Mike Elizalde, whose credits include “X-Men: The Last Stand”, both of the “Fantastic Four” films, both of the “Hellboy” films and most recently “The Land of the Lost” film, has been in the special effects business for over 20 years. Mr. Elizalde was nominated for a “Best Makeup” Oscar for his work on Hellboy II (2008). He is the owner of Spectral Motion an all purpose special effects shop offering Creatures, Props, Special Makeup Effects. His shop specializes in the design and creation of astonishing cinematic creature effects, special makeup effects, animatronics and action props. Mr. Elizalde shares his journey into the world of filmmaking and special effects with GoreMaster.
Just in time for Halloween, Castle of Chaos in Branson, MO Merges State-of-the-Art 3D with Heart-Pounding Motion, Special Effects, Animatronics, and Gaming for the First Ever 5D Interactive Haunted Experience in the World.
Haunted house aficionados, video game buffs, and Branson tourists who are ready for a thrill will find a whole new kind of entertainment beginning this Halloween season. Castle of Chaos, a fright ride and battle game, is the newest attraction in Branson, MO and marks the world premiere of the 5D experience, it was announced by owner Kuvera Attractions.
Castle of Chaos merges state-of-the-art 3D with heart-pounding motion, special effects, animatronics and gaming for the first-ever 5D interactive haunted experience in the world. Visitors enter an enormous castle to discover the fate of 1920s horror film star Carli Winepeg and her crew, who mysteriously disappeared while shooting the planned epic film Castle of Chaos. Once securely buckled into armchairs with 3D glasses on and pistols ready at their sides, guests are spun into Carli’s tortured world and forced to protect themselves from its terrifying inhabitants.
“Castle of Chaos is such an engrossing experience because it is the first ride in the world to incorporate so many multi-media and interactive technologies in one attraction,” says Tej Sundher, Kuvera Attractions Partner whose family also founded the world-famous Hollywood Wax Museum.
This 21st century haunted house combines the latest in 3D projection with surround sound, special effects, motion-based seats, and a shooting system that scores each member of the audience. The 24 seats are affixed to a five-ton rotating platform that has ten engines and achieves a top speed of 15 rpm. There are sequences that include total darkness, wind, water, smoke, and foul scents, among other effects. Each player racks up points, and the top five scorers are shown on the screen at the end of the ride.
Initial surveys have shown that guests absolutely love Castle of Chaos. “My favorite part was the bats flying out of the screen and over our heads,” wrote 46-year-old rider Don from Florence, KS. “Oh my gosh! The anticipation made me want to bite my nails, but I couldn’t because I was so busy shooting at everything,” said Lizette, age 17, of Waukesha, WI.
“Nearly 50 percent of riders get right back in line to try again,” says Sundher. “The competitive element appeals to all ages and is especially compelling to video game players who always want to improve their scores.”
Players can earn thousands of points shooting at targets including candles, cameras, bats, bugs, rats, and zombies. Items that are more difficult to hit are worth more points, and certain objects react when struck. For example, candles flare when they are hit, one bat flies out upon contact, and a jar releases a ghost when shot.
As if torn directly from the script of the sci-fi classic Aliens, an exoskeleton suit that claims the same name and look as the one used by Ripley in the film has been introduced by Japan’s Activelink.
The Power Loader is a 500-pound suit that allows its human user to easily carry up to 250-pounds of cargo with precision-guided electromagnetic motors. Scheduled to hit the commercial market sometime in 2015, you can see video of the suit in action above.
Much of “Grace” plays as a family drama about a mother desperate to save her baby. It’s that low-key, realistic framing that takes the movie’s macabre events to a whole new level of freaky. The nightmarish film preys on the pain that strikes all parents to the core: How far can one go for a child’s life? Madeline (Jordan Ladd), who has struggled to have kids, gets pregnant — then survives an accident that apparently kills her fetus. She wills herself to give birth anyway, only to find that the newborn has an unusual appetite.
It’s a horror movie but not a simple genre widget. That it’s rooted in reality gives its strange images the power to disturb. Even its environment is unusual, informed by women’s studies and alternative medicine. Writer-director Paul Solet’s meta-humor allows Madeline to watch a nature show depicting animal violence and call it “a vegan horror movie.”
