Special effects makeup DVD

Kevin Grin - editor and Cinematographer 

Greg Nicotero - MUA and co founder of KNB EFX Group - talks about going beyond the real world and opening up the imagination of anyone who is viewing or creating special effects makeup looks, creating monsters and creatures. In an interview with Grin, he explains that the use of a mask has gone back centuries on history and the mysteries that come with wearing one. People know there is a human under than mask but they may not know who it is and that can be scary. 

Makeup Special effects gives a new challenge for every film and includes: 

out of the kit makeup 

prosthetics - creating monsters or creatures, making someone old or fat 

fake bodies 

animatronics

puppetry 

fake animals 

Howard Berger - MUA and co founder of KNB EFX Group 

Richard Talon was invloed in the making of the special effects masks and costumes for Narnia, during this production there were over 100 people working on each selection of creatures, these included waring creatures such as centaurs. 

Bodies and Bots:

Mike Deak - MUA for transformers and the island. 

For the film the island, this involved having developing bodies growing in sacks of water. The makeup artists had to create human looking bodes; some without skin or bones and incarcerate them in large bags filled with water. 

Transformers: The creatures in this film were made using a mixture of computer designed puppets, and special effects puppets. The designers would make mechanical puppets that could move and a puppeteer would be out of the camera controlling it by hand or by remote control. But most of the robots were created using CGI.

CGI or not CGI:

The Mist - Had a strong ending and was a film that heavily used CGI. There were creatures in the movie that had the help of green screen hands but most was CGI. Although the monsters weren't physical, the makeup artists built the creatures to understand the way they would move but weren't used because CGI looked more realistic. 

Bob Bottin - MUA The Howling, The Thing - states that CGI is sometimes better to use because it can look more realistic but he will always choose makeup due to the physical presence and the solidity of the designs compared. 

Another film that has used a lot of CGI is Sin City, this was used to create a comic book effect, they characters look more like drawings in black and white with small hurts of red. 

On the Shoulders of Giants:

The phantom of the Opera - For this production the makeup was very intense and the actor was put through a lot; the artists used metal on the face to pull the actors eyes down, but this makeup look has become very iconic for its quality and the products used at the time.   

Frankenstein - The makeup for this production was created everyday for the film, as prosthetics and silicone wasn't available at the time. The artist used collodion and cotton to crate a larger head for Frankenstein, the artist was eventually fired for taking so long on the makeup.