IMATS London 2009

aged by Neill Gorton

That was great.  

I really enjoyed Neill Gorton’s demonstration; it was neat to see him do a multi-piece prosthetic application for variety. He used the same model as last year — both her middle-aged air hostess and the ancient chinese woman are dramatically different from her real-life appearance.

Alien beauty by Cliff Wallace

The Hellboy II panel was awesome: Mike Elizalde, Doug Jones, David Marti, Montse Ribé (aka Young Hellboy), Iván Pohárnok, Cliff Wallace, Anthony Parker, Simon Webber, and Leo Burton — what a collection of talent. Besides a current Oscar nomination, the panel have garnered two Oscars, two Silver Ariels, four Goyas, and a Saturn award between them. 

Cliff Wallace not only did a great job with the quality of the museum but got a nice European spread of contributions. My favourite though was one of Cliff’s own pieces.

I had been worried that in the economic climate attendance and exhibitors might be under pressure but it didn’t look that way on Saturday either in the number of visitors from Europe or in the number of exhibitors from across the pond.

looking forward to . . .

Ah a new year and so much to look forward to on the screen . . .

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: nuff said. 

Synecdoche, New York:  this sounds insane and it has some incredible makeup — Mike Marino was kind enough to send me some high-resolution images of old-age makeups on Jennifer Jason Leigh  and Samantha Morton, and those nice people at Temptu made my mouth water telling me about a fake-tattoo makeup that took two days to apply!

The Dust of Time: I loved The Weeping Meadow so I can’t wait for the next instalment of Eleni’s story, and I’ve seen some superb work that Vittorio Sodano has done on Irène Jacob and Valeria Golino.

Grey Gardens: I’ll watch anything with Jessica Lange — I’ve only seeen a YouTube-quality promo but that looks to be quite some transformation from Bill Corso.

Ne te retourne pas: I only know a little about this Marina de Van movie but that sounds intriging — Sophie Marceau apparently gradually transforms into Monica Bellucci.

Mr Nobody: in the near future, at 120 years-old, the last mortal relives his real and imaginary years of marriage — so where does the neanderthal makeup come in? Twilight Creations did the special makeup effects and prosthetics for Jared Leto and Sarah Polley.

Cirque du Freak: so we’ve all seen the images of a full-bearded Salma Hayek and our kids enjoyed the book but there’s so much more — from what I’ve seen, Amalgamated Dynamics seem to have been having fun with all those circus freaks.

Star Trek: so can JJ Abrams breathe new life into a very tired franchise? Even if he can’t there’s going to be some great makeups — there are just so many talented people working with Barney Burman on those aliens.

Dorian Gray: is it really over sixty years since we had a movie adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray?

The Reader: both the novel and its leading character left me cold, still those pictures of Kate Winslet as the older Hanna look interesting. 

Anonymous: okay its the fourth series and RTE were already dredging the celebrity barrel last year but I’m a sucker for ‘fakeovers’ and I love those Hybrid FX makups. 

One of the Boys: gives ‘women a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become a man’, with a lot of help from Neill Gorton.

Margaret: I thought Andrea Riseborough captured the not-yet-Milk-Snatcher  wonderfully in Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley so it will be fun to see Lindsay Duncan tackle the broken-by-the-Poll-Tax version.

The Danish Girl: okay, so we’re not going to see it this year and I happen to think that Nicole Kidman has an amazingly disengaging presence on screen — maybe it’s me, but I just cannot bring myself to care about any of the characters she plays — but I’m still hoping to learn more about this movie, and particularly about the extent of her transformation, during this year.

And its only three weeks to IMATS London!

Meanwhile the first update of 2009 to themakeupgallery should be online in a couple of days.

PS 07/01/2009: I would have included Watchmen but, sadly, in view of the latest legal news there doesn’t seem much point.

PPS 17/01/2009: The Watchmen dispute has been settled:

Warner Bros and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture Watchmen in a confidential settlement. Warner Bros acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography. Fox acknowledges that Warner Bros acted in good faith in defending against those claims. Warner Bros and Fox, like all Watchmen fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film’s March 6 release in theatres.

And it’s only one week to IMATS!

IMATS LA 2008

I can’t get to the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show (IMATS) in Pasadena this weekend but I’d be grateful if anyone who is attending could let me have any images of the makeup demonstrations to use at themakeupgallery. I will, of course, credit any images and provide a link back to the contributor’s website on request.

If you have any images I could use, please email me.

Hope you have a great time.

RIP: Stan Winston

Stan Winston died of cancer on 16 June, aged sixty-two.

In honor of his significant contributions to prosthetic makeup artistry Make-up Artist magazine, in conjunction with the Stan Winston Studios, will host a tribute at IMATS on Saturday, 21 June. As Michael Key said: ‘He’s left a sizable void in the industry. There’s not a prosthetics makeup artist out there who hasn’t been influenced by Stan Winston.’

His influence on special effects is attested by a shelf full of Oscars, Emmys and BAFTAs. But his impact extended way beyond special effects; he enabled filmmakers to bring new, different and stranger visions to our screens. As James Cameron said: ‘We’ve lost a great artist, a man who made a contribution to the cinema of the fantastic that will resound for a long long time.’

