Sfx Makeup

Special effects makeup has been used for centuries. From small silicone prosthetics, to elaborate full body suits, sfx makeup is used in cinema, theater and a lot more. There are many different techniques to sfx makeup, including sculpting, painting, and molding. Sfx makeup is a form of special effects that allows the artist to transform a perfectly normal human into something spectacular. One of the first uses of sfx makeup was in 1923 in the famous play, Phantom of the opera. In the play, Lon Chaney played the Phantom of the opera he was famous for his, as Jeanne Baird says, simple yet innovative ideas. Back then, actor often had to put on their own makeup. To achieve the look of a ghost/phantom Chaney painted his eye sockets black,
and use a small wire to pull back his nose and he finished off the look with an set of jagged teeth.(Hannigan) Since the idea was pretty simple, Chaney did not think out his design and his nose bled almost constantly throughout the film. In 1925 Lon Chaney also starred in the play, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where he played Quasimodo, a man born with a hunchback, feared by the townspeople. It was one of the more elaborate makeups he had ever done. The makeup included a knotted wig, nose putty( a material used in plastic alteration of the nose(Webster)) on the cheeks, some false teeth, and a fake eye. He topped it all off with a plastic hunchback. Some of the techniques he used in this creation are still used today like the nose putty, the difference is that it is known better as Derma wax or Weich Plastik. In 1935, the film The Bride of Frankenstein, Jack Pierce designed Frankenstein's bride. The design was simple, The Bride had large, teased hair, a scar running under her chin from one ear to another, and a beauty makeup to make her look less like a monster and more like a bride. The beauty makeup included lipstick, false lashes, foundation and some light contouring(Hannigan). The scar was made of a scarring liquid and the stitches were glued on string. This was the start of more gory looking makeups and special effects in movies. Since the movies back then were in black and white it was difficult for makeup artistss to really make their makeups show and express what they wanted them to express. The makeup artists kept it subtle and were not too extravagant while applying color to their makeups (Baird). In the 1954 film, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, one of the first full body suits was used.
The creature of the black lagoon was played by Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning. The suit was made of airtight molded sponge rubber to make it look like scales. The costume cost around twelve-thousand dollars. Finally, in the 1970’s color came into movies. Artists finally could incorporate color into their designs. An example of this was how in the 1973 film, The Exorcist, Regan was able to vomit green vomit all over the priest.Dick Smith created a device similar to a horses’ bit that forced pea soup to spray from Regan’s mouth whenever she bit down.(Hannigan) Also in the movie, Regan’s head spins a full 180 degrees. This is done with a exact replica of Regan.The entire process took almost 4 weeks to make. In 1975, the film that still haunts us today, Jaws was released. Jaws is basically a story about a rogue shark terrorizing a community that needs to be killed. Since the technology back then did not allow very realistic animation a lot of the effects in movies had to be done physically. After a lot of attempts Joe Alves was able to create successful puppet sharks powered electrically along with a full body prop shark (Hannigan).. In the movie there are a lot of scenes where the killer shark bites or kills a person. As you might expect there is a lot of blood but, of course, it is all fake makeup artist Del Armstrong and his crew uses fake body parts, prosthetics,
and a lot of fake blood for a more realistic look and a terrifying finish. 1979 was a big year for sfx makeup. 1979 was the year when the movie Alien came out. H.R. Giger designed the main character, the alien. (Hannigan) The alien was sculpted from plasticine, It had so many elements it took over a month to mak