Exclusive Interview with Shaun Smith on Hollywood Spy

Exclusive Interview with Shaun Smith on Hollywood Spy

Today at HOLLYWOOD SPY we are joined by Shaun Smith, make-up and effects expert who worked on many visually stunning movies such as 300, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, I AM LEGEND, THE MONKEY KING and CHRONICLES OF NARNIA! Shaun Smith has over 20 years of experience working on make-up, special make-up effects, puppets and props for feature films, television and commercials and he was kind enough to sit down and have a chitchat with your Hollywood Spy.

SHAUN, CAN YOU TELL US WHAT DOES THE WORK OF A MAKEUP SUPERVISOR CONSIST OF? WE KNOW IT INVOLVES MUCH LEARNING, INSPIRATION AND CREATIVITY. YOU ORGANIZE AND SUPERVISE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOPS….

Yeah, I love it, love the intensity of it. It’s like a big puzzle and its fun to figure it out. There is something about the collaboration process that keeps me excited. I basically work out the details and the look with the director and other people on the team. I then do a budget and schedule for the job, hire the team, coordinate the shop build, apply and oversee make-up applications and most importantly make sure we stay under budget and on time.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH THE BIGGEST VISUAL GENIUS IN MODERN FILM – ZACK SNYDER – ON THE GROUNDBREAKING EPIC “300”? ANY CHANCE OF WORKING WITH HIM AGAIN?

I feel fortunate I worked with Zack on his first two films “Dawn of the Dead” and “300”. Both successful movies with a ton of make-up. Zack’s a lot of fun.  And like I said, we did two successful films together so you never know. I really like Zack so working with him again would be cool.

YOU ALSO WORKED ON ANOTHER EPIC FILM “CONAN THE

BARBARIAN” CREATING SOME TRULY MEMORABLE LOOKS. THAT GENRE IS PROBABLY A HEAVEN FOR MAKE UP ARTISTS.

I’m a huge fan of the Conan comics and the 1982 Milius film! So yeah, working on a Conan movie was unbelievable. I was totally engrossed in the process. We had a pretty small crew for a job that size. When I look back at all the makeup and hair work in that film…I am really proud of what we produced.

CREATURE EFFECTS IN WILL SMITH’S POST APOCALYPTIC FILM “I AM LEGEND” WERE ALSO YOUR JOB?

We worked out the original make-up test with director Francis Lawrence. We imagined the Hemocytes covered in white ash because in the original script the city was going to be on fire and ash was everywhere like snow, hence the white caked make-up. The theory was that they smeared an ash concoction over their skin to protect it and give some relief to the raw and translucent skin underneath. Ultimately they decided to go digital for the infected humans (Hemocytes). I believe I ended up being credited as the Creature Effects Supervisor on the film.

AND ALSO IN “CHRONICLES OF NARNIA” AND “FOUR BROTHERS”?

I supervised both “Chronicles” and “Four Brothers” for another company since I enjoy running shows for other people and I treat it with the same passion as if it were my own. For “Four Brothers” we built a mechanical Rottweiler that attacks Mark Walberg and Tyrese Gibson. For “Chronicles” we did eight Mechanical Deer, four white and four brown puppets. The build time was really short so I came up with the idea of building just four mechanical bodies w

here we could switch out the head and skin depending on which colour deer we needed for the shot.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR WORK ON UPCOMING ASIAN ADVENTURE “THE MONKEY KING”. NEW TRAILER SHOWS SOME REALLY OUTSTANDING MASKS AND MAKE-UP!

Thanks! Yeah, lots of fun makeup on that film. It is rumored to have cost $100 million dollar and I believe it’s one of the biggest make-up effects shows ever done in China. It is probably the most mentally challenging film I’ve ever done. It was about a year and a half stretch of crazy travel and nonstop work. We had to build a shop from the ground up and probably had close to 100 people working on hair suits and makeup effects! We made 80 full haired monkey suits or as I like to call them, Mankey suits, all hand tied, one hair at a time on to Spandex suits… Each suit had two heads and multiple faces. Plus we built a ton of  other characters. Desire Soto was my Right Hand on that project! The key to surviving these huge jobs is to surround yourself with good people and have awesome interpreters who understand both cultures.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON CURRENTLY?

