Richard Redlefsen: special effects artist
Special Effects Artist Richard Redlefsen
By J. Jekyll
April 2010
Goremaster.com
Mr. Redlefsen came into special effects from an unusual place, he was a first a successful ballet dancer, and through his exposure to makeup in the theater, he developed a passion for makeup special effects. That passion led him to Budapest, Hungary, where his honed his craft. He has gone on to create fantastic effects in such blockbusters as the Underworld films, The Pirates of the Caribbean films, and the Jeepers Creepers films. Read on to learn more about his journey into the world of special effects makeup... |
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GM: When did you make your decision to enter the field?
RR: I was probably around 27 or 28 [years old]. I didn’t come from…you know a lot of effects guys came from like Famous Monsters. [I] grew up with Frankenstein and Dracula and Fangoria and all of that. I came into makeup kind of from a theatrical bend. I used to be a professional ballet dancer before I did makeup and was introduced to makeup from more of a theatrical bend. Particularly in full length ballets like The Nutcracker or Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet they have a lot of character makeup. But I always had liked to draw and paint since I was a kid. [I] dabbled a little bit in sculpting so that was always something that I knew I wanted use at some point. When I got into dancing and saw the makeup and I thought that would be kind of a cool job. So that’s really where I kind of made decision to get into makeup.
Richard Redlefsen ballet performer
GM: What or who inspired you to start? Who was your influence?
RR: I noticed Rick Baker’s stuff but I was so heavy in the dance mode that the makeup world and makeup effects was kind of far from me. So I remember seeing a lot of gore films when I was a kid and I was like “God, what is this stuff”? Now I do it for a living. When I got into it I think obviously the classics you know I mean Dick Smith and Rick Baker those are the people that were forefront that people were talking about and they continue to talk about them. As I got more into it I saw Rob Bottin’s and Steve Johnson’s and those people. I was attracted to the generations coming up the continual [detailing] of the work and Mathew Mungle who I would then come to work with and the Ve Neill’s. I wouldn’t say there was any one person that inspired me but the work and what I really liked that kept me away from theatrical makeup and going into film and television and then ultimately special effects was the fact that you could change the shape of someone’s face and make it look absolutely real. Whether it was an old age or a trauma injury or a disease or an alien or a creature and it could look as life like and as real as possible.
GM: Coming from the theatrical end of it; is there a favorite theatrical makeup scene? You mentioned SwanLake, is there something early on that really grabbed you? That you thought wow that’s just amazing?
RR: There is one. There was a ballet called Coppélia and it has this old cragged doctor in it. Long story short, he makes a wooden doll and the town kids replace that doll with one of the girls in that town and they play a joke on him because they make him think that the doll has come to life. His makeup he had this big kind of Witchiepoo nose, and a chin, and a monocle and his name was Doctor Coppélius. There was a dancer from American Ballet Theater who was doing that role at the time and his name was Dennis Nahat and I remember looking at the makeup and going “Wow! That’s just fantastic!” [It was] very Cirque du Soleil kind of lines and shading and shadowing very cartoony very animated but done very pretty.
GM: Do you have a favorite scene from a movie that you can remember? Whether now or times past?
RR: I remember The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) [with] Donald Sutherland. That affected me pretty heavy, because that was just scary! The Pods opening up and the little drips of water on the leaves you could see them veining. That stuff still holds up it still looks great today. That was the late 70s early 80s. The Fly (1986) looked so amazingly disturbing. I’ve always been a fan of the original Star Trek TV series. That always had cool make-ups. Space 1999 definitely made an impact on me because they had some cool creatures in it that are probably campy by today’s standards but I actually got the first couple of seasons and there’s this one [episode] where this creature grabs the person with his long tentacles and pulls him in and spits him [the human] out and there is just this decapitated corpse. Great Stuff!
GM: Can you name a favorite special effects artist now? If they had films coming out you are excited to go see their work.
