Brian Wade

Brian started his career in special makeup effects when he was still in high school in Studio City, California, helping makeup effects master Kenny Meyers. Continuing to work with Meyers after finishing high school, Brian got a call one day from Kenny’s assistant, Erik Jensen, to work on John Carpenter’s 1982 effects masterpiece The Thing for Rob Bottin.

"That was an amazing time in my life; working with Rob Bottin, having lunch during the week with Rick Baker and his guys who were doing Videodrome at the time ... Man, life was perfect."
Like many artists in the field of makeup effects, Brian worked for a number of makeup effects shops, each working on different projects. It was, as he calls it, the heyday for makeup effects; it was pre-CGI, so everything was live action and in camera. During those years, Brian met and worked with many of the industry’s best, on projects including The Terminator, Harry and the Hendersons, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, Bicentennial Man, Stuart Little, Van Helsing, Hellboy, and Chronicles of Narnia 2: Prince Caspian.

In addition to his makeup effects skills, Brian is also exceptionally adept at Pixologic’s 3D sculpting software ZBrush, as you can see from these images of his 3D work. In 2002, pal Miles Teves lured Brian to Prague, Czech Republic, for a gig, where he remained for several years.  Brian moved back to California in late 2010 and continues to work steadily.  Character designer Patrick Tatopoulos (Stargate, Independence Day, I-Robot, Face-Off judge) agrees. "To be a good designer I think you need to have a wealth of knowledge about artistic and cultural styles, about biology, anatomy, and different types of animals. You are constantly observing these things. Then when you draw, you don’t need to think about these things; they will inform your work almost instinctively."ⁱ

ⁱRichard Rickitt, Designing Movie Creatures and Characters (Focal Press, 2006).

Cristina Patterson

Born in Madrid, Spain, Cristina came to Los Angeles, California with her family before she could walk.  At age four, she was introduced to the film industry by her makeup artist mother, Raffaelle Butler, whose work includes Doctor Zhivago and To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as various TV sitcoms shot on the lot at Paramount Studios.  Cristina got her start in the industry as a background and atmosphere performer, and did some light acting.  Often accompanying her mother on set, Cristina became more intrigued with makeup application than with acting. By the 1980s she was following in her mother's footsteps, diving into makeup in the motion picture industry, with her skills ranging from straight makeup, special makeup effects, and tattoo application/design to hair technician work.  In 1995 she joined Professional VisionCare Associates as a Contact Lens Technician and in 2002 was promoted to Special Effects Coordinator.  Cristina was soon designing and painting contact lenses for film and television, and prosthetic lenses for medical patients.  She also became responsible for coordinating shows, for special effects lens fittings and exams, and for training and supervising all on-set lens technicians. Cristina is an accomplished self-taught fine art painter, with a particular interest in surrealism. Her work is ongoing to discover new and inventive ways to paint contact lenses.  She is well known for her abilities to work closely with makeup effects artists and for her attention to detail.  Cristina is highly sought after for her expertise, and now works independently as a contact lens designer and technician.  Cristina’s outstanding work can be seen in many, many high-profile productions, including Thor, Sucker Punch, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Tron: Legacy, Star Trek, and District 9.

Dave Elsey

To many, Oscar winner Dave Elsey’s résumé reads like a cult-film dream list: He created creature effects in Alien 3; worked as a special makeup-effects artist on Hellraiser, Mission: Impossible, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; and honed his animatronics skills in the cult classic, The Little Shop of Horrors. He is perhaps most well-known by genre fans for his role as the creative supervisor on the sci-fi TV series Farscape, for which he designed and maintained up to 600 different creatures.

More recently Dave worked on Mr. Holmes and Beauty and the Beast, and was the co-creature supervisor as well as creating the additional creatures for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are.  In 2008 Dave worked in London with makeup effects legend Rick Baker and fellow book contributors Neill Gorton and John Schoonraad on makeup effects for a remake of the 1941 Lon Chaney, Jr., horror classic The Wolf Man (for which he won the Oscar along with Rick Baker), starring Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro; in 2015 Dave and his amazing wife Lou headed a team of Who’s Who makeup artists including Josh Turi, Jeremy Selenfriend, and Danny Wagner for NBC’s The Wiz Live!

