A quick sidetrack before we return to our story...

In 1992, I met with freelance photographer, Louis Psihoyos, who was working on assignment for National Geographic magazine.  The assignment was that they would travel around the world and dig up (no pun intended) all of the new information about dinosaurs.  He and his friend/assistant John Knoebber had stopped by Stan Winston studios to photograph the dinosaur construction.  In his hands Louis had a digital 35mm camera - one of the first.  I asked him what it was like not having film in the camera and he told me (then) that it made him a little nervous.  He no longer had control of the negatives he shot (which was how photographers maintained control over the images they captured) and explained that once the image had been interpreted by a computer, making a duplicate would not result in any loss of image quality (which would happen if you traditionally re-photographed a photograph using film to make a new negative).  Those words struck a chord with me.

 Most everyone in Hollywood (and in the world) has embraced digital technology and it has thrown incredible tools into the hands of many creative people who, otherwise, would find creating cost prohibitive.

That is good.  Right?  Anyone who had the guts to pick up a Super 8mm camera (that's right, I said GUTS) and shoot a few days of crude stop-motion animation, knows what I'm talking about.

It used to be that you would buy a roll of film for about $7 (which was expensive), build your puppets, sets, and props, shoot the animation only to discover upon development that it was full of "flash frames" or parts of it were out of focus. And that was that. The person working at the drug store where you had it developed didn't care - you still had to pay the $7 (in the 1970's mind you) to have it processed.  You, essentially LOST $14 and to many of us, that was MONTHS of allowance!

These days, all you need to do is grab your laptop, plug your camera in and start capturing frames.  You can look at them in a series, perfect the movement, make corrections - anything - all through the miracle of digital photography.  Heck, I'll even go so far as to say that digital photography SAVED stop-motion animation.  With a new generation of film artists raised on instant-gratification, stop-motion is no longer a "blind visual effect" the results of which would traditionally be seen only AFTER the film returned from a lab.

Meanwhile, for 40+ years, makeup artists were pushing the envelope of what could be accomplished with prosthetics to change the appearance of an actor into a character or in some cases a monster.  Dissatisfied with limiting their vision to heads and hands, they began to branch out and construct full-bodied creatures.  When that didn't satisfy movie audiences, intricate puppets were constructed and photographed.

Laugh all you want, but when you stop and consider the man-hours needed to create a Godzilla film from the 1960's AND the risk it must have been to shoot it all on film with high-speed cameras, it staggers the imagination.

Why?  Because a team of artists and technicians had to build cities and vehicles in perfect scale WITHOUT the use of a computer.  A team of people had to be confident enough in their skills to set miniature explosives and rig those buildings to come apart on cue.  And if it DIDN'T work - the lab didn't care.  You still had to pay to have the film processed.

Miniature builders, glass matte painters, effects animators, rotoscopers, Optical Printer technicians ad nauseum were all trying to push what was being seen on screen stretching the limits of their imaginations and production budgets to bring the impossible to audiences in the name of entertainment.

See, that's why I don't refer to these decades as the "photo-chemical" age, I refer to them as the "Special Effects Days" because creating an effect was special - it was unique.  Sure, you could use the same techniques (even the same molds and suits for the most part) but invariably, there would be SOMETHING new that no one had figured out yet.  There was some challenge that took the combined brain-power of a group of talented folks to figure out before the all-expensive film would begin to run through the camera's gate.

Bored yet?  Okay.  So now where are we?  Look on vimeo or youtube and you can see thousands of people making films in their backyards or on locations all over the world.  The picture quality is fantastic (even mind-blowing in some cases).  They don't own multi-million dollar visual effects companies; some of them use little more than an iphone and a laptop.  I've heard it been said that a renaissance of sorts has begun.  Or has it?

During the Italian Renaissance did EVERYBODY have the skills of Michaelangelo and the ability to paint the Sistine Chapel?  Could just ANYBODY pick up a hammer and chisel and begin to sculpt incredible figures like Bernini?  Just because a group of talented individuals were given the opportunity to create timeless works of art did not mean that (proportionately) thousands of people were doing it.

Our current creative environment is something much more akin to the American frontier.  The computer has become equivalent to a gun which was called "the great equalizer" in its day because a person no longer had to be possessed of physical strength to survive in the savage wilderness.  All they needed was the knowledge of how to use a gun. Sure, the better you were with the gun, the better you could protect yourself or exploit someone else but the gun was what offered the opportunity for equality.

I don't think I have to spell out the comparrison here.  Computers, like guns, are tools.  They are used to get a job done, however owning this tool and having the knowledge of how to use it for visual effects sets an individual ahead of the curve compared to those who do not have a powerful/fast machine, the right software and the know-how. I don't think I need to tell most of you that I've seen films on the Internet with effects that nearly rival ILM scale projects.  Look at Neill (District 9) Blomkamp's early work as just ONE example.

Sure, there are a lot of crappy projects on the Internet as well but to that I say look at 90% of the original programming on the SyFy Channel.  There is a LOT of dodgy effects work going on and yeah, I know, I know, I know the dance - no money, no time. it's meant to be campy, blah, blah, blah.  What many don't realize is that poor digital effects are "conditioning" audiences.  Since those who feel compelled to watch this stuff are seeing it in a "professional venue" (where sponsors are paying for advertising time) - they eventually accept this level of effect as "professional."

So now we have our margins - on one end we have giant effects houses: ILM, Sony Digital, and I'll throw in Legacy, KNB EFX, and Pixar to be fair and on the other side you have little boutique effects houses and indviduals in their homes with a lot of imagination and the knowledge of Maya, Z-Brush, and After Effects.
Throw on top of that the Gnomon School, The Stan Winston School of Character Arts, Creative Cow, Digital Co-Pilot, Free YouTube tutorials, and accredited universities and trade schools all over the world TRAINING new generations of VFX artists every year.

Do you see where this is going?

So now, after Practical Effects artists whom have been compared to "rock stars" have taken the back seat to visual effects companies and concerns, after Screan Actor's Guild puppeteers suddenly find only a few venues that still consistenly get them paid gigs, after Screen Actor's Guild stuntmen shit their pants as digital "stuntmen" began hitting propellers in TITANIC, after Local 706 makeup artists have had their work augmented or in some cases replaced by digital effects, and after film labs all over the world shut down or heavily reduced their payrolls because of the progress made by digital technology, NOW digital effects technicians and artists are calling for solidarity.

To what end?

Who came to the rescue of all of the UNION cel animators when Disney closed its doors?  Who rushed to all of the non-Disney animators when their jobs were outsourced to Korea? All of this was done in the name of progress, right?  It is what audiences wanted!

When the WGA struck, SAG marched along side in "solidarity."  When the WGA strike ended and the SAG strike began, what did the writers do?  They worked - they didn't strike in solidarity.  The in-fighting between SAG and AFTRA before the unions, the new "emerging markets" combined with the creation of SAG Low Budget and Ultra Low Budget agreements has caused a DROP in salaries and residual structures. Actors (with the exception of celebrity/actors) now earn less money. And actors are "above the line!" 