RR: There are a few people that I’ve worked with. I just I love Joel Harlowe’s work. I’ve gotten the chance to work with him a couple of times particularly on Pirates [of the Caribbean] and on Star Trek [film]. Just watching him work I’ve started on the new Star Trek the movie for a couple of months and then I went to New Zealand to do Underworld 3 and basically did a lot of aliens and Vulcans but missed out on the Romulan bit. I thought that Nero the character that Joel Harlow did was beautiful. I love [Bill] Corso’s stuff. I love Ve’s [Neill] work, [she is] a very fine painter I think her painting is great. It’s kind of tough, I think there are so many people, I love Kevin Haney’s work, just spectacular. There’s a life in his [Haney’s] age make-ups and his character make-ups that is so re-fined and I think that comes from years of doing it. You see and you just get more and more trained on what works. I think those are some people that I really admire. Think that their work just really stands out.
GM: How did you get started working in the industry? You were a professional ballet dancer and now you decide that you’re going to go and start working in the industry doing makeup how did that start?
RR: Well, what happened was I made the decision to get into makeup. So I decided to hang up the dance shoes. I think I did my last performance in Oct of 1996 or ’97 and then in the December or January of that next year I went to a makeup school here in Los Angeles. I went to Elegance International which is now called E.I. and basically went for about a year. [It took] year and a month or so [to go] through their whole program. After I finished the beauty part of makeup school I started working for different makeup lines at the mall. So Smashbox, Lancome, etc., [I was] doing beauty make-ups because if you want to do makeup effects, I think that’s awesome, but I think the more you know about beauty makeup and its classical highlight and shadow contouring, the more you know about that pure form of makeup the more it will make sense in that smaller compartmentalization to highlight and shadow within a creature makeup or a zombie makeup or anything, [like] an age makeup. So I went through the program at the school did a little bit of theater here in America and then unlike a lot of people I left Los Angeles and I moved to Eastern Europe and I worked in Budapest, Hungary. I worked with another fantastic effects guy, Iván Pohárnok, who has an effects shop over there. He has a wonderful makeup effects shop there they build everything from small dinosaurs that you can puppeteer to age make-ups, to character makeup, to creature make-ups, to props, and sets, it’s a full service shop and as good as anything here in Los Angeles. They did a lot of featured stuff on Hellboy II: Golden Army (2008).
So I worked in his shop for about 2 years while I lived in Budapest and it was a great experience. Ivan is just a really super guy. He is a great artist and a good guy. That’s where I learned a lot about shop work molding, initial airbrushing and then I came back to the United States and came back to Los Angeles with a resume and some experience on-set. The first shop that I worked with was Brian Penikas’ shop Makeup and Monsters the first job I did was the first Jeepers Creepers (2001). There are so many people that it takes to make one’s career and I’ve been really fortunate with meeting just a really good group of people. Brian brought me in and I was basically pouring up Polyfoam bodies and he asked me “do you know how to paint?” and I was like “yeah, a little bit.” So he showed me a little bit of what he did on this little piece that he was using as the display. He’s like “take this head home and paint it up and airbrush it out and see what we come up with.” I brought it in that next week and he’s like “alright you’re painting now.” So I did most of the dead bodies in the cave sequence. As well as other utility stuff. That was my first screen credit in America.
Richard Redlefsen with Hellboy.
GM: That’s a pretty incredible credit.
RR: Yeah absolutely! It has cult status now which is really cool. A lot of horror fans and creature fans really love Jeepers Creepers and I’m proud to have been on it and great times! Brian is just a great artist as well. As the years went on meeting Tom Floutz and Bruce Fuller and working on the first Underworld (2003) with them and that’s where I really learned a lot of noodling and modeling with much tighter stuff. Tom Foutz is amazing as well as Bruce amazing effects makeup artist. They do beautiful work and I learned a ton from them. That’s pretty much the going from the germ of the idea of wanting to be a makeup artist into the schooling into my first shops and first effects experiences and then starting to go with it and career starting to roll. Then I got into the union through my roommate Michael Mosher who is another great makeup artist (actually I just worked with him yesterday) So, I got into the union because of Joel Harlow and Ve Neail Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) was my first union film. What an amazing experience the film itself speaks volumes. Its one of the films that everybody knows old, young, just born (laughs). So from that point it’s just been good projects Mathew Mungle, Joel Harlow Ve Neill, Ivan, Brian, Tony Gardner at Alterian, all have been extremely integral in giving me work and showing me stuff and I appreciate those people.
