Human Hybrids in Film

Harry Potter - Voldemort

THOMAS, R., 2012. Top 10 Pure Evil Fictional Characters. In: TopTenz. 28 September 2012 

[3 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-pure-evil-characters-in-literature-movies.php

Voldemort is played by actor, Ralph Fiennes; he is a cross between a human and a snake. The designers of Voldemort left a massive portion of the human being visually, then it won't be as scary because it won't look realistic. The makeup took at least two and a half hours to complete, but Fiennes said he used these hours to get himself into character.

In the book the character had red eyes, however they decided this would not work in the film because you wouldn't be able to see the emotion in the eyes. The costume designer made the materials worn very light so it would move almost like a spirit, they used lots of thin, silk layers to achieve this. The nose is what stands out the most to me as the snake aspect of his look. The designers said that they looked at using prosthetic pieces, however this would mean that they would have to bring other features of his face forwards to make it look like the nose was sunken in. They decided that the best way to achieve this look would be to digitally drop back the nose in post production because it would look very out of this world as it is not possible with makeup. They also removed his human nostrils and gave him slits, to look more snake-like; they did this by using tracking dots on his face.

This is what makeup artist, Shaune Harrison, achieved when she
experimented with using only prosthetics to give the
nose a snake-like look.
HARRISON, S., 2014. Behind the Scenes of Voldemort Makeup. In: Prosthetic Make Up FX. 
12 January 2014 [3 November 2015]. Available from: http://prostheticmakeupfx.com/tag/lord-voldemort/

The makeup artists covered Voldemort in tattoo transfers to make it look like he had veins all over his head and hands etc. This would help greatly with continuity, as spraying them on every time would have been very time consuming and almost impossible to get them perfectly the same as last time.

Tattoo Transfers used on Fiennes.

HARRISON, S., 2014. Behind the Scenes of Voldemort Makeup. In: Prosthetic Make Up FX. 

12 January 2014 [3 November 2015]. Available from: http://prostheticmakeupfx.com/tag/lord-voldemort/

They wanted to make sure that they didn't use too much makeup as they wanted him to be able to move freely and for his expressions to be very realistic. He shaved his hair completely off on his head so that a bald cap didn't have to be used and so it looked very realistic. The makeup artists used gelatine to cover his eyebrows, as Fiennes did not want to shave his off, but this also created deeper eye sockets, giving a very sunken in and shadowed look. No other prosthetics were used around the rest of his face so he could move freely and also so the rest of his face looked as human-like as possible. They gave him very long, spindly fingers with long pointed nails and they gave him fake teeth.

Voldemort's Transformation!
O'NEAL, J., 2011. Immortal Monday * He Who Must Not Be Named * Guest Post By Jessica O'Neal. 
In: Debra Kristi's Blog. 26 December 2011 [3 November 2015]. Available from: https://debrakristi.
wordpress.com/2011/12/26/immortal-monday-%E2%98%85-he-who-must-not-be-named-%E2%98%85-
guest-post-by-jessica-oneal/

Makeup artist Shaune Harrison described the process of how herself and makeup artist Mark Coulier achieved the Voldemort look. She said 'We usually started with a fresh head shave to get rid of any stubble shadow, then we based out his head and body with Rice Paper Skin Illustrator (due to the amount of airbrushing we did at that stage we used fan extractors to remove all the fumes out of the room!) I would then apply one side of the eyebrow blockers and Mark Coulier would do the other. Then mark and myself would apply the transfer tattoo’s and paint and blend all the colours together. We used a camouflage cream called Veil which finally blended everything together.'


Splice - Dren

LIVEFOR, 2009. Vincenzo Natali's Splice - First look at some of the human-chimera horror. 
In: Live For Films. 6 October 2009 [3 November 2015]. 
Available from: https://liveforfilms.wordpress.com/tag/preacher/

Dren is created when two genetic engineers, Clive and Elsa, decide to mix together human DNA with a mixture of different animal DNA, hoping to gain fame by revolutionising science. The baby versions of Dren are done completely digitally, whereas at her child stage and adult stage she is played by an actress with makeup and animation added. The director of the film, Vincenzo Natali, wanted Dren to look as realistic as possible, keeping as many human characteristics as possible. He wanted it to be very ambiguous as to what animals her DNA had been mixed with, so he didn't want the viewers to be able to work our which animal each body part came from. Natali also didn't want the character to look unbelievable because he knew he wasn't making a fantasy film, but he was making a science-fiction film. 

ANON, 2012. Flavours movie actor remover contrast [3 November 2015]. 
Available from: http://photo.takungpao.com/funny/2012-11/1246501_6.html

When Dren was at her child stage she was played by actress Abigail Chu. The image above shows the before and after of her Dren transformation. The only thing that was real about Abigail was her mouth area as no prosthetics or animation was used there. From the bridge of the nose and upwards is all computer generated; this includes her ears and eyes. They had to track the movement of Abigail and then transform that into an animated version. They had to track her emotions and facial expressions to make it look as realistic as possible. 

SIMMONS, B., 2010. Who is Delphine Chaneac (Dren) From Splice? A Quick Profile. In: BruSimm. 
2 June 2010 [3 November 2015]. Available from: http://brusimm.com/who-is-delphine-chaneac-dren-from-splice-a-quick-profile/

The adult version of Dren was played by actress Delphine Chaneac. In these later stages the director, Vincenzo Natali, wanted to only change her face slightly and to keep it looking as human and realistic as possible. He said that he 'felt the small changes would actually be more shocking than the big ones. If you make a small change to somebody's face, it is much more jarring than some kind of gross deformation'. The legs and tail are obvious factors that she is not completely human, however the rest of her has been kept very human-like, with only subtle changes. If the tail had drawn more attention then I don't think it would have been as effective and it would have looked too fake; however because the tail only made subtle movements, you almost forgot it was there. Adult Dren was sometimes completely computer generated, but that was only in specific action shots that she would not have been able to do. The makeup artists kept Dephine's natural skin colour all over but they added a sheen to her skin to make her look more ethereal and more alien-like.

Some of the subtle changes include that her eyes are slightly more wide apart and she only has three fingers. The VFX Supervisor, Bob Monroe, said that the eyes were moved further apart by putting tracking markers on Delphine and then using these to digitally move them further apart. To make it look like she only had three fingers, Monroe said they would either 'tie the pinky and ring fingers together with green tape, and then shrink the girth and sort of digitally blend them together so it looked like one finger' or he said they would spread the fingers apart so it was easier to get rid of just the pinky. Delphine shaved her hair off for this role so that bald caps didn't have to be used and to give a more natural look. 

Resources:
GATES, B., 2012. Voldemort - Making of 2005 [3 November 2015]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aYtNKOZ86s

AMOS, J., 2011. Ralph Fiennes' chilling Voldemort transformation [3 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.harrypotterfans.com/2011/04/ralph-fiennes-chilling-voldemort-transformation/

HARRISON, S., 2014. Behind the Scenes of Voldemort Makeup. In: Prosthetic Make Up FX. 

12 January 2014 [3 November 2015]. Available from: http://prostheticmakeupfx.com/tag/lord-voldemort/

MCCARTHY, E., 2010. Behind the Scenes of Splice: Interviews with the Director and VFX Supervisor. In: Popular Mechanics. 28 January 2010 [3 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a5311/4343953/

MOVIEMANIACSDE, 2010. Splice | Featurette #4 about the visual effects (2010) [3 November 2015]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BkKijD3Wfw

IMDB, 2010. Splice [3 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1017460/