This is not a fair world, kids.  This is what we call progress.  The world has turned and it is what we all wanted.  If Nooks and Kindles and Ipads were not so popular, then you could still find big bookstores in every mall.  If there were no flat screen TVs and home theaters around, serviced by cable/satellite/on-demand networks, more people would have to go to theaters for entertainment.  If, if, if, if....

We all wanted this.  We all wanted to know how - we wanted to know how the magic was made - from pop music to novel writing and what has happened?  WE have disrupted how creative work is made and marketed and while a few of the old guard remain, making their millions, controlling what and how mass media is fed to the public, for the first time we see large numbers of independent creators out there.

Yes, piracy is a growing concern, but had everything remained analog, think how difficult making copies of music, art, and movies would be.  Am I suggesting we go BACKWARDS? NO!  We're here! It's clear! Digital's not going to disappear!  So why do I say all of this?

Because we have to stop all of the horseshit.  We have to stop the fighting and name-calling and everything else that we are doing.  If you feel like you are being exploited by someone who is making tons of money off of your efforts - leave.  Start your own business.  Make your own movies. Is the market saturated?  You bet, but all markets are saturated.  We live in saturated times but in a way - that's good!

You don't HAVE to watch "Honey Boo-Boo" if you don't want to; you have options.  You don't HAVE to work in your hometown anymore if you can figure how to use and employ the Internet to your advantage. It is a brave new world (well, we can argue "brave" if you want to) but it is certainly very different than when most of us started in this business and for those of you starting your careers now - WATCH OUT!  Twenty years goes by in the blink of an eye and soon you'll find yourself wondering how it is that you have become redundant.

All of us have a choice RIGHT NOW!  You can weep and mourn for the way films were made and do your damndest to try and turn the clock back - or you can decide how you fit in.  Not just as a VFX/digital/practical artist but as a human being.  Strength and independence are the cornerstones of  human spirit and creativity.  You are creatively in so much better shape now than ever.  Figure out your place or better CREATE your place.

You got your "great equalizer" right in front of you.  Might as well parcel out a little spread o'territory here on the Internet and call it your own.  Make whatever you want and share it with everybody else.  Will it make you rich? I don't know, but I ask you this: Does it HAVE to?  Sometimes just knowing you own a kingdom (virtual though it may be) is enough to make carrying the yoke for someone else a little more bearable.

I bet Louis Psihoyos shoots with a digital camera almost exclusively now, but I also bet his deal as a photographer has been restructured and I also bet that he still has film cameras and film still sitting around his studio.  He may have shot dinosaurs, but he refused to become one.  Time to evolve.

Now....get back to work!

See you next time with the continuing story of the creation of THE PREDATOR (and should you feel lucky that you don't have to do it the way we did!).

Part 45: The Saga of THE PREDATOR, Part 1

 It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  We were in the thick of MONSTER SQUAD, when we began to see new drawings from Stan of a new alien character for the film PREDATOR.  The makeup effects community in the 80's, although expansive, was still drawing from a common talent pool, so friends were always talking despite many studios' insistence on secrecy.

Most of us had heard of PREDATOR, when it was floating around shops as a script entitled HUNTER.  We also were aware that Steve Johnson's crew at Richard Edland's BOSS Film Effects had built a version of the suit and had already executed many of the gore effects for the film.  So, why had the producers shown up at Stan's?  It was very confusing, but an important lesson that I learned about film making:  Films are made in post production.

Trust me, I wish it weren't that way, but it is true.  Shooting a film on set is necessary for gathering the material that you need to make a movie, and the better quality shots and assets, the better the movie.  However, until it is all put together, there is really no picture.  The reason I say I wish it weren't true, is because so many people "kill" themselves on set working their behinds off to make production days and furnish these incredible shots.  AND, that's why a mediocre film can be elevated if  a director is shrewd enough to shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot so that the editors have a lot of options to cut.  There is an expression that many good performances by actors have been constructed by film editors.  There is a lot of truth in that.

With the the stories about the perceived failure of the BOSS Films Predator floating around the shops, PREDATOR had now found its new home at Stan Winston Studios.  From my perspective, the only place where the BOSS crew went wrong (and by that, I mean, where production went wrong since they had to approve the design process every step of the way) was that they were way ahead of their time.  Their concept exceeded the contemporary effects technology where it came to leg extensions.

Requiring a crane to hold the creature up on it's spindly alien legs severely affected the shooting schedule and was too limiting for director, John McTiernan, to constantly frame out.  It is commonly known that action star, John Claude Van Damme was the performer in the suit; he had taken the job because he thought that his debut in motion pictures as Arnold Schwarzenegger's adversary would skyrocket him to stardom.  He didn't understand that no one would ever see his face or body on screen and subsequently, he left the show when the BOSS Films Predator left the show.

What is ironic is that among the artists who worked at BOSS on that incarnation of PREDATOR was STEVE WANG!!!   Fate truly had cursed him to be such an integral part of the show.

Boss Film's original Predator suit. Photo courtesy William Forsche

I've written a history of the Stan Winston Studios, PREDATOR design history for my column at Film School Rejects here: Predator Design Story and I really don't have much to add to it beyond saying that until all of the parties get together in one room, we'll never know the complete story and the bottom line is that the Predator was the result of an army of talented people who threw themselves into the project with an enviable sense of dedication.  So, let's talk a little about how it all practically happened.  I'm going to assume that you've read the article that I've linked to, but if not, don't worry, the story can continue.

Kevin Peter Hall was the first important component of the show. He had already portrayed an alien hunter designed by Rick Baker and applied by Greg Cannom in WITHOUT WARNING and he was fresh off of a very pleasant experience as the titular Sasquatch character in HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS.

He threw little alien frisbees that killed his victims that he dressed out like a real hunter.

Although Kevin is known for the Predator, his true nature is best reflected in his performance as Harry.

Kevin was an actor by trade, not a suit performer.  Having been trained in improvisational comedy, Kevin and a partner were frequently on stage in Hollywood comedy clubs.  Prior to his gig on HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS, Kevin had acted in a short-lived television series entitled MISFITS OF SCIENCE where e played a character that despite his impressive stature, could physically shrink down to tiny proportions (Ah, television writers!  How clever can they get?!  I can hear the enthusiastic guffawing and self-congratulations at that one-joke concept). What made Kevin such a great candidate to play the Predator was not just that he was a good actor, but his patience knew no end.

We were kids, literally.  Steve Wang and Matt Rose weren't even 21 year old at the time.  I was 24.  No matter what we asked of Kevin during the construction he was only too glad to help.  He wanted to collaborate on this character and was in awe of the work being done at the studio.  And, of course, he LOVED interacting with Stan Winston.

Stan, a natural performer, and Kevin would launch into silliness every time Kevin visited the studio.  Ah, the glory days. After being hired, Kevin had come to the studio and posed for photographs for the design maquette, however because of the studio's continuing obligation to MONSTER SQUAD and the time required to get a design concept approved by the PREDATOR production, we didn't see Kevin for a few weeks.