Dave Parvin

I cannot in good conscience not include my dear, late friend Dave Parvin in this book.  A former Marine Corps aviator, Dave was essentially a self-taught sculptor who began carving in wood before he was 3. His primary subjects were people, and he strove to bring life to his sculptures by carefully defining the underlying muscles and bones of the human form. Unlike most of the artists who have contributed to this book, Dave didn’t come to the decision to become a full-time artist until later in life, after the jet he was flying lost power to both engines while in flight, making him realize that there’s no time like the present to follow your dreams.

Known mainly for his bronzes of the human figure, Dave also worked in other media. He became interested in lifecasting merely as an anatomical reference, but it occurred to him that it was very much like three-dimensional photography. Since then Dave became one of the best lifecasters in the world and is still widely recognized as one of the innovators of the form, and was continuing to develop new and better ways to approach the craft when he left us much, much too early.  While I do approach my own lifecasting differently these days, when I was just starting out, everything I knew about lifecasting I got from Dave.

Dave regularly presented workshops and seminars on lifecasting techniques at his studio in Denver, Colorado, and presented internationally as well, including seminars at IMATS in California and England.  Art Review magazine has called Dave "the premier lifecasting expert in Colorado, maybe in all the West." Dave was also a founding member of the Association of Lifecasters International (ALI) organization.

Greg Nicotero

Greg began his film career under the watchful eyes of director George Romero and special effects master Tom Savini in Pittsburgh, PA but quickly relocated to Hollywood.  His skills as an effects coordinator helped him to easily anticipate the needs of the film industry.  His personality and sense of loyalty has won over directors such as Frank Darabont, M. Night Shamalyan, and Quentin Tarantino.

His overall effects knowledge has also made him an ideal choice to supervise effects photography. Greg has also directed sequences for George Romero’s Land of the Dead, the R. L. Stine-inspired series The Haunting Hour, the Stephen King/Frank Darabont collaboration The Mist, and is a co-executive producer and the makeup effects supervisor for the AMC hit show of Robert Kirkman’s comic book zombie apocalypse series The Walking Dead, and has directed that show as well.

Greg formed KNB EFX Group, Inc. along with Robert Kurtzman, and close friend and business partner Howard Berger in 1988.  Bob left KNB in 2002 to pursue his own interests, but Howard  and Greg’s talents have been highlighted in television feature films including The Walking Dead, Sin City, Preacher, Pulp Fiction, Deepwater Horizon, Lone Survivor, and Army of Darkness.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe won Howard, Greg, and KNB a BAFTA Award and an Oscar.

Howard Berger

Howard grew up in Los Angeles and became enamored with the film business at an early age.  With his parents’ full support and encouragement, Howard began to hone his skills as a sculptor, painter and all-around artist.

When he was 13, Howard met one of his heroes, legendary effects artist Stan Winston.  Stan took Howard under his wing and gave him added encouragement, stressing the importance of education.  Stan promised to hire Howard after he completed high school, with the understanding that he must maintain high grades, prove his attention to detail, and take responsibility for completing his schoolwork.  True to his word, Stan hired Howard when he graduated and put him to work on Predator and Aliens, the first of many dreams to come true for Howard.

He was already making a name for himself in the industry when he met another of his idols, Rick Baker, on Harry and the Hendersons, for which Baker won an Oscar for Best Makeup.  Over the years, Howard worked for a number of studios, and quickly moved up the ladder.  In 1988, Howard and Greg Nicotero took a risk and opened their own shop, KNB EFX Group, Inc.

In his 20+ years in the industry he, Greg and KNB have worked with almost every director in Hollywood, and on some of the biggest and best films ever made, from the Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves, to Casino, Army of Darkness and Oz: the Great and Powerful.  One of Howard’s greatest challenges came in the adaptation of the classic CS Lewis novel, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Howard led his team of over 120 artists at KNB in Los Angeles and 42 artists on location in New Zealand to create the inhabitants of Narnia.  For their efforts, Howard was awarded the British Academy Award—the BAFTA—for Best Makeup, as well as his first Oscar.

