Horror Workshop

On a Friday morning a man named James Ward came to visit to demonstrate how to do make-up for horror films.

James Ward is from the National Film School of Ireland, he succeeded in passing to do model making and production design for film and television.

James got a volunteer from the class to demonstrate on. Firstly James placed a bald cap onto the volunteers' head which covered just his hair (back of head) so the mixture he was using wouldn't interfere with his hair. He used contact glue to stick the bald cap to his head. Throughout this demonstration James used polyvinyl gloves, he said not to use latex gloves as they react with the silicone's and destroy the whole mixture.

He used two types of silicones which were Life Form and Skin Safe silicone's. He measured a cup and a half of each then put them into a mixing bowl. He used his hands to mix these together to form a blue sticky mixture.

Before he done anything with the mixture he placed two plastic tubes up the volunteers' nostrils so he would be able to breathe after James had covered the whole of his face with the silicone's.

Before he began using the mixture he checked for air bubbles because it could ruin the whole mask when he goes to put the plasticine in the mould. Once he had identified he had no air bubbles he used his hands (while wearing polyvinyl gloves) to smear the silicone mixture all over his face. James waited for about 15 minutes for the mixture to set. He explained that it sets quickly so this part of the task was the hardest as once it's set you can't go back and re-correct any mistakes.

Once it had set he had small stripped bandages which he dipped in water then laid over the top of the silicone mixture on the persons face, he laid these in a criss-cross pattern so it would hold stronger. He done this until the mask was about half an inch thick. Once this had all set he asked the person to pull funny faces and puff his cheeks out so the mask would push off from his face. When James had got the mask off his face, he used a quick-release liquid over where he had put the glue before, this released the bald cap from his head.

James then plugged up the nostril holes in the mask with NSP plasticine so when he poured in the plaster inside it wouldn't leak out the nostril holes. He filled a small plastic cup with plaster and poured water into a mixing bowl. He then used his hand to sieve the plaster (powder) into the mixing bowl of water. At the beginning of this process it was a milky mixture, it then turned into an ice cream like mixture soon after. Once this was ready he poured it into the mask, which is then meant to be left for many hours to fully set. He said he usually leaves it overnight.