Black Swan

The Black Swan
In the scene, Natalie Portman is first experiencing the appearance of the swan-like skin; appearing first on her back and shoulders, creeping down her neck and up her arm. The image is a series of effects, combining feather quills and textured skin, along with dark make up that rapidly spreads across her skin. While this is happening, the camera is sweeping up and down Portman’s arm and torso, while also rotating around her body.

To execute the visual effects on this shot, the team had been working for weeks trying to make it work. The end result had to show the effect starting on her back, neck and shoulders, then continue the transformation process progressing further while tracking around her arms with the camera panning close up. It's a complex 360 degree shot showing the metamorphosis happening, with constant camera motion. And all of the effects had to be tracked to her arm. But the problem was; the team couldn’t lock it down - there was far too much camera movement, and to add to the problem, there were minimal tracking markers on her arms - nothing useful to track to. The team had exhausted their arsenal of tools, but they couldn’t make it work. The timing and movement in the shot were just too fast. And the client was getting nervous - the deadline was fast approaching. There was one option left, however. “Call Buddy!”

The Hobbit 'An Unexpected Journey': Hair & Make Up

With the success of Peter Jackson's trilogy of The Lord of the Rings where he depicted J.R.R Tolkien's characters of Elves and Dwarves of Middle Earth, the extraordinary creativity continues with the newly released film 'The Hobbit'. The hair and make-up crew, including Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane give more emphasis on the dwarves this time round using extreme beard hair styles and layers of bulbous prosthetics. 

Below reveals a detailed sketch of the dwarf character 'Dori'. King's aim for his designs was to ensure that the audience is not to focused on the make-up that they miss the dialogue. He ensures that there is a 'fine balance' whilst avoiding 'distraction' from the character's purpose.

Spider-Man and the Special Effects

When the first movie in the Spider-Man series came out, it created quite a stir due to the over the top stunt sequences and the brilliant graphics that were incorporated into this movie. John Dyskstra, one of the best special effects directors in the Hollywood business at present was hired to do the visual effects of the film. Dyskstra was the one who actually convinced the director to use computer generated images for the dare devil stunt sequences of the lead superhero as well as the villains in the film, because otherwise, these stunts would have been very hard to produce physically and even if they were produced, they would not have the same effect.

The very famous Spider-Man swing from building to building, lovingly described as 'ballet in the sky' by the director was the best work of the special effects team, something that improved further in the next two installments of the series. The effect was created by strapping a stuntman, or sometimes Spider-Man himself, actor Andrew Garfield, to a wire "no thicker than a bootlace" 60 feet in the air, which was connected to a winch on a rail. When they'd jump and reach the bottom of their swing, the winch would move down the rail, giving them a nice clean arc and unquestionably solid underwear.

The brilliant use of special effects is probably one of the reasons why the Spider-Man movies drew so much crowd and went on to become one of the most successful movie franchises of all time in Hollywood. Spider Man is easily one of the top most superhero movies, although the special effects work of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are far more superior to it.

How to Recreate the Joker's makeup from The Dark Knight movie

The Dark Knight (2008)

Make-up is a key element in the overall design of films or television productions, creating a look for the characters in relation to social class, and time periods, and any other elements required to create the desired illusion. Make-up is responsible for the overall design, application, continuity and care of make-up throughout the pre-production and production periods. 

Makeup plays a huge role in "The Dark Knight,” especially for the role of the Joker. The Dark Knight is a 2008 British–American superhero film directed, produced, and co-written by Christopher Nolan.



John Caglione gives instructions to the audience to apply their own Joker make-up:

      1.Apply the white face paint first. Dab the makeup sponge into the white cream, then apply generously to your face. Try blotting as you move around, so that it creates an uneven effect. Make sure to cover your entire face, including your eyelids and your forehead. You may have to get some in your hair to be able to reach your hairline. You don't want skin to show through.

     2.Take gray face paint and use your finger to dot it on your forehead and under your bottom lip and chin. Use just a few dabs--not too much! Then smudge it in with your fingers. This creates the messy shadows you see on the Joker: His face is not completely white. Alternatively, you can use a tiny makeup paintbrush, made for face paint, and draw squiggly lines across your forehead before smudging them in.

    3. Rub black face paint across your eyelids and under your eyes. Make it especially dark under your eyes. Then continue to rub above your eyes and into your eyebrows.

    4. Take the paintbrush and cover your lips with red face paint. Use your fingers to apply large lines of red from the corners of your mouth up toward your cheeks in a large grin. Then smear it around, especially on your lips downward under your chin.

Prosthetic makeup in Cinema

Prosthetic make-up has been pivotal in character development, visualisation and enhancement for many decades now. It is the process of using prosthetic tools to sculpt or create features on an actor, or subject that are not already there.  This was revolutionised by make up artist Dick Smith, better known as the "Godfather of Make up" in the cinema Little Big Man .  The prosthetic make up used for this film was for the character of the Ancient Crabb, a 121 year old played by a young Dustin Hoffman.

The way in which Dick Smith achieved this was through the use of foam latex which included a set of eyelids that could blink in unison with the actors. 

Hoffman during the application of the prosthetic make up.

Dustin Hoffman, sans prosthetics 

New beginnings

welcome!

This blog is purely for the purpose on looking at different techniques used in visual cinema, mainly new releases but also the older films that pioneered new technologies.  We hope our blog is simplistic and easy enough to navigate

Alien

Enjoy!