Jamie Salmon

Jamie Salmon is a British-born contemporary sculptor living in Vancouver, British Columbia. He specializes in photorealistic sculpture, utilizing materials such as silicone, rubber, fiberglass, acrylic, and human hair.  Jamie’s wife, Jackie K. Seo is also a remarkable artist; where Jamie works frequently in larger-than-life works, Jackie works smaller.

The themes of Jamie’s works are varied. He says, "I like to use the human form as a way of exploring the nature of what we consider to be ‘real’ and how we react when our visual perceptions of this reality are challenged. In our modern society we have become obsessed with our outward appearance, and now with modern technology we are able to alter this in almost any way we desire. How does this outward change affect us and how we are perceived by others?"

Every piece of work that is created in the studio is the result of a painstaking, multistage process that is both artistic and technical. It can take anywhere from several weeks to sometimes months to create a piece, depending on its complexity and scale.

Jane O’Kane

Born and raised in England, Jane O’Kane is another New Zealand transplant.  While learning her craft, Jane’s first work experience began with the Royal Shakespeare Company where she continued working full-time through 1989, broadening her skills in Makeup and Special Effects.  A move to Manchester in 1992 saw Jane working for the Royal Exchange Theatre for the next three years.  It was within these early stages of her career that Jane was fortunate to train and work alongside some of England’s finest wigmakers, adding to her repertoire and providing her with a broad skill base that procured her work in all three areas of Makeup, Hair and Special Effects. Jane is a dedicated, enthusiastic and passionate artist with strong skills in managing a department creatively and practically.

Since the 1990s Jane has worked extensively in Film & Television across the globe. Some of her credits include The Frighteners, Whale Rider, The Warrior’s Way, The Grudge, Prince Caspian,and Aeon Flux.

While working with numerous production companies, it was New Zealand’s Pacific Renaissance where Jane began in the Television industry with Hercules in 1995. A newfound love for New Zealand and a blossoming relationship with Pacific Renaissance, Jane found home.  Since 1995 Jane has continued working with Pacific Renaissance for numerous productions; Jack of All Trades, Cleopatra 2525, Xena, 30 Days of Night as well as Makeup, Hair and Prosthetics Designer for Spartacus: Blood & Sand, Gods of the Arena,and Vengeance.  Jane has been the makeup and hair designer as well as HOD for a number of films and television shows, including Ash vs the Evil Dead, Ghost in the Shell, Pete’s Dragon, Evil Deadand Under the Mountain.

John Schoonraad

John Schoonraad has been lifecasting for film, television, and the arts for over 20 years. Accompanied by his sons Tristan and Robin, John and his U.K. team are masters of the lifecast, having done well over 1,000 of them, from hands, feet, and heads to full bodies. Schoony is the UK’s Dave Parvin.

Among John’s many prominent models are actors Laurence Fishburne, Gary Oldman, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Winslet, Patrick Stewart, Russell Crowe, and Tom Hanks. He has successfully brought his skills and innovative ideas to the areas of special makeup effects, prosthetics, and special effects and has applied them to such films as 2008’s Rambo, the award-winning Gladiator, and Saving Private Ryan. John’s also worked with pop celebrities David Bowie, Robbie Williams, and Bjork.

Rightly considered among the best lifecasters in the world along with Dave Parvin, John and his sons Robin and Tristan continue to make an impact on the entertainment industry as talented effects sculptors, craftsmen, and mold makers.

Jordu Schell

Jordu Schell is widely regarded as one of the most influential creature designers in the world. Working mainly from his studio in the San Fernando Valley of suburban Los Angeles, he has been designing film and television monsters for over 20 years. Jordu has worked on and designed characters and creatures for numerous projects, including Hellboy, 300, R.I.P.D., Men in Black III, The Thing, Cowboys and Aliens, Avatar, Cloverfield, Men in Black, Edward Scissorhands, The X-Files Movie, Predator II, Galaxy Quest, Evolution, My Favorite Martian, Alien: Resurrection, Babylon 5: The Series, and many more.

