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Music Videos

    I really enjoy working on music videos. They usually run anywhere from 1-3 days depending on budget and extravagance. They are usually VERY long hours with ungodly call times but I still love them. One of the things that make it nice while working on music videos as opposed to regular film/tv is that you can make sound. When I say make sound I mean you can have a conversation with someone, walk somewhere, open a door and not be terrified that the sound guy is going to give you death glare. Normal film and television your actors or "talent" are suited with microphones that pick up everything, and I mean EVERYTHING (Corey Haim ring a bell?). So no clicking away on your blackberry or wearing cha-cha heels that sound like a 10 horses stampeding their way across the sound stage. So when picture is up and they yell "ROLLING" you better be on your best behaviour and muffle any sneeze, cough or laugh. I made the horrible mistake on one of my first professional film job to find my way over to the food service table and grab a bag of chips that had been seducing me with their eyes since I arrived at 4am. Opening the bag and beginning to munch away I look up to see the horror on every single person in the rooms face. You would have thought I had run over a kitten or something. Needless to say I learned the hard way that day.
   During music video production they play the song so that the performers can sing along. After all of the footage is taken the video editor will piece the footage together then overlay the song in its entirety.  So making some noise won't get you booted. But I suggest maybe bringing earplugs because sometimes it is LOUD. At the end of the day regardless of if you have ever heard the song before, like the song or not you will be forced to listen to it, over and over again.  For weeks afterwards you will find yourself humming and singing asking yourself..."are you down with the sickness?" I wish I could do them everyday!

This was a music video that I worked on with Frank Ippolito for the band Disturbed. We used INSANE amounts of fake blood. It was a blast. I used a combination of liquid blood, mouth blood and thick blood all over every member of the band. There are so many different types of fake blood on the market and some that you can make at home. Soon I will be posting some reviews of my favorite and some recipes that you can make on your own. I hope you enjoy!

i didn't abandon the child

Sorry for the long time between posts. I swear that I didn't start this and then loose interest. I am in the process of moving (which I hate) so my time is very limited until the end of the month. Come next month while I am sitting in hospitals and driving back and forth from doctors appointments and such with my mom I will have a ton of free time to update. Until then here are a few things that make me happy:

Pretty much everything from Black Milk Clothing  needs to be in or around my persons.

Also anything from Blood Milk would make me shriek like a small school girl. 

exhibit a:

exhibit b:

So since I am about to leave San Francisco, something that I find bittersweet, I will probably make one last trip to loved to death to purchase a few more oddities for my collection. I have been wanting this:

hopefully it wont have a bunch of bad ju-ju from whomever was the previous owner of the tooth.

MUST.FIND.

I started my journey into makeup and fx when I was around 12 years old when I started to fake sick to get out of going to school (sorry mom).  I also used to make myself look like I had hurt myself by grabbing eyeshadow and lipstick to create markings all over my body. I wish I had known about this!!! AHHH. Dick Smith better known as the "Godfather of Horror" had a kids makeup fx kit in 1977! So amazingly awesome. I love the exclusive "Flex Flesh".

It came with molds and instructions and fake hair.. legit. If they only made something this cool I would

kill for this. Off to ebay I goes...I would probably still use the molds in my kit. Soon I will be posting about the items that are in my kit (both beauty and fx). There are some products that I absolutely cannot live without and that every makeup artist should own.

Inspiration and History

One thing that probably makes me crazy about the industry that I am apart of is that sometimes our history, the roots of it all gets lost.  When it comes down to special fx makeup, Jack Pierce has been more influential to me than any other artist. Yes there are many talented fx artists out there that inspire and motivate me. But Jack Pierce and his legendary vision along with makeup items that some of us by today's standards deem "novice" or archaic created some of the most iconic monster images that still have a strong hold in present day.

You all know the characters he has created. You see them all the time. On t-shirts, on plates maybe even on pajama bottoms (ill be damned that I missed out on the ones Target had a few years ago *sadface*) 

As the head of Universal’s make-up department, Pierce is credited with designing and creating the iconic make-ups for films like Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Wolf Man (1941), and their various sequels associated with the characters. Utilizing his “out of the kit” techniques, Pierce’s make-ups were often very grueling and took a considerable amount of time to apply. Pierce was always reluctant to use latex appliances, favoring his technique of building facial features out of cotton and collodion (a strong smelling liquid plastic), or nose putty. Pierce eventually started using latex appliances, most notably a rubber nose for Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolf Man (1941) (the edges of the appliance are clearly visible through most of the film), and a rubber head piece for Boris Karloff in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Pierce was not especially liked around Universal, which partly lead to his demise at the studio. His most notorious relationship being with Lon Chaney, Jr., the two despised each other. Both worked on four Wolf Man films and three Mummy films at Universal. Chaney claimed that Pierce compounded difficulties in the long uncomfortable process with the adding on of sticky appliances. Lon’s Wolf Man make-up consisted of yak hair being glued to his face, and having it singed with a hot iron. Chaney furthermore claimed, Pierce would purposely burn him with the hot iron. Chaney also had an allergic reaction to the make-up Pierce used on him in Ghost of Frankenstein. Later, Chaney suffered with Pierce’s laboriously wrapped bandages for three Mummy films. In Jack’s defense,the use of the fused elements of make-up was a needful 8 hour task for the desired effect that Pierce was looking for.

Unfortunately for Pierce, throughout the 1940s, make up artists were dropping their “out of the kit” techniques in favor of molded foam latex appliances that were cheaper, quicker, and more comfortable for the actors. Pierce always known as a stubborn man, continually resisted this way. The old regime at Universal was gone by the late 40s and new studio heads were looking for quicker, more cost-effective make-ups. Pierce was eventually let go from Universal in 1948 after over a decade of creating make-ups. It had become difficult for him to adapt to more modern and less costly methods. Jack was a man of tradition to his own executed designs. In the 1950s, things took a turn for the worse as television broadcasting came onto the scene. The Hollywood studios saw television as competition. Universal started the process of cutting their costs by selling needless studio assets, and trashing the unnecessary things they thought at the time were questionable.

If i could transport myself back in time this would be me:

The Bizarre and Unusual

So this is my first official post. I guess I am now a "blogger"..in the future I will be updating this site about the projects I am working on and things that I find interesting. Hopefully they will be interesting to you. I am a professional working Make-up and Special FX artist in California. I am also an instructor. I would love to answer question for any aspiring artists and possibly post tutorials on certain things. Feel free to ask me any questions or email me at e.somerset.sullivan@gmail.com.