The Blacklist- Part I

Its been awhile since I have had a chance to post something. And not for lack of work.. I did two movies earlier this year (and won't be able to talk about until they premier). And currently, since July, I have been the makeup department head on NBCs new show, The Blacklist.

Since we have already aired a bunch of episodes I can finally talk a little bit about some of the effects. Firstly, I want to state that myself and Jeremy Selenfriend (of Monsters In My Closet) fabricate all the effects, barring an odd or end and running the actual silicone encapsulated pieces.

We take care of everything from scars and scratches to burned dummies and fake hands.

Ill start from the first episode and work in chronological order, over a few separate posts. I did NOT work on the pilot. The effects on the pilot episode were handled by Louie Zakarian and the makeup department head was Amy Tagliamonti.

Episode 102: The Freelancer

For this episode we had a few ritualist scars done as prosaide transfers and a fake neck for an emergency tracheotomy on Isabella Rosselinis character.
There was also a ton of out of kit trauma makeups and dirt, and a really juicy compound fracture.

Tom Keen "healing" carried over from the pilot episode.

Prosiade Transfer branding scar.

Prosaide transfer keloid scar.

Since Isabella was unavailable for the life cast we used a neck double. I was able to cast Smooth On Body Double around her entire neck and do the plaster bandage mother mold in two parts. When it came time to remove the life cast we were able to slip the body double mold over our models head, without cutting the mold and leaving a seam.

Mold release was applied to the inside of the life cast and a few thin layers of silicone were painted in. Each layer was tinted in varying colors to intrinsically paint the neck as close as possible to Isabellas color. Next, it was filled with a two part expanding foam.

Here is Isabella's neck next to our prop neck. Jeremy painted a few extrinsic layers of color using skin illustrator inks and an air brush.

This is a screen grab of the neck in position.

Our stand in is miming the action.

Finally, here is the pen going in. Ewwwww.

Additionally we had to make a small prosthetic that would hold the pen to look as if it was in Isabella's neck. 

The pen was cut down to the proper length and an rare earth magnet was epoxied into the hollow barrel of the pen. Then, using the same life cast the prop neck was made in, a few coats of Baldiez was painted onto the throat area. Another rare earth magnet was placed onto the Baldiez and a few more layers were added. Carefully the Baldiez was peeled up with the magnet in the middle. 

Prior to attaching this quick prosthetic, the pen was attached by magnet to the piece. Then a little glue was painted on the back of the Baldiez piece and the edges blended away leaving the pen sticking straight up. 

Episode 103: Wujing

We definitely got a little break with this episode as far as things to fabricate. There were some really great trauma makeups by Jeremy. Our big build this episode was a severed hand. (Which you can see right at the beginning of the episode. You'll have to watch the whole thing to see some good bloody noses.)

Since we fabricate everything mostly on set, here is Jeremy casting his own hand to use as the prop. We used body double and plaster bandages and made the final hand out of Smooth On Dragon Skin.

Episode 104: The Stewmaker

This was our first big character makeup on the show. Our villain liquifies its victims in acid.. hence, the moniker, Stewmaker. He is hairless as to not leave any trace of himself at his crime scenes and is covered with acid burns from his own nasty brews. 

Jeremy and I sculpted about 30 different scars and made molds out of GI 1000. All the pieces were run as prosaide transfers. (We also made 2D tattoos, but ended up not liking them as much as hand painting them on, which we did with PPI Skin Illustrators). Tom Denier Jr. was on hand to help us apply the pieces. In the end we got the makeup down to about an hour.

This is the water color painting for the 2D Tattoos we never used.

This is one of the series of scars we sculpted.

Here are the scar transfers after they have been molded and painted sparingly with Skin Illustrator inks.

This is a screen shot of the finished makeup... scary!

Another screen shot... just as scary!

Here is a close up of an arm.

I should also mention that we had to make a fake arm (to match an actor) that gets boiled in acid. We made a silicone arm that we cut pockets into randomly. In these pockets special effects added some sort of magic powder that boiled and bubbled when it hit the water. Pretty cool.

Here is the arm fresh out of the mold.

Since we had to match the arm to the actor each hair was punched in individually. The hair is crepe wool.

Our leading lady gets pretty beat up too. The dirt is skin illustrator inks from the brow palette and the blood is a combination of fresh scab and fleet street blood and blood paste, my favorites!

Stay tuned.... I will be posting a few more entries over the next few weeks with more fx from The Blacklist. For now, you can follow me on instagram at @elleirat  I try to post makeup-y pictures every day with the odd art project thrown in there for good measure.