Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Friday, March 22, 2019
Inside Game of Thrones: A Story in Prosthetics
BTS (HBO) - YouTube: Game of Thrones Prosthetics Designer Barrie Gower reflects on bringing the realm to life for the final season.
4 comments:
Katie Pyzowski
said...
What these folks do is awesome. I am always curious about whether a fantasy creature is a performer in a green screen suit, or if they are wearing prosthetics like this. The details in these masks are so cool, but I am not surprised since television and film demand realism. I knew that these prosthetic pieces took hours to put on, but I did not realize that it took so long to make them. With it taking four to six weeks to create one quality prosthetic piece, no wonder it takes so long for new television seasons to be produced. I wonder what all the processes are that go into that creation process. Since there are over seventy people on the team for this department on Game of Thrones, I assume a bunch of these steps have setting and drying times that cannot be rushed. I also wonder how much this department works with the props department for making things like dead bodies and decapitated heads, because I feel like the style and detail of the prosthetics would have to carry over into the killed versions of those characters, but I would assume props would handle creating those kinds of pieces.
Prosthetics are something I find fascinating because I don't know if I could ever make them look that nice. The people who make these things are super talented in many different mediums and also have really good client interactions (I mean they have too). Listening to him talk about how long each of these things took to build is amazing especially with the sheer number of them that were involved in this production. And it has been going on for years as well and I am assuming that prosthetics may not keep very well so his team and him would have to make a lot of these. It was also really cool to look at the filming sequences because you can see where all the prosthetics are and after hearing about all the work it is that much more cool. Like you see the time lapse of them putting these on andd then you get to see it in action.
This interview was not particularly informative. This person speaks a lot of how underappreciated the prosthetic art is, and how big and time consuming it is for Game of Thrones. I am really curious to how the actual prosthetics are made, even basic things. I also would love to learn more about its relationship with green screen, how much do people choose are going to be actually physically present and filmed? This interview had some good coverage of behind the scenes however, and made me realize how much of this is crafted by hand. I don’t really appreciate enough when a crowd is all in makeup, and the huge team it takes to do that. Game of Thrones is a huge franchise, with such a broad audience. Members of my family and closest friends all enjoy it, and after school is over maybe I will find some time to enjoy its art as well. I am very impressed and think more people should heavily consider this as a career path.
I’ve spent lots of time before researching how prosthetics are made and what goes into the sculpting, casting, painting, etc. of these elements. I’ve always thought that the ability to pretty realistically transform parts of one’s body or face into something else, or have it appear torn apart is really interesting. I’ve done a live cast of my hand before and made it look somewhat realistic and bloody, but that’s about the extent of what I’ve done with something close to prosthetics. I haven’t seen Game of Thrones, but I know that there are a lot of cray looks and creatures in the show. I’m incredibly impressed with the work these people have done, and I do agree with them that they need a lot more credit than they get. I think part of why they don’t is that so much is done with green screen and the motion capturing suits, that people often assume certain things are just CGI, rather than painstaking physical work.
4 comments:
What these folks do is awesome. I am always curious about whether a fantasy creature is a performer in a green screen suit, or if they are wearing prosthetics like this. The details in these masks are so cool, but I am not surprised since television and film demand realism. I knew that these prosthetic pieces took hours to put on, but I did not realize that it took so long to make them. With it taking four to six weeks to create one quality prosthetic piece, no wonder it takes so long for new television seasons to be produced. I wonder what all the processes are that go into that creation process. Since there are over seventy people on the team for this department on Game of Thrones, I assume a bunch of these steps have setting and drying times that cannot be rushed. I also wonder how much this department works with the props department for making things like dead bodies and decapitated heads, because I feel like the style and detail of the prosthetics would have to carry over into the killed versions of those characters, but I would assume props would handle creating those kinds of pieces.
Prosthetics are something I find fascinating because I don't know if I could ever make them look that nice. The people who make these things are super talented in many different mediums and also have really good client interactions (I mean they have too). Listening to him talk about how long each of these things took to build is amazing especially with the sheer number of them that were involved in this production. And it has been going on for years as well and I am assuming that prosthetics may not keep very well so his team and him would have to make a lot of these. It was also really cool to look at the filming sequences because you can see where all the prosthetics are and after hearing about all the work it is that much more cool. Like you see the time lapse of them putting these on andd then you get to see it in action.
This interview was not particularly informative. This person speaks a lot of how underappreciated the prosthetic art is, and how big and time consuming it is for Game of Thrones. I am really curious to how the actual prosthetics are made, even basic things. I also would love to learn more about its relationship with green screen, how much do people choose are going to be actually physically present and filmed? This interview had some good coverage of behind the scenes however, and made me realize how much of this is crafted by hand. I don’t really appreciate enough when a crowd is all in makeup, and the huge team it takes to do that. Game of Thrones is a huge franchise, with such a broad audience. Members of my family and closest friends all enjoy it, and after school is over maybe I will find some time to enjoy its art as well. I am very impressed and think more people should heavily consider this as a career path.
I’ve spent lots of time before researching how prosthetics are made and what goes into the sculpting, casting, painting, etc. of these elements. I’ve always thought that the ability to pretty realistically transform parts of one’s body or face into something else, or have it appear torn apart is really interesting. I’ve done a live cast of my hand before and made it look somewhat realistic and bloody, but that’s about the extent of what I’ve done with something close to prosthetics. I haven’t seen Game of Thrones, but I know that there are a lot of cray looks and creatures in the show. I’m incredibly impressed with the work these people have done, and I do agree with them that they need a lot more credit than they get. I think part of why they don’t is that so much is done with green screen and the motion capturing suits, that people often assume certain things are just CGI, rather than painstaking physical work.
Post a Comment