Magical Aging, First Part

This posting, and the next two or three, are about aging with prosthetic makeup.  Many makeup artists call this the most challenging (and satisfying) kind of job.  In a moment, I'll consider why.  But first I want to share some thoughts about the audience for this blog.  I hope to reach as disparate an audience as possible, but I want to mention two groups.  

The first group is the expansive community of professional, amateur, and would-be transformational makeup artists.  I had the great pleasure of meeting and befriending about thirty or more artists when I wrote my book, Making Faces, Playing God.  Many of these contributed to the book and have remained in touch through Facebook or personal messaging, and very many more---quite a few abroad---have linked up through Fb or have had a chance to comment on my book.  I would love to have this blog give me the chance to share what I have uncovered over the last fifteen years in little-known work by well-known artists and, even more, interesting work by artists less known from across the world.  And I hope we can have a dialogue through comments and email about these achievements.

Another group is made up of those potential readers who know almost nothing about this field of art and magic, and who wonder why a professor of philosophy and law would find it fascinating.  I hope they'll take the opportunity to see how questions of personal identity, the tantalizing power of anonymity, the abject fear of losing one's recognized place in society, and simply craft and genius are all implicated here.

And now aging.  In two ways extreme aging (turning a 20-year-old into a 70-year-old, for example) is an extraordinary test.  For one thing it is art that has to conceal art.  For many familiar makeup jobs---monsters, zombies, aliens, creatures of countless kinds---the audience knows that this is makeup.  It takes a rare kind of gullibility to think that zombies exist in nature, however much fake news may try to persuade us otherwise.  Zombies can't pass for real.  But an age makeup, like a disguise or an impersonation makeup, fails to the extent that it signals, "This is art, not reality."  The second reason age makeup is special is that, unlike disguise and impersonation, one should see the continuity of young and old, one should believe this is how x would age.  The appearance of the aged model/actor must be as convincingly real as the original.  And that's hard.  Some folks, including some of the best makeup-artists, question whether it can ever really be done, whether it's an ideal, a Holy Grail  My job in the rest of this posting is to show you four attempts, ones that seem magically good to me.  And in the next postings I'll have more to show.

(1)  Much of Barney Burman's wonderful work is well-known, in particular his Oscar winning work for Star Trek movies and his work for Grimm.  Less well known is his age makeup on Alex O'Loughlin for an episode of Hawaii Five-O in which Steve and Danny, years into retirement, reminisce.  Barney was asked to do the age makeup sculpts by Jeff Dawn, head of makeup for the program; he and Jeff applied Alex/Steve's makeup, and Teena Parker was responsible for hair.  [Barney can be found at @barneyburman]

I think, with this makeup and those that follow, that the art speaks for itself, persuasively (to me) or not.  I think it's redundant (or maybe just too hard for me) to try to explain what, in detail, makes it work.

(2) For a while I've considered Frederic Laine (@clsfxatelier69) one of the pre-eminent makeup designers and a specialist in aging.  I am not alone in seeing his work as closer to perfection, in texture, color, sheer convincingness as that of anyone in the field.  Unlike some other grand masters, he has not tried to build an international career and he selects his projects with care.  

A number of years ago, the well-loved French singer and actor, Michael Gregorio, gave a concert set decades into the future.  This gave Frederic the opportunity to create the following masterwork.

(3)  Neill Gorton (@nrgorton), the founder and head of Millennium FX in UK, is on most shortlists of the best-known and most influential prosthetic makeup artists.  He is one of the most innovative artists of his generation and one of the most authoritative.  He has been an enterprising educator in different formats and kind of venues.  And much of his standard-setting work is very well-known and avidly followed.

One of my favorites among his age makeups is hardly known at all. It was created for a video game promo, filmed in Portugal in 2017, and it was sculpted by Neill along with members of his Millennium team.  The character of the young Canadian actor, Francois Macdonald, operates a video game in which he passes through the screen to encounter his aged and then bed-ridden self .

(4)  Finally, Vincent Van Dyke's studio (@vincentvandykefx) is one of a great success stories of the last decade. He has gained influence and respect as having one of the best 'eyes' in the business and as investing artistry and originality into his studio's products.  He is reflective, paradoxically one of the younger and yet most seasoned artists.

For the recent TV movie, Angelyne, he and his colleagues aged Michael Angarano among several other main actors. The bold sculpt was by Danielle Tirinnanzi and the application by Christopher Burgoyne and Vincent.

With trepidation, I submit these four age makeups as creative, persuasive, and even (perhaps) as good as it gets.  Few things are more debatable and maybe divisive than judgments about art, including this art.  But since fools rush in where angels fear to tread, I'll offer more age makeups in the next two monthly postings---and I'd love to have discussion  (thomas.morawetz@uconn.edu)