Boo

Special Guest Column by Mark Shostrom

 

With my colleagues Coglione & Drexler up to their ears in prosthetics on that dream project of theirs, GOREZONE editor Tony Timpone asked if I could supply a guest column. I glanced around my lab at several sculptures I was at work on. I had shooting schedules pending and an actor due any minute for a life cast. Naturally, I responded, "Sure, I can fit it in."

After all, a magazine with regular articles on makeup FX is something I didn't have as a kid.

Tony suggested I write a piece explaining Evil Dead II's Henrietta makeup, a combination of body suit and facial appliances. No sooner said than done. Let's take a stroll into the plaster room and see if Ted Raimi is ready for some body casting...

 Mark Shostrom is best known for contributing special makeup FX to From Beyond, Phantasm II, Deepstar Six and the upcoming Shadow Zone.

Ted in a leotard Ted Raimi, looking rather dashing in a black leotard, gets in position for the body cast. The spandex protects his body hair and provides a smooth molding surface. Skin detail is not needed, since the suit will be quite thick I put a thin coat of Vaseline of the spandex, then Ted's back is done first, using precut strips of burlap dipped in white Hydrocal. We premeasured four batches each of 1 quart water to 2 level dry quart measures of Hydrocal. With three to four people working, the back is done within 10 minutes. Wood strips strengthen the cast.  
Half an hour later, after Ted has been removed from the mold, his back-half plaster negative is laid down, and he climbs back into it. Plastic drop cloth separates the plaster median, so that the second half of the plaster mold will not stick to the first   Relaxing
   After Ted's second half is made, the two negatives are coated with a stearic acid separator. A fiberglass replica is made. It is very lightweight -- an important factor, since eventually this fiberglass body will hold about 450 pounds of clay. (Incidentally, Ted's slightly squatting position for the cast will enable the final foam suit to flex with less stress at the joints.)  
I sculpt the body using Roma plastilina. Although I considered using clay due to the sculpture's size, I decided against it because I didn't want to constantly cover it and keep wetting it. Furthermore, the mold over this would be fiberglass; during the three days that mold would take, thin areas of wet clay would have cracked.  Photo 4

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