Space Shrimp Vs Cerulean Cat-People For The Golden Grouch Award

Welcome to Things In Jars Oscar special!

Thanks to the Academy deciding to shake things up this year, Sunday’s Oscar show will include an extra large slate of 10 Best Picture nominees, including two genre films – District 9 and Avatar. With the exception of the showdown between Shakespeare In Love and Elizabeth for Best Picture in 1999 it's rare, in the super subjective world of film awards, to have two Best Picture nominees that can be compared point by point as closely as Avatar and District 9 in terms of tone, plot, themes, etc.

So that’s exactly what we’re going to do! Over the next three days I’ll be looking closely at these two films – their stories, production backgrounds, and so forth, culminating on Sunday when I reveal who I would award the little golden statue to if I had the chance (and if you watch real close I’ll even slip in some pertinent and fun bits of GDT trivia here and there).

SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILERS
I’ll be speaking extensively about both films in the next few entries so expect some MAJOR SPOILERS for each movie. If you prefer your discussions spoiler-free then this is not the blog entry you are looking for – YE HAVE BEEN WARNED!
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, returning champion James Cameron and Avatar

The Story - The story of a paraplegic space marine, Jake Sullivan, who joins a race of 10ft tall blue cat-like humanoids (the Na'vi) by means of an 'avatar' - a genetically engineered body into which he can transfer his consciousness. This avatar allows him to breath the poisonous atmosphere of the utopian planet Pandora. Initially there to open diplomatic relations between the indigenous people and the human mega-corporation which wants to mine Pandora's resources he eventually switches sides and helps the Na'vi repel the hostile company. The humans are sent back to Earth and Jake, after having his consciousness permanently transferred into his avatar, goes on to become leader of his new people.

The Background - James Cameron waited 14 years for the field of visual effects (motion capture and 3D technology in particular) to reach a point where he felt comfortable trying to bring Avatar to the screen - his first film since mega-budget mega-hit Titanic. Avatar quickly surpassed its older sibling in terms of both budget and profit. A huge amount of hype proceeded the film – 20th Century Fox and Cameron both marketed it as the next evolution in filmmaking, going so far as to hold “Avatar Day” in which people could get into see 20 minutes of the movie in select IMAX 3D theatres, prior to the film’s release. It looks like the hype may have paid off – although the film has its critics audiences have been flocking to the theatres. 3 months after release and in many cities Avatar is still showing on the big screen.
And, like Titanic it may yet land Cameron a Best Picture Oscar.

And in this corner folks, our challenger, newcomer Neil Blomkamp and District 9

The Story - Alien refugees in South Africa (known as “Prawns) are mistreated and abused by human society in general and in particular by MNU, the multi-billion dollar company in charge of the alien refugee camp (named District 9). Wikus van De Merve, a pencil-pusher for MNU, is put in charge of evicting the aliens from D9 so that they can be taken to a new encampment far away from Johannesburg. In the process he is accidentally sprayed by a strange alien fluid which triggers a bizarre transformation. On the run from MNU and cut off from his loved ones, Wikus joins with a Prawn father, Christopher Johnson, and Christopher’s son who are trying to engineer an escape from Earth. The escape is successful but Wikus is left behind in the remains of District 9 with only a promise from Christopher that he will return to Earth in three years time to reverse Wikus’ transformation and rescue the rest of the Prawns. The last shot of the film strongly hints that Wikus has become a Prawn himself and is now hidden amongst the other refugees of D9 awaiting Christopher’s return.


Background - Peter Jackson originally hired Neil Blomkamp to helm a movie version of the popular video game Halo. When studio backing for Halo fell through though Jackson, impressed with Blompkamp, suggested that they make a movie anyways - something small that could be produced and financed without any major studio backing. Blomkamp agreed and chose to expand on the concept of alien refugees in South Africa – something he’d originally devised for his short film, Alive In Joburg.
Blomkamp wanted the dialogue in the film to be entirely improvised and so turned to his long time friend, South African producer, Sharlto Copley. Although Copley had never acted professionally before, Blomkamp knew he was an excellent improver and was also familiar with the type of subtly racist, pencil-pushing bureaucrat Blomkamp wanted the main character of District 9 to be. After seeing a screen test of Copley as Wikus, Peter Jackson heartily agreed.
District 9 cost $30 million to make and was filmed entirely on location in South Africa. It became a sleeper hit for summer 2009 – gathering momentum by word of mouth after premiering to positive buzz at San Diego Comic Con.
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6 Degrees Of Guillermo Del Toro

- Guillermo is a long time friend of James Cameron’s, going back to GDT’s earliest days as a director in Hollywood. If legend is to be believed, at a party one night a rather drunken Guillermo even gave one of his famous notebooks to James Cameron.

