makeup around the world: the Netherlands

Wendy van Dijk (Ushi & Dushi)

The following are the two most interesting websites from Dutch makeup artists and FX studios which I’ve found worth bookmarking.

Rob’s Prop Shop: Rob Hillenbrink set up Rob’s Prop Shop in 1986 and has worked on many movies and TV shows, including creating some really neat cosmetic surgery effects for Moordwijven.

Unreal FX: Rogier Samuels and Carola Brockhoff set up Unreal FX in 2001. Amongst other movies and TV shows they have worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and most recently on Zweiohrkueken and Ushi en Dushi.

makeup around the world: Asia (exc Japan)

The following are websites for various Asian makeup artists and FX studios which I’ve found worth bookmarking. Unlike most of this series of posts I haven’t seen many of their movies, so I’m mostly relying on the images in their online portfolios.

Lee Chang Man: (Korea) Lee Chang Man was responsible for the makeup effects on The Wig, Wishing Stairs, and last year’s celebrity-fakeover show Change. His website (in Korean only) contains many high-quality images from these and other movies.

MAGEfx: (Korea) Another interesting site with lots of images, but again in Korean only.

Jin make-up: (Korea) Jin Ho Kang won the student competition at IMATS (London) in 2006 while studying at the London College of Fashion.

Q fx workshop: (Thailand) Q-Vitaya Deerattakul’s FX workshop based in Bangkok. Along with many Thai productions they have worked on Vinjan and Bangkok Dangerous.

If anyone has any suggestions for sites I’ve missed, please add them in the comments.

I’ll be doing a separate round-up of Japanese websites shortly; I’m not sure whether there are more of them or whether they’re just easier to find.

makeup around the world: Germany

These are some of the German makeup websites that I browse through regularly while trawling for interesting new movie makeups. I’m not intending to knock any of the other excellent German makeup artists I’ve come across — a number of them don’t have websites (eg Gregor Eckstein) — it’s just that these are some of my favourite websites. But I will admit a slight bias in that some of these artists have been helpful in providing images and/or information for themakeupgallery — especially useful when the shows or movies are not available in the UK.

Twilight Creations: Tamar Aviv and Jörn Seifert run Twilight Creations which has a really nice, new redesigned website with lots of photos — though sadly without captions — of their work. Currently, they’re working on Harry Potter and their recent work includes Inglourious Basterds (for KNB EFX), Pandorum (for Stan Winston Studio), Schweitzer, The Countess, and Mr. Nobody.

Jeanette Biedermann in 'Experiment Inkognito' (Robert Rebele)

Atelier Rebele: Robert Rebele is based in Munich and has created some great makeups for the ‘fakeover’ show Experiment Inkognito, Post Mortem, Elementarteilchen, Marlene, Suck my Dick (though that one made me wince), and Vera Brühne. He has also created many puppet characters for various shows.

Georg Korpás: Georg Korpás Make-up & Prosthetics is based in Munich and is headed by Georg Korpás. He has worked on The Red Baron, Hui Buh, Die ProSieben Märchenstunde, Goldene Zeiten, Bibi Blocksberg and Tattoo amongst many other German productions.

team-endeffekt: Team-endeffekt handles a wide range of services — visual effects and fake documentation — as well as makeup. Sascha Kolmikow is responsible for makeup and has worked on a range of German productions, notably Polizeiruf 110, Die Comedy-Falle, and Bloodrayne.

StarCrest F/X: Birger Laube of StarCrest has worked on Polizeiruf 110 (Silikon Walli’s breasts were quite unforgettable), Das Sams, Schöne Lügen and Bibi Blocksberg und das Geheimnis der blauen Eulen amongst other productions.

Tommy O Effects: Tommy Opatz has worked on Polizeiruf 110, Bloodrayne and various other productions.

Perfect in Make-up: This Austrian company has quite a slimline website but it does have information on some really neat prosthetic work they’ve done recently for Ein halbes Leben and Falco — Verdammt, wir leben noch!