As well as teaching at his own busy facility, Schell Sculpture Studio in the San Fernando Valley, Jordu teaches internationally at a number of well-known shops and schools.

Jordu’s work carries an innate understanding of real-world anatomy that translates into the characters and creatures he designs, rendering his creations wholly believable when you see them in person or on screen; it’s as if these beings could ...do... exist. Jordu’s talent and skill, plus the fact that he is a remarkably good teacher and that he’s simply a really good guy, keep him in very high demand for television and motion pictures. I am thrilled to be able to include Jordu and examples of his work in this book for you.

Joshua Turi

Josh Turi and his company, Designs to Deceive have been creating Prosthetic makeups for nearly 3 decades. Starting out in the 1980s with student film after student film, he then got the opportunity to work with Troma films.  A New York institution, Josh did a series of films for them, including: Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, Def by Temptation, Class of Nuke ‘Em High Part 2, and the Toxic Avenger Part 4.

This led to a series of low-budget, and independent films.  In 2000 he was hired at Saturday Night Live as a Makeup artist.  He worked up to the position of Key Makeup and Shop supervisor, a position he held for 15 years while still doing freelance work; after 15 years, he left SNL to pursue other his own work. Since leaving SNL, Josh has been the Prosthetic Department Head for Marvel TV, (Daredevil, Luke Cage, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Defenders), as well as working 6 seasons of Orange is the New Black, The Sinner, Happy, and Sneaky Pete (2 seasons).

“I was really ambitious and wanted to learn as much as possible about not only prosthetics but also beauty makeup. It was necessary to learn not only how skin moved but also about all of the subtle colorations to it.  I realized that my friends who could do prosthetic and straight makeups—their work really stood out. That was the look that I wanted to emulate.”

Kato has also worked on Guardians of the Galaxy, Teen Wolf, NCIS, The Mick, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Boogeyman 2, Watchmen, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, The Last Ship, Sons of Anarchy, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. “If there is a movie that is thesecond in a series or has the word ‘Rise’ in the title, I work on it!”

Kato considers himself very fortunate to be mentored by Michael Westmore. Michael has even had Kato join him on stage at the annual Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas to do make-up demonstrations.

Kato considers himself lucky to have been able to work on some of Hollywood’s greatest. “I’ve applied make-up on Larry King, Jerry Weintraub, Elliott Gould, Jon Voight, Charlie Hunnam, and Bruce Davison. The days may be long, sometimes the pay is low and the conditions may not be ideal but… I feel so lucky to be a make-up artist!”

Kato is a Member of Local 706 Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild.

Matthew W. Mungle

Academy Award and Emmy winner Matthew W. Mungle is regarded as one of Hollywood’s premier makeup special effects artists. He has over 200 film and television projects to his credit, including Albert Nobbs, Salem, The Bucket List, Schindler’s List, Ghosts of Mississippi, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Edward Scissorhands, Six Feet Under, N.C.I.S., House, The X Files, CSI, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Matthew has earned accolades and recognition as one of the industry’s top masters of special makeup. Along with Neill Gorton, Matthew has had an enormous influence on my career and mentored me through my first feature as a makeup department head and makeup effects supervisor. I credit much of what I know to what Matthew taught me.

As a boy growing up in Oklahoma, Matthew recalls seeing Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy. As he got older, he sent away for theatrical makeup from New York and Dallas specialty stores—and experimented with face casts and prosthetics on willing family members and friends. Although his parents thought it was a phase he would soon outgrow, Matthew knew differently. He credits the 1964 release of The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, with makeup effects on Tony Randall by the late William Tuttle, as having been his greatest influence and deciding factor in becoming a special effects makeup artist.