Kevin and Stan on set at the Creature Effects Truck (Matt Rose in b.g.).  Photo courtesy William Forsche

 By the time Kevin came back to the shop the second time, sculptor, Wayne Strong's maquette was completed and Matt Rose and Steve Wang were back from their Gillman duties from MONSTER SQUAD.  Steve had done three drawings of the Predator, one head study, one full body standing drawing, and one of the character running toward the viewer.  But before any artwork could begin, we needed to cast Kevin Peter Hall.

As anyone in makeup effects can tell you, life casting is the foundation of any prosthetic or creature suit and there are many steps that have to take place prior to sculpting.  In Kevin's case, since he was so tall (yes, he was 7 foot, 2 inches tall) that we needed to do his body cast as two, two piece molds - his upper torso, and his hips and legs.  When the plaster bandage mold was completed (remember, no body scanning and outputting then...had to do it all by hand!), rigid foam was poured around a pipe armature.

A drill bit was taped off at 1/4" (meaning only a 1/4 inch of the bit was exposed and able to drill) and the entire surface of the rigid foam was marked with these 1/4" pits.  Then, the entire surface was sanded down until none of the pits was visible, effectively removing 1/4" of material from all over the rigid foam casting.  This was done for a couple of reasons: 1.) it ensured a great fit for the suit.  The tighter the suit, the less wrinkling and bagginess there would be and 2.) rigid foam, even when poured into a mold, expands a bit more once it is released from the mold.  When the form was sanded, it was sealed and another, heartier plaster bandage mold was made so that a fiberglass body form could be run for sculpting and foam latex casting.

Kevin's head, hands, and feet were cast in prosthetic grade cream and positives were poured and remolded in silicone for masters, sculpting and running cores.  While all of this lab work was being done, Steve, Matt and Stan spent time figuring out a strategy to get the first leg of work completed.  As had been established on MONSTER SQUAD, Matt would sculpt the head, Steve would concentrate on the body.  Unfortunately, due to the time constraints, it was decided that the armor pieces, with the exception of the helmet, the backpack and the wrist units, would be sculpted on the body and become permanent pieces rather than sculpting a nude predator and having to work out the armor later.  There just wasn't the time.

As with the Gillman, it was decided that the Predator would have long fingers, so prior to the glove being sculpted, finger extension cups were sculpted, molded, cast and then put onto Kevin Peter Hall's hand casts.
Meanwhile, MONSTER SQUAD had wrapped and the very fatigued group of Stan Winston's lifers came back to the shop.  They spent time carefully storing and displaying the suit pieces and prosthetics while we PREDATOR-kids tore up the shop in frenetic activity.

Perception is a tricky thing.

It is difficult for any of us to be able to stand in another individual's shoes and be able to experience situations from a different point of view.  For this story, the "why's" become less important and in an effort to elevate and celebrate the efforts of the Stan Winston crew, let's just stick to the facts.

When most of the sculpting forms were completed, Matt Rose began work on the Predator's head.  Steve Wang began the body sculpture, assisted by Alec Gillis, Shane Mahan and I (although, I would admit that aside from roughing forms out, I take no credit for the finished sculpt at all).  John Rosengrant began roughing in the Predator's feet and Tom Woodruff, Jr. began sculpting the wrist-blade housing.  By this time it was mid-Autumn and it was clear that everyone was physically pushing themselves in the wake of non-stop work since the "Go to the Head of the Class" episode of AMAZING STORIES.

The responsibility of creating the Predator created substantial pressure on Steve Wang.  With such a quick schedule, the body sculpture would have to be completed first and at a record pace.  Steve told Stan he was concerned that the sculpture would not be as refined as he had hoped to which Stan told Steve that the Predator suit was going to be all about the paint job.  How right Stan was.

Steve Wang reminded me that he fell ill toward the end of the Predator body sculpt (I couldn't swear on it, but I would bet stress and fatigue contributed to Steve's sickness).  I had been off of the sculpture turning my attention to other duties. In Steve's absence, John and Shane finished off the Predator body sculpture; Shane added the chevron details to the armor, as I recall.  However, whether it was fatigue, or budget, or the impending pre-production of Stan's directorial debut, PUMPKINHEAD, whatever the reason, John, Shane, Tom and Alec took some time off.

Shortly after, one day after work, Stan pulled me aside in the parking lot.  He told me that he wanted me to "watch Predator" for him (which meant, act as a supervisor/facilitator).  He went on to explain that Matt and Steve would be the last word on anything creative or artistic (naturally!) but that it would be my duty to figure out how everything was going to get done.  And if it didn't get done...it would be my ass (yes, he literally said that).

Mold maker, Steve Patino, showed up at the studio to make a fiberglass mold of the body sculpture.  The Predator crew had been slowly building as other Stan Winston studio employees finished up on MONSTER SQUAD including Grant Arndt, Lindsay McGowan, and Emilio Gonzales.  Mechanic, Wayne Strong, joined Richard Landon and Dave Kindlon in the mechanical department, to build custom air rams to extend and retract the wrist blades.

A frame grab showing the Predator body sculpt walled and ready to be molded.

Another angle...

...one more for good measure.

With everyone now working at break neck speed, the Predator body mold was opened only to reveal a network of thin, spiderweb-like cracks that ran the entire length.  We had no choice but to run it the way it came out.

END OF PART 1.  NEXT TIME - The pressure mounts as the crew attempts to finish the Predator.  Oh, and by the way, we'll need a red suit for the Visual Effects department!

Part 44: "We're the MONSTER SQUAD"

When we completed shooting on "Miss Stardust" we returned to the shop excited to begin preparations for MONSTER SQUAD.  In anticipation of creating so many creatures and make-ups, Stan rented a third unit in the industrial complex.  While we began putting together tables and moving equipment and clutter out of the main building, Stan, himself, began designing the monsters.

Yes, I saved my screening invitation!

 It was clear from the beginning that this was not going to be a Universal picture, and, unfortunately, Universal held the rights to "certain features" on their classic monsters such as Frankenstein's flat head and neck bolts, as well as Dracula's widow's peak, etc., so Stan was instructed by production to re-design the monsters so that they would be instantly recognizable without infringing on copyrighted material.

Stan began doing pencil sketches on tracing paper (his favorite technique) and soon had approved designs for all of the monsters: Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and the Gillman.  Dracula would only require dentures and lenses from us, while his make up would be designed and handled by make up artist, and frequent collaborator, Hungarian-born, Zoltan Elek.

While Stan was drawing, we began working on anything that we could that needed to be made but didn't necessarily need a finished design.  A couple of zombie/corpse puppets were sculpted; one, of which, Dave Kindlon mechanized with refined radio-controlled Muppet techniques.  Three actresses were cast as Dracula's brides and teeth and chest casts were made for fangs and "stake plates" for when Rudy dispatches them with a crossbow.

