Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/910903
48 • THE ARTISAN FALL 2017 Transfer scars. In the few days prior to shoot- ing the scene, Scott and LuAndra conduct- ed a full make-up test on camera. The team, including Rooker, all worked together with placement of the scars. The look was approved on the first try. Overall application time for the Yondu make-up was reduced to two hours. It took three hours to do the make-up and the upper torso for the shirtless scenes. Cristina Patterson also recreated the look of the Yondu contact lenses. Mantis Finally, a new character. Shane Mahan and I worked with a team of people who traveled to Atlanta to do life casts on the top four prospects for the character. The actress would not be cho- sen until later, but the final screen tests gave us our one shot to get all of the information we needed, no matter who they chose. James Gunn paid a lot of extra attention to her design. The team at Legacy Effects went through many iterations for the design of Mantis before they landed on the final. Part of the design was going to be digital VFX anten- nae, and the director wanted the freedom to decide movements and final look later. The prosthetic that was created for Mantis included the base of the antennae, so that VFX would have a jumping-off point for placement. Even after the 2D design phase was completed, we must have sculpted half a dozen versions of the forehead prosthetic for Mantis, trying to get the right shape, angle and size. Once Pom Klementieff was cast for the role, we scheduled her for make-up testing. We wanted to keep her overall look very clean and classy. We knew that the focus was to be on her eyes. So, aside from wearing 22mm contact lenses, painted by Cristina, the make-up design would need to make her eyes look as big as possible … alien. I chose Mike Ornelaz to be the lead make-up art- ist on Mantis. Together, we worked out colors, direction and scheme that would transform Pom. When the schedule allowed, Scott Stoddard helped Mike get through the prosthetic portion of the make-up application, but then stepped back while Mike finished the beauty aspect of the make-up. To help with the alien illusion of the large eyes, Shane had an idea for these long sweeping wispy lashes. Ornelaz created the custom lashes from ostrich feathers. Each pair was hand- made and meticulously matched. They made about 65 pairs. Mike Ornelaz and his hair team, including Aimee Macabeo, worked on Mantis' wig. Using 2D designs, the hair depart- ment bought several wigs that were cut and styled, narrowing down the look that the director couldn't quite place his finger on. Once the final design for the wig was chosen, Tina Fabulic was responsible for the hair wrap and application of the wig. Overall make-up application time, including hair wrap and wig for Mantis was 2½ to three hours. Taserface Another new character for us to build was TaserFace, the lead- er of the Ravager uprising. Marvel took a while to come up with the initial design, one that would fit in the world already created, but still be different than the other Ravagers. Legacy translated the initial design over Chris Sullivan's features. John Cherevka created the dental prosthetics and Chris Swift did the sculpt of the full-face prosthetics. Laura Dandridge was my make-up application partner. Taserface's prosthetic make-up broke down into a top-of- the-head piece that came down and covered his brows, a face piece, a chin, ear pieces and the Horsetail Mohawk. He also had lace mustache and beard pieces. To save time, we decided to omit the chin, as it was covered with the big bushy facial hair. One of Taserface's prominent features is the "Horsetail Mohawk." Mike Ornelaz fabricated the giant hairpiece at L.E. The overall length was almost three feet long, and was heavy, dense hair. Mike had to attach the wig to the actor so that it would hold the weight but not lose the integrity of the design. The actor agreed to shave his head. We made a thin fiberglass shell that we could mount to. Mike and the mechanical depart- ment at L.E. came up with an adjustable pivot rod that was mounted to the fiberglass shell. The "Mohawk" had a piece of vinyl tubing at the heart of the wig so that it could be slid over the pivoting rod. We used Skin-Tite, a two-part silicone, to adhere the fiberglass shell to the top of Sullivan's head. James Gunn wanted to make sure that the color scheme for Taserface was fun and bright. The prosthetics had been pre- painted from the shop, but as we did make-up tests in Atlanta, the scheme changed. We went through three different make-up tests to find the right tone of purple-ish. For Taserface's fiery demise, we didn't have time to create a full burn make-up. Gunn wanted something that got the point across that he was burned, but nothing so gross or realistic that people would turn away. Laura and I fabricated a burn make-up out of the kit as a test to show the director. We kept the colors bright underneath to be his flesh color, yellow to be exact. The test was approved, and repeated on the day of the shoot. We had doubles of the facial hairpieces and the Pom Klementieff as Mantis (right) with Drax Top to bottom: Applying prosthetic to Taserface; after the burn.