Dick Smith Interviewed by Gene Shalit on Altered States Make Up Effects — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00now we've got a very special treat for
2. 0:01you dick Smith brought along some test
3. 0:03film that he shot in his garage while he
4. 0:05was work working developing the body
5. 0:07makeup for altered states this is the
6. 0:10real behind the scenes stuff
7. 0:12this is really home movies but it showed
8. 0:16us some tests of what we could do
9. 0:17deforming the face and the head later on
10. 0:21you see his body deformed also this is a
11. 0:23so-called bladder technique which I
12. 0:25developed for the film here's a kind of
13. 0:28ripple effect that we were trying out up
14. 0:31his arm we we abandoned this particular
15. 0:33one because it looked too regular it
16. 0:35looked too unnatural but it shows the
17. 0:37technique of putting bladders underneath
18. 0:39a latex skin this is a there's a false
19. 0:42latex chest all over his chest which we
20. 0:45went past quickly there's a shrinking
21. 0:47arm for you which wasn't used in the
22. 0:49film this was the first rubber suit that
23. 0:51we made for Bill hurt is struggling
24. 0:54madly in that thing here's the same suit
25. 0:57distorted with an image in a distorting
26. 1:00mirror so that it looks as if it's
27. 1:02wobbling and wiggling and doing odd
28. 1:05things
29. 1:09we have a still picture of what he
30. 1:11looked like after you got all done I
31. 1:14think we have a still picture
32. 1:16now let's hold that picture a minute is
33. 1:19any of that mr. Herk no not at all
34. 1:22that's an enormous head that was made
35. 1:24big enough so the camera could actually
36. 1:26go down the throat it was never used you
37. 1:28mean down the esophagus with the gun on
38. 1:30camera by that man that's what they were
39. 1:31going to do but director changed his
40. 1:33mind
41. 1:34you not only do this but you invent this
42. 1:38is that right you are not when they say
43. 1:40makeup artist they mean makeup artist
44. 1:41and when they say makeup they don't mean
45. 1:43mascara they mean you create entire
46. 1:46illusions with faces and with bodies
47. 1:48right you have to whatever the script
48. 1:51calls for you have to figure out a way
49. 1:52to do it and that's half the fun in this
50. 1:54this business is that you're always
51. 1:56challenged by some new problem and to
52. 2:00solve that is what's half the fun some
53. 2:02of the people who are objecting to
54. 2:03violence in movies now say that one of
55. 2:06the reasons they object is that people
56. 2:07like you dick have gotten so good that
57. 2:09what used to be only suggested in the
58. 2:11movies is now very graphic because you
59. 2:13can actually decapitate a person in a
60. 2:15movie and see it happen through illusion
61. 2:18yeah actually I just we Dave Everett the
62. 2:21co-author of film tricks i discovered
63. 2:23that the first special effect was a
64. 2:25decapitation was done in 1893 so i think
65. 2:28that there's always been a kind of
66. 2:29appetite for that sort of spectacle I'm
67. 2:32sure the people in 1893 were shocked by
68. 2:34that as era by a lot of what's going on
69. 2:36what do you think about this I try to
70. 2:38avoid that I try to turn down scripts
71. 2:40that are pure you know blood and gore
72. 2:42just for the blood and gore effect I
73. 2:44have done of course some gory things
74. 2:46blowing off a hand in taxi driver
75. 2:49I did some unusual gouging effects in
76. 2:54the Sentinel and so forth but I prefer
77. 2:56to do the good character stuff the
78. 2:58interesting things altered states with
79. 3:00the the so called mold running up the
80. 3:03arm that's the sort of thing I like to
81. 3:04do you like your work of course sure if
82. 3:06you want to know the secrets read this
83. 3:08man's book if you want to go to the
84. 3:10movies and know know the secrets then
85. 3:12you have to skip the book but if you
86. 3:13want to know how it's done he even will
87. 3:15tell you in the book very graphically
88. 3:16how Chris Reeve flies in Superman thanks
89. 3:20very much for being with us playing stay
90. 3:22away from my face it's bad enough the
91. 3:23way it is now dick we have our own brand
92. 3:25special effects