Practical make-up and effects at their finest - Page 2

Can't forget about the guy getting shot with the cancer gun. That scene is pretty impressive as well.

Yeah, the feedback from the dropped mike was pretty awesome.

Too late to edit. I put it on YouTube.

The shots in Dead Alive where the dude gets his face pulled off,or the dude gets his ribcage taken out,or the shots of the baby running which were obviously a midget in a costume. All perfect.

Awesome! Thanks Patrick.

One of these things is not like the other...

Mick Garris is the host/moderator.

Where he belongs!


Speaking of sound, I think I should make note of some movies that have great new gunshots that aren't the normal stock dirty Harry stuff. As far as I know, the rifle Brody fires at the end of Jaws is definitely the sound of a real m1 garand. I always wondered and if anyone can verify that for me it'd be aprreciated. It was a only a few rounds that he popped off and if Spielberg actually went to the lengths to record new sounds for that I think it's noteworthy.
Heat is always one to mention, even though as far as I know there was no sound mixing and they just left in the sounds of the blanks (correct?) Miami Vice appeared to do the same. You couldn't tell any of the guns apart, and for me that made it seem real.
Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers pretty much changed my outlook on sound effects all together.

And stabbing sound effects- Patrick, have you seen CHOPPER? There's one big time shanking in there and I remember the sound effects were not the usual stock stuff. Twas gross.

that's on the criterion release for videodrome. it's good.

Out of all the movie monsters, the Alien franchise is still number one. The Predator is a guy in a suit, the dinosaurs from Jurassic park might as well be giant Pac-men, King Kong is an 18 inch model with rabbit fur. But the xenomorph is a monster. A real monster.

wow, I hadn't even seen the latest Chud Kill when I brought up Maniac.
Not the greatest movie, but there's some good suspense and effects.

In terms of BAD effects: though it still frightens me because of childhood memories, and is gory and good - the Poltergeist face tearing looks pretty bad, mostly because the dummy looks nothing like the actor from the previous shot.

Stock now, but when Harry Callahan's gun was first heard, that was some kind of revolutionary foley shit.

Also, the foley guy used an old pair of his dad's shoes for Dirty Harry's walk, because they always sounded authoritative to him.

That's all the nerd foley trivia I have.

Of course, the absolute king of practical effects is still Eraserhead.

Remember when Leia's blaster (a stormtrooper's rifle) made that sound in the Star Wars Special Edition? That was...an odd choice. It couldn't possibly have been accidental.

Actually I don't remember that. We should probably have a thread for "Movies that use the Dirty Harry magnum sound". If I remember correctly, Magnum P.I.'s gun had the sound as well.

Not to take away from the on going make up discussion, but no computer will ever equal the time and money and madness spent making 2001.

Not to mention it also has the scariest human acted primates as well.

I just bought the Terminator 2 "Extreme" DVD and slogged through the first disc's all-at-once commentary/slideshows/behind the scenes/subtitle commentary feature. It surprised me just how much was done with practical Stan Winston effects -- basically every shot of the T-1000 blown apart, split down the middle or cleaved down the side, for instance.

Before I watched with the commentary on, I was marvelling at how well at least half of the CGI had held up... and it was actually because it wasn't CGI at all.

And the final shot of the Terminator's eye light going out after it's crushed in the first movie is a bunch of tinfoil, an LED light, and Stan Winston blowing cigarette smoke just off camera. Awesome.

Are you sure that was foley? I'm only asking because guns firing almost always fall under effects because they aren't reproduced "live" like foley.

If it was foley that is some seriously cool stuff. They would've had one helluva stage to capture it on. Never mind really great engineering.

I'd have to recheck the book I read it from (Malpaso), but I'm pretty sure the same guy who did the foley did the gunshots, though it might not have been recorded foley-style.

Watching the Pan's Labyrinth special features last night... awesomely designed and executed creatures there. Sure, there's some CGI assistance in altering the legs and eyes of Pan & Pale Man, but there's some beauty, creepiness, and brilliance in the makeup and performance. GDT's Hellboy definitely had much of this magic as well.

Some of my favorite animatronics/practical creature effects:

- Jim Henson's Dark Crystal/Labyrinth/Storyteller... such a wide variety of creatures of all shapes and sizes (many designed by Brian Froud) and all with PERSONALITY.

