Your Attraction: Haunt Quality & Film Quality
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| Your Attraction: Haunt Quality & Film Quality By Wes Branton & Ken Decker - CFX Composite Effects One of the most common topics we’ve heard among people in the haunt industry is on the differences of movie quality and haunt quality in makeup and costumes. While this is a big concern among most haunt owners and buyers, it’s also largely misunderstood due to advertising hype from vendors and the influence of the film industry. Everybody wants the best this and the best that, but let’s take a few minutes and look at things the way they really are. First, we’ll validate the perspective by giving you some quick background on CFX. For those of you who don’t know, we’re a versatile company that prides itself on catering to all of our target industries with their own particular needs appropriately. There are plenty of studios and shops that produce props for the film business or the haunt industry, and some that do both, but what sets us apart is a specialized differentiation between the needs of both industries, respectively. Theatrical props, prosthetic makeup, masks, costumes and special effects are all things we make for both haunters and filmmakers alike on a daily basis, but to make an impact and stay in good graces with our customers, we have to address their individual needs and expectations. Makeup We’ll jump into one of the most disputed of topics among haunters, makeup effects. Like most business assets, makeup in a haunt comes down to the same basic principles of quantity and quality. Don’t ever make the mistake of choosing one or the other exclusively. Just because you’re running a haunted house doesn’t mean that you have to have a hoard of poorly made up, slop shop characters. On the other hand, however, due often to budgetary limitations, and sometimes to show preparation time and staff volume, you won’t be able to have close-up screen quality makeup jobs on a crew of eighty actors either. Applying makeup and managing a department of several specialized makeup artists at the same time in one of the nation’s top haunts can be a rough job, but industry specific consideration certainly helps put things into perspective. Doing makeup on the set of a film demands speed, accuracy, skill, and the ability to discern priorities. Again, quality and quantity. Often, one or two on-set makeup artists will be applying makeup to several characters, some of which will be seen very close up and have to be believable, and some that may be walking around in the background for a few seconds or may be one in a crowd of twenty other actors. Obviously, more time and money is allocated to the key close-up characters. The same goes for a haunted attraction. A makeup artist in a haunt maybe one of fifteen artists or may be one poor volunteer looking forward to a night of stressful applications on fifty actors. Either way, each artist has to choose between characters that need to spill realism all over the patrons’ feet like steaming innards or a drop wall monkey that pops out for less than a fraction of fifteen seconds of airbrushed fame. The key difference here is time and longevity. A hero character (in film terms, meaning someone who gets a close-up or intense visual) in a movie may get anywhere from two to six hours of intense prosthetic makeup applied by one or several makeup artists. That same character, after six hours of makeup and countless dollars in prosthetics and makeup supplies, will typically look fantastically believable. But, what you don’t usually hear about is that this makeup job will sometimes be lucky to last several hours of shooting in a nice air conditioned set and will almost definitely require numerous touchups by an on-set makeup artist who’s probably sitting somewhere behind the camera eating muffins off the catering tray while waiting for his touchup call. At this point you haunt workers probably sense where this is going. A hero character in a haunted house lineup may be lucky to get half an hour of intense makeup application by one artist who, on finishing said character, will toss the actor out of the chair to make room for the next ten or so people in line. Not only that, but that bang up, half hour prosthetic job damn well better last for the next several hours without coming off and under little to no touchups during a show. Certain levels of quality and quantity have to be within the realm of realistic expectation on you, the haunt owner’s part. Good haunt makeup equates to essentially two factors, the artist at work and the product at work. As for makeup products, don’t be hooked in by the glamour phrase of “Hollywood Quality.” While some of these products may be perfectly fine for your haunt, be sure to look at them with an industry specific, discerning eye. At CFX we strive to make our products with movie quality believability, but we also take care to acknowledge our market. Having worked in both film and haunt settings, we know that something can look phenomenal, but then fall part on the first or second night. Not so phenomenal anymore when you realize that you just blew several hundred dollars for two nights of fun. When you buy for your season of makeup, make sure to ask specific durability questions about appliances and masks. When products fall short of your needs, remember the problem spots and make suggestions to your vendors (maybe look for new vendors