From the Archives: Black Death Demon - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7

Today, I have a monster I designed and worked on for season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode seven, Conversations with Dead People. This particular monster reused a lot of existing parts and pieces but required a new head and back detailing - which is where I come in.

Before I go any further, I must remind everyone that this work is a collaboration of many skilled artists and technicians. I was one of many who brought these monsters to life, but this time around, there were only a couple of us working on this one. I was present at all stages, but my focus was on the design work, paint and finish, and set crew. After twenty-plus years, I cannot properly give credit to everyone else involved. Sorry, but people's names were the first to go after I left LA.

For this one, we used an existing body suit, feet, and hands that we had previously made for other monsters. By combining different pieces from different monsters, adding additional details and elements, and a unique paint job, these preexisting parts become something wholly new. For my part, I designed a new head and a back element to make this piece its own monster. Here is the only photo of the Black Death Demon that I know of that I took in the makeup trailer on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

RAWR! The Black Death Demon.

I have no idea if this monster ended up with a different name, but Black Death Demon was what it was referred to by production, and that's what stuck. I am unsure if this monster was even real on the show or if it was an illusion or dream sequence. But no matter, it was real enough to me. This monster marked the first time I designed a piece, and the shop's art director did the sculpting and perfomed in the suit as the monster. I was the set tech that day and got him into the suit and mask. As it was a mask and not a makeup, I could do all the work, and a makeup artist was not brought in. 

From what I could remember, there was not a lot of direction at first for this one. It was all very vague. I remember the mention of a black specter of death, lots of black, and no budget (hence reusing so much). The ambiguous nature of all this likely was why I was assigned it and allowed to do whatever I wanted. Here is a look at my design for the Black Death Demon.

Initially, the monster had wings as they wanted an interesting back element for this one. For filming, the monster runs into a room with its back to the camera and leaps upon a couch. Upon the couch is the lifeless body of Buffy's mother. The monster lingers over the body, ignoring Buffy as she looks on in horror. I am not sure the face of the monster is ever shown on the show. I wanted it to have piercing white pupilless eyes and a distorted extended face. These designs are sold and no longer available.

 

The wings were shot down immediately with no explanation. The eyes were also an issue. After brainstorming with the shop AD, we settled on tiny hands that would grasp the shoulders, and strangely, everybody liked them. The eyes got updated to whatever these are, and those, too, were approved... for some unknown reason, as they are horrible. With approved designs, it was time to make a monster.

I have nearly no photos of this monster's creation. I do not recall why this is, but the images in this post are all of the pictures I have. This is likely due to the extremely quick turnaround that we likely had to make this, and I was probably busy on other projects as well. Here are photos of the head sculpted for the Black Death Demon.

I am sure you are saying to yourself, "Man, the design that this sculpture does not look very similar to your designs," and you would be correct. The AD who sculpted this just kinda did what he wanted, as he usually did. I don't have a problem with how it turned out; it just bothered me that I designed something, it was approved, and then he did something different. That said, he went with the original eye design, which is far superior to the orange swirl mess that was approved. We lost the weird chin, which is fine, I guess, but it would have been interesting to see it in the design. At the end of the day, you never see the face (I believe), so what we did never really mattered - which is sad, really.

The tiny arms on the back were fabricated with armature wire, hot glue, foam, latex, and artificial nails. If I recall correctly, the AD started one, and I followed suit on the other. Also, since the eyes on the final mask were the white forms used as placeholders on the sculpture, the AD couldn't see anything when wearing the mask. For filming, we popped the eyes out so he could see as he ran into the room and leaped upon the couch with the actress on it. I have very solid memories of being on set that day and watching the shot filmed repeatedly. Craft service also brought sushi in for afternoon snack, which was really cool.

Now for a little story! The AD and I arrived at the crack of dawn for filming that day - as you always had to, no matter what time of the day they planned to film you. As the saying goes, "Hurry up and wait!" Well, that day, there was a lot, and I mean a lot of waiting. It took no time to get him into the suit, so we were ready to film about 30 minutes after we got there... only production wasn't. So, we waited and waited, and the day ticked by. The suit was never meant to be worn by the AD, so he soon found himself in a bit of discomfort, and as he could be called to set at any moment, he couldn't take the suit off for a break. One of the reasons the AD was in the suit as he was already a member of the Screen Actors Guild. I would soon be a part of SAG, but at the time, only he was. Sometime in the afternoon, as we continued to wait and the AD continued to be in discomfort, a SAG rep made a surprise visit. We explained the situation, the discomfort, the waiting, and the rep got really serious, a bit angry, and disappeared. Within moments, production was at the trailer, getting us for the shot the monster was needed for. The shot went extremely quickly, and we were wrapped for the day, and the AD could get out of the suit. Gotta love those Union reps; they got stuff done!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here after IX in a week and a half! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com