Stan's lifers divided up the supervisory duties per creature: Tom Woodruff, Jr. would sculpt the prosthetics required for the Frankenstein's monster, Shane Mahan took on the Mummy responsibilities while John Rosengrant supervised the Wolfman and Alec Gillis would design and oversee the various "bat-guises" for Dracula.  The Gillman (that's the Creature from the Black Lagoon to most of you folks) would be handled by Matt Rose and his friend who had joined him from San Jose, California, Steve Wang.  Richard Landon would supervise the mechanical shop, assisted by Dave Nelson, Steve James and Dave Kindlon.

There was no mistaking that most of the lifers were HUGE Universal Studios Monster Fans.  During the prep, John Rosengrant, an avid plastic model builder, brought in some of his classic Aurora Monster models for inspiration.  I had grown up watching the Universal monsters and reading Famous Monsters of Filmland, but I had a penchant for BIG monsters.  King Kong, Godzilla and pals, Reptilicus, Ray Harryhausen's creations - those were the monsters that beguiled me.  Not that I wasn't happy to be working, because, trust me, I couldn't have been happier, but after seeing those photos of the Queen Alien from ALIENS, I really wanted to work on a big monster.

John Rosengrant's finished Aurora Frankenstein kit.  Expertly done!

Rosengrant's finished Aurora Dracula kit!

Rosengrant's Mummy

Rosengrant's Wolfman.  I had never seen these kits done better so I photographed them all.  Wish he brought the rest in.

 Crews were organized by the lifers utilizing the remaining employees.  Lindsay McGowan went to help Alec sculpt bats, Emilio Gonzales (an East Coast transplant) and I went with John to work on the Wolfman and his transformations.  Lenny McDonald, a very talented artist that would go on to work for Steve Johnson for many of his films, floated in the shop doing everything from making the Gillman's eyes, to painting the undersuit for the wolfman, to sculpting the subliminal skull mask used in but a few frames of the film (the lightning strike visage - you remember!).  Eric Fiedler helped out in the mold department (a serious misuse of his talents) and a young man, Grant Arndt, from the midwest, became our runner.  However, as his talents would be recognized, he would move into the shop to work and would be replaced by Brian Simpson (Drone-performer, Doug Simpsons' younger brother).

Foam latex was run by a recent Rob Bottin studios transplant, Jackie Tichenor and David Leroy Anderson (Lance Anderson's son) joined the crew impressing everyone by making swift silicone/matrix molds on life casts in a DAY (which was no easy task)!  Dave Matherly and Anton Rupprecht helped round out the lab department.  Last, but anything but least, was Michiko Tagawa, a skilled puppet builder from Japan who had helped Stan construct the dog-creature puppet for THE THING.

So much work was done to create the monsters for MONSTER SQUAD, that all I can do is try to supply you with some highlights based on the creatures themselves...

FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER, as most of you know was played by actor, Tom Noonan.  Noonan came into the studio for a life cast, which was supervised by Tom Woodruff, Jr. They cast his entire head and hands.  Dave Anderson turned a based life-cast mold around in a day and Tom started sculpting the make up design that he would break down into prosthetic pieces.  I believe he also sculpted the back of the hand appliances.  Since Universal Studios-style neck bolts were out of the question, Stan put bolts on the monster's temples; I can still see Tom bending the small brass clamps that were used to give the illusion that they were securing the monster's skin at the forehead.  After the pieces were molded, foam rubber appliances were manufactured.  I'm not sure how many sets were needed, but I bet Tom Woodruff, Jr. could tell you because he painted all of them.

(L to R) A painted study of the Frankenstein Monster makeup, The Frankie Halloween mask sculpted by Steve Wang, a skull and the Subliminal Dracula Skull Mask sculpted by Lenny MacDonald.

 THE MUMMY was played by a diminutive performer named Michael MacKay.  To say Mike was skinny would be like saying that jalapeno peppers are a bit spicy.  Mike was emaciated which was the perfect base for Shane Mahan to build his Mummy.  The idea would be that MacKay would be in a suit, wearing a latex mask and for inserts, Dave Kindlon (and Steve James, I think?) built a mechanical puppet to really show the skeletal appearance of this mummy.  I'm hoping that one of the other crew will contribute to this in the comment section, but I recall that Michiko built the mummy's bandage suits.

Shane Mahan's Mummy Puppet.

THE GILLMAN would be Tom Woodruff, Jr.'s creature suit debut.  A long time fan of classic creature-suit performer Janos Prohaska, Tom convinced Stan that he would be an asset in a suit, not just because he was thin and over 6 feet tall, but also he felt that because he knew what went into making a creature suit, he would have a better idea of how to make it move well.  He wasn't wrong.  Tom was a fantastic Gillman and it was the start of a career performing in suits that continues to this day!  The suit itself would be constructed almost exclusively by Matt and Steve.  Steve, a relative newcomer to the shop, impressed Stan with his portfolio and was hired on the spot.  After casting Tom's head, hands, feet and body, Steve and Matt insisted on shaving Tom's body cast down 1/4 of an inch all over it, to insure that the suit would be tight and form-fitting.  Matt began sculpting the nail finger extensions on stone copies of Tom's hands, while Steve began sculpting the feet.  The hands and feet were completed, molded and cast so that they could be put onto Tom's body cast so Steve could sculpt the scales to match exactly as they transitioned from the suit to the gloves and boots.  A cast of Tom's head was made to be removed from the body form so that Matt could rough it out in water-based, WED clay and then pop it off of the body to be able to continue sculpting using a stand. This enabled Steve to work on the body without having to worry about Matt being in the way.

When Steve had the shoulder area of the body finished, a quick mold was taken and a stone plug was fashioned so that Matt could use it as blending reference for the head sculpture.  The body was molded in fiberglass by Steve Patino while the head was silicone with a stone matrix.  The entire body and head were cast in foam latex.

Matt Rose's and Steve Wang's Gillman Suit.

 THE WOLFMAN actually required quite a bit of work since actor John Gries would portray the man cursed with lycanthropy and Carl Thibault would play the final creature.  Gries had a slighter build and was of average height, where Carl was taller and beefier.  Unlike Lon Chaney, Jr. who portrayed both Lawrence Talbot and the Wolfman, Stan's theory was that the illusion would be better sold if the Wolfman was physically larger after his transformation.  Stan was insistent that there was a philosophical difference between a "Werewolf" which was something more like Rick Baker built in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON or Rob Bottin had constructed for THE HOWLING and what we were attempting.

It was the mid-1980's and makeup effects was enjoying its Renaissance so producing foam-latex appliances wouldn't be adequate for our Wolfman.  Stan designed a face that was an obvious departure from human facial anatomy, spreading the eyes apart and significantly lowering the forehead.  His goal was that when the audience saw this Wolfman, they would know that it was not just an actor wearing prosthetics.  Our Wolfman was to feature state-of-the-art animatronics.

On the set of MISS STARDUST, Stan discussed how our Wolfman transformation would feature something that hadn't been seen before.  Doing air-bladders beneath appliances had been done to death by this time, as well as long, drawn out transformations between puppet heads.  In the script, the only time the full transformation from man to wolf...uh, wolfMAN was featured would be in a phone booth (remember those?).  Stan came up with the idea of putting down a circular dolly track around the phone booth and using the corners of the booth as optical wipes between makeup stages.  That way, our tortured lycanthrope would transform rapidly as the camera moved.