depending on the responses you get from the old ones). The second factor in good makeup, the artist, shouldn’t be overlooked or taken for granted either. Often, haunt owners will hire artists who have film experience or attended some special effects or makeup school. That’s great from a visionary and practical exposure standpoint. However, don’t be too quick to take your makeup artist and throw them into the job with nothing but their film experience in one hand and your money in the other. Many of the techniques they learned in school or on the job maybe great on screen, but will often fall off in dry flakey clumps in the heat of a haunt show. Durability is just as important as appearance. If you have several makeup artists, get to know their strengths and weaknesses and assign the characters accordingly. Don’t limit them too much, though, and let them experiment with new techniques or materials they might not be familiar with. If one of your artists shows genuine interest and motivation, take advantage of it, because you probably won’t be lucky enough to have many that do. Costumes: As with makeup, costumes are equally as important when it comes to durability. Most Hollywood costumes are built to the specifications of shooting angles and often made only well enough to last the duration of the shoot. Obviously, the haunter doesn’t have this luxury. Fact is, you probably have higher durability requirements, need for full round believable coverage, and have less money to buy it with. One benefit of CFX being a custom fabrication shop is also being able to derive new products from a constant flow of new ideas from the film industry. Many of the costumes we make for haunters are variations of projects from movies, but again, I stress the word “variations”. In some ways, haunt and attractions costumes can be more challenging than film costumes because the must allow more versatile actor movement (allowing for everything from a scare to handling a security situation), breathability (because we can’t all have the luxury of perfect air conditioning or a five minute break between takes), believable coverage (no zippers showing when your monster turns and ducks back into his cave) and durability (redundant, yes, but we see too many costumes held together with cheese cloth and contact cement). All these things are all well and good, until it comes to budget. Some haunters may have a nice chunk of change to drop on a custom monster, but others don’t. So, if you want to go big time, be prepared. A good example to point out is the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. That big guy cost production $50,000, and that was in 1984. By today’s economic standards, he would cost almost $100,000! You shouldn’t necessarily be spending nearly that much money, but the point is, the kind of quality consideration you need is not cheap and if it is, well, you’re probably getting what you paid for. Masks are no different. Some haunters still use latex masks while others, as of recently, will use nothing less than fitted silicone masks. As for quality and believability, there’s little argument that the silicone mask now dominates this department, but everything has its place. On a background or dropwall character, a cheaper latex mask may be just fine while you’ll want to dump a little extra on your line entertainers and star characters. In particular, though, masks are a touchy subject and can be a finicky product from company to company. Like any other product in your haunt, don’t be fooled by a cheaply made product with a fancy presentation. Masks can often take more abuse than any other costume or prop element, especially when you have an actor that’s really doing their job and getting into character. A torn mask in the middle of a show can ruin a character instantly and, though you may be lucky enough to touch up a nice makeup job, there’s no way you’ll be able to stop to patch up and glue a mask together two hours into the night. Your Products and Vendors: Just like you should be familiar with your own haunt staff, from makeup artists to actors, you should get to know your vendors too. Remember, in a way, we work for you too. As vendors, our products are made to meet your needs as a professional haunter, not a film maker or collector. This business can be demanding and stressful at times for haunters and vendors alike. We’re not just here to take your money once a year for a couple of months at our convenience because we know how things operate in a real haunt in the heat of the season. Sometimes things arise that you didn’t expect, so we keep production going during the most critical time of the operating season as well as the buying season. A lot of work and research goes into making the best haunt props and makeup and much of that development can be attributed to the influence of Hollywood. But, the haunted attractions industry isn’t the bastard stepchild of the film industry. In fact, we’ve often used our haunt experience to develop new and better products for movies. Just like our reputation is at stake with every thing we put in front of a camera, so it is with every product we send out of our shop doors. We don’t make good looking masks and hope they work, we make sure they work. The best shops and studios make their products from start to finish, developing unique concepts and understanding the demands of their customers in taking a product from sculpture to monster, all under one roof. |