Currently I am in pre-production on a Breck Eisner film starring Vin Diesel ”The Last Witch Hunter”! Some really cool stuff on that and I’m super excited. Earlier this year, I worked on the new season of “Eagleheart”. I also completed work on Director Jesse Johnson’s latest fan film short “Lobo” with two time World Kickboxing Champion Jerry “Golden Boy” Trimble.

ANY ADVICE FOR ASPIRING MAKE-UP ARTISTS?

The field is saturated with aspiring artists so make sure it’s what you really want to do before you drop $10,000 or more on make-up school! Be prepared to work your way up. Learn to live frugally because starting pay can be low. And please, always be respectful of the people who came before you and learn the history. At least know who Dick Smith is. Then… practice, practice, practice!

Monkey King to dominate Chinese film market on China.org.cn


The All-star fantasy epic “The Monkey King” is likely to dominate the Chinese film market and beyond during the Spring Festival season, one of its producers said confidently in an exclusive interview with China.org.cn.

“The Monkey King,” the newest adaption of the Chinese classic ancient novel “Journey to the West,” written by Wu Cheng’en in the Ming Dynasty, will be screened all over China from Jan. 31, the first day of the Chinese lunar New Year. The film is directed by Hong Kong director Cheang Pou-Soi and stars Chinese movie stars Donnie Yen, Chow Yun-fat, Aaron Kwok, Joe Chen, Peter Ho, Kelly Chen, Zhang Zilin and Gigi Leung.

“The director told me a few days ago that it is not just a film. It is like a big engineering project,” said Wang Haifeng, chairman of the film’s production company, the Filmko Entertainment Group. “I totally agree. We have spent years making it happen and we should be thankful to the thousands of people who worked on the film.”

According to Wang, the film is the true blockbuster and cost a total of 500 million yuan (US$82.6 million) to make and promote. About 250 million yuan (US$41.3 million) was spent on the filming and the rest was spent on post-production, distribution and promotion.
“Actually, we only spent 70 million yuan (US$11.5 million) on the all-star cast,” he said, “The major expenditure was on the special effects.”

The “Monkey King” production team asked Hollywood top-class special effects veterans and companies for help. The film’s 3D design was done by Daniel L. Symmes, who worked on “The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” while the make-up effects were done by Shaun Smith and his team, who worked on “300” and “I Am Legend.” The visual effects advisor is David Ebner, who worked on “Alice in Wonderland” and “Spider-Man 3” while the visual effects supervisor Kevin Rafferty, who worked on “Men in Black II” and “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.”

“We lavished more than 200 million yuan on special effects. While Chinese visual effects companies worked on hundreds of scenes, nearly 2,000 scenes were done by international teams in North America, South Korea, India, Thailand and Australia,” Wang said.

The “Monkey King” project was begun in 2008, and the filming started in 2010, when the producers felt that film technology had developed enough to depict the fantasy scenes from “Journey to the West,” after watching “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. At this time, the Chinese film market also started to expand rapidly.

The project is more than meets the eye. Wang Haifeng, Chow Yun-fat and Donnie Yen discussed and voted for director Cheang Pou-Soi, who is known for “Home Sweet Home,” “Dog Bite Dog” and “Accident,” because he is completely dedicated to the films he makes. They then recruited three famous script writers, Edmond Wong (“Ip Man 2”), Lola Huo (“Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” and “Kung Fu Hustle”) and Kam-Yuen Szeto (“Too Many Ways to Be No. 1” and “Exiled”).

“Our script writers loved the novel very much, so they worked very hard on this film,” Wang said. “The film has hundreds of settings and roles, and they did their best to tell a good story that both the old and young will enjoy.”

The film “Monkey King,” whose Chinese title is “Havoc in Heaven,” comes from the first eight chapters of the classic novel, telling the story of how the monkey Sun Wukong learns to be immortal and rebels against the Jade Emperor of heaven. This is before he accompanies the monk Xuanzang on a journey west to collect the Buddhist sutras from India during the Tang Dynasty.

The 3D/IMAX “Monkey King” is set to make huge takings at the box offices. Wang said they have also sold distribution rights to 70 countries and regions including the United States and Australia, though it is too early to say if the film will be able to match the success of Stephen Chow’s “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons,” which made US$208.8 million worldwide after it opened on the lunar New Year’s Day last year, making it the second highest grossing film ever in the Chinese mainland.

For Wang, however, this is not the most important thing. “Filmmaking is like making a dream,” he said. “It is worth any amount of money to have the opportunity to put the ‘Monkey King’ on the big screen.”