Elderly Special Effects Makeup

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Shaun O'Rourke with Eleven Bravo Productions and we're here at EUE Screen Gems Studios; the largest studio complex on the east coast in Wilmington, North Carolina. Now I'm here with Molly Olesky and we're going to talk about old age makeup. "Molly." "Well, with old age makeup there's a couple of ways you can go about with it. First is 2D theater theatrical makeup. No I would only use it on actors that are over, you know, a hundred feet away. But today we're talking about old age stipple that you do with latex and with, with latex the first step is testing it on actor; make sure they're not allergic to it. It's a very uncomfortable process. The first step with old age is picking the first part of the face you want to work on. So with old age; with old age stipple makeup, you're taking an actor's face and stretching it; latexing it; powdering it and then releasing and hopefully that sets off any sort of elasticity in their skin and really you can make someone look thirty years older just with some wet latex. Now the first, the first thing you can start with it is probably the nose. Can you turn your face Shaun? Okay. You have to; it's a two; with, with latex, at latex stipple I would have at least one other person helping you. It's very hard to get the actor to help you. It's already horrible to get; it's a horrible thing to go through. So you get; let's say this is another person's hand 'cause you're going to need a free hand to actually stipple the latex on. You stretch the face out and you stipple the latex. Let it dry with a blow dryer, very low setting; you don't want to burn their skin and then you powder the latex. When you release it it should be wrinkled. The next thing you go to is the cheek. With the cheek you're going to want to stretch it this way. You have to remember that, you have to think about the ways that the face naturally ages and the way you pull your skin is the way the latex is going to set. So if you pull the skin this way; you latex and powder. Do the same to the other side. With the mouth this is pretty hilarious; you stretch out like that and when you latex this and release it his face will be just, just imagine, he's going to be all sucked in. The, there's a convenient way to show age; sometimes you can only do it on the eyes. But it'll be enough to make age in ten years. So you take just right here on the side; stretch it like so; latex that; release it and you will see it go. You have to remember to powder it after each time you put latex down. Once it dries and if you would; let say your hand slips; your hands will get sweaty; it's very hard process, not easy to do. You'll lose everything; all the detail will be gone; your actor's skin will just be stuck to itself and he won't, he won't know what to do." Okay so where would somebody go to, to purchase this type of liquid latex. "You can get that from most makeup supply stores. What you have to remember is to get the thinnest latex available. Most companies are, might actually even sell it under the name of Old Age Stipple Latex. It has to be very watered down and very, just has to mimic the skin; that's what it's for. You'll only need to have to do one or two layers of latex on the skin to actually get the effect that you're looking for to age the skin." But how long will an actor have to sit in the chair to have all these kind of appliances put on him? "For an old age stipple it will take, I would say at least an hour and a half to two hours. Then you have to think about the paint job that you have to put on the actor which is, you have to focus on liver spots and redness of the nose and chin and also those discolorations that come with aging." Well, there you have it. So that is using a liquid latex to make old age makeup. Remember with your actor, for safety reasons, make sure that when you apply this you make sure that he's not allergic to anything. Sometimes there's harsh chemicals inside liquid latex; ammonia is a key component. "Spot test the wrist." Spot test the wrist and make sure that if you're going to do a twelve hour day of shooting that you budget in your two hours of makeup effects that are going to go on that actor. And there you go; we just taught you how to old age makeup."