEUP I'm still learning every day. I still make mistakes and I am still worried that every job I am about to start will go wrong. That feeling has never gone away and I suspect it never will. The trick is to get used to the sensation, understand that it isn't abnormal and to get on with the job anyway. There are many things which often get taught again and again at makeup school, but along the way there are also things I noticed which are vital and yet which never seem to get the same level of spotlight. In this podcast, Todd and I discuss 5 of the big ones which deserve looking at in some depth. We gave this subject as a talk at IMATS LA 2017, but this is a recording done recently (Nov 2017) so we're up to date and happy to hear your thoughts. Our email is stuartandtodd@gmail.com. 1. It's hard to be subtle. 2. There Are Other Important Qualities To Recreating Skin Other Than Shape and Colour. 3. Believe in primary

Rob Burns makes great sculpting tools because he sculpts and knows what works. Blog post for this episode with video: http://www.learnmakeupeffects.com/rob-burns/ -------------------------------- It helps to know your tools, and in the podcast, he chats about how he started the company and how he paid his dues. We also chat with Mitch of Brick In The Yard again, and we talk about the proliferation of information in the hi-tech age and how having so much information on hand doesn't necessarily mean that it makes it into the brain. Incidentally, this is what the tribble-like recorder looked like which we mention in the podcast: Sculpting Tools Tools are something I have an unreasonable desire for, and I have far too many already but I'll be damned if that will stop me buying more. I have done a few posts on tools, manufacture tutorials and loop tool repair. This doesn't mean I don't buy tools as well - just because I know how to make a sandwich doesn't mean I don't go to Subway on occasion! When I met with

Allen Hopps is the director of Dark Hour, a huge haunt attraction in Plano, Texas. I wanted to take a tour and chat with Allen about what it takes to keep people scared and the business of running a haunt all year round. When people think about creating makeup effects, masks and prosthetics, its usually associated with film and TV shows. In the US, Halloween is pretty big and getting bigger every year. I went for a tour of the huge show floor, and got to see behind the scenes where all the in-house stuff gets made - from sets, costumes, masks, prosthetics and props. The level of the thought and detail that goes into setting up a new show (there are several original new shows a year) is incredible. The team work year round updating and thinking up new ways to keep the screams coming. There are a few absolute wisdom bombs in this podcast episode which many makers would do well to listen to. If you've ever been guilty of having great ideas which seem to expand ever bigger, only to burst and fade away then thi

Cap plastic is big....and it's not just for bald caps. Cap plastic is so called as it was originally pretty much used only for making bald caps, so those with hair could temporarily be without it. Over the last ten years or so, it's used much more widely as an encapsulant or barrier in a mould so that when silicone gel appliances are cast into it, they come out of the mould with that cap plastic as a surface. This allows glue and makeup to remain attached to it - after all, silicone is at its best a mould material because almost nothing sticks to it! Chek out the blog post that supports this episode of the podcast. OOOh, and if you enjoyed this then tell a friend, give us a shout out on social media or just say hi on our Facebook page! We love talking to you! -Stuart & Todd.        

This podcast episode is the belated accompaniment to the blog post. We had a blast, learned some stuff and made some new friends. It was amazing, and I can't wait until IMATS London when I'll be back! Until then, please enjoy and get in touch with us at stuartandtodd@gmail.com and our facebook page.  Please also check out the breakdowns of the makeup demos, there is extensive behind the scenes info on the build of both makeup demos: Demo 1: Worm Infection! Demo 2: Todds' Crazy Eyes! Thanks for listening! --- Stuart & Todd

In part 2 of our discussion, Rob Freitas talks about the value of knowing about the unknowns. He sheds some light on the importance of knowing to look at what was before and honours great artists like Gil Liberto (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0508847/) who does incredible work for the likes of at Joel Harlow (Star Trek, anyone?). Check out this Vanity Fair article about the makeup work on Star Trek: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/02/star-trek-beyond-makeup. The blog post for this one is here: http://www.learnmakeupeffects.com/all-aboard-the-freit-train-part-2/ ‎ When going to trade shows and being asked to speak, Rob likes to share what he has known but he is there to be fed knowledge as well as to feed others. He doesn’t want to be the subject - rather he cares about the craft and wants you to care too. Thinking about provenance and what went before is a humbling way of uncovering the history of your subject matter, and is utterly fascinating. When you think about the makeups from the original Wiz

Rob Freitas is one of the best-known mould makers in the industry and has a phenomenal reputation. Not only is he incredibly skilled at making moulds but he has a passion for the provenance of the techniques which he uses and cares deeply to help interested parties understand so they can be better too. He also will redirect much of the attention he gets to his predecessors and those peers whom he feels deserve more attention. It's a very generous attitude which I believe is born out of an unabashed passion for the subject and a desire to fan those flames in others. It comes from a very pure place and it's not often you meet someone with that much knowledge, skill and wisdom and who also is phenomenally approachable and easy to talk to. He'll no doubt blush to read these words. We hooked up at a pub near the Millennium FX in Aylesbury where he was teaching a class that week, and a few of us slunk off to the lobby of Rob's hotel to talk bronze age axe heads, seamlines and technology. Full blog post here: http:

Rob Smith continues his chat with me about foam latex, blood and other FX related goodies. Also, Todd and I talk about our favorite podcasts, and whether or not the word 'mustard' is actually an expression. Todd and I will be at IMATS 2017, 13th-15th Jan 2017. How about that. Email us at the usual address, stuartandtodd@gmail.com

Blood ! Podcast #15! It's something gets thrown around a lot in film, TV and theatre. There's bad blood, good blood, mudbloods, blood thicker than water and blood brothers.  This episode we're talking about blood, and our guest this time is Rob Smith, blood master as well as an all-around effects bod. He also runs a lot of foam, and makes exquisite soft foam appliances which you really need to feel to appreciate. He makes his own pieces but runs a lot of foam for other people, and you'll certainly have seen his work if you've been to the cinema in the last few years! Blood needs to be a number of things: The right colour The right opacity The right viscosity It also needs to be: Safe to use (skin, mouth and costume) Easy to clean up As a product, there are lots of different kinds of things which can be classified as blood. For example, blood as a real biological product does things - like clot, dry, separate, form scabs and flake once dry. One of these blood drops is real! An artificial blood won't d

A little look at the influence of digital technology on the practical effects workflow. Bear in mind the problems we try to overcome - namely to create an illusion which appears real such as a decapitation, an injury taking place or some kind of transformation - these issues are the reason that we strive for new and better methods. That desire to create is the wind in the sails, and we have always used the best available to get that. Digital has affected everything, every industry and we have changed along with it. Despite that, it's a tool and one that many of the practical FX side view either with suspicion or glee. We wanted to chat about that and start a conversation about what it means and how we can work with it rather than against it. After all, I think that's the ultimate fear, and I think it doesn't need to be that way at all! I talk with Steve Johnson briefly about his upcoming volume Rubberhead, Todd reveals his pixelated past and John and Tristan Schoonraad of Lifecast at Elstree studios chat abo