Make-up Effects Work

Here is a collection of some of the makeup characters and effects I have done over the years. Some wwere for low budget action films, others for Halloween. Now that I spend most of my time involved with 3D computer animation, my makeup work is limited to the annual Halloween stuff.

All images/animation's for Private non-commercial viewing purposes only.
© Copyright 1984-2003 Vince Backeberg All rights reserved.

The Courier
(A.K.A. "The Courier of Death")

"The Courier" was a low budget action film shot in Portland, Oregon by independent director/producer Tom Shaw. I only worked on it for a few weeks, supplying some of the more bloody makeup effects. Due to the budget most of these were made right out of the makeup kit with derma wax and latex. And lots of stage blood which they bought by the gallon. Many of the cast and crew who worked on this film went on to professional film and video careers. Most notably is Jerold Howard who later went on to animate at Will Vinton Productions and Celebrity Deathmatch.

This was a gunshot makeup using gelatin and latex. The advantage to gelatin is that depending on the amount of coloring agent you add, it has a nice translucent quality to it. To save time, I made up these gelatin wounds in advance and just taped them to the actors. The torn edges of the clothing and the stage blood finished the effect.The character was hit with a shotgun blast. See how this image wound up used on a 3DComputer Zombie character.

© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

Lots of people got shot in "The Courier", and the director, Tom Shaw, was always calling for' "more blood!". The actors were great about being in very uncomfortable positions with sticky makeups and then having more cold stage blood pour all over them. This photo is from a location shoot that took place around 1:00 am on very cold morning. Actress Barbara Garrison-Lee had to hold this position for almost an hour.  When the cameras rolled she would have to hold her breath otherwise you would see the steam from her breath.

You hear stories about spoiled cry-baby actors making all sorts of demands and complaints during film productions.  Not  Barbara.  Even though this was a very low budget film that paid next to nothing, she was the epitome of professionalism. Although this was a very uncomfortable shoot, she never complained once and thanked me for the nice job on the makeup.  Absolutely one of the nicest people I've ever worked with.
© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

A derma wax makeup for a bullet hole in the head The trick here is to give the bullet hole the illusion of depth. What I did was paint the bottom of the make-up with black and add a special mixture of 'dark blood'. This was just a translucent blue gel toothpaste tinted darker with red and blue food coloring. This stuff is thick enough to stay where you apply it, and keeps a dark wet blood look.
© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

This was a gunshot effect appliance makeup. There were two tubes leading to the latex wound appliance. One was attached to a supply of compressed air, and the second to a large syringe full of stage blood. A small latex plug in the appliance was pulled out with monofilament fishing line while the stage blood was pumped through under pressure. This is a technique make-up master Dick Smith invented for "The Godfather". It took almost an hour to rig this up and since the stage blood would mess up the one and only suit the actor was wearing , we had to get this right the first time. Luckily we did. © Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

Latex and polyfoam hand. This was in my portfolio before I worked on "The Courier". I spent a lot of time punching in dozens of fake hairs. The director, always looking to add more gore and keep on budget, figured a way to have a character lose a hand to take advantage of this existing prop. © Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

Corpse mask sculpture.  The teeth are cast dental acrylic pressed into the clay to make small sockets in the sculpture.  These are removed, then the Ultracal 30 mold is made.   When the latex is cast into the mold, cured and removed, those small indentations give the acrylice teeth something to 'plug' into.  They are held into place with Super glue.

A Mogwai replica from "Gremlins". While not strictly 'make-up', building this guy used many techniques in make-up effects work. The head, hands, and feet were all sculpted in plasticine clay then molds were made and then cast in latex rubber. The body, arms and legs were fabricated from sheet foam that was covered with fake fur. I took some artistic license when it came to sculpting the face. I didn't want it to look to much like 'Gizmo'.

Here is the sheet foam body and the finished head before final ass-
embly and fur covering. The ears were sculpted separately from the head and attached like make-up appliances. This gave me the option to position them at differ-
angles.

One of the very first prosthetic make-ups I ever did. This was an old R & D brand foam latex used as a two piece application.  I was lucky enough to have a very patient younger brother who would sit for hours while I glued this stuff to his head.
© Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

Here's a look at me patching the join between an arm and shoulder on the full-size ET I built. (Maybe the question is why I built a full size ET)I'm using a small foam sponge to stipple on a thin layer of liquid latex to blend the edges together. This is the last stage before painting. It was cast in the old reliable slush latex backed with a flexible polyurethane foam.
© Copyright 1984 Vince Backberg

A zombie appliance makeup for a college theatrical make-up class. Everyone doing makeup effects has to do a zombie makeup. Really, it's like a union rule or something. Every makeup portfolio I've ever seen has some kind of zombie make-up. © Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

This is a fiberglass underskull for a mechanical make-up head to be worn by an actor. It was a space alien with the typical large eyes and small mouth and nose. It was capable of blinking, smiling and frowning. The teeth and gums are made from dental acrylic.  Made for a Portland produced kids video.  

Triva note:  ILM Animation Supervisor Hal Hickel designed the aliens' space suit.

Brushing on vaseline as a barrier before finishing second half of an Ultracal-30 mold.

This is the second and third in a series of three puppets. It's a blob of jelly that bubbles up out of the floor. A mouth opens( this model) , then it continues to stretch up until it breaks free. The teeth are cast from dental acrylic. © Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

Here is one from Halloween. It's a re-creation of the alien makeup from the movie, "Alien Nation". This was a full head appliance made from regular latex rubber. When I was sculpting this I thought it would be the perfect kind of appliance make-up for Halloween. Nothing directly on my face(i.e. uncomfortable), relatively easy to apply, and not requiring an elaborate costume. Unfortunately I didn't realize I was basically gluing a virtual greenhouse to my head. The only ventilation was in the ears, and this proved inadequate. I couldn't wait to tear that damned thing off my head. Live and learn. © Copyright 1989 Vince Backeberg

(Photo courtesy of John Ashlee)

My interpretation of Dorian Gray. This was made as a pull over latex mask. A false acrylic eye was added to the socket and the hairs were punching in one by one. Slowly.....meticulously........ precisely. Which is why I only made three of these things. © Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

Gorilla suit

Finished life-sized gorilla head sculpture. I was debating whether this gorilla stuff should be on this page or the make-up effects page. Well, they're now on both pages. Plasticine clay over an ultracal 30 lifecast. Part of a gorilla suit project I was working on for myself. This sculpture weighed a ton.
© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

Using rubbing alcohol on a fine brush to smooth out the tool marks on the sculpted wrinkles.

Gorilla head detail. I studied dozens of National Geographic pictures of gorillas to get this kind of detail. The very fine skin pores and wrinkles are made by pressing latex rubber 'texture pads' into the softened clay. I had just returned from a trip to Los Angeles where I visited  friend Craig Caton-Largent, a former Portland resident and make-up artist.  Craig took me around to many of the biggest make-up shops including Rick Baker's. I got a really close look at some of Rick's fantastically detailed gorilla sculptures and was inspired to try my hand at sculpting a realistic gorilla head.© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

A pair of latex gloves for a gorilla suit I was building. A pair of custom made spandex gloves were bonded to the outer latex skin with a flexible polyurethane foam.© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

A pair of latex gorilla feet. (size 10½) Like the gloves, these had an outer latex skin and a flexible polyurethane filler. This filler made up the space between my real feet and the rubber foot.  © Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg