#90 – Joel Harlow: Stories In The Skin

Joel Harlow is an academy award-winning artist who started out in animation before he moved on to makeup. Gradually building multi-faceted skills, confidence and workloads, he has evolved and expanded into the makeup effects heavyweight we know today with a hefty rollcall of credits.

The shere volume of work prohibits a good catalogue of images on this post where space is at a premium. No matter what we put here, it won’t do enough justice but these well known images from Star Trek Beyond demonstrate the quality and creativity involved.

Film & TV work includes Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, House MD, Mad Men, Inception, Green Lantern, Black Mass, Black Panther, Hellboy, Star Trek Beyond and most recently Wakanda Forever (we skipped through it because there are over 100 credits). The sheer scale and quality of the work speak for themselves. Check out his company, https://morphologyfx.com/.

Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger in the movie Black Mass.

It is always fascinating to go through the IMDb of an artist and see their credits creeping up the hierarchy over time. Evidence of trust earned as supervisors see a way to pass the responsibility on, and nothing breeds more work than showing up on time and doing more than the client bargained for, happily smiling through it all and happy to be doing it.

This was certainly the impression Joel gave us in the chat too, and we think you’ll love it!

From makeups, masks, costume and subtle realistic makeup – Joel has worked it all and runs the department which can do this at scale.
The Dracula armour (right pic) worn by Gary Oldman is particularly gratifying to see.

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Moving into producing his short films, such as the Old Time Radio films (check them out at https://oldtimeradiohorror.net/), Joel shares that love we all have of the kind of fun, charming horror seen in the EC and Warren comics (with titles such as Tales From The Crypt, Vault of Horror, Eerie, Vampirella etc.) rather than the graphic torture porn of Hostel.

Not that we don’t like a good smashed head (lord knows, that stuff has paid the bills and was plenty of fun to do), but the early influences of horror comics and anthology movies from Hammer and Amicus got many of us early, and that delight never went away.

‘Riktus Grim’ makeup from ‘Old Time Radio’

What is wonderful is that in the absence of those jobs coming in, Joel instead decided to make it happen to bring it to life. That says a lot, especially as the sheer logistics involved in making a film – supplying power, vehicles, drivers and parking for crew and equipment, getting permits, handling performers, doing the makeup, lighting and using all that to tell a story – is way more involved than you’d realise.

Check out the films and also the cool behind-the-scenes stuff at https://oldtimeradiohorror.net/videos/.

We also get into the effect scanning, and digital elements have in the workshop. Joel has created jewellery for shows too, and this has been another area he has gone into, again utilising skills needed for makeup effects work.

Digital tools in the hands of workshops are now inevitably part of the workshop and are a huge benefit to both other departments and us. Getting accurate scans of actors, modifying, cleaning up and 3D printing is now in our toolkit.

Working digitally in ZBrush and scanning physical sculptures can all be done in-house, making it easier to show other departments in meetings what your designs can do. Instead of just describing with words and pictures, the producers can lay hands on printed models and take them away. As tactile people who make things, we all know how important that can be.

Joel has been working on designing jewellery, designed digitally and printed in wax and then cast.

The Prosthetics Event 2022 was a great success, and thanks to everyone who came along to the ‘Edges, Angles & Opacity’ presentation. I promised cookies, and it seemed to help fill out the hall (maxed it out capacity – 500 seats! Thank you!!).

We shall do a post on the content of this, don’t worry.

Images from the presentation from the Prosthetics Event 2022 – Edges, Angles & Opacity.
We shall cover this extensively in a special episode, don’t worry. Everything shall be explained.

My continuing journey with digital has taken a new turn with a scanner – I bought a Revopoint Pop2 scanner after seeing Todd using one, and it is a great introductory scanner. Easy to use, the scans are great for the money (I paid £500), and I highly recommend them. We intend to do a whole podcast on scanning alone as it is such a game changer, and when you consider the cost of materials and labour, it isn’t really a stretch financially either.

It was great catching up with old friends and meeting new ones at the event. Thanks also to Richard McEvoy Crompton (who featured in podcast #50 back in 2020) for taking time to help me with some ZBrush stuff. He sometimes does live ZBrush sculpting on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mrfabrikations.

I like these videos – seeing a sculpt happen in real-time rather than a sped-up, soundless YouTube tutorial is great. You see the problems, how they are overcome, and the reasons for different decisions being made. It makes ZBrush a more friendly place. Overcoming the initial fear of the interface is the first lesson, and we all go through it!

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.

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