Local 706 - The Artisan

Fall 2016

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B Y S C O T T W H E E L E R J O U R N E Y M A N M A K E - U P A R T I S T T he Monkey King 2 is the action-packed fami- ly fi lm from director Pou-Soi Cheang. It is one of China's biggest domestic box-offi ce hits for 2016, out-grossing Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Shaun Smith headed up the task of creating the many make-ups for The Monkey King 2. The plot fol- lows three fantastical characters through their jour- ney to protect the Monk from the Bone Demon and her three beautiful demon girls. As our own Business Rep Tommy Cole can tell you, back in the days on The Mickey Mouse Club, Wednesday was a special day. It was "anything can happen day." Every day on The Monkey King 2 was Wednesday. This was especially true since we didn't do weekends. Imagine for a moment, doing an epic fi lm where every character is an elaborate, large-scale make-up, each character has matching stunt doubles, the stunt unit and the main unit operate indepen- dently from each other and there is no script and no schedule. Really! Not making any of this up. We had an outline but no actual script. We had estimates on how long the show would shoot (which ended up being off by a few months) but we never had actual strip boards, day-out-of-days or anything like that. It was not a job for the faint of heart. It is no exaggeration. Every principal character in The Monkey King 2 is a large-scale make-up. The lead character, the Monkey King, was played by Aaron Kwok, and his make-up was applied by Stephan Dupuis. The Monkey King make-up was comprised of two silicone appliances, teeth, contact lenses, multiple lace hairpieces and a wig that blended his make-up to a full-body muscle and hair suit. The tail was digital. The Monkey King had several stunt doubles applied by various people but primarily THE THE THE MONKEY MONKEY MONKEY KING KING KING 2 The Monkey King, played by Aaron Kwok.

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