So, it all had to begin with life casting.  John Gries came in and we cast his head in two expressions, neutral and wincing in pain, then we cast his arm in a dynamic position as well as his back.  We also cast Carl Thibault from head to foot and began making sculpting forms and clay presses to begin work.

John Gries' transformation arm cast.

 John Rosengrant was nothing if not pragmatic.  He knew that there was a strategy needed to complete the Wolfman suit and began sculpting the head and the body simultaneously to insure proper proportions.  He asked me to sculpt the hands and feet, but honestly, unlike what Matt and Steve had done with the Gillman, there was no way to pop the arms on and off of the main body to match proportion so I attempted to do it by eye.

My original Wolfman hand sculpts.

Sculpting Wolfman feet.

 When the body was finished, a quick fiberglass mold was made and a spandex, soft polyfoam suit was run, put onto a form and then handed over to fabricators who then made a Lycra covering.  Lenny McDonald painted the suit, enhancing the sculpted muscle forms and freckling skin tones over it.  The suit was then turned over to a crew to tie hair into it.

(L to R) The blown apart Wolfman puppet, the transformation head puppet, and the final suit with RC Head.

 While the long process of suit tying began, John finished off the Wolfman head sculpture and I finished the arms and feet.  Or so I thought.  It turned out that in my "enthusiasm" (which is a kind way to say that I didn't know what I was doing), I sculpted the arms too thick.  Whenever you sculpt something with the intention of punching hair into it, the sculpture should be thin because the hair will add bulk.  You've seen it before - a big, fluffy cat gets wet and looks like a skeleton.  So, with the clock ticking I banged through a thinner, less anatomical pair of gloves.  It was very disappointing.

The Wolfman hands that I had to sculpt in a day.

Compared to what I did originally, these are disappointing but became the gloves. Ouch.

 Speaking of disappointing, now would be a good time to tell you about the transformation.  Again, John would handle the head puppet; Stan insisted that  ONE puppet head be able to do just about everything.  I was given an arm to do.  The idea was that the arm would be sculpted mid-transformation so the exterior of the arm looked human while a wolf-like pad would be developing in the palm.  Like the head, Stan wanted one arm to carry the transformation illusion, so I worked closely with Eric Fiedler and Richard Landon.

The palm of my transformation arm sculpture.

I really tried to work some fleshy transformation elements.

And a LOT of detail!

The idea was that the arm would be shot in reverse.  We'd start on the underside of the arm, see the coarse fur, the wolf-pad on the palm, and long nails.  On action, we'd pull the nails in, the camera would move around to the back side of the arm and we'd pull the fur in through the skin.  The result on screen would be that the arm would sprout hair, the camera would move, we'd see the wolf pad on the palm as the sharp fingernails grew.  How much more simple could it be?

The arm was made of foam latex over a fiberglass core that was peppered with small holes.  Richard built the mechanism that would give the hand some movement at the wrist and enable the nails to grow.  Eric punched all of the hair and then tied clumps of the punched hair together with cords.  On action, we would pull the cords and the hair would just zip through the skin.  Simple!

To say the arm was a cluster-f*ck on set would be an understatement.  It was a HUGE failure.  There were too many variables, too many people involved; all I will say is this: it was the first BIG on-set failure I had ever experienced.  And, because it was so labor intensive, we only had ONE SHOT at it.

At some point we had heard from production that John's performance in the telephone booth was VERY animated and he was punching the glass as he screamed in pain.  Cutting to a static arm with a purposeful camera move wouldn't cut into the scene, so we had to be prepared to slam the hand into the wall prior to executing the effect.  That meant that the rig the arm was on would have to be rebuilt at the last minute to accommodate this change.  Also, fearing too much drag on the foam latex, Eric lubed the hair so it would pull in more smoothly (which wasn't a bad idea, but the variables of the shot had changed).

On action, we slammed the arm into the wall of the phone booth, pulled the nails in and pulled the hair. There was a millisecond delay then, vip! the hair pulled through at such a speed it nearly disappeared.  Then the camera operator took his eye away from the lens and said that he didn't like the framing and asked if we could we do it again.  Ugh.  Shyte.

We had better luck with the change-O head that had a combination of mechanics and bladders that spread the human eyes outward to mimic the final Wolfman, while pushing out the snout and inflating the cheekbones.  Also, Emilio Gonzales built a back prosthetic with bladders that pushed muscle shapes and dental acrylic bumps to suggest growing vertebrae that also was effective.  Two out of three isn't bad, but it stings when you are the one out of three that fails!

For the scene where it appears that a dead John Gries transforms back into the Wolfman in an ambulance, a mechanical arm outfitted with bladders was built, and as the camera settled on the characters shoe, a puppeteer's hand inside one of the latex Wolfman feet burst through.  That shot still makes me wince.

The biggest disappointment was that the Wolfman was sculpted in a permanent roar.  For whatever reason, (my guess is that Stan just didn't want that Wolfman to look anything but ferocious at all times), it wasn't sculpted in a neutral expression, so Dave Kindlon was severely limited to what he could bring mechanically to the head.  In the end, it didn't matter much, because as we all know, the Wolfman had nards.

As work on the Wolfman dissipated, I transferred over to the Dracula crew, assisting Alec and his crew with finishing the large bat puppet, the transformation arms, and the puppet body that was to represent Dracula in mid-transformation from bat to undead man.  Lindsay McGowan had sculpted the little bat, while Alec had sculpted the bigger bat.  Dave Nelson was chiefly involved with the mechanics of most of the Dracula pieces.  The mid-transformation body was not unlike what Rick Baker had done with David Naughton in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON; the actor was put on a slant-board through a hole in the floor of the set and a puppet torso was glued and blended on to the actor's chest.

However, unlike THE AMERICAN WEREWOLF, Alec upped the stakes replaced one of the actor's arm with a puppet arm in mid-transformation, complete with elongated fingers and wing membranes.  A set of facial prosthetics resembling bat features were produced for actor Duncan Regehr, and the make up was finished with hair pieces.

I had the pleasure of going to set a few days on MONSTER SQUAD, certainly not as much as any of the other lifers who, in general, had to be on set with their respective creatures.  So while Stan, John, and Shane were on set, maintaining the Wolfman and the Mummy, and Tom Woodruff was in his Gillman suit, assisted by Matt Rose and Steve Wang, Alec ran the shop while we completed the Dracula transformation effects.

I worked on the first,  main unit shoot, not just for the disastrous Wolfman transformation, but for the day the Wolfman exploded and reconstituted (see: Blood, Sweat, and Latex: Lending a Motorized Hand to MONSTER SQUAD).  I do recall another day when we were on a foggy swamp set where all of the monsters were playing.  Duncan Regehr had some intense, quiet dialogue during a scene and Stan thought the camera had cut and just went into a loud, Jerry Lewis comedy routine.  I don't know what was funnier, the routine or the fact that Stan had ruined a take, blushing while the A.D.'s then yelled cut and then called out for quiet on the set.

