Being a costume assistant for a faux sitcom tv pilot

I had the opportunity of being a costume assistant on 'a madman in a life boat' by matt stokes.

This is a part of the press information about it on his website:

'Matt Stokes’ new Matt’s Gallery commission Madman in a Lifeboat is an immersive, sculptural video installation, built around the pilot episode of a faux situational comedy series.
The exhibition is based on the surreal imaginings of 74-year-old East Londoner, Charlie Seber, and investigates his life’s work developing a movement called Truth, Reality, Activism – created by Seber following an epiphany whilst working on East End building sites during the 1980’s'

http://www.mattsgallery.org/artists/stokes/exhibition-2.php

This was amazing work experience because it was fun, and I also got the chance to go on set while they were filming to see the effort that goes into it. I was with the makeup artist of the show so got to see what she did through the filming and it gave me a better understanding of the job.

These are just a few pictures of the costumes that we helped with, and also a few pictures from on set:

The costumes included a Heart, Cigarettes, An alien Galileo, and Earwigs. 

The pics below are from location, The potato is a puppet:

BGFX company

This company is a southeast London based SFX makeup company that was founded in 2010 my husband and wife, Barrie and Sarah Gower.




They offer high quality photo realistic character effects for TV and film. They offer character concept design to prosthetics and you can contact them to help you if you have a project you are working on and need a quote of a price for their work.


Their website is very useful as it gives you a lot of information about all the projects they have worked on and also gives you pictures to look at. It also has their contact details on there which is useful for asking for work experience etc.


Contact details:
e: info@bgfx.co.uk
t: +44 (0) 1322 837 797
m: +44 (0) 7976 369 030


Website: http://www.bgfx.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/BGFX-Ltd/114508798664415?sk=wall
Linkedln: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/barrie-gower/24/16/225
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BarrieGower
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0332968/


BGFX have been awarded 66 primetime Emmy awards for their work and their latest one was an award for outstanding prosthetic makeup for game of thrones season 4.


The people behind it:


Barrie Gower - Creative director
Barrie started his journey into the film industry when he did a degree at London college of fashion and graduated with a HND in specialist makeup techniques. His first job was in 1966 when he graduated, it was with the BBC working in the visual effects department working on red dwarf and silent witness. A year after this, he was hired for his first major film called saving private Ryan by Steven Spielberg.


From there he has went to work with award winning companies such as Weta Workshop and individuals such as Rick Baker. He directs all creative effects that go on in projects that BGFX work on.


Sarah Gower (Maiden name - Sarah Micallef) - Project co-ordinator
Sarah starting her journey in Teeseide university and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Creative Visualisation in 2000. Her first work was with the visual effects department of Jim Hendersons creature shop. After this her career progressed into VFX and she worked for Framestore as VFX coordinator and DI producer. She also worked as a VFX coordinator for Disney/Bruckheimer on prince of Persia and she has recently worked as a VFX producer at Cinesite on films such as X-men first class. With these skills she is now coordinator of all projects that BGFX work on.


Credits:


Feature Films:                                                 
Tarzan                              
Absolutely Anything               
Jupiter Ascending
Noble
Dom Hemingway
The World's End
Diana
How I live now
Rush
Life of Pi
Snow White & The Huntsman
The Iron Lady
The Grey
Wrath of the Titans
Dark Shadows
47 Ronin
Unknown
Burke & Hare
Kick-Ass
The Wolfman
The Nutcracker
The Dark Knight
Stardust
Hannibal Rising
Perfume
Last King of Scotland
Harry Potter 2, 3 & 4
(The Deathly Hallows 1 & 2)
Star Wars: Episode II
Shaune of the Dead
AVP: Alien vs. Predator
Troy
28 Days Later
Blade II
Resident Evil
Gladiator
Saving Private Ryan


Television:
Game of Thrones: Season V  
Game of Thrones: Season IV
Mr. Sloane
The Widower                                
Fit
Episodes, series 2
Beautiful People
Ashes to Ashes
Silent Witness
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Spooks
Merlin
Cranford
Saxondale
Little Miss Jocelyn 1 & 2
ShakespeaRe-Told
Dr. Who
Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul
Little Britain
Messiah 4
Walking with Cavemen
Band of Brothers
Jason and the Argonauts
Animal Farm
Alice in Wonderland


Below are a few pictures from their website showing some of the progression included in making a prosthetic piece:


Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban

This is a prosthetic for aunt marge played by pam ferris, they had to make two different ones, one to fit the actress and one to fit her stunt double. It consisted of several layers of foam layers.

The worlds end

This is a sculpted 'Football head' for the actor Martin Freeman. In the film his head was smashed and replaced with a ball. It consisted of 3 overlapping silicone appliances and a lightweight polyurethane ball that was made to fir the actors head. Other people involved in this project were Brian Best, Nikkie Grimshaw and Waldo Mason.


Stardust



This is several stages of ageing makeup done for the actress Michelle Pfeiffer as the witch characters Lamia. Other people involved were Nik Williams, Stuart Bray and Duncan Jarman.