If anyone thinks I’ve omitted an amazing German — broadly speaking — makeup website please add it in the comments.

makeup around the world: India

Rakhi Sawant (fakeover by Nahush)

Although there is a massive movie industry — maybe it would be more accurate to say that there are massive film industries, eg Tollywood and Kollywood as well as Bollywood — in India, I have found very few movie makeup artists’ websites. This may reflect an absence of such sides or simply that they are invisible to me because of my inability to find them if they do not have an English version (or use English keywords); I’m inclined to the former view because I can find a clutch of bridal and beauty makeup websites and blogs — but I’d be happy to be proved wrong.

These are the most interesting ones I’ve found:

Nahush Pise: Nahush Pise trained as a makeup artist in Los Angeles and is based in Mumbai. He has worked on Chandni Chowk to China, Black, the prosthetics extravaganza Dhoom 2, and most recently the ‘fakeover’ Show Arre Deewano Mujhe Pehchano.

Vidyadhar Bhatte [29/08/2009: link dead]: Vidyadhar Bhatte is a veteran Indian makeup artist who started as an assistant to Pandhari Juker. He has worked on such movies as Parineeta and has recently been in the news for creating Shilpa Shetty’s — as yet unseen — bald look for the Indo-Chinese project Desire. Images of his work can also be seen at the Sheer Cosmetics website.

If anyone can point at other Indian movie makeup artist websites, please use the comments to tell me about them.

makeup around the world: Spain & Latin America

These are some of the Spanish — and Portuguese — language websites that I browse through regularly while trawling for interesting new movie makeups:

DDT Efectos Especiales: David Marti and Montse Ribé, Pan’s Labyrinth, Oscar — nuff said. 

Plan 9 FX: Oscar Del Monte and Nacho Diaz have a brand-new website with lots of new images of their work, including a batch of celebrity transformations from the TV show Anónimos. Recently, they’ve been working on Steven Soderbergh’s Guerrilla.  

Mario Campioli: Mario Campioli is based in Brazil so, apart from Olga, I’ve managed to see little of his work either on screen or on DVD.

Dharma Estudio: Arturo Balseiro’s website; he has also worked for DDT and others.

Inside FX: Inside FX were nominated for a Best Special Effects Goya for their work on [REC].

maquiarte: Spanish makeup news and forum — sadly, the news is not updated as frequently as it used to be.

makeup around the world: France

I spend a fair amount of time researching credits for movies and generally browsing makeup artists’ websites so I thought I’d highlight a few I’ve encountered on my virtual travels.

I’ll start with a few sites from French makeup artists:

Nomansland FX is a new  multi-lingual website from French FX artists Jean-Christophe Spadacci, Pascal Molina, and Denis Gastou: Dante 01, Sagan, Videocq, Immortel, The Crimson Rivers, Kiss of the Dragon, Irreversible, etc. It is well worth a visit — I particularly liked Sylvie Testud’s transformation into an older Françoise Sagan for the forthcoming mini-series Sagan.

FXcinema is the website of Pierre-Olivier Thevenin, Jacques-Olivier Molon and Frédéric Balmer. Between them they have worked on Bon voyage, Bloody Mallory, The Pink Panther, and Dans la peau d’un noir (the French version of Black.White.).

Pierre-Olivier Persin has worked on a series of interesting movies, including Sa Majeste Minor and Bloody Mallory.

FX-Studio is the website of David Scherer who has worked on a heap of French movies.

Frédéric Balmer has worked on Bloody Mallory, La Chambre des officiers and other movies. I am not sure whether he still updates this site as it may have been replaced by FXcinema.

SileFx is the website of Laurent Zupan.

This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive list of French movie makeup websites. I plan on including no more than six links in each of these brief features. If you want your site covered next time I get round to France or listed in the blogroll, add a comment below.

Next time, I’ll do Germany, then Japan and South America. I’m deliberately leaving the English speaking countries until later in the series as the prominent makeup artists in those countries are already well-known internationally.

update 31/10/2007: the FXcinema website has rematerialised from whatever void it had got lost in.

new makeup website

Nomansland FX is a new — went live this evening — multi-lingual website from French FX artists Jean-Christophe Spadacci, Pascal Molina, and Denis Gastou: Dante 01, Sagan, Videocq, Immortel, The Crimson Rivers, Kiss of the Dragon, Irreversible, etc.

It is well worth a visit — I particularly liked Sylvie Testud’s transformation into an older Françoise Sagan for the forthcoming mini-series Sagan.