Taking a break: Bohg'Dar Demon - Angel Season 4

The blog break continues as I am still overwhelmed elsewhere. In my absence, here is some stuff I have never shared from my days in the Makeup FX industry! Today I have for you the Bohg'Dar Demon from season 4 of Angel...

 

If there ever was a demon on Angel I would have liked to had done more on, it was the Bohg'Dar. The Bohg'Dar was and is right up my alley when it comes to monsters - big and full of character. Sadly, I was out of most of the loop when it came to this monsters. I did however get to design the contacts for Bohg'Dar. Something is better then nothing. Not much else to add on this one... just look him in the eye next time and think of me...

 

While I only designed the contacts there was an entire team of my skilled coworkers that saw to the sculpting, designing, molding, casting, and everything else that went into seeing this creature come about.

Enough talk, here are the Bohg'Dar Demon...

The jowly Bohg'Dar Demon... RAWR!

My initial concepts for the Bohg'Dar contacts. For most of my contact designs I looked to medical books dealing with eye injuries and illnesses for inspiration and reference. The nature world is so much better at coming up with disturbing imagery. FYI, keep bleach out of your eyes... just saying.

Decided to go with a nice asymmetrical look for the Bohg'Dar Demon's contacts. You can compare this image to the photo of the final makeup above to see how well they recreated these designs in the actual contacts.

Here is an added bonus of thing to come at a later date. This is me in the Bohg'Dar makeup and suit! RAWR!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday! Until then...

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

Taking a break: Fu Manchu Demon - Angel Season 4

The blog break continues as I am still overwhelmed elsewhere. In my absence, here is some stuff I have never shared from my days in the Makeup FX industry! Today I have for you the Fu Manchu Demon from season 4 of Angel...

The Fu Manchu demon demon was... ah... you know, I have no idea what or why the Fu Manchu demon was made. Just one of the many demons that passed through our shop. I think it reused a cowl from another demon... or maybe other demons reused its cowl. I know the face was new... casue I watched it get sculpted. I did not design it... but I sure did paint the makeup! I was all over the paint work for this one.

While I was the painter on this monster there was an entire team of my skilled coworkers that saw the the sculpting, mechanics, molding, casting, and everything else that went into seeing this creature come about.

Enough talk, here is the Fu Manchu Demon... 

Still trying to figure out is this is racially insensitive.

Maybe I am reading too much into it.

Here are some images of the face sculpt for the Fu Manch Demon.

These were all handled by the shops design lead who designed and sculpted this one.

RAWR! Monsters in clay.

Another shot of the makeup and the hand/arm appliances that went with the makeup.

I really need to go back and watch episode 14 of season 4 to see if this thing even made it into the show and if it did anything.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

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

Taking a break: The Beast - Angel Season 4

The blog break continues as I am still overwhelmed elsewhere. In my absence, here is some stuff I have never shared from my days in the Makeup FX industry! Today I have for you The Beast from season 4 of Angel...

The Beast was the BIG BAD MONSTERS for season 4 (or was it?) and a lot of work, time, blood, and tears went into it. I lost a lot of sleep painting almost all the makeups for this monster and his stunt double as well as being on set for almost all the times it was filmed (and then some). Actually, I am getting ahead of myself. The designs for this were all over the place since production was HEAVILY involved. They really wanted us to make a rock and lava version of the Hulk meets Darkness from Legend... and after many attempts to give them something different and new the art department gave up and gave them what they wanted. ...but by then I was working on other things and not really designing the monster.

The Beast appeared in a lot of episodes through out the bulk of season 4 and this required new makeups for both the actor and stunt double for each day of shooting. We also had to replace the suit halfway through the season since they have a limited lifespan. Fun side note - on the first day filming of the replacement suit both the actor and stuntman torn the right arm nearly off their suits. There was some panicked repair work going over the lunch break that day. Without the amazing help of my two other coworkers there is no way those suits would have been film ready in about an hour.

Often I would spend a VERY long full day on set with the two Beasts and then go to the shop to paint the makeups for the next day of filming. After they were painted, I would go home for just a few hours and then get up and head back to set with the new set of makeups for the new day of filming. More then once I would grab a couple more hours of sleep in a makeup chair in the trailer after the makeups were delivered and before we had to start suiting up everybody. Not being in the Makeup Union we could handle everything dealing with an actors makeup as long as it was below their necks. The union makeup people were lords of everything from the neck up.

I had a lot of fun and a lot of great memories working on set during this time as well as interacting with the actor and stuntman that portrayed The Beast. Not sure why this popped into my head now, there was an Assistant Director on Angel that CONSTANTLY referred to all of us from the shop by one name... Allen. He called ALL of us ALLEN. SERIOUSLY. "Where's Allen?" "We need Allen here to fix this." "Tell Allen..." ...you get the idea. So weird to look back at it now, and funny.

While I was did some design work, a ton of paint work, and a lot of other assorted work on this monster there was an entire team of my skilled coworkers that saw to the sculpting, molding, casting, and everything else that went into seeing this creature come about. This, as with everything I share from these day is a team effort!

Enough talk, here is The Beast...