Age makeup has become one of Matthew’s strongest calling cards and an area of makeup effects that’s definitely challenging. His fascination with artificially making someone young look old prompted him to research more viable methods, such as gelatin, first used in the 1930s but later abandoned when the hot lights caused it to melt. With today’s less intense lighting and faster film, Matthew has resurrected the nearly translucent substance, which, when applied, looks and moves like real skin. “I’ve made it a part of my craft to see how skin moves,” says Matthew. “I’m intrigued with how women and men age differently. Both get jowls and tend to get that fold of skin over the top lid of the eyes and bags under the eyes. However, men’s ear lobes get longer and women’s skin gets creepy and translucent.”

One of Matthew’s greatest challenges was with the Broadway hit Wicked, creating the prosthetic face masks for the production’s various characters—the flying monkeys and the talking animals. Balancing his film and TV projects, Matthew continues his work for the show’s many productions. “In my thirty-three years working in this business, I’ve always taken pride in creating subtle ‘I didn’t know the actor had prosthetics on’ type makeups, so it brought me great pleasure to work on Albert Nobbs with Glenn Close,” Matthew told me several years ago.  “Glenn had a photo of a manly woman from the ‘30s that she wanted to base her character on, and I instantly knew the direction we should go which would be a slightly larger nose, earlobes, dental plumpers, no makeup look, and a little eyebrow work. Working with photos I had taken of Glenn at a meeting, I rendered a Photoshop composite of the look we were going for.”

Matthew recently sold his WM Creations line to Frends Beauty, and relocated to Lago Vista, Texas near Austin where he’s set up a scaled down shop and is enjoying life.

Neill Gorton

Neill Gorton owns and operates Neill Gorton Prosthetics Studio and Millennium FX Ltd. in the United Kingdom, providing special makeup effects, prosthetics, animatronics, and visual effects for films, TV, and commercials worldwide. He is also the man responsible for creating the amazing creatures seen in the BBC’s Doctor Who since its distinctive 2005 rebirth. He is now also the owner of Neill’s Materials, a leading supplier of makeup and makeup effects products, as well as the creator and publisher of highly regarded Prosthetics Magazine, published in the UK and distributed worldwide. Neill’s impressive credits include Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Torchwood, Being Human, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, and Children of Men. Neill has personally been an enormous help and encouragement to me and has influenced how I approach almost everything I do in this field.

In Neill’s words, “Not many 12-year-olds know what it is they want to do with their lives and eventually succeed at it. Frankly, I’m a bit of an oddity, and at the age of 12 I was already planning my career.” This was in a suburb of Liverpool long before anyone had even heard of the Internet. Neill scoured magazines and books for any snippet of information that would help him achieve his goal. At age 15 Neill was already working with a mask maker in London; by 17 he was working on his first motion picture.

 Like many, Neill was influenced by the stop-motion animation of legendary special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen. Ray created animated model monsters and dinosaurs for films such as Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and Clash of the Titans. At about the same time that Neill was learning about Harryhausen’s groundbreaking work, films such as Star Wars and ET were bringing more lifelike monsters and aliens to the screen through animatronics and prosthetic techniques.

Neill’s attention turned from creating miniature monsters in clay to full-size mechanical beasts and prosthetic makeup. His parents realized how passionate he was and encouraged his new “hobby.” By this time, he’d been communicating with a number of makeup and special effects artists by post and received varying advice. Neill says, “Ultimately it watered down to ‘Do practical subjects,’ so amongst others I chose art, photography, and craft design and technology, which was an amalgam of metalwork, woodwork, and technical drawing.”

“Looking back, craft design and technology was one of the better choices I made, because it taught the process of breaking down a product using a basic brief to determine design and function, following through to construction using a variety of skills and materials. All these things are very much a part of the work I do today, and this class gave me the fundamental skills to ‘deconstruct’ a project into its salient parts and follow it through from beginning to end.”

In addition, Neill also studied drama because it gave him more time to experiment with makeup and his artistic skills to see how that role could affect the “other side of the curtain”—how the final performance is perceived by an audience.

