Zach Shildwacher: As Seen on TV??

I recently decided to get off my ass and stop just hoping for a better future but to actually do something about it. I applied to be a contestant on the 3rd Season of Sy Fy Channel's FACE OFF. Cruising through YouTube there's some very talented folks offering up their skills for a shot at fortune and glory. Honestly, I really recommend you check out these audition videos. There are so many talented artists out there that deserve a spotlight on all their handiwork. These are the folks that toil away for hours on end, with little to no encouragement, making the extraordinary out of the ordinary. How some of them were overlooked for previous seasons of the show is beyond me.

I'm not entirely adept at handling myself in front of a camera, but I am gonna take life by the short and curlies and not watch it pass me by anymore. Here's a look at my Audition Video...

I was really nervous putting this together as I was unsure what to say and how to edit. I wanted to be entertaining and forthright. I knew I had to sell me. What you don't see from the video I can share with you now.

I had some leftover rubber latex from Pat Catan's. This is latex for crafts, masks, and other projects. This is not meant for use on the face as it's a bit more harsh than that of Ben Nye or something comparable. I had some packing foam left over from an eBay purchase. I like to be a formidable artist, one connected to my environment. Reduce, reuse, recycle; these are fundamentals to utilize throughout all endeavors.

I carved down the foam into two pieces using a pair of scissors until I was comfortable with the shape and size.

I coated the horns in liquid latex and then gave them a light brushing with white and black acrylic paint when dry. They were solid and durable,

Here's a closer look at some of the make-up. I wanted to create a demon look of contorted flesh, an emergence of mischief and evil if you will. I used small strips of nose putty to create a more sunken look around the eyes, building from the temples inwards. I secured this with a coating of liquid latex. I also used the nose putty around the horns to blend the look of my skin to the butt of the horns. I used liquid latex to create some peeled abrasions.

I used some leftover white hairspray from Halloween to color my hair and try to convey a cohesive look with the horns. I used the same contact lenses I had leftover from my Halloween costume. It's a small nuance   that really sells the look of it all. I also used some Black Blood mouth spray which is one of my favorite items to anchor a look. Think of it this way; when decorating a room, designers recommend one black item to draw the eye and cement the color scheme you applied. I follow this same rule for my make-up designs.

The colors I used are red, yellow, burgundy, and navy blue. I knew that these colors where completely hued against my skin type and would pop. I was a little unsure of how well they would blend, as I would have used more browns or purples, but I'm very happy with how things turned out. I wanted this look to showcase my painting skills and blending. It's something I know I still need to work on, but practice is what makes perfect. I could have made a huge obnoxious prosthetic piece, but I wanted to do something that would inspire anyone to look around and reexamine the items that they could use around them to create something new and exciting. I like to think that I could be an artist that fans the smoke away from the Hollywood secrets of special effects make-up as I learn more and create more using age tested techniques and new materials to expand the majesty of it all. I believe I would be a great fit for FACE OFF. I am an Average Joe, self-taught save one course, and pushing forward with grit, gumption, and the sweat of my hard work. I have to dream and dream big. It's these dreams that push us forward. I don't want this to remain a hobby, I want it to be a career.

I do hope that my efforts start to garner some attention. No artist wants their work ignored. I'm so thankful to all my friends and those that have shared my Audition Video submission. I am blown away by those that have shared the video, expressed their interest and offered opinions. It's amazing to know that there's such a connected network of support for one's dream. It gives me a much needed kick in the ass to keep trying and  strengthens my faith. I am also starting to save for a better digital camera, one that won't wash out my pics with its over-powered flash. I consider it an investment in proper documentation as I build a bigger and better portfolio. I desire to build a proper studio one day, to move beyond working in a basement, or cramped apartment. I seek to grow as an artist, to develop my craft and exercise my creativity rather than let it be swamped in the mediocrity of everyday life. I want to share what I know, what I've learned as I learn more myself, and hope that others share with me.

Wish me the best of luck as I'm anxious to hear something soon from Sy Fy Channel. I mean who could say no to this face?

Seriously, I want names...

Again a huge thank you to all those that have viewed and shared my Audition Video. Be sure to tune in to the Sy Fy Channel as Season 2 of FACE OFF narrows the contestants down to its ultimate winner. Hopefully you'll see me competing on Season 3.

