Lots of film fans thoroughly enjoy the make-up effects which contribute so much to the quality of our favourite horror films, and god knows we all have our own opinions about film FX, but not so many of us know much about it as an industry in its own right. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to ask an established MUFX artist, Ruth Pease, about her work. She’s been doing it for around twelve years now: you can see a little more of what Ruth gets up to by supporting her on Instagram: 4th Storm, and her new project, Actual Witch Hands (more on which shortly!) I’ve known Ruth for a long time and we lived together for a while, too, at around the time that she was first getting interested in making human limbs out of latex or doing up her mates as (very grisly) zombies: it wasn’t so unusual to receive a text asking me to ‘keep the clay head in the lounge hydrated’, or similar! Anyway, without further ado…
WP: thanks for talking to the site! OK so, my first couple of questions are probably going to address some questions others may have, as I know lots of people are interested in your line of work without maybe knowing that much about its finer points. Tell us: what did you do in terms of training, and how was getting established as a make-up artist after you qualified?
RP: It took a long while to figure out that I wanted to pursue a career in makeup. After many existential detours and a variety of call centre and night shift jobs, I decided I wanted to be a mortician – but on the realisation that I couldn’t afford the courses and didn’t even have a science GCSE, I turned up at Bristol College on sign-up day with no idea. Having spent most of my youth watching horror, I signed up to Film Studies, wrote a script about a man who ate himself and came to the conclusion that making a living out of blowing people’s heads up (I watched a lot of Troma) would be a cool way to live. Horror was kind of the only thing I knew about.
I did a lot of playing around with fake blood and amputating my fingers at home & then signed up to a Media Makeup Diploma, completed that and did a Specialist Makeup Design degree in London.
Following that was a couple of years of being broke as hell, using every penny to get to interviews for short films I wasn’t going to be paid to design. Many, many low/no pay jobs later while working in a film makeup shop, I’d built up enough contacts to start actually living as a freelance artist. But even now, I never feel like I can relax and work will just flow in – you’ve got to be pretty resilient and do a lot of hustling. Somehow I’m still lucky enough to be working.
WP: What do people not realise about your profession?
Sometimes it can be incredibly unglamorous – waking up at 4am to drag your body weight in kit across London to potentially start your day with shaving someone’s arse may not be what people imagine I guess – but that’s been a genuine day for me. It’s all kind of like the Wild West out there – I’ve had to fight production companies who decided not to pay my team after two months of solid work. I’ve worked a 23-hour day from “Action” to “Wrap” before. There’s a lot of imbalance – there’s still a lot of diversity issues, nepotism, bullying and general bullshit. But I’ve also met some of the most inspiring, kind and talented people – it’s a ridiculously fun and creative job, so as long as you try to support the people who need and deserve it. By blocking out the negativity and staying grounded, it’s very rewarding. I’m (almost) always incredibly thankful to be hired for each job. But there’s definitely highs and lows – as with anything!
WP: Tell us about some of your favourite kinds of SFX to work on…
By far my favourite work is anything horror-related – anything nostalgic is even better! I love recreating injuries, throwing blood around and making everything look like it’s from the 80s. I like the challenge of making something genuinely scary using practical makeup – there’s so much reliance on jump scares and CGI mouths gaping-open type stuff. It’s so much fun to create something that’s just horrible on its own.
WP: And, following on from that question, what have been some of your favourite film or TV projects, and why? What would be an absolute dream-come-true project for you?
Weird fun horror related projects are always the best – everything I’ve ever done with Prano Bailey-Bond has been incredible, so Censor really was a total dream. Her interests are very similar to mine, so I’m always so grateful to be involved in anything she creates. Likewise, Richard Peter Hunter is one of my favourite directors to work with: check out Skeletons, a short film about an ageing sex line worker who escapes a crooked marriage after she falls in love with a corpse. It involved slit throats, stabbings, a smashed in skull & lots of creative makeup…. although, not all of it made the cut.
A dream come true project would be something that combines horror and comedy like Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace or Extra Ordinary. I obviously love gore – but working on a comedy set is such a great experience because it truly relies on people enjoying themselves. So combine that with a few buckets of blood or turning someone into broccoli & it’s definitely the dream!
WP: Of course lockdown (or lockdowns!) will have had an impact on your work, as is the case for practically everyone in the country right now. As you see it, what has that impact been like for the film and TV industries and how has it personally affected you?
My first thoughts were, wow – I have the worst job for this situation! Then followed the panic and the realisation that I have zero transferable skills. The rare jobs I had during lockdown often involved me not being allowed to actually apply makeup, instead having to direct the cast and creepily stare over their shoulder while they did their own makeup, which was incredibly frustrating and not ideal for anyone. Turning up to work looking like you’re an extra from The Crazies was challenging, too. It’s definitely made me consider how sustainable a career like this can be in these apocalyptic times. That’s not even taking into consideration about how Brexit might affect things too. Might be time to get that Science GCSE!
