Beauty and the Beast makeup help

[prk321]

Has anyone done makeup for Beauty and the Beast? I am looking for an easy prosthetic to use for the Beast. We found one but it is expensive and not practical for us to use - I'll need to apply the same piece at least 8 times - even more as we would like to have additional dress rehearsals. If anyone has any tips, or can tell me where we might find prosthetics, I would greatly appreciate the help! Thanks!

 

[wolf825]

A lot of costume and prop shops have simple prosthetic appliances.. A simple google search for Beauty and the Beast Prosthetics...or google Beast Prosthetic Makeup should give you quite a few resources to obtain pre-made items from.. Woochie and Cinema Secrets tend to make the cheap commercial easy to apply stuff that lasts a few times and at most places that is what you will find for a range of prices and items....but if you want something in more detail you can look and find places which do very nice masks & 2piece appliances which you can get a good amount of use from if you apply and remove them with care.
Some places that come to mind are MostlyDead, mooncostumes, FXwharehouse, and costumeandpropshop...all are DOT com...

Oh--and if your concern is with getting your actor out of the makeup fast--then do what Disney's stage show does--double cast your actor...one wears the make up/bulky costume and is the beast, and the other does not and plays the transformed prince at the end...and they switch at the end cloud of fog and stage effects.. Disney actually uses an air bladder--like a big inflated beach ball--under the cape & costume to give a bigger 'size' to the beast....and in the transformation the transformed actor comes on and he 'deflates it' under the cape costume with his back to the audience..and the beast 'shrinks' and the bulk comes off and its not the beast anymore--this scene is where they do the actor switch too I might add...

hope this helps...
-w

 

[CrisCole]

When we did B&B a few years ago, I made our latex mask. Using dental hyginate, I made a live mask of the actors face. Then, using plaster of paris, I made a positive.

I used play-dough to build up the cheeks and nose as well as the chin.

I covered the positive play-dough head in a mixture of liquid latex and wrinkle stipple.

Once it dried, I removed it, and painted and trimmed it.

I then put it on the actor and finished the paint and, using more liquid latex, I added crepe hair to it. (having it on the actor so I could see what it should look like.)

I ended up using a combination of black and brown crepe.

The mask was attached to a wig, and stiffened with a coating of foam/latex rubber (with repainting...sigh).

This way, he wore the mask and wig as once peice, and required no spirit gum to attach it.

I really wish I would have took pictures....

The mask came down from the forhead (where it was attached to the wig) to the eyebrows.
There was a peice that covered his nose, and actually hooked in his nostril with a curved peice of foam rubber at the end (to ensure it stayed in place.)
It also went down from his ears to his chin.

If you've ever seen Mike Myers as the Cat in the Hat, watch the behind the scenes and look at the peice he wears. It was similar to that, but the nose was part of it, and it was easier to remove.

For the transition to the prince at the end, we lifted him up on wires, and spun him around in the air. As he was spinning, he turned his brown cloak inside out, removed the headpeice, tucked it in the hood of his cloak, and removed the hand peices, placing them in a hidden pocket on the inside of his cloak, as well as the foot peices.

He was lowered then, wearing this bright red cloak, and completely human looking.

He then said some of his lines with Belle, and when the servants entered in their human forms, the prince/beast simply handed Luimere his cloak, and Luimere ditched it offstage, so the beast/prince didn't have to worry about a beast peice falling out of his cloak.

It worked really well. Hope this helped.

 

[Andrew McNamara]

I will give you these sites that have good ones: First, www.toxicimage.com, www.northfur.ca, and www.monsterfx.webs.com.

 

[JVTD]

I would Definitely consider double casting, it will make the transitions much smoother. That way you don't need to worry about your prosthetics being damaged during a quick change.

 

[Andrew McNamara]

Well, you could always use a mask for the quick change. There is enough time to remove the actor's makeup before the fight.