By "George" - It's Zombies, but not Zombies

My most recent film experience took me to the zombie short film "George", directed by Gabriel Rosenstein for The Spitting Image. He had a very specific idea in mind for his zombie story. His tale was one of a man's survival in the midst of the ruins of society. Gabe wanted zombies, but not zombies; to impart the feel and atmosphere of a world over run with despair, but without tipping the hat to the walking dead we've all come to instantly recognize. Gabe didn't want any facial appliances, or any effects that would detract from the humanistic look of his actors. He was insistent on the visual interpretation that any one other than his title character could or could not be a zombie. This would prove to be quite a challenge. What was asked was to not go overboard with gore either, that the story was to drive the visuals and I could certain respect that. I knew that this would be an out-of-kit build for effects and one of open interpretation. I regarded it as "paint me a picture, but only use these colors" kind of project, which I could definitely dig, especially in only 2 days of shooting. A couple of things to factor in were a bite mark on the main character's leg as well as a bullet hole in another's head. I was definitely up for the challenge.

Upon arriving to our holding, I met Mary Czech who would be doing hair and make-up as well. She's a very funny woman, and a lot of fun to work with as we shared similar tastes in films, comic books, and make up style. This is more important than you can imagine when working with someone in such an enclosed space for hours on end. Mary is quite the professional and a treat to work with, especially when referencing Midnight Movies. You can check her out on Twitter @ rockindaspandex and see her talent at Glam Dammit.

In preparation for the bite mark I took some oil based clay and bit into it, making an impression of my top teeth and my bottom teeth. I then mixed up some Ultracal to pour into these small molds to pull out my solid positive. Once I had those two pieces I gave it a couple coats of liquid latex and had my very own custom appliances for the zombie bite. I even made an extra set of bite marks just in case. I was a Boy Scout once upon a time, and their motto is one of the best in terms of zombies; Be Prepared.

DAY ONE: Here's one of the pseudo-zombies. My idea was to make him dirty looking, with brown and darker cream colors. I imagined that these characters would be left to the natural elements, baking in the sun, and left to rot. A key element to remember is that in terms of the script it was meant to remain unclear how our zombies came to be the way they were; from radiation, a virus, space aliens, whatever. Any effects would have to be perceived as either being from their existence AND from their condition.

I thought a two tone color would visually suggest that there was something initially "off" about this individual, and yet they still look feasibly normal. I like to think that something is wrong on the inside first, before it appears on the outside. This idea was accomplished by usually augmenting one feature of each actor we would encounter.

Mary took on this actress utilizing "Scarlett Red" for the eyes and blending out the skin to a deathly pale. It helped that the actress had been locked away for most of the Winter and hadn't seen any sun. I used a blue eyeliner to pull out some of her veins in her arms as we applied white cream to take the color down (though it's probably too faint to see in this photograph alone). The idea that I enjoyed was that whatever had created these zombies, that they might have a different affecting look between the sexes.

A closer look shows how the make up extends even to her chest, drawing the eyes into the arms and continuing the illusion.

Mary worked on the make-up of one of George's encounters, another human trying to survive as well.

His look is straight forward and gritty; meant to be as natural as his environment. Notice the similar make-up application between his face and his hands.

Our friend has an encounter that ends poorly, with him gun shot to the head. In approaching this my idea was that all of the trauma should be on one side of the face so that when the actor looks from left to right (or vice versa) that it would be a reveal of his injury encompassed in the look giving much more options in terms of camera angles. The bullet wound is sculpted from scar wax and coated in liquid latex. Once that was dry it was layered with some color, a dab of bloody scab and some blood though not too much. The other abrasions are meant to look like scrapes from his fall. It's a combination of liquid latex, some color, and bloody scab.

Here's a closer look. He's slightly dirtier, which was something that we played with in terms of colors to invoke a visual understanding of death in the film.

DAY TWO: For an insert shot, Gabriel wanted a set of zombie hands to reach in front of camera. He said he just needed one so Mary and I each took a hand of an actor and decided to do two versions to give the director a choice. An effective make-up artist gives the director as many options as they can deliver within time and budget, something we had limited amounts of with this. The one thing that we had to consider between each of our artistry was to have a somewhat similar look between both hands in case Gabe wanted to use both in the scene. You don't want one person with two radically different hands and kill the flow on set by sending the actor back to fix a mistake.

Here's my version of the hand. This actor had some crazy veins in his hands so I decided to play with those by incorporating them into the paint up. I used some liquid latex, and cream paint and some bloody scab. I think it looks disturbing without being too out and out gross; a nice happy medium.

Mary did a great job with her hand adding a bit more color and giving a real sense of shadow.

