Following the script review I requested a meeting with Charlie to discuss any queries that we had about the characters and the make-up that would be required.
- The old man that introduces the story has changed from an on-screen character to a voice over, so now requires no make-up consideration.
- The market scene at the moment will incorporate about 12 extras, however, this number will be subject to change if more supporting artists are brought on board. All will need a little make-up and hair work, however, only about 4 will be shown in detail on screen.
- Bill Ferny is being depicted as a dark character with a pale/anemic skin complexion and an air of greasiness about him. The actor currently has dirty blonde hair, he would be willing to dye it, however, the director likes the idea of keeping the dirty blond colour to deviate slightly from the stereotypical image of a villain being dark haired. Uncertain whether postiche will be needed.
- The girls in the tavern are envisaged as more like farmer's daughters as opposed to 'working girl' types. The actress that will be featured prominently as the girl sitting on Reigna's lap will be played by Becky Burnett.
- The burly man/father character will be played by an older man, so no ageing make-up will be required.
- The bar man and the innkeeper are the same character and will be played by a man who is in his sixties.
- Reigna's 'blow to the head' will only be superficial and will require only a small bump perhaps, no prosthetic wound or blood as fight is supposed to be comical.
- Stanis will require a prosthetic wound on his leg and this will be needed in every scene chronologically after this point in the script - Charlie is aiming to film scenes as chronologically as possible.
- When orcs are slain there won't be (hopefully) any close up shots of wounds, main visual aspect will be a shot of the sword/weapon with blood on it. Charlie wants to stay clear of techniques used in previous fan videos and does not want to incorporate the idea of orcs having black blood coming from their mouths every time one of them gets killed.
- Initially Charlie envisaged a 'company of orcs' consisting of five actors, however, he would now like to increase that number to seven as he is bringing more actors on board and the budget is increasing.
- Charlie is very keen on the idea of having an arrow coming out of the Hunter Orc's bare chest if it can be managed with make-up. He does not have a designated props department as of yet so we as make-up artists will probably have to make the light-weight arrows ourselves - need to finalise a design for all of the arrows used for continuity. When the other orcs are shot they will be wearing costumes so the arrows could be hidden beneath these.
- When the characters are said to be 'nursing their wounds' Charlie requested some simple bruising. I explained to him that this would not work in context as if the injuries had only just been sustained there would be no bruising visible yet. He remained a little vague but said that he did not want any cuts or blood on the majority of the characters, perhaps a bloody nose or lip but nothing substantial. The character of Roran may require a little bit more make-up work as he is the most severely injured, although Charlie is yet to reach a final decision on what he would like specifically.
- We raised the issue of the Hunter Orc character emerging from a river and expressed our worries that the make-up would not stand up to constant contact with water. Charlie reassured us that the shot will most likely be filmed in the evening so it will be darker and he may just have the character up to his legs in the water. If this was the case we could perhaps apply glycerine on the make-up to make it appear wet and just dampen down the hair. Test runs will perhaps have to be done for this.
- The scene that was causing us the most worry in terms of make-up is the final fight scene where the Hunter Orc is axed in the back and then stabbed in the chest. Charlie assured us that these would not be action shots and that the Orc would probably not be in shot when the stabbing takes place. He did, however, request that a prosthetic axe wound could be made for the back that could be shown in shot once the weapon is removed from the body.
Additional considerations
Since our last meeting Charlie had had time to give make-up some further consideration and come up with any more ideas that he wanted to pitch to us. His first request was quite a shock and greatly increased the amount of work that we would be facing - he wanted a dismembered orc arm! He went on to say that he understands that this is a big task and would not be vital for the film but that it would be a 'luxury' element that he would really love to include. Although I was very daunted by the task at first, it would be a great opportunity to add another element to my portfolio and my skills base so I was willing to give it a go.
Charlie also gave us an indication of which actors he felt would be able to grow convincing beards and which would need postiche. We arranged dates to take beard measurements from all of the principle actors (just in case) and a second date to take head casts of all of the actors playing orcs.
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