The filmmaker conveys information in interesting ways. A brief, wordless opening depicting a purely functional sex scene between Madeline and her husband tells us about their relationship and that she has been trying to get pregnant for some time.
There are no cheap genre tricks, no jumping out of cupboards. Solet trusts his actors, story and atmosphere to hold audiences. “Grace” doesn’t need a high body count to frighten, although its gore is stomach-turning. It’s a horrifying meditation on the unbreakable union of mother and child.
Effects Crew:
Make Up Department
Redge Deitrich … key hair stylist
Jessica Kurtz … assistant makeup artist
Nina McArthur … assistant hair stylist
Krista Stevenson … makeup artist
Special Effects Department
Wade Maurer … special effects coordinator
Neil Morrill… animatronics
Visual Effects Department
Colin Hubick … visual effects supervisor
Kevin Kutchaver … visual effects supervisor: HimAnI Productions, Inc.
Jon Terada … digital artist
A utahraptor is prepared to hit the stage as part of Walking With Dinosaurs The Arena Spectacular
Tom Roberts – guardian.co.uk,
Threatened with extinction by special effects and CGI, animatronics is back thanks to a live show of the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs
Over the past two decades CGI has become increasingly prominent in films and television, and along the way animatronic special effects have gradually been consigned to the history books. When the BBC aired Walking With Dinosaurs in 1999, the bar for CGI in television programmes was well and truly raised.
However, in 2007 the prehistoric cast of Walking With Dinosaurs swapped TV for live theatre, this time using state-of-the-art animatronics technology to bring the dinosaurs to life. Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular has been touring the globe ever since, and from July this year the production has been travelling around the UK, before it finishes its run this month. Essentially, it is an adaptation of the TV show: a 90-minute live-action documentary from the ages when dinosaurs ruled the world.In total, 20 dinosaurs make up the show’s cast, ranging from the towering brachiosaurus to the tiny utahraptors. The smallest five dinosaurs are basically men in suits, albeit highly elaborate ones. Predators or xenomorphs, these are not. But the technology that leaves most jaws gaping at the arena shows is in the large dinosaurs – which took four years of research and development.
“They follow anatomical and biology parallels” of the dinosaurs’ structures, says Sonny Tilders – whose official title is creature designer. “The bones are generally made of steel. Then they have these ‘muscle bags’: stretchable netting filled with styrene beads. They make the shape of a bicep or whatever, and stretch between the two parts of the moving limbs. As the dinosaurs move, and as a limb moves, it’s actually changing shape. It does what a real limb does.”
A lot of hot air
In addition to the muscle sacks and metal frames, the three largest dinosaurs – the tyrannosaurus rex and two brachiosaurs – are also made from fan-forced inflatable sacks, similar to car airbags. These sacks account for such a large volume of the biggest dinosaurs, they are actually 90% inflatable, greatly lowering their weight and also meaning they can be deflated for transport and storage.Two principal technological advances make the show’s dinosaurs so much better than previous animatronics creations. First: the hydraulics. The designers pondered what mechanisms could move something so big, yet make it look natural. “Hydraulics came up as the thing that was most appropriate,” says Tilders. “But the problem was they are designed to deal with large forces at high precision, and we didn’t need the rigidity that makes hydraulics look so robotic.”
Although pessimistic hydraulics manufacturers told Tilders his ambitions were impossible, they continued researching regardless. “Somehow we managed to do it. We managed to develop a hydraulics system akin to the way muscles work. That fluid, organic movement – I don’t think that’s really been done before.”
The second, and biggest, hurdle was the dinosaurs’ skin. It needed to look convincing, endure show after show and be very lightweight. “The skin is a big surface area,” says Tilders. “For our first build of all the dinosaurs we used almost 3km of Lycra to construct the skins. That’s a huge weight deficit. It’s one of our biggest components. You’d think it’s the steel and all the other things – in fact, it’s the skin.”
But is it purely Lycra? Surely anyone could have figured that one out? Tilders is keen to keep his tricks up his sleeve: “The skin is just Lycra but we do something special to it, which I can’t tell you about.”