So my actor from the previous day returned and I had to match his make-up from before. Gabriel said that the actors for the day would be for his "zombie horde", though they would be seen largely from a distance. To compensate for distance I amped up the browns and creams in his make-up to deliver a look I wish would have pushed forward earlier. It's a bit more powerful and distinctive without being too radical from what had already been captured on camera if any matching were to be done in post-production.

This look I needed to do super quick and dirty. I gave my actor the Freddy Krueger treatment in some picked over liquid latex skin abrasions on the cheeks and forehead. I went with a more purple-ish/brown hue that I also used to accent his eyes rather than blood and other reds.

Since he was so fair skinned I extended some of the brown to his jaw and neck to connect the dirty sunburn kinda look we were working with. The purple-ish hue would also compliment the colors used with our female zombies.

Here's his complete look DONE in under 10 minutes. He still looks kinda normal, but there's something certainly off going on here.

We had another actress for our second day and I wanted Mary to recreate the Scarlet Red eyes of our female zombie the day before. Again Mary worked on the skin tone as I added a latex abrasion/giant popped blister to our actress's cheek. She had crazy long cheeks that really made this effect stand out. The goal was to not make anything too involved or particularly recognizable, but definitely distinct.

Mary did a great job shadowing along the clavicles giving a nice sunken look with the same skin tone as our other actress. This was important in creating a continuous color palette throughout. I particularly enjoy the runny mascara as well to balance the abrasion on the other side of her face.

Some of the other actors arrived all at once and a bit later than expected. We dug in and pushed through. Here's Mary's take on of the zombies. Bruised and discolored, he looks to be a zombie, but also just to have had one bad night out.

Here's another actor I took on giving him the same treatment as my first actor to match. I kinda like the dirty Jersey Shore look he's got going on, but you have to admit; while you might not imagine zombie right away, you're definitely creeped out.

 Here's the bite mark applied and colored. Gabriel wanted it kind of green, but still somewhat bloody. This was the latex piece I made, some cream and some bloody scab. The secret is all in knowing how to blend, but still make it stand out. His specifics were that he wanted it to look as if it could have occurred that day or 2 weeks ago. This was the two separate pieces applied with Pros Aide. I wanted to make sure that it would stick in place and not shift or fall off as it rubbed against the actor's pants, ESPECIALLY since he would be falling and crawling around leading up to the scene that reveals this wound.

I was really really happy with the placement of this piece. It was like a perfectly positioned tattoo. It bent with the curvature of his body and was easily seen if he was sitting feet up or when he slouches into a butterflied position. I also like the slightly upward turned angle that makes one envision that some may have grabbed his leg from the ground and bitten out a chunk. When they were ready to begin filming I added a small bit of liquid blood to the center of the wound, which was just enough to accentuate the effect as it dripped out from a seated position. Also on set I was asked to place 4 bright green dots surrounding the wound so that in post-production they could digitally alter the effect as well.

Here's my spin on Mary's make-up of the lead character, George. She had made his hair greasy and given him a splashing of blood with dried really, really nicely. For my part I went in and gave him a bit of the darker brown and cremes around the edges as well as a subtle blend of purples around the eyes. Basically I wanted to combine the two looks of the male and female zombies we had done earlier into one cohesive look. The challenge was to not overpower Mary's previous work, especially by not upsetting the blood work. It's subtle, but you can see that something is definitely amiss.

All in all the actors all sat like champs and the collected group of filmmakers were really fun to work with and very professional. They stayed on time and definitely rolled with the punches of a tightly scheduled production. I think the looks are dynamic without being overpowering, giving a colorful look that's unique and distinctive. I really liked how the gore wasn't overboard, but more reserved for the more dramatic moments of the story. I hope for my next round of zombies I can deliver something a bit more visceral in terms of gore and carnage, but it was really nice to realize that sometimes it's not how fast or hard you swing your sword, but rather just how you swing it. It was a very enjoyable exercise in restraint and I feel I was able to help deliver the look Gabriel had in his mind to film.

I'll be sure to share more details of "George" as it comes out of edit and available to the world.

Wax Works

For Monday's Class we used our kits issued from last week to learn the build up of wax scars & bullet holes. We utilized the colors and brushes to create similar effects that we have learned, but with the focus on doing so when "on set". This is meant for when the director/actor/producer wants an additional make-up effect that would normally be cast and prepped weeks in advance. By knowing this technique you swoop in like a super-hero to save the day by creating the desired effect using only the materials in your kit.