- The Hobbit was not the first time Peter Jackson has offered Guillermo the director’s chair – Jackson originally approached Guillermo to helm the Halo movie. Guillermo said ‘no’ as he was about to direct Hellboy II. PJ eventually offered the Halo gig to Neil Blomkamp and it was when Halo was dropped that the team switched gears and began to develop the film that would become District 9. Can you imagine if GDT had originally said “yes” to Halo? No Hellboy II, no District 9, and probably a very different Hobbit.

That’s all for now but stay tuned! Tommorow we’ll look at the similarities and differences between D9 and Avatar more closely.

IMATS Toronto 2009 - Pt 2

(For more on IMATS Toronto check out Part 1 of my report)

I want to start by saying that, like Doug Jones and John Alexander, Mike Elizalde is another one of these supremely nice, friendly people that Guillermo Del Toro seems to surround himself with (I'm telling you - there's something in the water on the Hellboy sets... and whatever it is, I want some).
The last event of the Toronto IMATS was Mike's keynote address on Sunday (that's a picture of Mike, on the left, being interviewed by IMATS chief/Make-Up Artist Magazine editor Michael Key at the top of this post ). The keynote addresses are typically less of a speech and more of an interview (vaguely like an episode of Inside The Actor's Studio but without the questionnaire at the end). This one began by showing a demo reel for Spectral which had TONNES of behind the scenes shots of the monsters of Hellboy II - including some fascinating "skinless" views of some of the Troll Market animatronics in motion. Cool side note: Apparently when Spectral’s top animatronics wizard Mark Setrakian isn’t creating movie monsters he works at a robotics lab for the US government. So there’s some cutting edge electronics up there on the screen. Also on the reel were some shots of the Sleestaks from Land Of The Lost that look so cool they've almost convinced me to watch the film, Will Ferrell or no Will Ferrell.

Then the discussion moved onto how Mike got into make-up and effects (in elementary school he used to save blobs of paint on little wax-paper palettes, re-wet it once he got home, and use that as face paint since he couldn't get his hands on the real thing). As an adult, after a stint in the army, he moved out to California and worked as an air-conditioner repair-man in between looking for FX work. One day it turned out that the warehouse next to one of his job sites just happened to belong to Stan Winston Studios. Armed with his ever-present pocket album full of pictures of his work he eagerly knocked on the door. "They were very nice but they told me to come back when I had more practice," Mike said.

Eventually Mike DID get a gig – on a movie called Arena and from there he moved from film to film, befriending people like Steve Wang, who would one day come and do work for Spectral Motion.

What I had not fully realized until listening to Mike's talk, was just how instrumental Guillermo was in Spectral Motion's beginning. Mike Elizalde met Guillermo while working as a make-up artist on Blade II. Guillermo told Mike that if he got his own shop together then Guillermo would hire him on to do the effects for his next film. After a few hiccups along the way that next film eventually turned out to be Hellboy.

The fact that since then, Spectral Motion has gone on to become one of the top runners in the FX make-up field, expanding at a time when many shops are actually downgrading or outright closing, is a major accomplishment. At the IMATS “afterglow” party on Saturday night, where exhibitors and guests were free to mingle and hang out, Michael Key mentioned that make-up really is a field driven almost solely by passion. Very few make-up artists become either rich or famous. We do it because we love it –and Spectral Motion is an excellent example of that. From their small start Mike Elizalde and his team have gone on to create some amazing make-up and creature effects and from the looks of things have a fantastic time doing it. The fact that they are now being recognized as a leader in the field and receiving Oscar nominations and other awards is, I’m sure, just icing on the cake. Keep up the good work guys!

IMATS Toronto 2009 - PT 1

November 21st and 22nd marked the first annual International Make-up Artists Trade-show (IMATS) in Toronto, ON, Canada. Over the last year or so the IMATS have expanded greatly beyond their long-running shows in Pasadena, California and London, England to include a show in Sydney, Australia, and two Canadian shows - an upcoming one in Vancouver and this show in Toronto.
Not only was I excited by the prospect of an IMATS being a lot closer to home than Pasadena but there was the added bonus that one of the scheduled keynote speakers was Mike Elizalde of Spectral Motion!

