From the Archives: Ubervamp (Turok-Han) - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7

Today, I have a monster I worked on for season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This particular monster appeared in multiple episodes throughout the seventh season. I worked on each of its appearances, including the series finale, where the Scobby Gang fought an army of them. This one was a very big deal as it was the main physical threat to the world controlled by the First. And since it was a big deal, there were a lot of hands involved, and we received a lot of opinions.

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, 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.

As I said, this one was a big deal to to the show, and the writers, producers, money people, more money people, Joss, and anyone else available were giving input for how this thing should look. If I remember correctly, going into this, no one had any ideas for what this thing should look like. But they were quick to tell us everything that it didn't look like - and that would have been all of our designs. Eventually, we got there, but not after a lot of work. Typically, early in the season, if there was a solitary Ubervamp or a close-up of a hero makeup, that would be Camden Toy. Camden was an amazing suit performer, actor, and friend. I treasure my memories of working with him. Eventually, the Ubervamps would be played by extras and stunt performers, but all the hero shots are Camden. My work on this one is all over the place, too. I did do some design work, sorta - I will explain below, a bit of shop work and a TON of painting. I painted so many of these masks and makeups. The on-set makeup artists got a little wacky sometimes, but that was to be expected. Here are shop images, set images, and more for the mighty Ubervamp.

This is the hero photo of Camden in the full makeup that the boss took on the first day of shooting. I cleaned up the photo and got it ready for promotion, and it ended up being used everywhere. Camden wore silicone makeup, but all the stunt performers and extras wore foam latex.

I said I did do some design work. And here it is!

While on the set of Angel, as an episode of Firefly was on the TV in the makeup trailer, I got a call from the boss to start designing the 'Uber Vampire' while I was working on the set that night. So, that is what I did. I found some paper, and I had some pencils and markers with me, and I got to work. Mind you, I received little to zero input on what I was supposed to be doing. I was told to start drawing, and that is what I did. I did these crude warm-up drawings while on set, working with some other monster. I was trying to figure out what an 'Uber Vampire' looked like, but it wasn't this.

And it wasn't this either.

I wish I had had more time... I would have liked to have had any time to work on these. I was given brief moments on set doing my job to come up with these. The funny thing is, if this was presented to me now, I wouldn't think anything about it; I would start drawing and would likely come up with something neat in quick work. But this was twenty-two years ago, and I didn't have the skills yet to pull that off, so we have these scribblings.

These two were never even finished.

I did as much as I could on set, and by the time I was back in the shop the next day, things had long since passed me by, with the shop's AD taking the lead. He had over a day's lead on me by now, and I had a couple of crude sketches. I fell back to support and processed and prepped his work as fast as he could make it.

If anyone is interested, I still have all of these drawings.

One thing I did design was the Ubervamp's contacts.

The final lenses didn't look like these at all (I think they just used stock lenses), but I designed something to completion, at least. I think these would have been fun, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I did say that I was responsible for some painting.

These are the background makeups and masks for the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It felt like I was working on these day and night, and I was. There were a bunch of us seaming and patching the heads and hands, and then I would paint them.

And here is me from the distant past with the things I painted.

I miss that shirt.

Here is an early version of the Ubervamp. I do not recall the sculptor, but I think this version would have been great. It feels different and unique, but that is likely why they hated it.

Here are some more sculpt variations.

At the end of the day, they had loads of issues with the nose, and they freaked out about anything that wasn't a normal nose... on a vampire... and was UBER. Again, the sculptor is unknown.

Now for some more Camden love with set pics!

GRRRRR ROAR! I'm a monster!

Ubervamp has had a bad day, Ubervamp needs to lay down.

Lastly, here are some set pics with the Ubervamp army. A mix of masks and makeups, and on set, the masks always migrated up close to the camera for some reason. These were all painted the same, but as I said before, the makeup artists took a lot of liberties with these and went WAY off the style guide way too often. Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. RAWR!

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here next week! Until then...

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

From the Archives: African Portal Demon - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5

Today, I have a monster I designed and worked on for season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode fifteen, Get It Done. Looking back, I am a little shocked at how many times I worked on multiple monsters for a single episode. Yesterday, I shared with you another monster I worked on for this episode, the Assassin Demon.  

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, 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.

This was a weird one. This demon was meant to be a one-and-done monster. Meaning that it had only a very small role in the episode. It would be filmed in a day and would never be seen again. But the fates had a different plan for it. Through a comedy of errors, something kept happening with the shots they needed to get. First, they ran out of time, then they ran out of time again, then the footage they got didn't work, then they needed some more shots, and there was some more running out of time mixed in there as well. Needless to say, this one-and-done monster ended up on set MANY times, and we had to keep making new makeup pieces each time. I ended up on set a LOT with this one over many weeks as they tried to get all the shots they needed. While I was not the person who originally painted the makeup for the first day, I ended up painting all of the new makeup that was needed for the additional shooting days. I designed the markings on the face and body, but those images are not worth sharing. Here are photos from the set and our effect shop of the African Portal Demon. 