Johnny Depp and Richard Redlefsen
GM: What was your toughest job?
RR: There was a film I did last year it’s a film coming out called The Tempest (2010). It’s directed by Julie Taymor who did Across the Universe (2007) and Frida (2002). She does more of the Art House bend films more like Lemly kind of films. She’s doing a film adaptation of Shakespearian play. Mathew Mungle got the job and he asked me if I wanted to do the applications. It was basically the Caliban makeup on Djimon Hounsou who was in Blood Diamond (2006) and Push (2009) with Dakota Fanning and he’s a big guy. Basically we had to make his skin look like cracked lake bed his hands and various body areas were of a Caucasian nature he had webbed fingers he had areas on his thigh and on his belly where because of self loathing he has written all these Shakespearian curse words in his stomach so he has the scarred indication of those words.
Mathew [Mungle] designed a makeup that the cracked lake bed was anywhere from 40 to 50 small appliances that we put on various parts of his body blended them off and use this kind of mud to join the seams. So the mud would fill the seam and also as the mud dried you’d have those smaller bits crushed lake bed. We pushed powders into those muds to give them texture and tone like terracotta colors, blacks, and browns. We put on prosthetic finger tips and webbing around the base of the fingers to give the webbed looked there were some transfers that we used for the words.
A lot of different levels so that one sticks out in my mind as the most labor intensive because you had to get certain levels up before other levels could go on. We had many, many stencils for continuity, plastic acetate stencils that went on his thigh on his chest that we would trace so these areas were going to be the Caucasian areas. The Caucasian areas we used a very heavily pigmented [colorings created by Mathew Mungle] called Stacolor. We’d stipple the liquid makeup on with a brush then I would go in a air brush three different kinds of spatter and then noodling with a double action air brush to give that veining around the perimeter and then dirts and muds over that to distress it. Just a very labor intensive makeup I think you can see it online because paparazzi were everywhere.
The cast was amazing Helen Mirren, Djimon Hounsou, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand, and Chris Cooper just some heavy hitters some really amazing actors. Doing Djimon’s makeup was hard but that guy can act his butt off he is like zero to one hundred miles an hour in a second. He is just this whirl wind of energy and really made the makeup come to life. His posturing and his walks and all of that really he did an amazing job and the work was fun to it was just really labor intensive, just a lot of different levels.
GM: What was your favorite job?
RR: It’s a toss up between the first Underworld and Pirates: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates: At World’s End because we shot Underworld in Budapest, I actually went back to Budapest where I had lived it’s the first time that I had met the whole [Patrick] Tatopoulos team Tom Floutz, Bruce Fuller, Guy Himber , Rob Capwell it was just a good time and I learned so much from those guys. The Tatopoulos stuff just looks kick ass the Lycans the Lycan makeups the Hybrids. Bill Nyghtly as the re-generating to life Victor character, love Bill Nighly He’s a great guy. That was awesome. Plus being in a European city, Eastern European it was cool. It was a good time I really enjoyed that.
Richard Redlefsen and Lycan from Underworld
And then there’s Pirates, Pirates was just a huge adventure. Good makeups it’s the first time that I had met union makeup artists and working with Joel [Harlowe] and working with Ve [Neill]. On Pirates 2 I assisted Joel on the Boot Strap Bill makeup which was so kind of him to let me lend a hand. I just kind of assisted him and did some of the lesser parts like the hands and one side of his face the neck he would obviously take the bulk of the makeup and finish it off. I’d get some of the extra work out of the way and he’d just take it all the way home. Just a huge machine I mean charter planes to get to the Caribbean and boats just from a watching it point of view its just a massive undertaking. The cannibal make-ups for Pirates 2 were fun. Those were great, lots of character make-ups you could build a makeup book off of that show. So I think that it’s a toss up between those two.
GM: How do you pick out materials for a project or do you make your own?