Personally, I had a fantastic time at the show. This being its first year IMATS Toronto was quite small. If I'd been walking around solely as a spectator it would have been easy to see everything quite quickly (although there were two stages which kept up a steady stream of demos and talks all weekend where one could easily park themselves and just soak in the knowledge) However I was lending a helping hand at the FuseFX booth (literally and figuratively - there was a silicon copy of my hand sitting on the table all weekend) so I had lots to keep me occupied.

One of the coolest things to see was the museum area. The museum is a traditional part of the IMATS, and the Toronto museum, although again very small, was a real treat especially if you happen to be a big fan of the X-Men movies. Most of the pieces for the museum had been donated by Gordon Smith, of FXSmith, so it was 90% props and pre-production art from X-Men and X2: X-Men United.




I was particularly excited to see Nightcrawler's hands, feet, and tail on display. Having made my own version of the movie Nightcrawler outfit to wear for Halloween and SF cons a few years back it was awesome to see the "real" (or should I say "reel"?) thing up close. And now I want to do upgrades! ;)





"X-Men" was more or less the theme for the SFX portion of the show since the challenge for the SFX student competition on Sunday was "mutants" (Saturday's beauty competition revolved around "goth" looks). At the beginning of the competition students were given random prosthetic pieces and had to use these pieces to create a mutant make-up on their model within the alloted time period. Only the most general planning is possible before hand since no one knows what pieces they will be given during the actual competition. Since Spectral Motion had done the make-ups for X-Men 3, Mike Elizalde was the guest judge for the competition.

But more on seeing Mike - and in particular attending his keynote address in Part 2!

Tired of your average Jack O'Lantern?

Carve yourself a Thing In A Jar for Halloween!

You Will Need:

- an empty jar
- enough water to fill the jar
- some yellow food colouring
- 1-2 medium to large potatoes
- a paring knife and/or carving tools
- vegetable peeler
- toothpicks or straight pins
- paper and pen
- cauliflower pieces and/or bits of other white or pale vegetables (optional)

Step 1)

Peel the potato. With the paring knife and other tools carve the potato into the shape of your Thing. For example if you want a three-headed fetal pig for your jar, carve some legs and a little head into your potato. Just make sure it will fit into the mouth of your jar!

It's ok if things look a little wonky, like the legs are mismatched or you accidentally cut a bit off - remember you are making a freakish monstrosity, it's supposed to look misshapen. Re-attach severed or extra limbs with a bit of toothpick (good way to attach those extra pig heads). Insert one end of the toothpick into the limb and the other into the main body of the potato. Same with the bits of cauliflower or other veggies (tiny bits of cauliflower make cool looking "horns")

Be as elaborate or simplistic as you want just remember to BE CAREFUL WITH THE SHARP TOOLS. We don't want there to be any REAL severed limbs in your jar.

Step 2)

Once you have your "Thing" carved, very gently place it inside your jar. Fill the jar with water and add a few drops of yellow food colouring to give that preserving-fluid-look. Stir gently to disperse colouring.

Step 3)

Make up a suitably freakish name for your "Thing" like "Fetal Three-Headed Devil Pig", write a label with said name on it and place jar and label somewhere you can admire your Thing In A Jar.

(Note: Like a Jack O'Lantern, with just water in the jar you sadly won't be able to keep your "Thing" forever. Keep an eye on things and after a few days to a week or so empty out your jar before it gets too gross in there.)

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!



PS. If anyone actually tries this please send pics - it would be great to post a full menagerie of jarred creatures!

When The End Of The World Comes At Least I'll Know What To Wear

Sorry I haven't had a new post for awhile folks but lately I've been running around as though it were the end of the world – literally. I've been designing some post-apocalyptic costumes for a theatrical production and generally just having a grand ol'time. I'm becoming oddly fond of post-apocalyptic costumes.

Reason 1) You get to immerse yourself in a different world.
I suppose technically you get to do that anytime you design costumes or make-up for a project that isn't set in either a contemporary or historical setting but it's especially true for after-the-world-ends type costumes. You have to pay attention to the environment the characters inhabit because a) that's going to dictate the type of clothing they need (ie do they need to stay warm, cool, covered up, etc) and b) what type of materials are available to meet those needs.