The African Portal Demon in all its glory on set.

Oh wow! It's some idiot and a demon! RAWR!

This was a very cool cave interior set on the Buffy lot. It was made using an expanding foam or material to create the rocky texture. I am not sure what happened, but one day, I walked across the set and left massive bootprints across the entire set floor. I got out of there really fast and didn't get near that set for a few days. Thankfully, no one was there to see me do it. It was likely not a big deal, and bootprints on the floor would never have been seen on the show, but I definitely didn't want to be associated with the imprints. There was always someone looking for a reason to yell at someone lower on the food chain than they were. ...which reminds me of another story from another time working on Buffy, but that story will need to wait for another day - if ever. It's just about someone yelling at me for no reason because they liked yelling and screaming at subordinates.

This is literally a millisecond before I sprayed adhesive into the demon's armpit to patch up a hole. The adhesive ricocheted back and barely missed my eyes and coated my hair. Luckily, some rubbing alcohol took care of the adhesive in my hair, and I wasn't blinded at that moment. 

Man, I miss that shirt.

The actor in this makeup has a SEVERE allergy to latex. This makeup, cowl, and upper body suit are all made of... YOU GUESSED IT! Latex! It was a topical reaction, but he looked like he was dragged across gravel when he came out of it all. And yes, he was aware of his allergy. He was aware of what the suit and makeup were made out of. He still did it all, on numerous days, for the money and fame.

I will say he was one of the more charismatic people we worked with. He wasn't the best we worked with, but he was really, really good. He had a lot of fun with the role and could really emote and come through the makeup with his personality.

Here are some photos of the face and cowl sculptures.

Again, these weren't mine, and I do not remember who was responsible. I have a slight guess, but I am likely wrong at this point. I still love the bite mark on the head and shoulder. The chin tusks may have been a reused item but were likely new for this one.

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here next week! Until then...

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

From the Archives: Assassin 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 fifteen, Get It Done. As today is Halloween, it seemed like a good day to share this one. We only ever knew it as the Assassin Demon, so I am not sure if it ever acquired a different name.

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. 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.

This particular demon is one that I had shared before, which consisted of the same single image, but I never shared any of the other photos, details, or designs. While I have designed and painted a lot of monsters for Buffy and Angel, this is one of my favorites. I was given a lot of room to do whatever I wanted to with the paint scheme, and so I went a bit crazy. I also designed it from a very crude sketch from the art director. It was more of a general direction, and I fleshed it out the best I could. Here is a never before shared photo of the Assassin Demon.

RAWR! The Assassin Demon!

This demon is forever tied to my favorite nights on set for Buffy. I needed to go over to set to check on things and to drop some items off. In the process, I also took a lot of photos and spent some time on set. As it was after hours and a last minute call for me to do this, I was able to bring my wife with me to show her Sunnydale and what I 'do at work.' We had a blast walking around the sets, letting her see where the magic happens and as an added bonus, they had absolutely amazing tomato soup with cheesy bread for late snack at craft service, and I think about that soup often. A really good memory of my time there that I try to hang onto. Now for the designs!

I was told my initial design was approved, which is the above image, but later, I was told to make edits to it and give it another pass, which I did.

My second pass had some edits to the forms and shapes, and I better defined the design with shading. Now, if you are thinking that the updated design really doesn't look like the finished product, you would be correct. This is yet again another example of what I did the first time being used, and the updated version was ignored. I have no idea how, when, why, or what led to this, but it was not uncommon. 

 

This is the photo I have always shared for this particular demon.

You might notice that the demon has lavender around the eyes. This was a unilateral decision made by the makeup artist who applied the makeup. We were not there to stop them, but I guess they wanted to make sure that this looked like a mask by calling attention to the eyes and giving it a COMPLETELY different color just under them. Not darker or lighter versions of the surrounding color, but a contrasting color. Sadly, they all can't be perfect, even though this one got so very close.

And one more photo of the demon for good measure.

Lastly, here are some better images of the face piece and cowl I painted for this monster. Like I said before, I was given a lot of room to just be an artist who makes cool monsters on this one without all the bullying and punitive revisions. I recall I even received a compliment for the work I did on this one.

The used face piece and cowl for this one remained in my possession as one of the few physical reminders of my work on the shows. It has been stored in a dark climate controlled environment for over twenty years which has allowed this piece to hold up fairly well.

That's all for another exciting Thursday on the blog. See you back here tomorrow! Until then...

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

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

From the Archives: Werewolf - Angel Season 5 (PART 2)

Welcome back! Today is part two of my look back at the werewolf I helped bring to life for the fifth season of Angel, episode 3, Unbound. If you missed it, you can catch up on PART ONE, which features my design work, a lot of photos from the completed werewolf on set, and some storyboards I did for the episode that may or may not have ever been looked at by anyone outside the shop. 

