Practical Effects in Film – The Craft of Prosthetics Then and Now

MZed Education

by Mascha Deikova9 days ago

All filmmakers are magicians. They let the viewers immerse themselves in fictional worlds, believe stories that don’t exist, and feel things they didn’t know they could feel. Yet some artists in the industry have an even more hands-on approach to magic than others. Let’s talk about the craft of prosthetics – the area of filmmaking that has existed forever and still achieves practical effects that will blow your mind.

I must admit, I’m an absolute fan of all things practical in film and can talk about them for ages. It’s incredible to discover how a smart trick works and creates a phenomenal scene, without being visible to the audience. Makeup artists play a crucial role in this universe of magic, especially when they not only enhance the look of actors and actresses but also perform a task that makes them totally unrecognizable. This is the area we’re going to explore in this article.

Prosthetics and how the craft started

Prosthetics and special effects makeup in filmmaking are as old as the world. Although Rick Baker was the first Academy Award winner for the masterful use of it in “An American Werewolf in London” in 1981, you’ll have no problem finding much earlier examples of impressive looks achieved with this craft.

For instance, in the silent cinema classic “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925), the director Lon Chaney appears on screen as a ghoulish phantom himself. Apart from directing and acting, he did his own makeup, and in fact, is considered one of the inventors of various movie makeup effects. Rumors say that for the movie’s iconic look, Chaney used egg membrane over his eyes, and strapped his nose back with wires and fish skin to achieve the tilted-up effect. What a wild imagination, right?

Interview with the Vampire: the special effects makeup

Yet Chaney kept many of his makeup effects secrets, as filmmakers often do. Not every magician is ready to explain the trick. However, time moves on, and some old secrets do eventually see the light of day. For example, the studio that worked on prosthetics and special effects of the legendary “Interview with the Vampire” recently published a long making-of essay alongside some behind-the-scenes videos.

Stan Winston Studio reveals how they achieved the vampires’ translucent skin effect.

In the test phase, artists tried to use metallic substances to recreate the porcelain effect, described in the book, as well as white makeup. However, the former didn’t read on film, and the latter was too showy and unattractive for the film’s realistic tone. So, they came to the problem from a different perspective. What if a vampire’s skin was so translucent that it revealed blue veins beneath? At first, the studio worked with foam rubber vein prosthetics, but they were too much effort for a project that featured vampires in nearly every shot.

The final solution was to use tattoo ink to paint a network of blue lines directly onto the actors’ faces, following their natural vein patterns, which were made more discernible during application by having the actors lie on a tilted slant board, heads-down.

A quote from the Stan Winston Studio’s behind-the-scenes story

The neck-cutting scene explained

There was one shot in “Interview with the Vampire” that instantly comes to mind as the greatest riddle of all. It is from the scene where Claudia (portrayed by Kirsten Dunst) cuts Lestat’s throat (performed by Tom Cruise). Let’s rewatch it together. While watching, please particularly note the shot starting from 02:19, and keep in mind that the film came out in 1994:

How on Earth did they do it? It’s a continuous 12-second take without cuts, in which Tom Cruise’s character gradually transforms from a young, beautiful vampire to a desiccated shell. Elaborate visual effects (in the form of computer graphics), as we know them now, were still in the early development phase. So, how?

It turns out that Stan Winston and his team created a series of puppets and animatronic heads only for this incredible scene. First, they videotaped Cruise’s performance and used it as a reference for building Lestat’s puppets. The body was puppeteered from underneath a table, with miniature hydraulic systems creating a crawling motion. The team could also control the puppet’s head, neck, arm, and fingers. On top of that, artists sculpted the vampire’s facial disintegration in four stages, starting with a perfect replica of Tom Cruise for stage one. They used a bunch of other tricks as well. For instance, an inflated airbag in the shape of Cruise’s body released air during the shot to create a shriveling effect.

When all this came together, filmmakers shot fourteen separate motion control passes for the shot. There was some VFX on top, but only a little – filmmakers added a digital morph within the passes to make the transformation completely seamless. Voilá, the magic happened, and the scene feels real to this day.

The craft of prosthetics in The Substance

This approach reminds me of a more recent movie – the Oscar-nominated “The Substance” from 2024. In this body horror by Coralie Fargeat, using practical effects, like prosthetics and makeup, accounts for 70-80% of the final film. This is a rare find nowadays, with all the VFX powerhouses, virtual backgrounds, and other technical opportunities thriving in the industry. The director wanted it this way because the film is literally about women’s bodies: flesh and bone, so why would you use CGI?

If you have watched the movie, then you probably remember the mesmerizing “birthing” scene. The practical effects team, led by Pierre-Olivier Persin in France, created it in-camera, similar to the approach used in “Interview with the Vampire” in 1994. They also combined prosthetics with puppetry and put a hyper-realistic silicone dummy on a raised set. Five to six puppeteers, together with Coralie, sat below and operated every unsettling movement of a creature inside the protagonist’s body. And this is exactly why this sequence feels so real and so intense. (If you want to read about other practical effects from “The Substance” in more detail, we wrote about them here.)

New tools and techniques

At the same time, progress never stops, and artists always come up with innovative ideas on how to solve a particular problem. The craft of prosthetics is no exception. And on some occasions, creative development is inspired by limitations.

For example, the prosthetic designer of “The Whale,” Adrien Morot, faced many challenges. The biggest one was the Covid pandemic. The film follows a morbidly obese and lonely English teacher – a role that earned Brendan Fraser his Oscar that year. Adrien had to craft a full-body artificial skin suit, but without having direct access to the actor, because of the Covid regulations. As he explains in one interview, it was important to him to approach the sensitive subject with finesse, so that the character didn’t look funny or comic. In this aspect, the filmmakers had to create something that hadn’t been done before.

For that task, Adrien Morot experimented with 3D printing, which became an essential part of the solution. The full-body prosthetic costume was created using 3D scans and molds and filled with sacks of “gelatinous water beads” to get the movement of the actor’s limbs right. In the end, not only did the look come out incredibly realistic, but also the bodysuit they created helped Fraser feel the character and deliver an authentic performance.

We have 25 pounds on each arm. The legs had the same kind of structure, but were, like, 40 pounds. But what that did, I think, is help him find the character. And realizing how strong people living with that condition have to be.

A quote by Adrien Morot to The Hollywood Reporter

What do you think about prosthetics and special effects makeup in films? Do you still opt for practical solutions, or rely on the endless CGI possibilities? Except for the authenticity, what else do prosthetics bring to the table, in your opinion? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

Feature image source: film stills from “The Phantom of the Opera” by Lon Chaney, 1925; and “The Whale” by Darren Aronofsky, 2022.

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