“What do you want? A burn? A gash?”
I had a special-effects movie makeup artist at my disposal. Mariah Smith has been working the movie circuit since 2003, and she’s done a little bit of everything – from simple burns and cuts to head-to-toe zombies and boogiemen.
We decided on a deep gash on the left side of my face, and Smith got to work, beginning with cotton balls and adhesive.
“I was very nervous,” said Smith, of her start in the movie makeup business, which is now her full-time gig with her business, Bioduck FX. Her first paid gig was on the set of an independent movie, “Freshman Psych,” where she got a primer on the basics of doing burns, scars and other special-effects makeup and was on her way.
“There’s so much out there in terms of resources – online tutorials, books. What it really comes down to is experimenting. You experiment until you get it right. A lot of the more difficult things, you have to do that,” she said, applying color and texture to my gash.
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