We also received an addition to our kit, a "bruise" color wheel. This is the small wheel with four colors. Larger wheels usually cost about $5 more and include an extra 2 colors. This is a great addition, as it saves the time needed to mix those colors from our other color wheels.

The tools are very simplistic. Tongue depressors help shape and apply the wax seen here in the metal tubs. When working with wax, it's important to remember as it's worked and applied to the skin that temperature will change the way it can be shaped and molded. It's applied in a layered effect, but can achieve a look similar to something that would normally be cast silicone, latex, or gelatin if you had the time. This is all about the "quick fix".

Here's a rough schematic I did to illustrate the process.

Please start with clean skin. Run a Baby-Wipe over the skin to make sure there's no dirt or grease to interfere with your work.

1) You start with a small application of ProsAid. This is our adhesive for our Cotton Ball.

2)You take a small Cotton Ball and dab it once on the area. It will immediately stick, leaving behind cotton fibers.

3)These fibers are what helps the wax stick to your hand as well as the liquid latex used to seal it.

4) Coat in 3-5 Layers of Liquid Latex.

5) Apply make-up and blend.

6) Powder for glare.

7) Add blood if needed.

8) Remove and clean-up.

The effect is achieved by layering each material on top of each other in consecutive circular patterns.

You're really only want to work with a dime sized amount of wax. It spreads a bit and lends itself to larger coverage.

Using a flat edge, you can create a line by cutting into the wax. The curvature and deepness is up to you as the artist and what is being asked of you to deliver.

Once you're happy with the cut coat the wax build up in about 3-5 layers of liquid latex. The heavier you apply each coat the longer it will take for the latex to dry.

If timing is crucial, use a hair dryer set on COOL (you don't want to burn your actor in a hurry) to speed up the process.

Now the cut is ready for some color. This will add the detail of bruising and all that fun goriness. By adding a small amount of GP 20 (available from Alcone Cosmetics) to your color wheel you are able to create your own grease paints. For the most desired look, grease paints should be used to apply proper color and even coverage. Your color wheels were not entirely meant to be used to paint directly on top of latex and wax, but they will work.

Remember to stipple each color, blending away from your wound. Exercise caution as the wax is still pliable. Pushing or blending too hard with your brushes can augment the shape.

The art of it comes in how quickly you can create this look with the eyes of the entire crew on you working away. Though you will be rushed to deliver, take the time to ensure each step is correct and you will achieve a realistic effect that saves the day.

Here I start on my own hand with an application of ProsAid and then a dab from the Cotton Ball.

I begin to sculpt a small amount of wax on top of the cotton. Here you want to be careful to work from the edges first. Starting from the middle first flattens the material and ruins the effect of raised flesh.

I take the same tongue depressor I was using to sculpt the wax and use the tip to carve a 2 inch cut into the wax.

I then began the process of applying 3 layers of latex over the wax. You want to make sure that the latex is coating the inside of the cut as well. This helps prevent smudging of the wax and and seals everything in for when you begin to apply makeup.

Now I'm ready for bruising. It's a random pattern of pixelated dots blended together. Remember to be a bit more gentle in your stippling as the material underneath is not as firm as if you applying it directly to your hand. The more layers of latex you apply, the less flexible the material becomes. This is good to know if the effect is applied to areas like the wrists or face.

Here's another schematic I did to better illustrate the process of blending your bruises.

With the wax, you can manipulate it a bit more since the material is so pliable. This helps in creating divots and pock marks that add the element of texture and shadow to your effect.

Here I add a touch of powder to take off the glare and a bit of fresh blood to add a touch of realism.

The effect is still flexible enough on my hand to allow for complete movement. I'm not entirely happy with the bruising as it seems bit much for such a small cut. It also looks a bit over-blended for my liking.

Time for a Gun Shot. It's important to remember that there are two types of bullet holes. 1) Entry wound which is small, clean, and precise. 2) Exit wound is much larger and messier as the bullet exits the body.

I used my fingers a bit more to mold a more circular shape with the wax. This is of course after the application of ProsAid and Cotton. I decided to use less make-up in the blending to see how far I could stretched the look of the effect.

With a touch of powder and blood, I really enjoy how this effect worked out. Of course you can ALWAYS add more blood. Those are my two favorite words on any set; MORE BLOOD.

Ideally these techniques are meant to be used as fail safes. No producer wants to hear about problems, only solutions. By utilizing these skills, you can safely and professionally say, "This is what I can do..."