Puppets don’t just belong in kids movies

Team America

Laura MacInnis – Miramichileader.com

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:

1. Being John Malkovich

2. Labyrinth                                                                                                                            

3. Star Wars (original trilogy)

4. Team America:World Police

5. The Sound of Music

6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

7. Muppets Christmas Carol

8. Meet the Feebles

9. Gremlins

10. The Dark Crystal

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Making a werewolf, one hair at a time

Werewolf Death Eater Fenrir Greyback

Patrick Kevin Day – LATimes

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”.

Jim Henson’s workshop to life sized dinosaur displays; Special Effects Artist Alan Groves amazing journey

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!