“The last piece of the puzzle was chemistry,” says Neill. “A special effects man working at the BBC, whose name, sadly, I forget, had kindly written a reply to my young enquiry telling me that chemistry was an important science in this area of work, and I’m grateful to him because he was right. I work in a world dominated by monomers, polymers, and polyesters, endothermic reactions and exothermic reactions, alkalines and solvents. My chemistry skills aren’t first rate, but I learnt enough not be totally bamboozled when a rep from a chemical supply company starts waffling on about polymeric chains.”

As a consequence of Neill’s persistence, he was offered a couple of weeks’ work with a makeup artist by the name of Christopher Tucker. The offer was to come assist for a couple of weeks on another theatrical production and helping cast prosthetic appliances for the West End theatrical production of Phantom of the Opera.

Neill’s expertise in the field has taken him all over the world, and his travels are far from over. Neill says he wouldn’t change his career path for anything, but adds, “Were I to be starting out all over again today, finding a proper vocational course in screen prosthetics which fully prepares you for a career as a workshop technician or enhances your skills as a prosthetic makeup artist for on-set work would be like manna from heaven and make the path into the industry so much easier to navigate. Hence the reason for having set up my own training studio for others who want to follow in my footsteps, but with a little less time wasted in wondering which way to turn next and bickering with well-intentioned but curriculum-bound college tutors along the way!”

Steve Wang

One of the most respected makeup effects designers in the world, Steve’s talents as a designer, sculptor, painter, and supervisor have been highly sought after for years.  Steve is as popular with effects fans—if not more so—as his on-screen contemporaries are in today’s hottest blockbusters.

Although Steve is mostly retired these days from working as a makeup effects artist, he is hardly resting on his laurels, and barely has a moment free.  He is in constant demand.  Perhaps best known for his work on the predator in Predator, Abe Sapien from Hellboy, Gill Man from The Monster Squad and Marcus from Underworld: Evolution, Steve’s skill as an artist is only getting better.

Born in Taiwan, Steve and his family moved to the US when he was nine.  He’d always been fascinated by masks, and shortly after arriving with his family, he discovered a passion for mask collecting… and then mask making… fueled by Halloween, which does not exist in Taiwan.

As a veteran makeup artist and creature designer, Steve has worked with fellow veterans before him including Stan Winston, Rick Baker and Dick Smith.

He’s received high praise for his two film adaptations of the manga superhero, Guyver (The Guyver and Guyver: Dark Hero). Steve and his brother write, produce, and direct as the “The Wang Brothers.”

Tami Lane

Oscar-winner Tami Lane began working with Howard Berger, Greg Nicotero, and Bob Kurtzman at KNB EFX Group shortly after college.

Tami remembers liking monsters when she was a little girl, but not liking monsters the way we attribute it to “Ooh, I wanna make monsters when I grow up!”  Tami told me about a time when she was a little girl in a store with her mother and seeing an interesting magazine on the rack.  Leafing through, she saw pictures of amazing creatures.  Then a hand reached in from over her head and snatched the magazine out of her hands and placed it high on the rack; it was her mom. “You are never, ever to look at that again!”  Tami found out later it was a magazine called Fangoria…

In the early days of her career, many of the artists working at KNB, like Gino Acevedo, took Tami under their wings and taught her everything from mold making, to casting, to painting.  It was going back to school again.  She graduated from cleaning out molds and painting creatures to finally being asked to go on location by Greg Nicotero for John Carpenter’s Vampires.  She was only supposed to go for a week to help set up but ended up staying for the entire show and was asked to do 2 lead hero makeups.

Thomas Floutz

Thom’s passion for makeup effects started when he was quite young.  It was the images of an American GI in a Japanese bathhouse who had an eye that opened in the middle of his back and then grew into a second head.  Thom was never the same after seeing that.  “I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life.  I wanted to grow extra body parts on myself,” reflects this Oscar nominated makeup effects wizard.

“And I knew that the way to do this was to mix the right chemical potions and drink them. Part of the reason that this made sense to me at the time was that my dad was a chemist. But more than that, it was just my impressionable kid brain seeing the obvious solution as it started to be shaped.”  Years later Thom found out that the film that pushed him over the edge was called The Manster.  “I watched it again recently and it doesn't hold up...  but no matter, it did what it was supposed to do.  It helped guide me to this path that I've been on professionally for the last 25 years, and also to find an easier way to make the transformations.”