Three operators are required to control a large dinosaur. In between the legs of each one is a chassis where a driver sits; they are responsible for driving their dinosaur around the arena and making sure it is functioning properly. Tilders says they’re like “onboard engineers”.
The dinosaurs’ most complex movements fall to external puppeteers situated off-stage. These are known in the industry as “voodoo operators” – because whatever move they make, the dinosaur will too. They control the robots via radio controllers. Each has a “Waldo rig” – another industry phrase for the system used to transmit motion to the remote puppet. In this case, the rig is a lever and handle which translates the operator’s arm movements into dinosaur actions.
“We have a lead voodoo operator who operates the head, neck, tail, – basically all the gross body movements,” says the show’s head of creatures, Michael Hamilton. “Then you have the auxiliary operator who operates things to do with the eyes, the blinking, the mouth, all of the sound effects.”
“It actually looks like something out of Robocop,” he says. “The voodoo operators have a cradle that they rest their right arm on, which operates the body. Then you’ve got what looks like a spine coming off the top of that cradle, which operates anything to do with the neck and head… It’s interesting watching the guys up in the rig. They kind of do a dance in the voodoo lounge: moving and jigging around.”
Each group of three forms part of a much bigger team of puppeteers, along with the actors in suits who run among the towering animatronic dinosaurs. The nightly shows are highly complex routines that rely on precise synchronisation among the actors, not just technological brilliance conjured up behind the scenes.
Back from the dead
All this technology would mean little if the subject were not compelling to watch. But, put simply, dinosaurs are cool. It’s the reason primary school children are taught about them rather than the origins of penicillin, the reason tourists flock to the Natural History Museum, and it’s the reason the Arena Spectacular is so successful – the US show has made $110m (£66m) since July 2007. “I think dinosaurs are a bit of a no-brainer,” says Tilders. “They are instantly appealing to a certain generation. The dinosaurs are the key to it all.”
And this success looks set to continue for Tilders, Hamilton and their team. An animatronics production of King Kong is in the pipeline and they’re also working with Dreamworks Animations to adapt a live show of the studio’s upcoming movie How to Train Your Dragon.
“I’ve often thought animatronics died an earlier death than it had to,” says Tilders. But the Arena Spectacular has “opened up a new genre: this combination of high-tech puppetry and live entertainment”. The future of animatronics looks brighter than it has been for a long while. The special effects that were once on the brink of extinction have found a new lease of life.
Avenue Q is wrapping up on Broadway after a hugely successful stint internationally.
The Tony award-winning musical is a comedy in which the characters are puppets.
But don’t be fooled. It isn’t for young kids.
Though the colourful puppets are certainly inspired by Sesame Street, creators Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx have placed their hipster characters in a dingy New York dealing with real adult problems. The final performance will be held September 13.
But Avenue Q certainly isn’t the first or the last time puppets will be used to entertain a grown up audience.
Hand puppets, marionettes, animatronics and other techniques have been used in family fare as well as stuff you wouldn’t want your kids watching.
Just think of all the wonderful creatures we were introduced to by Jim Henson in the original Star Wars trilogies. No amount of CGI ever truly breathed life into Yoda the way Henson did. Those eyes, those ears, that wrinkly skin— the animation was just to shiny on the big screen during the Phantom Menace.
Then there’s that other childhood favourite Labyrinth, starring a freaky David Bowie and some even freakier puppets again from Henson.
In the last decade new movies have emerged with sprinklings of the art of puppetry here and there. In Being John Malkovich John Cusack’s character is a struggling artist who uses marionettes.
His job, of course, is a metaphor for the way he manipulates Malkovich’s brain but there is a beautiful scene in the beginning of the movie where two of his marionettes yearn for each other as one lies trapped in a castle. The performance on the street quickly angers a parent who has stopped to watch with their child on the street when the marionettes start getting sexual. Hilarious moment.
Later Jason Segel would create a special musical/comedy about Dracula for his 2007 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Watching a female women plop out 3 vampire puppet babies is worth the price of admission. I only wish that musical actually existed so I could go to it.
