Seams Update - Kickstarter launched!

As the Seams Kickstarter launches, I thought it about time to update my blog! Here are a few sneaky pictures from behind the scenes of the mannequin build...

My wonderful colleagues Dave Felstead and Alan helping in creating the life-mould for foam casting. Thank you Amelie Cherie!

 Foam pieces fresh out of the mould and in need of a clean up!

 Fitting of the skin over the hand - the idea was to make it like a perfectly tailored glove

Finally, a very sneaky little peek at the final product! No revealing until the film is finished!

He Took His Skin Off For Me update

Update from the HTHSOFM facebook page:

"HERE IT IS! The first look at the incredible SFX work done for He Took His Skin Off For Me by Jen Cardno and her incredible team Hermes Pittakos, Tom Smith, Dave Felstead, Myriam Tillson, Emma Watts & Ruth Parry. Getting the look right for this particular dinner scene took over 8hrs to complete!! This incredible photo by Ben Hughes Photography is a little more INTENSE than the tone of the actual scene itself, but in all fairness, it's pretty trick NOT to take an intense picture of a skinless dude.." 

Nosferatu in Love

I've just finished working as the prosthetic designer for the character of Nosferatu in Peter Straughan's upcoming short 'Nosferatu in Love'. We created 50 handmade individually tailored plastic nails, 20 rubber nails, 5 sets of ears and Dave Felstead aided me with creating the character makeup. After spending an amazing week shooting in the Czech Republic, I now eagerly await the release of the film as part of Skyarts 'playhouse' season starting in April 2014.

Ear sculpt, finished and ready for moulding

Each nail was made with a butt-joint, so that it would break in a safe and controlled way 

Nail ends stuck on, ready for sanding and trimming

Thumbnails being marked, trimmed and sanded

50 individual nails tailored to the actor's fingers, masked off and ready to be primed and painted

Seams

Drawn prop design for the macabre tailor's mannequin in Christina Pergomet's upcoming short film, 'Seams'. We are going into full production this weekend with our life cast on Saturday - can't wait! She's going to be lovely!

Girl Power

Here's the mould (looking a little worse for wear!) for the prosthetic penis I made for a character in Benjamin Bee's upcoming short film 'Girl Power' written by Kefi Chadwick. The penis looked lovely, and very realistic, but we shall have to await the release of Girl Power before we can see it in action!

The Thing Under The Tree

Some stills from the wonderful 2013 RCA Grad film 'The Thing Under The Tree' by the talented animator and modelmaker Lily Fang. Check out more of her superb work here. I helped out with set-building and props making on her film (see the lovely stills above for a showcase of what I made!). The film is now a finalist in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2013 - congratulations Lily!

On Loop

This is Colin - two frames from additional animation drawn/painted for Christine Hooper's RCA grad film 'On Loop'. The film is great, and is a semi-finalist for the Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2013. Info on film here, the first screening of the film will be at LIAF in October - exciting!!

Ürth Mütha

Puppets/armatures made for Sam Steer's Random Acts/C4 commission, Urth Mutha. This is the little girl, Lokuna. You can see the first rushes of the film here. It is looking to be an amazing piece of work! Animated by Sam Steer and Lily Fang, sound design by Serafina Steer.

Tired of Swimming

This is a tiny knife and fork I made for Anna Eijsbouts' 2012 RCA grad film 'Tired of Swimming'. They were carved in wax, and then cast in silver. More of Anna's work can be found here

He took his skin off for me

Image © Ben Hughes www.TwevlePictures.Blogspot.com www.BenHughesPhotography.com

Coordination and supervision of a small team. Our brief was to design and fabricate a skinless man prosthetic costume for Ben Aston's short film 'He took his skin off for me'.  The prosthetics had to look clinical and beautiful, rather than grotesque or frightening. Myself, Tom Smith and Hermes Pittakos created just the hand and forearm, provided by Cigna Spine, for a makeup test shoot on May 24th. The footage is currently being edited. I am so proud of all of us!

Jenny

This is some of the work I have done for artist Jennifer Kidd (www.jenniferkidd.co.uk)

 Ball and socket armature, in need of a couple of repairs but it is a thing of beauty!

Dead Bird Wrapping Paper

Dead Bird Wrapping Paper - great for wrapping super special gifts for super special people.

Let it go some more!

Stills from the first Milton Minton music video!

Life Drawing

Still from Life Drawing Boil, RCA 2012

'Heathens...'

Old Woman model made for stop-motion lip sync project, RCA 2012 (the video will be available to view on my vimeo link soon)

Snub-Nosed Monkey Mask

Number one - there are more to come

'What makes the birds fall...?' - Film Stills

A selection of stills from my first year film, 'What makes the birds fall from the sky?'
Please click on 'My Vimeo' to view the film.

Absence and Presence...What makes the birds fall from the sky?

Video Still of an 'autopsy' I performed in my kitchen sink - at the time of writing I am editing the video.

Still from Bird Test 1, which is a 13 second test and can be seen via the youtube link to the right.

Don't Play Cards With Satan

First lip-sync (to Daniel Johnston's Don't Play Cards With Satan), using false teeth I've been collecting. Made this in 2 days. Still a work in progress!

The Tale of the Seven Ravens (Brothers Grimm) Part 2

Little Sister rescues her Raven Lord Brothers from the glass mountain - read the
story here: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sixswans/stories/sevenravens.html