Our hero photo of The Beast. He turned out looking good and the fans loved him... we just could have made it "more".

That GIANT signature can only mean one thing... this is one of my designs.

This is the only one of my Beast designs that made it to a finished state and was done in the early staged of the concept period. I was working closely with the design lead and pulling a lot of direction and influence from him. I was told after the fact that when this was shown to production that someone claimed that this looked my a moose and they all sat around giggling that is was a moose.

Yeah... looks just like a moose.

I did design the contacts for the beast. I designed a lot of contacts actually for these shows. Often I would never see the final product but I did get to see the contacts for The Beast up close... like they were in my own eyes.

SPOILER ALERT! The Beast *might* not have survived season 4.

I was asked to design the melted Beast blob. This first version is not so good.

This second Beast blog is better and then final pile looked more like this. I painted the pile and wish I could find my photos of it.

Since The Beast was such an important monster the sculpture team actually had a chance to work up a maquette of The Beast. This also allowed time to work out some design issues... like the horns... that were still coming together.

More images as the maquette takes shape...

...and even more.

 

This is an image of the clay maquette that has been panted over to show production what it will look like. once this maquette had served it usefulness and was approved a mold was made of it and we cast an army of mini Beasts.

I painted SO many of these Beast maquettes. SO. MANY. The sad reality is that I never took the time to cast and paint one for myself. That is the thing about being surrounded by this stuff everyday, you loose sight of how rare and special these things are. I didn't realize that I never made myself one until a few months after I moved away from Los Angels and it was by then a impossibility to have one. Of all the objects that I dealt with while working in the FX business, this is the one I regret not having now. A lot of memories are associated with this monster. Oh well... I still have those memories :)

The sculpture team was all hands on deck for The Beast.

I think there were four to five sculptures in total that worked on the suit alone. It came together really fast... because it had to!

Turning mud into a monster.

Rocky monster butt.

Some rocky monster gloves for all your rocky monster glove needs.

I was a hand stand in for The Beast in some second unit shooting. The Beast jabs his finger into the abdomen of a character... that was my hand in the glove jabbing a replica torso. RAWR!

The Beast cowl and horns coming together.

Beast face makeup sculpt.

Vlad going under the foam latex.

Early stage of the makeup going on the actor for one of the first days of filming.

The very... VERY first paint scheme of The Beast suit - not done by me. The suit over all became a lot darker and more even in pattern. I never thought this read well and to me appears to be burnt flesh rather then rock and lava. The earth tones continued, they just were spread throughout and the entire suit and makeup were unified.

The suit in a more finalized state on set. Notice the "suit boots" bottom right. They were built over boots with lifts in them and were for normal wear and were not meant to be filmed below the ankle.  Stilt feet with hooves were also made for 'hero' shots. They were said to be a little hard to walk in.

The stuntman getting all suited up as The Beast.

More hero shots of The Beast. Notice those great looking contacts!

And more of The Beast looking moody and introspective.

While the boss man painted the first set or two of the makeups to establish the look but this time I was painting everything including the suit. I painted so many of these makeups. Lost count actually!

The actor is posing here wearing a sword through the head rig for a dream sequence.

All kinds of weirdness here... what on earth?

The Beast is looking a little weird...

Oh... This is a rig used for the shot of the sword entering the head. There is a slot under the shin spikes that the sword slides up and out the back of the head. I painted this entire thing. It was fabricated by others. When to set with it too. Once of the other guys held the sword and I stood behind this thing and held the head up in a more realistic position and when the sword 'stabbed' the head I let go so that the head would rear back as if stabbed.

Even the Stunt Beast enjoys the holiday season.

Ho Ho RAWR!

More Christmas time filming antics on set with the stunt Beast.

This was a fun set too.

Last, but not least, Mr. Beefy and the Beast.

No comment on those goggles.

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

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

Taking a break: Background Demons - Angel Season 4

The blog break continues as I am still overwhelmed elsewhere. In my absence, here is some stuff I have never shared from my days in the Makeup FX industry! Today I have for you the several Background Demons from season 4 of Angel...

Background Demons... for when you want to make the Buffy-verse seem full of monsters and demons but don't want to spend a lot of money and they don't need to do anything.

I always had a soft spot for the Background Demons. Most of the time (all the time) they were new combinations of existing makeup pieces that were modified or changed and then given a new and exciting paint job. We would cast new pieces, nothing old was used... mostly. I got to make a bunch of these during my time on Buffy and Angel and really enjoyed making them. They were rarely seen on screen, but I had a lot of freedom to do what I wanted and could use the opportunity to work on my skills in a low stress environment. As low stress as it got at least.

As always I wish I had more images of these, especially process shots, but at the time the idea of ever needing or wanting photos of that stuff seemed crazy. These images only exist because we needed to make sure we had a record of the paint job and part combination so that if they were ever needed again for additional filming that we could maintain continuity.

The original elements were designed, molded, and cast by others, but I was responsible for the assembly, changes, and paint work on them. Some are better then others... but I was learning.

Enough talk, here are the Background Demons...

It is everybody's favorite Background Demon, Fish Lips. RAWR!