RR: I used to make stuff. I’ve made projects. On my website www.richardredlefsen.com there are a number of projects that I sculpted, molded, painted and applied. I don’t do a lot of that now I do a little bit. But this week I was actually doing a project and they basically needed three age changes for this guy. They called me on Tuesday evening and they needed it to test on Thursday and to work on Friday. So basically I just pulled all the resources that I had. First of all I got a hold of the actor. Then we went to Mathew’s got the prosthetics fitted him with some generics had the generics run in some gelatin went to Fabians wigs, got a couple wigs, took pictures, had producers, directors, agency, everybody, the client, take a look at him. Same with the beards took pictures of all of that stuff. The next day picked all of it up, ran around, got some makeup supplies, from friends, some from Nigle’s, and basically did a test on Thursday. They loved it, did it yesterday everything was much tighter ‘cause I had a second run around. The client, producers, agency and director were all very happy which is as you probable know is very rare. I mean the fact that you’ve got 20 cooks in the kitchen and get them to decide on anything is a feat itself.
I go with pretty standard supplies. I usually go to friends or Nigel’s because I know both of them. I don’t do a lot but I do little things I have a garage and I can do it. I did a little bit of sculpting, there is a Wesley Snipes film, called Gallowwalker (2010) and there is a character in that. They were doing re-shoots and there is a character in that I had to re-sculpt. But it is still on hold. So I have this character makeup in my garage waiting to be applied. But I’m not plugging, well I am plugging the film, it looks very cool. That’s all I can really say but some really great images.
GM: You were talking about a project earlier, I saw on your Facebook, pictures of the cavemen, you call them “the bears”.
RR: Yes, we call them “the bears”.
GM: Did you do the cavemen makeup?
RR: I didn’t do any of the Gieco commercials before the Cavemen TV show. I actually got called in to come in a do some background cavemen. Then Dave Snyder (who went on to do Star Trek (2009)) and Dave didn’t do the leads but they always had a character caveman, woman, kid person of the week, old man on Cavemen. And I basically did probably like a month, a month and half on Cavemen.
GM: I liked that show by the way, I thought it was funny.
RR: You know what, talk about great makeup artists. I mean Steve Prouty, Gabe De Cunto, James Rohland, even Dave Snyder who was on for a couple of days while I was there. I learned so much about makeup and particularly painting silicone appliances and just a way of prepping them and it was a great learning experience.
Tony Gardner was heading it up. All the stuff was made at Alterion , I think it was Steve Prouty’s formula for appliances and stuff, again, another great group of guys. I did a thing probably about 2 or 3 months ago I’m not sure if it was Gieco, 3 Doors Down was doing a little music thing and the cavemen were in it where they were in a bowling alley. They use some 3 Doors Down music as a background. I did work on that show more towards the end before it got cancelled, but those were fun makeups and really a great learning experience. We call them “the bears” just because it’s an endearing term.
Richard Redlefsen and "the Bears" Cavemen
GM: Are there any new break throughs in the industry that really excite you any makeup or techniques? Some of the folks we’ve interviewed talk about the importance of Z-brush, how you should learn it, is there anything that really jumps out at you that you think wow this is really great?
RR: I don’t do a lot of the computer stuff. I don’t do a lot of Z-Brush, I’m not really drawn to that but maybe down the road I might be particularly from a design point, if I mastered it. It would definitely be a good tool in my belt particularly from designing at this point. Um…new products…
GM: Even in the beauty makeup cause you mentioned beauty makeup and working in the malls with Lancome and things like that. But nothing really new jumps out at you?
RR: Na, I think just different spattering techniques that I learned like on Cavemen all the guys were using spatter airbrushes like the Paasche H. I mean its pretty traditional stuff. I learned a lot from that, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that really jumps out at me as new. I think the newest thing in this last year because I’m doing a lot of aging make-ups, a lot of character make-ups and just the detail and how heavily detailed you can get and that’s more a technique other than a product that I use. Just how to layer the color, washes, dry brushing, stippling, spattering, all of those different ways to try and make skin more translucent and to come alive.
GM: Well, you mentioned the Tempest too. It sounded like there is always something new to learn or a new technique.
