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| Tales from the ‘Trek’ Trailer |
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| Photos courtesy of Steve Buscaino |
Posted: Friday 12 June, 2009
Steve Buscaino
Story by Steve Buscaino (with assistance from Ron Pipes)
In the old studio system days, almost all movie and TV make-up lab work was done at the studio’s own make-up department on the lot. This is not the case any more. The studios don’t really have their own departments and everything is contracted out. People rarely get to see make-up prosthetics and creature effects created ahead of time—that usually happens in a secluded industrial building far from the lot.
So when Joel Harlow, prosthetic make-up supervisor on the new Star Trek film, approached me about putting together a make-up lab on the Paramount lot, I was enthused. The idea was to have a mobile lab that could travel with the production as needed. We had done this on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, but this would be on a bigger scale. It proved to be an efficient and cost-effective idea.
Harlow had just inherited the job of supervising all of the Vulcan prosthetics. This later expanded to include all of the Romulans and Klingons and resulted in the creation of hundreds of appliances during the five-month shoot.
A standard make-up trailer was converted and stocked with equipment and supplies for mold-making, casting, lifecasts, etcetera. Initially, the trailer was staffed by three main lab guys. As the foreman, I wanted to focus on the silicone runs and have someone handle a lot of the moldmaking. Rob Freitas was brought in to oversee most of the epoxy and silicone molds—he added a lot of finesse to them, which made the silicone runs a lot easier. Later, when the Romulans were added, Mark Garbarino joined in. He did applications and we considered him the third leg in the trailer—he had a lot of experience running foam departments and really helped us set a production pace.
Harlow started sculpting with a team of staff make-up artists: Richie Alonzo, Mark Garbarino, Dave Dupuis, Richard Redlefsen and Dave Snyder all began sculpting new Vulcan ears. Casts of ears were made in the lab trailer and sent immediately to the sculptors. Harlow sculpted a new, refined version of ears for Leonard Nimoy (see accompanying story). Concepts for the Romulans and sculptures for test make-ups were also developed. There were six different test make-ups for the Nero character alone.
Once the sculptures were done, new molds had to be made. I liked Barney Burman’s original concept for running seamless ears, but saw room for improvement. Freitas refined the new molds, and the new ears came out much nicer. I ran all of Nimoy’s ears and the molds worked perfectly. We also refined the color and silicone density at this time: I chose platinum silicone for the appliances and molds. Most of the ear molds and all of the principals’ appliances were made in the trailer.
Around this time we realized our staff was growing quickly and our lab trailer would be too small to accommodate all of the Romulan work that needed to be done. Since the mobile lab was on set, we could accommodate any sudden needs or changes; we didn’t want to lose that, so we kept most of the work on the heroes in the trailer, and all of the background stuff was done at an off-site lab. A small shop in Valencia was set up to make most of our bigger molds, scars and background ears. Ryan Bruce, Chris Alexander and Anthony Julio made molds while Mike Ross and J.D. Bowers ran Pros-Aide scars and gelatin background ears. Most of the silicone runs were done in the trailer on the lot.
After the Vulcan ears were done, Harlow’s trailer started sculpting Romulan ears and foreheads. Harlow sculpted the Nero character and Alonzo sculpted and applied the Ayel character. The most difficult piece for me to run was Ayel. It was very delicately sculpted and the actor’s own features added to a situation where everything just had to be perfect, but with Alonzo’s application, the make-up was stunning.
When the Romulans were finally sculpted, approved and molded, mass production really began. Almost every prosthetic make-up artist brought in for application also had a turn making something in the lab. We got approval on the sculptures rather late, so our build time became compressed. I knew we would need more people than we had originally anticipated. Department head Mindy Hall scheduled artists before or after an application to help in the lab. We had almost everybody in there at some point—Earl Ellis, Jay Wejebe, Greg Funk and Scott Wheeler all helped out. Dave Snyder and Ken Niederbaumer stayed for weeks and proved invaluable. Jed Dornoff handled silicone background ears.
After the Romulan head pieces were cast, they were sent to hair punching. Staff make-up artists Ned Neidhart and Ron Pipes supervised the process. (Said Pipes, “We used protractors and templates for alignments. Two shades of brown hair were used. Ned usually did the final styling.”) Rebecca Alling, Andrew Clement, Roxy D’Alonzo and Kim Felix-Burke all helped on the hair-punching team.
