The history of Prosthetics (Special Effects Make-up)

What is Special Effects?
The word 'Special Effects' links to make-up and it takes make-up into another level and express it in a different way. Rather just using make-up for beautification or a way to present a character, special effects make-up uses different materials and products to convey an extraordinary form of art. Example of prosthetic make-up are creating bruises, tattoos, scars make-up, non-human creature, etc. Nowadays, special effects make-up involves in different film making such as horror, fantasy, science fiction, etc.

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The classic film 'Frankenstein' was published by Universal Pictures during 1931 and it has some much impact to the cinematic and also it is the start of making horror movies. Boris Karloff as "The Monster" in 'Frankenstein' is one of the most iconic character in horror movies. 

Prosthetic make-up has become an important roles in film making. Take from example, the silent horror films such as 'The Phantom of the Opera' in 1925, without sound, the film progress visually and so the way how the characters styled tell the story of them to the audience and create the grotesque effects. 
Leonidas Frank Chaney, also named as Lon Chaney, was an American director, screenwriter and also stage and film actor who has acclaimed for his make-up techniques in the silent films era and he is known as the "The Man of a Thousand Faces' which stands for his skills to transform himself to other characters through the use of make-up. He was born in 1883 and died in 1930. He applied his own make-up and 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame' are his well-known and excellent works. He was seen as one of the most powerful actors in early cinematic with his grotesque and afflicted character perform by him. Later on, film makers 'has devised a way in which an actor's face could change character as the viewed watched. It was done by applying a little make-up at a time, and exposing the actor's face to the film after each application.'. This process takes a long period of time as the actor need to stay still when they shot the film and also when the make-up was applied on them. In this method, the result was projected through the projected at normal speed and this will make the actor's transformation look more natural. Chaney died as the cinema started on the sound era.  

As the ideas of transforming characters with make-up has expanded and the development in industry, make-up products became more specialised, The products help to create more realistic pieces of work such as ageing skin, changing the features on the face, etc. Latex, mold and mask are the products which can reshape features. Contact lenses is also a way to change the identity of the characters. 

At present, horror movies has become one of the genres in cinematic and also one of the well-known ones. Through the developments in technology, for instance plastics technology which allows special effects to work more effective and successful in creating more realistic and creative characters. It also helps to make horror movies more exciting, frightening and horrific.

William Tuttle, who is the head of the MGM Make-up department, won the first special Academy Award in 1965 which was presented for make-up artistry. He got the award from working for the Galazx-Scarus/ MGM Film, The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao. This award was presented 17 years before makeup became an official Oscar category. 

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'The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao' is a 1964 film which is directed by George Pal and the screenplay is written by Charles Beaumont and Ben Hecht. The story is based on the novel, 'The Circus of Dr. Lao' by Charles. G Finney. The film is presented in metrocolor and  is about a magical circus who visit a small town in the Southwest United States and the impact they bring to the people in the town. In the film, Tony Randall transformed and performed in 7 different characters in the film and they are the 'Apollonius', 'Merlin', 'The Medusa', 'The Serpent', 'The Abominable Snowman', 'Pan' and 'Dr Lao'.

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I especially like the style of 'Medusa' in the film which is the character on the photo which is shown on above. The reason is that I like how the ideas of Medusa''s character was presented in the film and the way when people look into Medusa's eyes, they will turn into stones. For the styling, the use of green contact lenses definitely change the identity of the character and makes it more interesting and enchanting. I also like the way how the snakes on her head moves which makes it look realistic and the different directions the snakes are positioned. 

References:

• Kehoe, V. (c1991). Special Make-up Effects. Focal Press.
• http://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/10620/the-special-effects-of-makeup/