It was really Matt Stone and Trey Parker who took puppet movies for adults to new heights with Team America:World Police. The MPAA in the US was so taken aback by a puppet sex scene it was removed from the film altogether. All in all though, there’s almost nothing funnier than the ferocious puma played by a small cute black cat who attacks the puppet heroes. Well, that and puppet Kim Jon- il singing “I’m So Lonely”.
Here’s my list of favourite movies that include some masterful puppetry:
12 haunts honored as eerie elite for best scare tactics in U.S.
Houston, TX (PRWEB) August 6, 2009 — The fear facts are in. America’s Best Haunts, the nation’s eminent authority on thrill attractions, has released the official list of top haunts for 2009.
As professionals of the scare, America’s Best Haunt (http://www.americasbesthaunts.com) evaluated haunted attractions from coast to coast to select 12 of the best of the best to wear its coveted seal. Utilizing a panel of thrill park industry experts, top haunts from across the U.S. were thoroughly analyzed before being honored as one of this year’s eerie elite. Each attraction was judged on creepy criteria including special effects, marketing, consumer value, design, actor ability, fear factor and safety.
In 2008, more than 26 million Americans flocked to haunted attractions, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Haunts have ratcheted up the fright factor with animatronics and digital sound mixed with the traditional “fear in your face” scare tactics. With Halloween consumer spending growing to nearly $6 billion last year (NRF), thrill-seekers continue to want more and are willing to pay for it. Thrill attraction ticket prices across America reportedly now range from $15 to $65. “The haunt business is a boon to the economy as Halloween bridges the gap between back-to-school and holiday season sales,” said Steve Kopelman of America’s Best Haunts. “Our team of haunt experts takes their jobs seriously when it comes to naming America’s best. Haunted attractions that wear our stamp of approval provide sophisticated fright fans with Hollywood-style design, acting, production and more.”
The America’s Best Haunts 2009 top thrill attractions include:
Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia, PA)
Billed as a haunted house inside a state prison, this lost world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers stands behind the Eastern State Penitentiary’s massive 30-foot high walls. This is home to Terror Behind the Walls, ranked the “Number 1 Haunted House in the U.S.” by AOL City Guide, and labeled “perfect for Halloween” by the New York Times. http://www.TerrorBehindTheWalls.com
Bennett’s Curse (Baltimore, MD)
Featuring the Legendary House of the Vampyres, Bennett’s Curse is the only medieval vampire knight themed haunted house in the world. Original scenes, enthusiastic actors, and state of the art special effects combine to create an unforgettable experience that will keep you screaming for more. http://www.bennettscurse.com
Screampark (Lexington, KY) New Comer of the Year
Kentucky’s largest fear factory features three terrifying attractions, live events and more maniacal monsters than you care to meet under one roof. Screampark brings detailed sets, nightmarish monsters and high-tech scares to the “Heart of the Bluegrass”. http://www.scarylexington.com
The Terror Test (Lumberton, MS)
Mississippi’s largest haunted attraction includes Hollywood movie quality props, realistic sets, state of the art special effects and authentic costumes. Horror hounds will experience three eerie attractions under one roof that will frighten even the bravest of souls. http://www.terrortest.com
The 13th Door (Denver, CO)
What begins as an informative tour of a local historical site soon turns into terror as you are swept through time to relive the horrors of the famed Barrington Hotel Massacre. As events unfold, you soon learn that your only path of escape is through a mysterious 13th Door. Chased from one gruesome scene to the next, you quickly discover that your life is in very real jeopardy. http://www.13Door.com
ScreamWorld (Houston, TX)
Since 1989, ScreamWorld has been the premier home for horror in Houston with three haunted houses, an outdoor maze, a cemetery, and roaming creepy characters. Continually named Houston’s No. 1 Haunted Attraction by both the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Press, ScreamWorld provides the most mayhem for the money to its 30,000 annual guests. http://www.ScreamWorld.com
Nightmare New England (Litchfield, NH)
This year, New England’s legendary Spookyworld joins Nightmare New England to forge one of the largest and most terrifying Halloween Scream Parks in the country. The scale and variety of this mega-park offers something to thrill even the boldest of Halloween fanatics. Nightmare New England and Spookyworld feature seven terrifying haunted attractions and a “Monster Midway” where dozens of freakish characters freely roam the grounds and lurk around every corner. http://www.nightmarenewengland.com
