five with frights:- Bill Messenger
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BILL MESSENGER special makeup effects for "The Hog"...
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MR. FRIGHTS: So, where did you learn your craft? -
BILL MESSENGER: I learned the craft from my Dad. He was an actor during the 1980s. He was a featured extra in such cult classics as Desert Bloom starring Annabeth Gish and My Science Project starring Dennis Hopper. He was also a stage actor in many plays including Detective Story and Death of a Salesman.
Because a stage actor doesn't always have access to a makeup artist, it is important for the actor to understand the intricacies of stage makeup. He passed his knowledge on to me and I have used the tricks of the trade he taught me to the best of my abilities.
As an adult, I started to study other makeup artists, such as Richard Corson, Tom Savini, and Kevyn Aucoin. Each artist worked in a specific niche of makeup and special effects, which lends to the versatility that I work to foster as a makeup artist and effects engineer. -
MR. FRIGHTS: What do you take inspiration from when you do your thing?
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BILL MESSENGER: I try to base all of my effects and gags in reality. When you are dealing with severe abdominal or head trauma, bleeding occurs from the mouth and nose. When you are creating a recently reanimated zombie, it's important to know what a real corpse looks like in the early stages of decomposition. Stages in the process of death, for example, indicators such as rigor mortis, livor mortis, and slippage, should be detailed as accurately as possible. It's easy to pour blood all over the place and call it art, but it takes a skilled hand to create a masterful illusion.
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MR. FRIGHTS: In my experience, Halloween is usually a different brand of fun for people
into horror special effects, do you have any stories about that kind of fun?
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BILL MESSENGER: (Laughs)I have a ton of them! I'll tell you a couple. When I was a kid, my Dad made me up as a Romero-esque zombie for Halloween, complete with rotting flesh and a bullet hole dead center in my forehead. I went to school on Halloween like this. I was in the fourth grade. My teacher took umbrage at the costume, deemed it morbid, and wanted to send me home. The principal didn't allow her to do that, and I got to stay at school, with all of the cowboys and faerie princesses.
Halloween requires a lot of preparation for me every year. I am called upon by friends and family to do makeup every year. I actually work an assembly line type outfit when I do makeup. Last Halloween was a gas because it was strictly zombies and vampires. I made everybody up and we went to a Halloween party together. I really enjoyed watching the reactions of the other partygoers. They were truly grossed out. Such a great holiday! -
MR. FRIGHTS: If you had a ham sandwich but the ham was actually people meat, would you
still eat it? What if it had mayonnaise on it?
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BILL MESSENGER: (Laughs) I really don't dig on pork, and I definitely stay away from man meat. Mayonnaise breaks the deal even more so. I have too much soul to enjoy such a Caucasian condiment.
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MR. FRIGHTS: If you could have done the makeup for any past horror film, which film, and
how would it be different from the original?
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BILL MESSENGER: If I could have assisted Tom Savini with the original Dawn of the Dead, that would be a dream come true. I would have stayed away from the 3M blood and engineered a more realistic compound. Kind of a simple contribution, but if you've ever read Grande Illusions, then you know that Mr. Savini kicks himself for an entire chapter with respect to the 3M blood fiasco. Also, maybe I could have had a cameo as one of the bikers. Those were my favorite characters in the movie! (smiles)
Hit the Grab Bag Questions below to go on with the interview...
GRAB BAG QUESTIONS
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MR. FRIGHTS: Fast or slow zombies? And why?
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BILL MESSENGER: I give my vote to the slow zombies. You really can't go wrong with a slow zombie. Their strength is in numbers and when you have one hundred zombies keeping you at bay in a claustrophobic setting, which is typical of the best zombie films, not only does it frighten the viewer, it truly incurs a feeling of hopelessness and despair, which pushes the envelope of modern horror, in my opinion.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Creativity is usually the indie horror effects artists's most valuable
weapon, since often times you have to work with very little. Was there a
moment that you had to do something out of creative desparation for "The Hog"?
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BILL MESSENGER: Yes, it's actually quite a story. During one of my first meetings with the Producer, Ian (Messenger) and the Director, Chris (Hinton), I asked that they describe the death scenes that they wanted to see. They told me they wanted a victim of a brutal beating, a character with a gaping chest wound, and finally, what the Producer affectionately referred to as a "gut dump" (laughs).
I had never heard that term before and I found it really amusing. In order to engineer a "gut dump" I was going to require real guts. The guts were procured from a carneceria about a week before the shooting of the scene. Two whole pounds of beef tripe! I read up on and taught myself how to clean and prepare tripe. So, about six hours before the shoot, I start prepping the guts.
I cut what appears to be a three foot segment of tripe from the two pounds that I cleaned. I was trying to go for realism, so rather than a full "gut dump", I was going to show some exposed intestines along with the illusion of a deeply slit belly.
So, I get to cooking the tripe. I boil it in a salt brine treated with vinegar and food coloring for about two hours. I would also like to add here that the smell of boiling tripe is pretty damn nasty! (laughs) The Producer comes by to see how my work is coming, and has his share of comments to make on the smell. I proudly unveil to the Producer my "guts". A whopping sixteen inches of purple colored intestine!
I was shocked at the shrinkage. (laughs) It really didn't look like enough and the Producer was worried. I assured him that we would make it work, but I actually was a little worried too. (laughs)
So fast forward to around two o'clock in the morning. I am in my studio on site, working on Veronica's (Rotten) makeup. While this is happening, the producer is shooting a how to video about the makeup and asking me some questions.
No problem! The wound is looking great, the illusion of a gaping, bloody hole in Veronica's abdomen. I have adhered her shirt to her body and flared out the edges of the "knife tear" to add the illusion of depth. I'm getting ready to garnish the wound with a bit of stage blood when I realize that I didn't attach the guts!
So, I break the adhesion on Veronica's belly and rig the guts under her shirt. Thankfully, the scant amount of guts were enough to create a wonderful "bulge" illusion. She also makes some cheery comments about the smell of the things while I'm doing it. (laughs) I set the adhesion once again, touch up any flaws that I may have made when doing the rig, smears and such, and garnish the wound with stage blood.
With the uncertain moment behind us, I send Veronica to the set with a great looking wound and she executes a fantastic death scene! My nerves were calmed. (laughs) -
MR. FRIGHTS: Are you a fan of any particular person who works in horror effects?
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BILL MESSENGER: I am a huge fan of Tom Savini. I also look to Dick Smith and Rob Bottin as inspirations for horror effects.
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MR. FRIGHTS: When you reach for something to entertain your dark side, what is the one
thing you keep coming back to?
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BILL MESSENGER: I love the film "Creepshow". It is well crafted and is basically a showcase of makeup and special effects that were very cutting edge in 1982, and they still stand up to the test of time in 2010. Take that, CGI! (laughs)
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MR. FRIGHTS: Your first horror flick, and what effect did it have on you?
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BILL MESSENGER: It was Poltergeist. I knew from that point forward that horror and I would have a dark and wonderous love affair that would span the rest of my life.