Producer, Peter Hyams shot the scene at the beginning where Dracula transforms from a bat into his undead, human form.  The crypt set was beautiful and it was so strange having a live armadillo running around on set.  We shot a series of puppets and parts that day, starting with Lindsay's small bat, Alec's large bat puppet, then the series of transformation arms; I think there were three stages but only two were seen in the film (or maybe it was four stages and only three...).

How about a little supplemental video?



While crews were busy finishing pieces needed to complete MONSTER SQUAD, and working on set with the performers, a group consisting of a couple of producers and a director came to the shop to speak to Stan about their troubled picture.

It seemed that they had completed principle photography of their new sci-fi/action film, but were unhappy with the creature that another company had built and now, they wanted the genius behind the Queen Alien.

The movie was PREDATOR, and my life was about to change forever.

Part 43: The Amazing Story of "Miss Stardust"

Steven Spielberg.  A name so important that it appears in "spell check."  JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, all have gone beyond being simple, fun, movies, to be accepted as institutions of contemporary film making*.  So, when Steven Spielberg announced that he would be producing a television show, it was sure to be something exceptional.  Using his influence, Spielberg attracted "A" list feature-film talent to be involved with his television series AMAZING STORIES.  Robert Zemekis, Martin Scorsese, even Burt Reynolds directed an episode of the anthology series that revolved around fantasy, horror, and science fiction themes.

I think this series was just a bit ahead of its time.

 As I mentioned last time, Stan Winston and his crew did an outstanding job for the Bob Zemekis episode "Go to the Head of the Class" creating incredible animatronic heads of actor Christopher Lloyd.  So, it came as no surprise that Stan would get the call to produce more creatures for a new episode to be directed by Tobe Hooper entitled "Miss Stardust."  In a nutshell, the plot involved a shyster (played by the legendary Dick Shawn) promoting a Miss Stardust beauty contest to chose the most beautiful woman in the universe, and, of course the crashing of that contest by aliens insisting on being represented, lest the earth be destroyed. Hey, they can't all be Shakespeare.

The alien contestant representative would be played by Weird Al Yankovic camouflaged by an elaborate prosthetic make up.  Now joined by Alec Gillis, fresh from Kevin Yagher's studio, the lifers jumped at the chance to begin designing.  Shane designed Weird Al's make up, which would be based on a huge head of lettuce - no, you read that correctly.  Tom designed "Miss Venus", a tall, slug-like creature with dangling tendrils and big bulging eyes.  "Miss Mars" was created by John, who envisioned her with a tall cranium, sharp teeth and pointed ears.  That left "Miss Jupiter", a six-legged, six-breasted, horse-faced monstrosity designed by Alec Gillis.

Other than Weird Al, the rest of the aliens would be elaborate puppets.  It was about that time, that Stan saw the necessity to expand his operation.  He had already rented a secondary unit in the industrial park that had served as a mold shop during ALIENS, but as I recall, Stan had vacated that shop once they left for England.
 However, Stan's intention was to move the mechanical department into their own space and so rented another unit that was directly opposite his bay door across the expansive parking lot.  While a moving strategy was being formulated, Tom and Alec took advantage of the empty building began sculpting Miss Venus there.

As Shane began molding lettuce leaves for the purposes of producing clay representations and John began roughing out Miss Mars another Stan Winston alumnus appeared at the studio.  Having worked with the lifers in England on ALIENS, Linsday McGowan had spoken with Stan about the possibility of coming to America and pursuing his career in Los Angeles.  Diminutive, soft-spoken, polite, funny, Lindsay found himself thrust right into a flurry of activity.  Without a car, Lindsay would rely on public transportation or the kindness of others to get him from his apartment to the studio.

He hadn't been in town for a week, when walking down Parthenia Street west toward Tampa, a black-and-white police car screeched to a stop in front of him.  Two of L.A.'s finest threw Lindsay to the ground and began questioning him.  As luck would have it, he fit the description of a suspect who had just robbed a convenience store.  Once Lindsay explained who he was, and what he was doing in Los Angeles, the police realized they had apprehended the wrong man.  "Welcome to Los Angeles." one of them said as they released him. 

Also around that time, Matt Rose rejoined the team as well.  I could be wrong about this, but I believe that he began sculpting the arms for Miss Jupiter.  My first order of business was on Miss Venus.  Tom's design featured three dangling "feelers" that ended in a tiny, bee-hived shape swelling.  Once Tom had the head roughed out, he made a quick alginate (flexible, dental, casting material) mold or "snap" which furnished an accurate base for my feeler sculptures to blend.  Nothing beats experience.  I had done something similar to this already in my blossoming career - the pineal gland for the Dr. Pretorious monster.  Yep, time to break out the ole prolapsed rectum reference.

Miss Venus, as she used to sit above the Foam Room at Stan's studio.

Yep, prolapsed rectums at the ends of her feelers, poor girl!

 Based on my sculptural performance, Tom then assigned me the task of roughing out Miss Venus' pudgy, three fingered hands.  This is where I stumbled.  Miss Venus, although a creature from another planet, was still "a lady."  The hands I roughed out were...well, rough.  Wrinkly and gnarled, they didn't match what Tom and Alec had sculpted on the body.  Eventually, I was relieved of my hand sculpting duties and they were finished by Tom.  I don't blame him.  When I saw the finished hands they were smooth and feminine - worthy of an intergalactic beauty contest.

Meanwhile, the mechanical duties had been split as well.  Richard Landon and Dave Kindlon would be building the exhaustive mechanisms for Miss Mars.  She would have a full radio controlled face, a neck that could stretch upward, mechanical arms and hands, as well as legs and feet.  The entire puppet would be able to be mounted onto a rod that would go through the floor for gross body movement.  Miss Venus seemed to be primarily Steve James' task with the help of his mentor, Dave Nelson, who was supervising the mechanics of Miss Jupiter.  I suppose it wouldn't be fair to not mention Lance Anderson here.

Lance, a long-time friend and collaborator with Stan, had built a tail mechanism for Stan's pet project entitled MORGULUM.  It was an impressive five or six foot-long mechanism about 30 or so inches in diameter at the base, terminating in about a six-inch diameter tip.It sat on display in a corner of the shop covered in soft, charcoal-colored upholstery foam. Stan suggested that Tom use the mechanism as a base to build Miss Venus' slug-like tail, so the foam was stripped, the mechanism covered with plastic wrap, and a mold was made to generate a sculpting positive.

As soon as sculpting armatures were built, Alec Gillis began roughing out the Miss Jupiter head while Tom Woodruff sculpted the body.  Lindsay and I sculpted the left and right legs as she would need six of them (3 on each side).  The large size of Miss Jupiter's head pushed the limits of Stan's small foam-latex oven and it was clear that the studio's needs would exceed the modest piece of equipment.  Soon, we would a bigger oven.

Miss Jupiter, striking an angry pose!

I don't understand how she didn't win the contest?