Woods of Terror (Greensboro, NC)
What began as a mere haunted trail 18 years ago, is now one of the leading and top ranked haunted attractions in the U.S. Today, a staggering 20,000 visitors a year – young and old, from near and far – pay to roam 20 acres of pure terror while seeking the thrill of the ultimate adrenaline rush: fear. http://www.woodsofterror.com
Thrillvania (Terrell, TX)
Located 20 miles east of Dallas, Thrillvania is one of the most decorated haunted attractions in the world. With 50 acres encompassing eight attractions, a midway and a haunted store, Thrillvania frightens more than 20,000 “victims” each year. The cornerstone of this fear farm is Verdun Manor, a two-story haunted house originally designed by Disney Imagineers and said to boast more props per square foot than any other haunt in the country. http://www.Thrillvania.com
The Terrorfest (Columbus, OH)
Formerly the critically-acclaimed “House of Nightmares” haunted house, The Terrorfest has had fear facelift. With a new, more terrorizing theme, diabolically-detailed sets, state of the art effects and a core of more than 60 dedicated actors, The Terrorfest is destined to bring a new level of haunting excellence to the Columbus brewery district. http://www.TheTerrorFest.com
The House of Horrors and Haunted Catacombs (Buffalo, NY)
Known for scaring the yell out of you, The House of Horrors has zombies, demons, vampires, psycho killers, and the living dead creeping around every corner. Celebrating its 17th season, the Haunted Catacombs guarantees fear-in-your-face special effects, amazing animations, and Hollywood-style sets that will have make your jaw drop and your heart race. http://www.thehouseofhorrors.com
Terror on the Fox (Greenbay, WI)
The terror continues at Wisconsin’s premier thrill attraction as it celebrates its 13th season. With four haunts from an asylum to the pitch-dark void, the torment is pure torture. Terror on the Fox is sure to put you on the edge when you discover you are virtually trapped inside yourself. http://www.terroronthefox.com
About America’s Best Haunts:
Established in 2006, Americas Best Haunts is the only expert resource of its kind, identifying the most superior haunted attractions in the country for today’s discerning fright lovers.
The look of Death Eater Fenrir Greyback in ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ took 10 makeup artists painstakingly applying goat hair to silicone.
Special makeup designer Nick Dudman had to scramble to complete the look of the werewolf Death Eater Fenrir Greyback in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” “They didn’t select [actor Dave Legeno] until quite late, and we didn’t have a lot of time,” Dudman explained. Luckily, this wasn’t some two-bit indie production; this was a big-budget Warner Bros. blockbuster, with the resources to go with it. “We had about 10 people on just that one character,” Dudman said. “We can take the time to pay attention to detail.” For Greyback, Dudman’s team spent seven months stockpiling a supply of multi-piece silicone makeup to be applied to the actor’s head and chest, with each bit of goat hair individually punched into the makeup. “You can’t use wig lace, because it will show,” Dudman said. “It has to be done by hand.” It took about 5 1/2 days to apply the hairs for one set of makeup that would be used for only one day of shooting. Dudman had no way around it. “The makeup removal process would always result in the silicone pieces being destroyed.”
Editor’s Note:
Nick Dudman and his team have created the make-up effects and the magical animatronic creatures in the Harry Potter films, garnering BAFTA Award nominations for the first four of the series to date.
Dudman got his start working on the Jedi master Yoda as a trainee to famed British make-up artist Stuart Freeborn, on “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.” After apprenticing with Freeborn for four years, Dudman was asked to head up the English makeup laboratory for Ridley Scott’s “Legend.” He subsequently worked on the makeup and prosthetics for such films as “Mona Lisa,” “Labyrinth,” “Willow,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Batman,” “Alien3″ and “Interview with the Vampire,” among others.
In 1995, Dudman’s career path widened into animatronics and large-scale creature effects when he was asked to oversee the 55-man creature department for the Luc Besson film “The Fifth Element.”, for which he won a BAFTA Award for Visual Effects. Since then, he has lead the creatures/make-up effects departments on several blockbusters, including “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace,” “The Mummy,” “The Mummy Returns” and consulted on the Costume effects for “Batman Begins.” Dudman recently designed the animatronics for Alfonso Cuaron’s “Children of Men.”
