A key part of creating the full head silicone prosthetics for the Orc characters would be decided on the correct percentage of deadener to add to the Platsil Gel 10 in order to make it sufficiently soft to move easily with the skin and the actor's facial expressions. I therefore decided to do a little research into the man responsible for the creation of Smith's Theatrical Prosthetic Deadener: Gordon Smith.
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| makeupmag.com |
Smith is Canadian and achieved a degree in Classical Theatre from the University of Windsor. His skills in special effects make-up are completely self taught as he decided that entering the world of horror make-up would be the best way to overcome his phobia of blood, as opposed to working in a hospital. He still to this day remains reluctant to refer to himself as a make-up artist. From this point on Smith's career spans over 3 decades, during which he is responsible for the creation of make-ups in over 80 films. Smith eventually created his own team of dedicated and skilled artists that were based in his shop in Toronto; FXSmith.
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| forums.superherohype.com |
As well as his outstanding make-up creations, Smith is most recognised throughout industry for his pioneering developments in make-up technology, particularly involving silicone. His main interests with prosthetics lay in the translucency and ability to intrinsically colour prosthetics. He therefore spent between 10-15 years developing the technology to enable him to create a substance that would most realistically mimic the texture of human skin. Along with Kerr Industries and Polytek Development, Smith's Theatrical Prosthetic Deadener was eventually created and marketed to all areas of industry where it is now a crucial element to the majority of silicone prosthetics. This new technology was particularly essential for Smith's work on 'X-Men' and 'X-2' for characters such as 'Mystique'. This very ambitious makeup originally took between 8-10 hours to apply, although this time was reduced by the second film to about 6 hours. It involved over 100 silicone prosthetic pieces that covered about 60% of Rebecca Romijn's body along with a complex blue body paint.
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| www.wornjournal.com |
Following the success of the make-up in 'X-2' Smith was nominated for an Acadamy Award, however, the experience rapidly turned very unpleasant with Smith developing a lot of enemies within industry who refused to credit him for his part in the development of silicone prosthetics. Eventually he reached a point where he could no longer battle against these kinds of people and retired from the industry.
Really interesting, thank you
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