RR: There are tons of makeup artist out there that are really pushing the envelope to come up with new ideas and new things. I love learning, its always great to see some new “like ah wow that’s cool”. My friend Michael Mosher has a new bald cap video out and he has an ingenious technique of keeping the hair back when you put a bald cap on. Because basically he puts a wig cap on and then he puts his bald cap over that. And then he has a very ingenious method of getting the wig cap off the head and the hair is now locked in place without a lot of Gafquat or Telesis to keep the hair down. Because a lot of times when you use Gafquat or Telesis you get that tree bark look hair underneath cap and that reads particularly if it’s a plastic or latex cap. Just using very little if no hair spray or Gafquats to keep the hair down you know just using very little and it makes for a great looking bald cap. And the hair is just kind of locked in there. So his video will be available. I’m not pitching for him but, the video will be available coming soon.
GM: How to do see the future of makeup special effects? Is CGI hurting the industry?
RR: I don’t really think CGI hurts makeup artists that much, in my opinion. We were on Pirates and at any one time there were 40 makeup artists working. And that thing was riddled with digital effects.
GM: …and seamless, I might add, it was hard to tell what was and wasn’t CGI.
RR: Yeah, absolutely, I think that it may take some things but I think you have your directors that like that digital effects and I think you have your directors that will like more practical stuff. Jeepers Creepers director Victor Salva he likes practical stuff he likes keeping it all practical. There was a lot of stuff on Underworld, you know, Len Wiseman. I mean Len Wiseman was a prop guy and he likes digital but he likes seeing it there he likes being able to touch it. I see digital effects helping out like maybe mechanical morphing that weren’t possible I see them as them as an assistance to the final product getting a makeup from one end to the other. That’s how I see digital effects as kind of like a microwave in a kitchen. Everybody tried to cook with a microwave, cook that chicken, and it didn’t work. But everyone’s got a microwave and it works to a certain extent, but you need the frying pan and the oven to make decent meal as well. I see it as necessary absolutely and it has found its place and it has solved a myriad of problems that before it probably couldn’t have been answered.
GM: What current project are you working on? Is there something new project that you are excited about?
RR: I’m actually going to leave for Boston tomorrow to do some make-ups on Brendan Fraser for a new film that he’s doing called Fuzzy Vengeance (2010). It’s a very cute film I can’t really talk about the make-ups but I’ve heard from Mathew and quite a few people that Brendan is a great guy and I look forward to working with him.
Richard Redlefsen and "lion" (Richard says he got the "upper hand" after the photo)
GM: Do you have advice for the beginner
RR: Makeup is like any other business. If you want to be a makeup artist the best thing to do is number one, love it, I mean its something that you want to do it’s a great outlet for your artistic abilities and I’d say like anything that you as a young person or someone who is getting into a new field work really hard, love what you do, stay a little late, get there a little early, practice on your own. Those are all things that make you a solid makeup artist. Because you know your work you know what need to be done. You know your steps and you are ready to go. I don’t think that is particular to makeup I think that is just having a good work ethic. Taking pride in the work that you put out. Knowing at that moment that is the very best that you can do. I don’t think anyone can find fault with that.
GM: You are right that kind of applies to everything.
RR: I think particularly in the film industry the more you keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut usually works pretty good.
GM: What was the best training you ever received? or advice?
RR: I think basically what I said there. You know, I mean as a dancer I got a great work ethic. The bottom line is that if you want to look good when you go out on stage you have to bust your butt for a couple of months to make that piece or that choreography that you are learning look good. Nothing beats hard, concentrated, focused work. As long as you’ve got that and try not to take it too seriously.
I think another great piece of advice that I don’t see a lot of in this city is, be loyal and be grateful. Don’t stab that person in the back and try and take his show from them and go up to that person who hired you and say I appreciate you giving me an opportunity. I don’t see a lot of that here, I see a lot of things in our industry people undermining other people and there is business to a certain extent and there is also ethics. That pretty much sums it up I think things are good.
GM: What was your favorite role as a ballet dancer?
RR: I would say the favorite role was the one that was the most memorable because it was my first one. My first role as a ballet dancer was I was in that production of Coppélia that I spoke of earlier and my name was Pepé and I was the Cobbler’s son.
GM: Wow – how old were you?
RR: I was probably 10 [years old]. GM: Wow-10 years old and where was that?
RR: That was with the Cleveland Ballet in Cleveland, OH. GM: Is that where you are from? RR: Yes, I’m from Cleveland.
See more of Richard Redlefsen's work:
http://www.richardredlefsen.com
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