In 2007, he was awarded a special achievement Genie by the Canadian Academy for Make-up on “Beowulf and Grendel”.
Writer Toby Whithousespent more than a year working intermittently on a drama about three roommates: a sex addict, an agoraphobe and a guy with anger-management issues. He was about to give up when he decided to add a touch of the supernatural, and his three characters became something slightly different: a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf.
The resulting show, “Being Human,” debuts next Saturday on BBC America.
The premise sounds a bit like the setup of a joke—a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf are sharing a flat—but the execution and plot aim to turn the stuff of fantasy into legitimate drama. Annie, the ghost, faces issues relating to her youthful demise; George, the werewolf, struggles to embrace his dual nature. Mitchell attempts to quit drinking the blood that sustains his life as a vampire (he sometimes has a setback—which generally results in a human fatality).
The characters have problems akin to those of addicts—as they struggle with their supernatural problems, they suffer through bouts of depression and loneliness. Mitchell (actor Aidan Turner) tries to steer clear of intimate relationships with women because he knows that they will end badly.
Mr. Whithouse, who created the show for the BBC—the British parent network of BBC America—says that although actors don’t have experience being vampires, they are usually able to “play somebody going through withdrawal” or to draw on other real-life situations.
“Being Human” is the latest TV project to try attracting a broad audience to supernatural fare—once considered niche material for sci-fi fans. HBO’s popular series “True Blood,” for example, examines a world where vampires wrestle with finding a place in a world that’s deeply suspicious of them.
BBC America is hoping for a hit along the lines of its other popular sci-fi crossover, “Doctor Who.” While the summer is traditionally a slow time for new releases, the network has several launches, including the beginning of the third season of “Torchwood” and two summer specials for “Doctor Who.” The network will be promoting its summer sci-fi shows heavily next week at San Diego Comic-Con, the annual comic book and entertainment convention, and bringing talent to several panels.
Richard De Croce, head of programming for BBC America, says he hopes that the show will attract both sci-fi fans and a broader audience. “We’re not talking about aliens here. We’re talking about people with supernatural powers who really want to fit in,” he says. He says he first saw the “Being Human” pilot about a year and a half ago. Launched 10 years ago and headed by former WB Television chair Garth Ancier, BBC America which primarily shows fare from BBC,is in 64 million homes and launches an HD channel next week.
The use of the supernatural is fairly subdued in “Being Human.” The budget didn’t allow for complicated special effects. The werewolf transformation scenes, for example, were completed with prosthetics and animatronics instead of computer-generated imagery.
Mr. Whithouse says that sci-fi can age poorly over time but writing compelling characters lasts much longer. “I think the moment the supernatural stuff gets ahead of the characters, we’re finished,” Mr. Whithouse says.
Alan Groves is an amazing sculptor and dinosaur/creature creator. His began his career in film during the 1980s with the Jim Henson Co. His journey has taken him on a different path now creating impressive life size dinosaur sculptures for displays and National Geograpic pictorials.
Here are some excerpts from GoreMaster.com’s interview with Alan Groves:
GM: How have you gotten work in the industry?
Alan: ”To get work in the film or television industry you have to keep at it. It’s a full time job, which takes constant long hours and hard work. Never give up. It’s a tough career, but nevertheless a very rewarding one.”
GoreMaster: How did you get started working in the Special Effects industry?
Alan: ”I got a job on Labyrinth (1986) with Jim Henson. I was in the right place at the right time.”
Alan Groves: ….”Try not to stick to one area of expertise. Most people just want to sculpt and apply make up. Find out about animatronics, robotics, pyrotechnics and physical effects. Learn how to make plaster and silicone moulds. The more you know, the more you have to offer”
Alan talks about working with earthenware clays, sulphur free plasteline (Chavant NSP medium), silicone rubbers (Wacker and Dow Corning) and isophthalic resins with fiberglass and more!
GoreMaster.com http://www.goremaster.com is a site dedicated to special effects artists, creature creators, makeup gurus and the films, television shows, and theater productions they enhance and make fun!
