#fx makeup

To portray the various stages of Jackie’s corpse the Fx team had to create three different kinds of Jackie’s. The first being the Jackie Dummy which was used in the scenes in the meat shed up until she’s on the funeral pyre.

Above you can see the underlaying mechanics that make it so that the body is posable. Due to the various points of articulation it has a wide range of movement similar to that of a real person.

This video shows one of the “fall tests” for the Jackie dummy to see if it would slump over the way the fx team needed for the meastshed scene when Shauna pushes Jackie away.

These next few photos are showcase a closer look at the fully assembled Jackie dummies at different stages in filming, the first from earlier on in the season and the second after Shauna’s makeover:

The second kind of “Jackie” were the ones built from stone and dressed in costume for Jackie’s funeral pyre. They were made with stone so that they wouldn’t be damaged by the actual fire used in the scene as they needed to be able to reset the scene to allow for multiple takes.

Here you can see them dressing the stone body and parts of the inner structure used to create it.

These photos are some close ups of the fx team working to make sure the body is ready for filming:

In the photo below you can actually see the Jackie dummy next to the stone Jackie for comparison.

The last kind of Jackie they made is what MastersFx calls the “Luau-Jackie” which was used during the feast scene. These Jackie’s had a cooked appearance and had hollowed out sections where edible pieces of jackfruit (nicknamed “jackiefruit”), rice paper, and other snacks were placed for the actors eat from.

In the photo above you can see the Luau-Jackie’s and the sections of the body that were hollowed out.

The Phantom's Makeup (ALW)

Today, we're looking at the Phantom's makeup application process across multiple replica productions.

While the makeup design (prosthetic sculpts, paint scheme) have always varied between replica productions, the application itself followed the same process. First, the actor's hair is slicked back, a bald cap is applied, and glued down. Originally, these were latex (rubber) bald caps. These days, the lighter vinyl (plastic) bald caps are usually favored. Plastic caps also allow the edges to be seamlessly dissolved, creating a smooth transition from cap to skin.

Pre-painted foam latex prosthetic appliances (head crater, right cheek, and bottom lip) are then glued down, one at a time. Several productions through the years did not use a bottom lip appliance. Prosthetic adhesive (pros-aide) or a silicone -based adhesive like Telesis are most commonly used, depending on the actor's skin and sensitivity. Then final makeup is applied to the "good" half of the face and blended into the prosthetics to pull the whole look together. Lastly, the two wigs (alopecia and Valentino) are glued down and the Phantom is ready.

While silicone prosthetics are generally preferred for film and TV because of their realism and ability to dissolve the edges, foam latex remains popular for stage productions as they are usually lighter and less expensive. The distance between the stage and the audience also means that truly seamless edges are not as important as on film.

The design of the Phantom's makeup was meant to represent a congenital birth defect, not a wound sustained later in life. No single medical condition was used as a basis for his look, but several real conditions could explain different aspects of his disfigurement. While mostly just misshapen and discolored skin (as seen in these featured makeups), some designs such as the Australian and World Tours of decades past did appear to have red, raw sores at the top of the head.

Photos:

1. Michael Crawford, Original London cast

2. John Owen Jones, West End

3. Jeremy Stole, Broadway

4. Peter Jorde, Copenhagen

5. Alexander Goebel, Vienna