I can only commend the tribute at AICN which contains personal and artistic tributes from Rick Baker, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff, Joe Dante, Richard Taylor, James Cameron and other effects artists and filmmakers.

IMATS London: 2008

I missed last year’s IMATS because of family health problems so it was good to be able to get there this year.

As always the keynotes were high quality: I mean Rick Baker, say no more. Though I have to admit that I missed him. When it came to the choice between spending a rare day with my grand-daughters or going back to Ally Pally, they won. 

In part at least they won because I came away from Saturday with an impression that IMATS had gone downhill from 2006:
1) I like Ally Pally but it’s a pain of a location. It is so remote from anything that it’s impractical to nip out to a cafe (or for some neurofen). The queue for food was so bad when I tried that I just decided to skip lunch and have a sandwich on the way home. At least it didn’t rain — the open Ally Pally station could have been truly miserable in January rain. And if I were female I’m not sure that it would be a platform I’d feel comfortable on after leaving the Afterglow on my own.
2) I had the impression of fewer exhibitors — carefully disguised by spreading the stands out. For instance Blasco and Blanche MacDonald weren’t there
3) there seemed to be less to keep you interested on the floor. For example Makeup Designatory had a stand but no demos as in previous years, and both Blasco and Blanche MacDonald had demos when they attended; even MAC had fewer bodypainting models than I remember. On Saturday I saw only one makeup involving prosthetics being done on the exhibtion floor; in both 2005 and 2006 I recall drifting back and forth between three or four prosthetic applications, as well as seeing someone applying pointed ears to visitors.

I worry that IMATS appears to have a very narrow base. I thought this was intended to be a European IMATS but although it has many attendees from all over Europe (I saw people from Sweden, France and Bulgaria amongst others), both students and established artists, the European (as opposed to UK) nature of the show is not reflected in the balance of educators, speakers, exhibitors, or in the museum. When I first went to IMATS I thought that its European nature would develop naturally or be encouraged over time — as far as I can see it’s stalled. I recall that the show used to be badged IMATS Europe rather than IMATS London — maybe that inclusive European ambition has died.  

Whatever, I find this worrying for the long-term health of IMATS. What is wrong with IMATS that schools like Hasso von Hugo don’t find it beneficial to attend? How come a European show is not featuring people like NomanslandFX, Atelier Rebele, Georg Korpas, DDT, Soda FX . . .Equally worryingly it’s support base in the UK seems narrow. Neill Gorton is a great supporter, and his demos are invariably brilliant and entertaining. But IMATS’s reliance on Neill is as much a weakness as his support is a strength. One does come away with the impression that if Neill Gorton broke his wrist IMATS would be f**ked. And how come HybridFX, Altered States, Aaron Sherman and the rest have never done a major demo that I can recall.But don’t get me wrong, I had a great time and I’ll be there again next year.

IMATS 2008: some pictures

I’ll post my thoughts on IMATS in a day or so. In the meantime here are some pictures (click on the thumbnails to see them full size).

MAC Pro have a bodypainting display every year at IMATS, but was it just my imagination or did they have fewer models than in previous years?

Update 29/01/2008: There is now a series of images on this makeup at themakeupgallery.

…

…

Neill Gorton is a regular supporter of IMATS and delivered another of his tremendous prosthetic makeup demonstrations this year. A young, pretty blue-eyed blonde became a weather-beaten elderly Chinese woman before our eyes: is this a normal employee-benefit at MillenniumFX? FangsFX provided those lovely teeth.

…

Cliff Wallace told me he put the museum together in two days: some two days.

…

…

…

Guy Louis-XVI of FuseFX teased us with a preview of this commissioned piece on the the Effects Lab.

…

…

…

And, of course, the makeup schools were there.

…

…

…

IMATS 2008: London

Having missed last year’s IMATS (International Makeup Artist Trade Show — Europe) I’m really looking forward to this year’s show (if not the walk up the hill to Ally Pally). But hey, having bought my ticket in November and with IMATs only three weeks away, isn’t it about time that they got round to publishing the schedule for the Keynote Speakers etc. I know these guys have busy (and changeable) schedules and other commitments — but so have I! 

Having got a two-day ticket, I should be able to juggle so that I can see most of what I want (hopefully), even though I’ll only be able to go one afternoon and one morning. But anyone buying a one-day ticket, as I had to last time I went, is really being expected to buy a pig-in-a-poke with no idea which Keynote Speakers they’ll get — missing Rick Baker because they can’t even tell you on which day he’s speaking, never mind what time, would be a big deal.

IMATs is great, shouldn’t be missed, but I have a nagging memory of being able to, enviously, look up the schedule of the US show some weeks beforehand.

update 13/01/2008: The schedule is now finalised — about time too — but curiously they have not updated the Schedule pages; so if you want to find out who’s on and when, you have to look up the Latest News page. Still at least I know that Rick Baker is on at a time when I can be there. 

update 23/01/2008: I’ll be there Saturday and am on Sunday — you’ll be able to spot me by the bright red Llanelli Scarlets T-shirt with ‘YMA O HYD’ on the front.