It was clear that for the larger bodies of Miss Venus and Miss Jupiter, running foam latex was out of the question so they were run in soft, urethane foam.  Miss Venus had a latex skin where Miss Jupiter's mold was just released and run repeatedly until we were able to pull a soft polyfoam casting out, with the least damaged surface (Polytek's 1014 is a soft urethane foam that is not advertised as self-skinning.  We were out to prove them wrong-ish).  We managed to get one casting that needed extensive patching, but it worked...well...sort of...

Meanwhile, on the Miss Mars front, there was a physics problem.  It seems that the mechanical arms were constructed with differentials in the shoulders that were engineered to disengage, rather than strip the gears inside, under a specified amount of torque.  In theory, the differentials seemed ideal for the task, but father physics stepped in with his concept of leverage.  The weight of the spindly arms matched with their length was too much for the gear box, which prevented the cable controlled arms from functioning.  This meant that the arms would have to be counter-balanced at the wrists with wires leading up to pulleys with weights attached at the ends.

Miss Mars is pissed because she needed to be supported by wires...Not really, she always looks pissed.

 In the art department, Matt, Lindsay and I were assigned to paint Miss Jupiter's body, arms and legs, based on Alec Gillis' paint job on the head.  I only bring this up because Matt Rose taught me something at that time which stuck with me to this day.  He asked if I had ever seen the skin on the inside of a baby's hand, or a baby's thigh.  He indicated that they were covered in a translucent network of veins in varying shades of red and purple.  Then, he demonstrated how to achieve such a look with an airbrush; this technique has remained one of the foundations of my painting.

When the puppets were completed, they were trucked to Universal Studios where we set up on one of the stages.  I say that with such aplomb, but at the time I was freaking out!  Universal Studios was one of the most famous studios on the planet and to be there as an employee was mind-blowing!  I really felt that I had landed in the big time when production told us that we would have a few days of (paid) rehearsals!  Then, Stan Winston informed us that we would be "Screen Actor's Guild, Taft-Harley'd"; I didn't know what that meant. 

Those of us who were not in Screen Actor's Guild, would be permitted to operate (or "perform") in front of a movie camera without being in the union....once.  We would receive our pay and residuals (what?!) based on a standard S.A.G. contract!  All I know is that it was more money than I had ever earned up to that point!

Production furnished us with musical playback for Miss Mars' Dance and Miss Jupiter's operatic performance.  We puppeteers slowly began to develop a routine based on the capabilities of the puppets.  For Miss Mars, Matt Winston and I would get on a platform above the stage where we would assist with the gross arm movements moving a horizontal pole back and forth with the counter-balancing pulleys on either end of it.  During a lighting test, one of the weights came loose, fell, and struck the stage mere feet from where a technician stood.  I shudder to think what would have happened had it struck him in the head!

During our rehearsal, a member of the Art Department stopped by to see our puppeteering set up and was impressed.  Apparently Rob Bottin and his crew had been on set a few weeks earlier with his creature ("The Greibble") and, according to this crew person,  it took a bunch of people with enormous controllers to make it work  They had had a hell of a time framing them out of shots. 

When shooting commenced we finally got to see Weird Al in his make up.  Kevin Yagher, who, unlike the rest of us, was in the make up union, applied Shane's make up which turned out looking fantastic.  Kevin was (is) an amazing artist.  During the day when he was on set, keeping an eye on Mr. Yankovic's make up, he clipped a teddy bear out of a foam sponge using a pair of cuticle scissors!  It was perfect and demonstrated how incredible his eye truly was!  I've never seen anyone do anything like that since!  Remarkable.

"You are one, humorless vegetable, you know that?!" Actual dialogue delivered to Weird Al from Dick Shawn.

 Shooting the puppets went smoothly.  The only hiccup was that Miss Jupiter's  operatic playback was "enhanced" and no longer had the same tempo as the routine we had worked out.  But we rallied and managed to get an impressive performance on camera.  To get a look at our puppets in action, check out this link: Miss Stardust on Youtube

Miss Jupiter, lit garishly, on set.  Nice teeth, though.

 It was also an honor to work on set with Dick Shawn.  Even though we really didn't have much interaction with him on camera, watching him work was a treat.  It is one of the many regrets of my career that I didn't ask him for an autograph at the end of the shoot; he would die, on stage doing his one-man show a year later!

While we were at Universal, between takes, walking amongst the classic soundstages, Stan told us what our next job would be - a cross between GHOSTBUSTERS and the GOONIES entitled THE MONSTER SQUAD.  And, it would feature the classics - Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon!

I was just happy that there was more work on the horizon.

*I would have added later efforts such as SCHINDLER'S LIST and JURASSIC PARK, but at this time, those films had not been produced yet.

Part 42: Back at Stan Winston's Studios

During my first tour of duty at Stan Winston's back in 1985, things were a bit unusual.  Stan's "lifers" as they had been called, had left for England within a few weeks of my employment with the exception of Alec Gillis.  Although I had been introduced to and worked a bit with the others, Shane Mahan, John Rosengrant, Tom Woodruff, Jr., and Richard Landon, I honestly didn't know that much about them or their working habits.  But now, I had found myself back at Stan Winston's studio, invited by Stan himself, to join the team in their latest effort which was building a mechanical boar for the film BLACK WIDOW.

Okay, time for a disclaimer:  THESE OBSERVATIONS ARE FIRST-PERSON BASED AND ARE IMPRESSIONS AND REFLECTIONS OF THE AUTHOR.  INDIVIDUALS SHOULD FORMULATE THEIR OWN JUDGEMENTS WHEN MEETING THESE PEOPLE FIRST HAND. Right, onto the story.

Upon my re-introduction to the lifers and after working with them for a few days this is how I would classify them:

Shane Mahan was an artist.  A dreamer.  He had such a charming and deep sense of self-deception that it was difficult to not like him instantly.  He loved art, especially traditional fine art as well as the trappings of what I would call "the good life."  I still like Shane very much but have a difficult time resisting the temptation to knock his rose-colored glasses off.  Shame on me.  Years after I left Stan's, my wife would tell me that Shane actually had the right idea about how to live life.

He wore leopard print slip-on shoes in the shop...no kidding...

 Tom Woodruff, Jr. was the perfectionist.  Highly talented and detail oriented.  Of all of the TERMINATOR heads that were on display, Tom's was the one that was the cleanest.  I recall being at Tom's house and seeing one that he had made for his home display that was more perfect than the one in the studio!  Possessed of a wicked sense of humor, Tom's true passion was writing.  He had dreams of writing screenplays and one day moving his family back to his native Pennsylvania.

I like this frame grab of Tom because you know he just did something he's embarrassed about...

 John Rosengrant was the ramrod.  It is difficult to see what a necessary and thankless position that is for anyone, and there were many times, in my immaturity, that I would see John as a frustrating figure at the studio.  A bit hot-headed and deed-oriented, John made goddamn sure that the work was moving forward in the shop!  Having had that position myself, since, at other shops, I recognize what a difficult position it is.  I'll take this opportunity to apologize to John for my youthful lack of vision.  He was doing what was best for the studio, which is what made him invaluable to Stan.

I forgot to mention that John, too, was a good sculptor.

