The Prosthetics Event at CBS Arena, Coventry last month was a blast! It was so good to see everyone and be back in the thick of the makeup FX community.
With a lot more space for Covid safety, the Exhibitors’ Hall was a hive of activity from the moment the doors opened. There were great offers on products and kit, makeup and sculpting demos to watch, and of course the Monster Mash Exhibition which gets bigger every year! This featured all things prosthetic from creatures, concept designs and maquettes to makeup appliances, masks, animatronics and animals!
The Application Station and Body Art Zone Competitions produced some incredible work, with the Body Art Zone collaboratively run this year by The Prosthetics Event and Body Factory UK.
The Application Station was won jointly by Ruby Bircher with model Lauren Bircher, and Melissa Thompson with model Sai Thompson, while the Body Art Zone was won by Angela Youngs with model Daniel Kerry.
Above pic: makeup Dean Garner for Neill’s Materials. Model Phil Garner, contacts Cantor & Nissel, pic Ben Bentley
With the ethos of the event centring on the sharing of knowledge, techniques and skills, the Education Stage, sponsored and hosted by the Centre for Film FX at The University of Bolton, saw an array of information being shared:
* PAM’s directors Kate Benton and Rachel Lennon presented ‘Bringing a Character to Life’, providing valuable tips for working on-set
* Christopher Goodman discussed and demonstrated the techniques used by Millennium FX to digitally scan and 3D-model for prosthetics and creature FX
Meanwhile, the Main Stage schedule delivered back-to-back inspirational talks and insightful demonstrations all day:
* Stuart Bray and Paul Savage discussed and demonstrated common mistakes made in medical SFX and casualty simulation
* Nick Dudman chatted to Joe Nazzaro about his incredible career, discussing such productions as ‘Batman’, the ‘Star Wars’ sequels, ‘Fifth Element’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Carnival Row’ and beyond!
* The directors of leading companies Animated Extras and Millennium FX, Pauline Fowler and Kate Walshe, discussed female leadership, careers, and the changing gender balance in the film industry with Millennium FX’s Director of Makeup, Rebecca Butterworth
* Neill Gorton, assisted by Rebecca Butterworth and Jasmine Neill, transformed Internet superstar and queen of drag Alexis Stone, into beloved movie icon Mrs Doubtfire, while chatting to makeup FX legends Nick Dudman, Bill Corso and Jake Garber. Joe Nazzaro also joined the team on stage to announce his current book project, about the life and extraordinary career of the godfather of makeup, Dick Smith.
And if this wasn’t enough excitement, the winning ticket for the prize draw was selected from the tombola and the lucky winner went home with over £500 worth of materials, all donated by the event’s fantastic retail exhibitors!
Our stand was very busy! Multi-skilled industry artist and postgraduate lecturer Brad Greenwood spent the day discussing the MA in Prosthetic Effects we run in partnership with Falmouth University, and our Studio Assistant Seb Copple was on hand to answer questions about our 7-week and online courses. We were also lucky to have Boot Camp graduate and previous Application Station winner Begona Fernandez Martin doing the fabulous demo shown below top left on model Jason Ludwig!
Thank you to everyone who attended the event and in particular, everyone who came to our stand, as well as all the amazing artists, assistants, models, exhibitors and special guests; the lineup this year was off the scale!
Portraits by Ben Bentley, photos by Anthony Davies, Ruby Nixon and Josh Gaskell
