Good news #1: The Prosthetics Event 2021 is happenning on November 13th!
Good News #2: Both Todd and Stu will be there!
Good News #3: Filming is going crazy and studios are expanding to meet demand!
After a long run of closures, lockdowns and things not happening, it is great to see some good things coming out of it. Studios are actually building new sound stages in their existing plots and revitalising ignored spaces and backlots. This demand has been building for a while (anyone trying to park at Pinewood Studios will know) and the lockdown hasn’t stopped writers and showrunners gearing up for new seasons of greedily guzzled boxsets and sequels.
Check out https://thestudiomap.com/new-film-tv-studios-under-construction-in-the-uk/ to see what is currently underway.
“In a 2018 report, real estate consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton estimated there was a requirement for up to 1.9 milli1on square feet of new film studio space required in the UK.”
To listen to the podcast, you can stream or download from here, or simply subscribe through your favourite podcast app – we are on many, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, IHeartRADIO , STITCHER , Luminary and Google Podcasts.
Covid and filming
Now productions have found their ‘Covid feet’ and have streamlined the processes of testing, zoning and safety protocols, there are a number of good reasons why filming is a success story during Covid, despite many industries taking a hit.
- Productions have the money an incentive to test regularly keep separate bubbles (can’t have yourlead performers down – that Covid Marshall is watching and will enforce!
- Passes and zones – who has to touch and go near actors vs crew who do not. Studios have long adopted swipe passes to access areas for security reasons and are ahead of the curve in controlling access.
- PPE and protocol when working on talent.
- Masks and visors/goggles/sanitising/
- Increasing facilities and crew with long term shows means leaving a legacy of viable studio and crew base for further productions.
- Sustainability with regards to construction, catering, hotels, transport etc.
- High end production where pre production, production and post may all be taking place simultaneously. Big facilities and creates efficiency over the single movie.
Breaking pieces down unnecessarily
We chat about the process of breaking a larger appliance sculpt down into small pieces for moulding. We discussed this and have a workbook from a previous post which is here. We discuss:
- Why do we break pieces down at all?
- No two makeups break down the same.
- Usually in thinnest area of sculpt.
- Extra work and time/materials/cost involved
- Design and purpose of makeup decides what needs to be broken down and why.
- Collapsible cores vs flaring out/overlapping pieces.
- Obsession with avoiding seams vs a decent seaming job/paint job or hair that hides seam/separate appliance overlap.
The Gorezone magazine I loved so much with the Evil Dead 2 workshop stuff was Gorezone #9, published in Sept 1989. It’s this one:
….and this was the image from the Mark Shostrom ‘Makeup FX Lab’ article that stayed with me all these years as I recall how I learned seeing an appliance being broken down for the first time:
Still have all mine.
Many thanks, as always, for your time checking the stuff out. You can email us directly at stuartandtodd@gmail.com or leave us a voice message on our site.
If you enjoy this podcast and got something out of it, would you do us a solid and tell just one more person about us? Send them a link and help us grow!
–Stuart & Todd
To listen to the podcast, you can stream or download from here, or simply subscribe through your favourite podcast app – we are on many, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, IHeartRADIO , STITCHER , Luminary and Google Podcasts.