 Richard Landon was the head of the mechanical department.  Educated and intelligent, Richard attempted to bring logic and dispassionate thinking into the studio which was a difficult notion.  Ironically, Richard was also very sensitive and polite which meant that he wasn't always heard above the rabble.  I admire Richard for his stalwart service to Stan Winston and his bottomless patience.  I never possessed those admirable qualities.

Richard looks like he's thinking about something.  He was always thinking about something, bless him.

 Other familiar faces had returned to Stan's as well, such as Dave Nelson, and Steve James, who were designing and assembling the chain link running mechanism for the boar (truly amazing).  And it was during this time that I met someone who would become a life long friend, Stan's son, Matt. 

Matt was just instantly likeable.  He was such a fan of his father and the studio's work that it was disarming!  He had boundless energy and enthusiasm and would be working at the studio that summer between school years.

At the time of my return, Alec Gillis had taken a sabbatical and was helping his friend Kevin Yagher with a demon puppet for a film entitled TRICK OR TREAT.  But he was due to return sometime in the future.  Of course, at the helm, was the man himself....Stan Winston.

There he sat in his office, no multiple Oscars nor high-tech furniture yet.  A star on the rise.

 As I put my tool box down on a workbench, I was greeted by a large, red fiberglass mold; its silhouette was immediately recognizable as some sort of pig.  Also, in the mechanical area of the shop was a chain-link mechanism.  These were the parts of the boar puppet that were under construction for BLACK WIDOW.  The idea was that the antagonist, played by Theresa Russell's, would trick the protagonist, Debra Winger into the forest where she would be threatened by a wild boar.

For shots of the wild boar chasing at Ms. Winger's feet, this puppet would be utilized.  Built like a wheel-barrow, it was only the front 2/3rds of the body.  Where the rear legs would have been, instead was a beefy frame with wheels that a puppeteer could motivate, coordinating with the movements of the front legs to give the illusion of running.

Here is the mechanism balanced across the foam room counters.

For those of you who are mechanically inclined, here's a close up of the shoulder array. Very impressive stuff.

I was told that it would be my responsibility to cast the skins for the puppet.  The head would be run out of foam latex, and the body would be a thin skin of regular latex over a soft urethane filler.  The mold was cored to create a thickness of about a half an inch, so that was going to be a challenge.

Stan Winston's foam room was just a bit bigger than a utility closet in those days (see the photo above).  He had several Sunbeam Mixmasters and two injectors that were acrylic-bodied with machined aluminum tips and plungers.  The injectors were not something you could just stroll down the street and pick up, they had been custom built per specifications; one held about two large Mixmaster bowls, the other about four bowls of foam.  The acrylic had been machined on the ends, threaded like a big screw so that the cap and tip as well as the plunger guide could be attached to withstand the immense amount of pressure exerted on the injector while filling molds.  To make matters worse, the threads were relatively thin, meaning that it would take a fair amount of revolutions to completely seat the cap on the acrylic tube.

I've spoken about running foam latex in many of the past blogs, but running foam at Stan's and using those injectors was a new experience.  Prior to running the foam, it became a responsibility to clean out the injector, castor oil all of the rubber O ring seals, and make sure that everything would be ready to go, quickly, in order to get the foam latex into the injector, cap sealed, and then material injected into the mold. It sounds easier than it was, especially doing the lion's share of the work by myself.

The initial run of any mold for a mechanical character, would be a test skin.  The overall quality of the foam and the run was less important than providing the mechanical department with something that they could begin working with to strategically plan how they were going to assemble the animatronics. The skin served as a departure point for the engineers to request a softer foam while indicating stress areas to be reinforced. It also gives the foam runner the opportunity of working out any bugs in the casting of the skin, so that subsequent runs only get better.

So there I was in this tiny foam room, with a red, fiberglass, boar head mold.  I had delicately attached a nylon stocking over the core positive (the piece inside of the mold that displaces the foam to a specified thickness) and had cut out the areas where the core contacted the inner surface of the mold.  I had drilled tiny "bleeder" holes throughout the core to allow air to escape while injecting that would cause air bubbles or voids in the skin.  Everything was ready.  Injection gun was clean and I was ready to run foam.

Chemicals weighed carefully, Mixmaster speeds and running times executed and recorded with precision, it became time to add the final chemical that would "gel" the foam to prevent the air cells from collapsing as the material baked out in the oven.  At this point, I leaned out of the foam room and asked someone to help me.
Sometimes it was Matt, or Shane, or Tom...whomever was free to throw on a smock and lend a hand.

Dispersing the gelling agent into the foam was putting the operation against a unreliable stop watch.  As I've said before, there were so many conditions that could make foam latex gel too fast, or not at all, so what any foam runner had when they were performing their task, was an idea of how much time they have to effectively get the material into the mold.

The foam was front-loaded into the injector (the cap end) as the plunger sat at the very bottom of the tube.  Once filled, the cap was screwed on (All those threads!  It felt like an eternity!) and then the plunger was carefully pushed upward allowing the large air voids and bubbles in the mix to escape until the foam latex hit the cap.  A bit of material was allowed to escape from the tip and then into the mold the injector went!  Slow, steady pressure was exerted on the plunger as spirals of foam began appearing at the bleeder holes.  When finally, all of the holes bled and there was enough back pressure on the injector, a ball of water-based clay was pushed into the injector hole as the injector was removed to maintain the pressure and prevent the latex from spewing out.  WHEW!  Done!  Now all that had to be done was let the foam gel and then into the oven.

Within a few minutes, the foam had gelled completely. Ah, success!  I carefully moved the mold into the oven, set the temperature and timer, and then returned to the foam room to clean up (another thankless task for foam runners!).  I went to open the injector cap to clean it out and it is stuck.  Solid.  Like through some alchemy the acrylic had permanently bonded with the aluminum.  The cap, which was about three inches in diameter, was larger than any channel-lock pliers in the shop and the acrylic was too fragile for me to put it into a table vise.  I held the injector between my knees and tried to twist the cap off.  It wasn't moving.  I unscrewed the bottom, pulled the plunger, and the excess foam out of the tube and tried to clean as much as I could from the reverse.  I tried to twist again...nothing.  Ugh...

I opened the foam room door and asked John Rosengrant for a hand.  He came in, saw what I had done and slapped me upside the head, like a father from the '60's would do after his kid  had just wiped his ketchup stained lips with  his shirt.  It was more shocking than painful, but...he had just hit me...right?  "Don't let the foam gel in the closed injector!" he snapped.  All I could do was hang onto the acrylic tube while John wrenched it off.  "After you finish injecting the mold, unscrew the cap immediately next time!" he added, and then left.

What could I do?  Go tell Stan?  Confront John and get my ass handed to me?  I was too shocked and stunned to know what to do.  I had just arrived back at one of THE best creature effects studios in the world.  Was it worth risking dismissal?  At the time, I thought not.  My ears and cheeks burning red, I continued cleaning the foam room.

It was a sad and defining moment at Stan Winston's studio for me.  I had returned, but not in the way I had hoped.