- F**kin ESB's Yoda. Truly a character. It's amazing how much reality and believabilty is there= lightning that they haven't been able to capture since.

- Stan Winston's creatures: JP Dinosaurs, Pumpkinhead, Predator, Monster Squad, She Creature, Zathura, Amy in Congo

- Chiodo Bros.' creatures: Killer Klowns, the Critters series, Team America

- Rob Bottin's creatures: Legend, the Thing, Robocop, Howling, Total Recall, Explorers

- Rick Baker's creatures: AWIL (duh), Harry & the Hendersons, MIB, and his apes in Mighty Joe Young/Gorillas in the Mist/POTA/Greystoke. I think it's really depressing to look at Rick Baker's AWIL and compare it to his latest werewolf stuff in Cursed.

- Chris Walas' creatures: GREMLINS!, the Fly, Enemy Mine

- Carlo Rambaldi's creatures: E.T., Neverending Story (I think it was him)

- Steve Johnson's creatures: Big Trouble in Little China, Ghostbusters, Freaked

I recommend BEHIND THE MASK and No Strings Attached: The Inside Story of Jim Henson's "Creature Shop" for some good reading.

Some other great books (and dvds) here: http://www.monstermakers.com/library.html

Gah.... I hate to disagree with an esteemed veteran chewer, but I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. While I love Dawn of the Dead, am a fan of Savini's work, and hold the movie in high regard for the genre, the effects by and large weren't that great even for the time. Too many guys in blue/gray paint and the zombie that gets the helicopter head chop has the tallest forehead in the history of horror.

I agree with you 100%! But this thread is about practical effects at their finest. There is ALOT of personality to the effects in Dawn, and they are used effectively. But they aren't ground breaking, and are even at times shoddy. It's the direction (love the shuffling undead) and mood that takes the viewers focus away from the lesser effects.

I am not disparaging the effects, but I wouldn't put them in the pantheon of the most awe inspiring visual work.

Ah, got ya. Then may I extend a nomination for a number of effects from Troma's catalog.

They can do more with a cantaloupe *see the Toxic Crusader* than some effects houses can do with the best programs.

I dread to think how this would of looked CGI.

...and to answer your question; no...and deep-down I hope he never does.

What's the current status of Rob Bottin's career at this point? Is he still so worn down by The Thing that he doesn't do tough work anymore and settles for easier jobs like Fight Club (which, while it does have some very complex and realistic-looking wounds, is faaaar from a creature feature), or is he even further from that and nearly retired at this point?

Gah, this should of gone with my above post.

Rambaldi's alien in action...

What creature features are worth Bottin's time? Most of his bread-n-butter is CGI anymore. In fact, a lot of the younger helpers in Baker and Bottin's shops, if you look at their IMDB pages, have gradually switched to 3D modeling and other CGI-centric jobs in the last decade.

But yeah, in the last ten years, Fear and Loathing, Fight Club, and Mr. Deeds. A twilight of signing things at conventions awaits him.

Bottin's work in se7en... should've been mentioned much sooner than this.

I have heard rumours, but they were apparantly disproved.
So no, and so it should be.

I still find it hard to believe the thing actually was a puppet, and that's a sign of brilliance.

All the Evil dead monsters have a pretty, sort of half disgusting half cartoonish look to them. I'm incuding blood as a monster here.

I'll second the dead alive love but I'm gonna call it Braindead. It's silly, but super inventive.

The car splat from robo cop scared the bejesus out of me hen I was a kid.

I for one also miss Models in Sci-Fi films.

See the end of A.I.

Ah...cool. Thanks!

In keeping with the anti-CGI sentiment, I miss a really nice matte shot now and then. Whitlock was the man.

I'll give a try and say

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (90)
Mostly due to lighting, good angle shots and blocking. Still these were the best costumes of the trilogy (the 2nd film had better vocal sinc but thats it).

Argghhhh!!!
Thanks, A LOT, for reminding me of that...

IMDB says Michael Keaton was offered the role, but that doesn't sound right.

I mean I'm not sure I believe the trivia. In 1985, Keaton was light comedy only. Someone else was offered it, but I can't remember.

There's some fantastic work done in Evil Dead and the subsequent sequels. I can't remember if Raimi did the work himself or hired a pro but either way, it was fucking great.

I never knew Bottin did "Seven".
It figures, though.


And no, I'll never call it "Se7ven", how do you even pronounce that?
"Sesevenven"?