While the Romulans began filming, Harlow started building the Klingons. Since they wore helmets, the appliances were partial, but did include brows. Production originally wanted two appliances for one day’s shoot, but they kept adding more. I think I made 17 of them. The Klingons were eventually deleted from the film.
Throughout the shoot, the lab trailer traveled to most of the locations. We stored the hundreds of appliances in a cube truck. The mobility of everything saved a lot of time when we faced unexpected changes. There were a few times when we almost had to make something from scratch, and it would have been impossible to get it ready in time for camera if it had been made at an outside shop and sent in.
At the end of the film, all of the molds were spread out on the tables for cataloging and packed into storage. People were amazed to see all of the items we made and what it took to make them. All kinds of people from the lot—drivers, producers, office personnel, even security officers—wanted to see everything.
Doing most of the lab work out of the trailer proved successful. The work came in under budget, and production was very happy. Who knows? Maybe things will come full circle from 40 years ago and a lab trailer may soon become standard equipment again.
To learn more about the Star Trek experience, be sure to attend the Star Trek panel discussion at IMATS June 21. For more information, go to www.makeupartistshow.com.
History of Spock ears (from Steve Buscaino’s collection)
1. This is an unused/unpainted set of Nimoy’s ears from the original Star Trek series
 Lab work: John Chambers/Fred Phillips
Material: Uniroyal or Schram foam latex
Make-up artist: Fred Phillips
Make-up: Castor-based, pencil accent
Year: 1996-1969
2. This is an unused/unpainted set of Nimoy's ears from the 2009 film Star Trek
Sculpting: Joel Harlow
Lab work: Steve Buscaino/Rob Freitas
Material: Platinum silicone
Make-up artist: Joel Harlow
Make-up: Skin Illustrator
Year: 2009
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Make-Up Artist Magazine Features Michael Jackson Retrospective - Monday 06 July, 2009 |
| Following the recent death of Michael Jackson, Make-Up Artist magazine’s next issue (#79) will feature a retrospective of the King of Pop,
featuring interviews with a number of make-up artists who worked with
Jackson over the past three decades, as well as some exclusive,
never-before-published photos. |
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Web Exclusive: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Young Hellboy - Monday 04 August, 2008 |
| From a make-up perspective, the first major character to appear in Hellboy 2 is
a younger version of the hero, seen in a 1955 prologue with Professor
Broom (John Hurt). The Young Hellboy character was created by the
Barcelona-based company DDT Efectos Especiales and played in a
gender-bending twist by the company’s Montse Ribé. |
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Iranian Make-up Innovator Dies at 65 - Wednesday 14 May, 2008 |
| Iranian
movie make-up artist Farhang Moayyeri died May 10 in Tehran of cardiac arrest.
He was 65 and had already fought a long battle with lung cancer, the Iran State
News Agency reported.
Moayyeri
created several make-up designs and prosthetics for Iranian theater, television
and film. He is best known for creating make-up for the films of Bahram Beizai,
Mas'ud Kimiai and other well-known Iranian directors.
According
to the ISNA, Moayyeri was born in 1943 and began his career acting on The
Brick and the Mirror (1965), then tried directing before entering the make-up
industry in 1978. He created the make-up for Bashou, the Little Stranger (1986), Maybe Some Other Time (1988), Killing Mad Dogs (2001) and
other films.
Mohsen
Maleki, head of the Iranian Association of Make-Up Designers, expressed sorrow
over Moayyeri’s death and described him as the father of modern Iranian make-up
design. Moayyeri was honored by the association in 2006 for his efforts to train
new generations of artists in Iran's film industry.
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Wake Up to Make-up! - Thursday 11 December, 2008 |
Australian make-up artist Napoleon Perdis has his own schools, his own cosmetics line, and now, his own reality show: Get Your Face On.
The program, filmed at Perdis’ flagship L.A. store, follows 12 make-up
artists as they vie to become his protégé. The one-hour, 10-episode
show debuted Dec. 8 on the TLC network and is airing every weekday
morning through Dec. 19. We asked Perdis to tell us more.
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