For instance say what you want about the film as a whole, but Waterworld is a great example of building clothing with whatever you've got available. The costume designers looked at the traditional clothing of people like the Inuit whose main source of raw materials is the ocean, and from there derived outfits stitched from fish skins, netting, and the intestines of various marine animals (both real and synthetic). They even designed hats and skirts to look like they'd been made with dried jellyfish bodies (although they were in fact made from silk and nylon)

In the production I'm currently working on, the end of the world hits in the near-future at a point where the ozone layer is very weak and the sun very harsh – so we're using a lot of recycled cardboard, fabric scraps, old newspaper, and strips of plastic bags to create our costumes whose primary purpose is to protect the wearers' from the sun. Which brings me to fun reason #2

Reason 2) – Sometimes having a limited budget is a GOOD thing.
In Hellboy II the bedtime story scene depicting the origin of the Golden Army was originally supposed to be shot entirely live-action (a la the prologue in Lord Of The Rings). However when there wasn't enough in the budget to stage such an elaborate scene Guillermo made the decision to use puppets instead of live actors – resulting in a far more visually appealing, unique, and memorable sequence.

It seems a bit counter intuitive – after all if money is no object then you'd think the sky would be the limit as far as dreaming up whatever you wanted. But in fact, that initial limitation forces you to not necessarily go with your first instinct (which may in fact be cliched) and often opens the door to something a little more quirky and original.

Working with no budget on these post-apocalyptic costumes has really opened my eyes to seeing raw materials in just about anything and looking beyond an object's original purpose ( *while rummaging through recycling bins* “The covers of these water-damaged old books still feel really sturdy – let's turn them into flip flops!”). Which I'm sure causes my poor mother nothing but great consternation, since I was already a horrible pack rat to begin with. ;)

Reason 3 – It's OK if it isn't pretty – but you may find it's prettier than you think
The main thing to keep in mind when designing post-apocalyptic clothing is, of course, survival. It doesn't have to look good as long as it protects the wearer and doesn't get in the way. This definitely has it's advantages. I may be a bad costumer but hemming is not my favorite thing to do in the world. If I can get away without doing it, because it adds to the desired “look” that's great.
And for beginners it's nice because it also makes it really hard to make a mistake. Make a boo-boo? Just cheat and say you meant to do it.
At the same time though there is actually far more you can do to add style to such survival gear then may be obvious at first glance. Patchwork, macrame, and other folk craft techniques can all add a little more planned-if-rustic style to things if done with a bit of care.

So long story short – I'm discovering post-apocalyptic costumes hold a lot more fun and possibilities than I used to think. I may never look at a pizza box the same way again. ;)

Dick Smith: "Godfather" of Make-Up

Tonight the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is hosting a tribute to a wonderful man and a great teacher - legendary make-up artist Dick Smith.

The artist behind such memorable make-ups as those in The Exorcist and The Godfather has been a teacher for many years - first by sharing the techniques he developed with other make-up artists (many of his discoveries are now standard practice in the special effects make-up community) and later by putting together a correspondence course to help teach the next generation. Guillermo himself is one of Dick's former students (along with many, many others).

I've been enrolled in Dick's course for the last several years and I've always found him to be a warm, generous teacher, even when offering criticism. "Well, you really went out on a limb with this one," he said once while we were discussing a particularly ambitious but ultimately unsucessful project of mine, " - and the limb broke. But that's ok, that's how we learn."

Because the course is offered by correspondence all my interactions with Dick were done over the phone. I didn't get a chance to meet him in person until last summer at the International Make-up Artists' Trade Show (IMATS) in Pasadena, California. It was a marvelous treat. The only event during the whole weekend which had a line-up was the one to get into Dick's Q&A session and even then, I think they were pushing the fire regulations to the limit to allow as many people in to see him as they did. Folks were sitting on the floor all around the table Dick and his fellow panelists were sitting at, and it was standing room only at the back (I did get an actual seat, but only because I was warned in advance to line up like an hour and a half before the start of the panel).

It was a wonderful privilege to get to hear some of Dick's stories first hand. Everything from a very funny anecdote about chasing Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammed Ali) around the boxing ring set of Requiem For a Heavyweight with a spray bottle, in an attempt to make him look sweaty despite the absolute freezing temperature of the arena they were filming in, to a very moving and touching account of his long, long friendship with Sir Lawrence Olivier.