WP: If you had to nominate three make-up effects practitioners who are particularly special to you – either personally influential, or you otherwise admire their work – who would they be?
Greg Nicotero – not only such a lovely guy, but the absolute king of zombies – plus he rocked a mullet in the 80s and embodied everything I thought was awesome about those crucial years of MUFX. Plus he tolerated me drunkenly breaking into the VIP area of Fright Fest 16 years ago to talk to him about a gore zine I was making called ‘Hammered Spleen’.
Rob Bottin – His work on The Thing was and probably still is the most incredible MUFX I’ve ever seen. His dedication to the beautiful work he created was so above and beyond that, by the end of filming, he was hospitalised. He grew up with a passion for horror and monsters and clearly brings that into everything he does. I’ve never met him, but I’d like to think he was a cool dude, too.
Dan Martin – Dan is a wonderful bloke and I’ve worked with him a few times now, including on Censor. Not only has he done some of the most incredible & hideous FX in recent times – including the horrifically realistic scene of the death of Dead in Lords Of Chaos, but also the wonderfully disturbing creatures in Color Out Of Space. He’s one of the busiest people I know, but always seems to make time to help you out, plus he’ll join in with your on set weirdness too, because basically he’s just as big a horror nerd as the rest of us… actually, more so!
WP: Do disasters happen? Have you had any experiences which have been particularly exasperating or otherwise not what you’d want? Of course, you don’t have to name any names!
Oh hell yes! Luckily I’ve escaped mainly unharmed from such examples – but I remember a time when we set up a whole slit neck scene – the actor was hanging upside down, waiting to be drenched in blood, everything went perfectly, apart from the camera wasn’t recording and we had to pretty much re-set from scratch, but by this point the slit was a reservoir of blood & just wouldn’t look as good as the first (non) take.
There was a time we had to book a well known actor in to what we thought was a salon to get a spray tan – it turned out to be a tent in someone’s lounge – luckily they had a good sense of humour! Then there’s the times cast forget to have a prosthetic injury removed and go off into the world looking like they should be dead. I know one guy had an ambulance called for him! There’s many more – but I dare not tell most of them!
WP: How can filmmakers best work with make-up teams to get the best experience, in your professional view?
There’s been many times when MUFX is seen as a real time consuming pain in the arse. They have to give up a lot of time for application, there’s often a big re-set if everything gets covered in blood – probably a costume change too. I think it’s always good to have a proper conversation with shot by shot story boards, so you know exactly what will be seen and how the director wants it to be played out so you can plan it well in advance. Often you’ll ask for 45 minutes to do an application and watch the time disappear, knowing the AD will ask if you can do it in five minutes instead. If you know there’s going to be a complicated MUFX scene in the day – give it the time it needs. Trust your artist – shoot the closeups first, so it looks fresh and at its best. Most importantly, make sure your artist has all the caffeine they need.
WP: You were involved in the much-awaited and upcoming horror movie Censor: tell us a little about that…
Censor was the dream project I’d always wanted to work on. I’d worked with director Prano Bailey-Bond for a few years including HMU designing her horror shorts, Shortcut and Nasty. She’s an incredible director, plus just a really lovely, kind and enthusiastic person. Censor is 80s horror set in the Video Nasty era – something close to my heart, having spent my youth watching dodgy copied VHS tapes of banned horror with this particular interviewer! (Halcyon days! – Keri.) We wanted it to look like an authentic British 80s world, so I did weeks of research watching episodes of Crimewatch and local council films from the era. Plus, it was a great reason to rewatch the Video Nasty list and episode of Shoestring.
Every department were incredible, so you knew it was going to be special.
We have Dan Martin to thank for all the great gore you seen in the film, but obviously I can’t give any of that away! I pretty much spent the whole of the shoot staring at Niamh Algar’s forehead as she wears a wig for the entire film – but what a forehead! She was so much fun to work with and her performance was totally mesmerising. I had such an amazing team (Bethany Lewis and Hannah Belford) and it made the whole shoot a joy to work on.
WP: And finally, can you tell me anything about any exciting upcoming projects – current events notwithstanding?
I’ve heard pubs are opening soon!
But apart from that exciting news – I actually spent seven weeks last year in Estonia shooting a horror-themed multiple choice interactive feature, which will be available on app Whatifi at some point very soon! Lots of blood and madness!
Also, during lockdown I started an online store called Actual Witch Hands – selling shirts featuring weird occult themed illustrations I’ve created. It’s been really cool to do something different but equally creative and, of course, horror inspired!
I’m really just looking forward to seeing Censor in a proper cinema and for everyone else to see it, too!
Many thanks to Ruth for her time!