My makeup kit so far

There are a lot of expensive materials you can get, but you can create some pretty decent effects with the basics like liquid latex, tissue/cotton wool and basic face makeup or paints. It is always useful to have concealers, foundations, eye shadows etc. on hand as they can come in very useful. This is how I started off but since I have started getting more into I have started to build up my kit with better products. I started off with liquid latex, which is really cheap stuff and you can get it off amazon and ebay and in Halloween shops but you can use it for anything, but make sure you get the one that is suitable for faces.

The next thing I got was a kit by mehron for £109 pound off amazon.co.uk (sometimes it is £99 pound). This kit includes a lot of essential stuff. This a great start to a kit, but some products you get are really small bottles of the stuff.

Whats in the kit:

• 8 Color Palette Includes: 3 Mask Covers & 5 Color Cup Colors
• 4.5 oz. Liquid Latex Clear
• 1 oz. Squirt Blood
• Large Powder Puff
• 2 oz. 3-D Clear Gel
• Stage Blood
• 0.5 oz. Coagulated Blood
• 1 oz. Barrier Spray • Crepe Hair
• 3 Full Size Stageline Makeup Brushes
• Colorset Powder
• 1 oz. Makeup Remover Lotion
• 1 oz. Brush Cleaner
• 1 oz. Spirit Gum Remover
• Spirit Gum
• Tooth FX Blood Red
• Tooth FX Nicotine
• Rigid Collodion
• Fixative A
• 1 oz. Hair White
• Modeling Putty/Wax
• Extra Flesh
• Bruise ColorRing
• Stipple Sponge
• Non Latex Sponge
• Cotton Swabs 
• 2 Prosthetic Bullet Holes and 1 Prosthetic Wound
• Application Guide - Special Effects

As I said this kit is good, but some products are very small so it is just a starter to my kit. the paints are a good size though including the bruise wheel. I was expecting a bigger box for the price, but I do think its worth it.

Link to kit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mehron-Special-All-pro-Makeup-Kit/dp/B00GS8GJ6C/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1426725570&sr=8-7&keywords=mehron

I have also just ordered some more products. I ordered sculpt gel and also the bloody marvellous starter kit for wound fillers, these products were expensive but they are amazing to work with. I think good products are always worth the expense if you are serious about makeup. I bought both these products off ebay although there are different websites you can buy them from.

I also bought a snazaroo facepaint starter kit as I want to start practising with facepaint. you get 6 colours and a few other things for £24 off amazon which is amazing value as snazaroo facepaint pots on their own are about £3/£4 pound each. I also bought the wolfe FX essentials paint pallete to get a range of colours, and I've heard they are very good to use. They are just grease based paints but for now they will do the job as alcohol activated paints tend to be much more expensive. The wolfe FX one cost me £25 which is reasonable. I do tend to look on sites like ebay and amazon just because you can always find a deal, but there are may other websites you can buy these products from. Below are some links to the products that I bought.

Bloody marvellous kit: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251866922027?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Skin Sculpt gel: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221668540379?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Snazaroo starter kit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000Y17NNM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

Wolfe FX palette: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00886E6RG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00


I also bought a good makeup bag, and some makeup brushes. makeup brushes and things like cotton buds, lolly stick and tooth picks are all good products to have on hand. Plus the makeup bag helps keep everything together, eventually I want a holdall that I can wheel round for ease.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
I also always have alginate and plaster of paris, modroc and clay on hand for casts because I have started doing prosthetic appliances. You can get all different kinds of alginate, fast setting and slow setting, so just do a bit of research before buying one as it might not be suitable for what your doing.

So all this above is what I have in my kit and I have only just started. I have spent a lot but im not finished yet!

Train station in london

The Westminster station, London

 

This station was designed by Michael Hopkins in 1999. I didn't really like this station when I saw it on pictures, but there's something fascinating about it when your actually there inside it. I love the design and the metal, industrial look of it.

 

He designed the station for London Underground Ltd and it cost £80 million to make and is 25,000 m squared in total.

 

The pictures below are some that I took of different angles of the station:

 

Michael Hopkins has done many other projects for a range of areas. He has done architecture for education, Healthcare, Residential and Retail, plus much more.

 

This is a link to all the projects that he has done on his website:

 

http://www.hopkins.co.uk/s/projects/

 

First time using sculpt gel

I thought I would do a quick small post on the cut I did using sculpt gel. it was my first time working with this product and I have to say it is really easy to work with and gives amazing results. I also had the chance to se some wound gel bloods from the bloody marvellous collection and this pushed me to buy my own of these products.

The only problem with the flesh coloured sculpt gel is that it is super shiny, so when  ordered some I got the clear one.

Below of some pictures of it:

More makeup tests!

These are some more sfx makeup tests that I've done on my self and other people.

The first makeup test is a graze on the face with a bruised eye. the model for this one is my sister.
I used extra flesh and a bruise wheel to create this effect.

This one is an acid burn on my hand. I did this with 3D gel just splatted around the centre of my hand.

This is another burn type of thing that I did on a friends hand. I used latex and tissue for this.

This is a deep cut that I did on a friends hand, this was my first try at using a product called extra flesh. this was the first time I used this product and I think it is quite easy to use.

This a quick makeup test for the movie I am working on, I have details on another blog post. its just done with 3D gel, with a cross carved into the middle.

This is a wart/boil that I tried with 3D gel, its just dripped onto the skin and layered up so that it is a solid lump.