Not sure the flash is doing Fish Lips any favors, but you can get a better look at what is going on in the makeup.

The actor waring Froglizard was TOTALLY over it.

I think he was channeling the honey badger... RAWR!

There is not a lot going on paint wise with this one. Feels a little muddy and all over the place. Live and learn!

Green + Red = Demon paint job?

Sure, why not!

Sadly, I am not sure this one got a silly behind the scenes name... maybe that is why he looks so angry... and monochrome. RAWR!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday! Until then...

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

Taking a break: Spider Demon - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7

The blog break continues as I am still overwhelmed elsewhere. In my absence, here is some stuff I have never shared from my days in the Makeup FX industry! Today I have for you the Spider Demon from season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

The Spider Demon came a long very soon after I started working on Buffy and I was VERY excited to design it. This is the kind of monster I have always been interested in (and continue to be), so I was really excited to show my bosses and production what I could do. I made this know to my coworkers when this monster was announced to the shop. That was when the one of the lead sculptures went behind my back to the bosses in an attempt to get me out of the way so that he could design this monster. Seriously. This was the first time encountering something like this, but sadly not the last... I have mentioned I don't do this type of work anymore, right?

Long story short, I ended up one of two designers on this monster... me and the sculpture (but really I was the designing this). The sculpture was now mad at everybody because his cunning plan had not completely panned out. My designs were far and away more liked and my design was the one approved and selected. Fun side note, whenever the bosses would like something in my designs, suddenly that element would appear in the sculptures designs.

Unfortunately the process of fine tuning the design of this creature was a long and muddled road. Production had two default statements for feedback: "It looks phallic." and "It looks vaginal." Sometimes, if we were really lucky, they would tell us it was BOTH. They saw genitals in EVERYTHING. More then once in an attempt to deal with a perceived phallus or vagina they would have us make changes and actually made the situation worse.

While I was the designer on this monster and did some of the paint and prep work and went to set with it there was an entire team of my skilled coworkers that saw the the sculpting, mechanics, molding, casting, and everything else that went into seeing this creature come about.

Enough talk, here are the Spider Demons...

RAWR! I'm the watered down Spider Demon!

This thing ate hearts and was important to the episodes story. Remember... it HAS to eat hearts...

This is what the Spider Demon SHOULD have looked like. I am standing behind this even after 12 years. This may be one of the best designs that I did for these shows and barring some bendy windy issues with limbs, it still is a nice design. I looked at reference and nature and came up with something that is not too horrible.

Let's jump back a step to have a look at my very original concepts.

Looking back now, I am not even sure these were really shown to production. The bosses were already sold on the above design and were pushing that one. It was clearly the best design.

I did some color variants... and that was when the phallic comments began to surface...

Apparently, when production looked at this design, they saw penis.

I think then need a counselor.

And so began the variations on the mouth for the Spider Demon. This one now has a beak like snapping mouth thing...

This handy diagrams shows you how it will work. This was all still TOO PHALLIC.

To make it less phallic, production had us do this...

This... THIS... is their less phallic suggestion. THIS is their big sollution to make it look less...

...oh, I give up.

Here is the final design for the Spider Demon. When it was all said and done, this is how it will look on a normal day... more or less.

Still was working out some of the extending mouth that comes out halfway up the body.

Nope, nothing phallic here... nice cloaca, though...

NOM NOM NOM! I am the hand puppet of doom!

The sculpture of the Spider Demon begins!

It is coming along nice and all... but isn't it a LITTLE small?

Yeah... it was a little small. About a forth of the size it should have been!

OOPS! Time to start over! Torso shown for size comparison.

I am just going to say it, because it was repeated time and time again at the time...

The sculpture didn't get his way with his schemes to be the only designer for this monster, my design was ultimately chosen, there was a false start with the smaller sized sculpture... so by the time it came to the this final version he was all grumpy and did not do as good of a job as he could have. 

REMEMBER, no matter what, ALWAYS do your best work on any project. If you are hired to do your best work, then that is what you need to deliver.

Some close ups of the mouth hole.... or cloaca.

I think he wants you to scratch his belly.

Here is a full view of the mouth parts that comes out and eats hearts.

Cause this is WAY LESS phallic then just a big toothy mouth on the end of a giant insect.

He is the final monster standing on it's own. Ignore the person holding it upright.

Lighting is everything. Taking photos of this inside is not doing this any favors.

It makes it look really cheap and all the flaws show up worse.

That pesky seam down the center of it's body...

That is better! Nature lighting makes it look a lot better and plays up a lot of the iridescent paint and coating.

The body is foam latex, the limbs have armature wire in them and they are cast of a semi-rigid foam.

Hey, Mr. Beefy, cleat the shot...

Mr. Beefy is hard at work coating the legs with a nasty nasty chemical.

Don't miss the nasty dangerous chemical one bit.

Mr Beefy is living the dream... painting monster legs with a shiny coat of goo...

It should be noted that this creature was mostly CG in the episode. The good folks at Zoic scanned it and made CG models and handled all the animation. We built the practical side of things for all the close ups.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

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