Looking at all the faces, many my age or younger, hanging on every word the rather surreal picture popped into my head of padawan Jedi all gathered round the feet of Yoda eager to hear words of wisdom from an old master of their craft. Please pardon my extreme geekiness - I'm in no way trying to say that Dick resembles a small wrinkled green Muppet - but the sense, in many ways, that we were being taught an oral history was very strong. Hearing it in person was entirely different than reading it or watching a taped interview. It was a little mind blowing to be sitting 10 feet from the man who invented many of the techniques of prosthetic make-up (Dick Smith, for instance, was the first person to apply foam latex appliances in multiple pieces - most artists prior to that had glued large, mask-like single pieces to the actors faces. This is both much harder to do and doesn't move as realistically as overlapping pieces).

It's about 10:30 now, which, when you factor the time difference in means things should just about be getting underway in sunny L.A. I hope the ceremony goes very well and I wish Dick the very best.

Living in the Land Of The Lost

Land Of The Lost comes out tonight and I admit to being torn. On the one hand Spectral Motion handled the special effects make-up on the new film, so we know at least it's gonna look good. I'm loving their dead-on Sleestaks - all the creepy characteristics of the originals (with a few nasty upgrades from the looks of things) without the visible zippers up the backs. (By the way, if you'd like to read more about Spectral's work on the movie the Land Of The Lost film has their press kit release available on their website, with several interesting pages about the Sleestack suits and Chaka's make-up).

Plus it was a lot of fun to catch a glimpse of a Sleestak temple rising from the backlot of Universal Studios when I was in LA last summer for the HBII fan screening.

On the other hand - it's a Will Ferrell movie... I really don't like Will Ferrell movies myself. I just don't think acting like an idiot while speaking as loudly and obnoxiously as possible is all that funny. I usually want to shake him instead of laugh at him. And according to the reviews trickling into Rotten Tomatoes as I write this, Land Of The Lost is shaping up to be like just about every other film Will Ferrell's ever made (if you're on the fence but want to save yourself the time and cash you could always go play with the Will Ferrell Movie Generator instead - you'll get the gist at the very least).

I do have very fond memories of watching reruns of the original show on ABC in the early 80's - although admittedly not very many. For the complete and utter dinosaur nut I was as a small child it was a definite fave. If you're not familiar with the tv show the basic premise is that a forest ranger and his two kids, while on a white-water rafting trip, get sucked into another dimension populated by dinosaurs, ape-men, and a strange race of lizard/insectoid humanoids called the Sleestaks. Years before I ever saw my first Dalek it was the Sleestaks that freaked me out - it didn't matter that they were slow as heck. They always acted like they were being controlled by some giant hive-mind so if they did catch you there was no reasoning with them (at least as far as I remember). In the early 90's ABC produced a very disappointing Land Of The Lost remake and the much more bumbling trio of talking dinosaur-men "Sleestaks" on that show were nowhere near as creepy as the ever anonymous original drones.
The only other scene I remember vividly stuck with me because my 4 year old mind found it pretty darn disturbing at the time. The family finds a map, which they think will lead them home - until they follow it and come across the skeleton of the map-maker next to a river of lava. Their hopes crushed they attempt to retreat back the way they came - and I can't remember what happened next...

A couple years ago I found a couple LotL DVDs for rent at our awesome local video store and just couldn't resist the trip down memory lane - even though I was fully expecting things to be a bit of a trainwreck. I was pleasantly surprised. Sure the actions of the dinosaurs (and the attitudes toward them) are horribly out of date in a post-Jurassic Park world but the stop-motion animation and obvious minature backgrounds still gave me nostalgic warm fuzzies.
And I was astonished to discover that the writers for the series reads like a whos-who of science fiction names. From Star Trek alumni like Walter Koenig, and Tribble-creator David Gerrod who was the season 1 story editor to people like Larry Niven, Ben Bova, and Theodore Sturgeon (!!!)
So for a kids Saturday morning show from the 70's it's pretty obvious they were trying to do the very best with the budget they had. But then again I also love the original Battlestar Galactica, which gives you some idea of how I roll...

It does look like the new movie is trying to pay some homage to the original show but I do think in the end I'm definitely going to pass on seeing this in the theatre. But my curiousity is too great not to check it out when it eventually makes it way to cable tv.