Thom’s credits include Hellboy II:  The Golden Army, American Horror Story, NCIS, Breaking Bad, X-Men:  First Class, Nip/Tuck, Grey’s Anatomy, Code Black, Private Practice, and Sucker Punch.

Ve Neill

One of the most well-known, well-regarded and sought-after makeup artists working in the world today, three-time Oscar winner Ve Neill remains one of the nicest people you are ever likely to meet.  Ve knew from a very young age what she wanted to do, and there has never been any doubt since. One of the first makeups she remembers doing was an alien on herself; she wore it to a convention and it was the first time she met Rick Baker.  “I had this crazy looking pointed head and there were no ears so I had limited hearing,” she said. “My ears were covered, naturally. I especially remember this because Rick likes to bring it up occasionally. I guess he thought it was pretty funny. I thought I looked great of course.”

Ve Neill, Johnny Depp; Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Image reproduced by permission of Ve Neill.

Naomi Harris as Tia Dalma/Calypso; Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Image used by permission of Ve Neill.

“The toughest part of this industry is trying to do more than just be in it,” she said.  “For some reason, it is much more difficult for women because you are also the one who takes care of the home and the family. I always tell young women getting into this field to make the decision between having a family and a career. This is a full-time gig that requires most of your time. If you want a family they will not see you very much and that’s not good.   For me, there is nothing tough about it. I guess I just know the ropes now and if something doesn’t go right you just simply fix the problem and move on. There is very little that cannot be dealt with as long as you have common sense and knowledge of your craft.”

“All I ever wanted to do was make monsters and aliens and change people in to something or someone else,” she said.   “Let’s face it, you get put in a box in this industry and it’s hard to get out. I was an anomaly when I started.  First of all, there were like two woman makeup artists and I didn’t even think there were any (other women makeup effects artists) at that time. One of these days I’m going to find out who they were; they must have been hidden away at some studio lot in a back room.”

“I remember when I first got into the union some of the guys would hire me just to see what I was all about. They would have me cut sponges and sharpen pencils and the like.  God forbid they should let me do any makeup! The late Fred Phillips was an old friend of mine at the time, and Fred would try to give me jobs now and again. I’ll never forget the day he called me up and asked me to come and do Star Trek the Motion Picture with him. I just about fell down!  I was so excited and completely blown away. That was my first big union job. Wow!”  Ve goes on, saying, “Your career is what you make it. There are plenty of very well established and famous women (makeup) artists that get hired all the time. They’re just not known in my circles because they specialize in beauty makeup. By the way, they probably make three times the money I do, so as I like to say, ‘Pick your poison wisely…’”

Among Ms. Neill’s stellar credits are some of my favorite movies of all time, including Galaxy Quest, The Lost Boys, Mrs. Doubtfire (for which she won an Oscar), BeetleJuice (for which she won another Oscar), and Edward Scissorhands.

Vittorio Sodano

Italian makeup effects artist and designer Vittorio Sodano was born in Naples, but began his rise to the top in London at the age of 16, sculpting and working as a prosthodontist in a British effects lab.

Vittorio’s major cinema debut came with the 1999 film Prima che il Tramonto (Before the Sunset) directed by Stefano Incerti, for which he was recognized for Makeup and Special Effects at the Locarno Film Festival.  His expertise led him to become the personal makeup artist for several of Italy’s leading actresses, including Margherita Buy, Laura Morante, Mariangela Melato, and Valeria Golino.

Vittorio is considered by many to be among the best when it comes to age makeup, and was nominated for an Academy Award and won a coveted David di Donatello Award(the Italian Oscar) for his outstanding work in Il Divo (2008).

He also received an Academy Award nomination for his work on Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (2006), and won a David di Donatello Award for his work on the 2010 film Noi credevamo.  A few of Vittorio’s lengthy film credits include Casanova, The Black Dahlia, Fade to Black, and Safe House.