Friday, June 23, 2017

Rare video of part 8 facial appliances

Check this out. Really rare video of deceased Canadian FX artist Tibor Farkas talking about his FX work in Vancouver circa 1990. At 3:10 he picks up an old latex Jason face... and proceeds to tear it nearly in half right on camera! At 5:04 they flash what appears to be a Jason paint master from the film.

In a second video filmed some years later, you can see Jason's face on his wall at 0:30.

In case anyone is wondering... I have inquired about the Jason pieces. His son told me that after Farkas died in 1999, his family tragically lost the whole shop and everything in it. Another Jason piece lost to the ages.



Courtesy of Tibor Farkas Jr., here are some other behind the scenes photos from part 8 his father kept... including a partially painted hockey mask and head:




A lot of people criticize the facial design for part 8 (created by Farkas and William Terezakis under the supervision of makeup director Jamie Brown and director Rob Hedden), but even though the face looks like a jack-o-lantern that's been left on the porch until March, the rest of the head was pretty legit.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Visit to the Friday the 13th Props Museum

Mario Kirner was gracious enough to let me be the first American to check out his MASSIVE personal collection of Friday the 13th props and memorabilia about a week ago in Germany. Seeing all of this in person was a bit like being 7 and walking into a Halloween store for the first time, or seeing an ad for the next Friday the 13th movie on TV... a thrilling trip into 80's horror nostalgia and an experience I'll never forget.

In addition to Mario's museum, I went on a bit of a movie props binge across Europe. My first stop was the Barbican exhibit in London, which featured an original Vader helmet, as well as props from Enemy Mine, Stargate, Buck Rogers, Alien and a bunch of other sci-fi through the last century. Really great exhibition if you're in the area.
Skull from "Enemy Mine"
Alien maquette from Independence Day
Prop from "Stargate"
Alien head from "Species"
Xenomorph
Little robot dude from Buck Rogers
Original Vader and Storm Trooper helmets from ESB
Extra mask from "Enemy Mine"

Then I went to London's O2 arena for the Lucasfilm archive's official Star Wars exhibit and HOLY SHIT its so much amazing stuff. Sometimes with movie props is interesting to see how they pulled the "magic" off using clever lighting and camera tricks so that a rather poor looking prop can look real on film. With Star Wars though, almost all of the original props and suits look as amazing in person as they looked on film. A real testament to the quality of FX work put into a brand new sci-fi franchise back in the 70's that no one had any idea was going to become a massive cultural phenomenon. (Click for full size)

















I also went to the H.R. Giger musuem in Gruyeres, Switzerland which featured an intact original Xenomorph suit from the original Alien as well as a semi-intact FX head. Sorry, no photos allowed! But here's a few non-Alien photos i sneaked anyway.
 

Some tourists informed me that there was a special effects museum in Prague while I was there but I sadly didn't make it in time. I guess you have to save some stuff for future trips!