Once again, before I go any further, I must remind everyone that this work is a collaboration of many skilled artists and technicians. Designing and making the werewolf was a massive undertaking for the shop, and everyone was working on it. I was one of many who brought this thing to life. I was present at all stages, but primarily, I was on the design team, 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.

In part two, I am sharing a look at the werewolf taking shape in the makeup effects shop I worked at. It was all hands on deck for this one. We needed a full body cast of the stunt actor, a fiberglass form of the actor to sculpt upon, separate forms for the head, face, arms, and ears, molds of everything, casts of everything, arm extension forms with wire-controlled fingers, a set of teeth with a tongue and palate, seaming on everything, paintwork on everything, hair work, and finish & detail. And it all had to be done in a week or two. It was a crazy, fun time, to say the least. Looking back, I try remembering the good times and hope they outweigh the other times. First, here is the completed werewolf on set about to leap from a second-story window.

I have some very blurry images of the werewolf going out the window, but sadly, they are too recognizable to share.

The stunt actor getting his full-body life cast. We work extremely hard and fast so that the actors are not in the mold any longer than necessary.

And like magic, there is a completed sculpture of a werewolf ready to be molded. Things were moving so quickly that it was hard to document everything at times. While I have a LOT of photos, I need to be careful what I share, be respectful of the dead, and pick images that share a distinct moment in the process.

I may have hated working with fiberglass the most. I only had to deal with it a couple of times, but it is nasty, dangerous stuff. When dealing with a sculpture of this size, there is no other option than fiberglass. There is a lot of planning that goes into a project like this. It goes all the way down to making sure the mold is properly reinforced and cut down correctly.

One of the two arms with the mold walls set up. Plaster would be used for these molds. Once this side was completed, the entire thing would be flipped over, the clay mold walls removed, and then the second half of the mold would be built by hand.

 

The body mold is shown here in the midst of getting filled with foam latex. I never learned what method was used to determine how much foam latex was needed to fill the various molds.

The opening of a foam latex mold is a unique experience. For me, the worst was the fiberglass molds. Plaster molds tended to absorb more of the funk than the fiberglass, or it at least seemed that way. When you cracked open a big mold like this, you would be hit with a sulfur egg blast, and the latex would be wet, slick, and nasty. It was so cool!

The sculpture for the face of the werewolf. The ears will be cut off and molded separately so that they can be cast in a slightly translucent material. Molds of the gums and empty palate are also made so that the teeth, tongue, and mouth interior can be sculpted and cast with appropriate materials.

A much younger and heavier me painting the werewolf suit. This was late at night, and there were only a couple left in the shop, but the work needed to be done, and we had to stay till it was. There is always another step after the one you are working on, and that next person is waiting on you.

The werewolf suit takes shape with paintwork.

A look at the arm extensions with the wire-controlled puppet fingers... or paws.

And the finished werewolf arms. They still need hair, but this should show you how they look. The color is off because of the quality of digital cameras twenty-plus years ago. It was very difficult to get good, consistent photos where the colors and lighting remained the same.

The werewolf's face in the early stages of paint work. There are times I look at these early stages of the work we did and wonder how we ever got it completed in time and how it ended up looking as good as it did. It is a magical transformation to watch a pile of latex bits get put on an actor, and suddenly, it is a monster.

Here again is 2003, me painting some werewolf paws.

Yes, I was blonde-ish for a time in my LA days.

And finally, after a great deal of time, work, and frustration, we have a completed werewolf suit ready for set. Knowing how we rolled, this was likely completed the night before this needed to be on set at 5AM - actually, it filmed on a lot of night shoots, so it could have been it was needed at 5PM the next day. A ton of people put a lot of hours into this so it would be ready for the show.

One more photo of the completed suit. It feels like a million years ago and a week or two ago. I can smell this picture for all the good and bad. I can feel being back there. I spent a lot of time over a few years in this space and did a lot of amazing things and had some horrible things happen to me. It is a mixed bag, but it is nice to share the work that the team did after all these years.

That is all for another week on the blog. See you back here next week! Until then...

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

Why Can't You See the Werewolf Post (The One After This One)

Hey, Google, let the kids see the werewolf!

Welp, for some grand reason, Google and Blogger flagged my part 1 post about the werewolf I worked on for the fifth season of Angel. It was flagged and hidden unless you click to see it and are signed into Google. All I am told is that it violates something. No specifics because that would be silly. Why tell me the specific problem when I can have zero idea and thus... not address the precieved issue (because there isn't any violation in my post). I deleted the one image that had FAKE blood on a FAKE werewolf, but that did nothing. I have put too much work into that post to just start deleting more. SO, if you would like to see and read about my work on this show, you will need to jump through Google's hoops while they harass me and ignore actual issues on the web. Fun times!

Here is the direct link to the post.

Let's hope they don't flag part 1 as well... we will find out on Friday.

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