Pirates of the Caribbean:
'Bootstrap' Bill Turner is a character in Pirates of the Caribbean that has become a slave to the sea. He looks like what he does because he is now serving a crew for 100 years, and is succumbing to dementia and merging into the boat itself. He is a hybrid in that he is a human that is now a sea creature of his own, this is even apparent from the intricate makeup he has. I am in awe of how amazing and detailed this look is, even down to the way his eye droops under the weight of the starfish that is stuck to his face. Moreover, his skin is pale and his eyes red like he has been stuck under the water for an age. Everything on him looks mossy, moist and characteristic of being under the depths of the sea rather than floating on the surface. I love this interpretation, however I am not sure how it would be achievable with the prosthetic skills we have learned.
I read an interview with the actor, Stellan Skarsgard, in which he describes some of the process of the makeup. What he said is that the makeup artist, Joel Harnow, created the makeup so that it would effortlessly move with his face. He says that it followed his facial muscles exactly, and so when his face moved the makeup moved with him. I found this intriguing as I'd like to know how he managed to create the makeup so that it would fit the face perfectly. Skarsgard also said that there were six different stages of the makeup which were the process of him becoming more and more integrated into the ship. I also loved this fact as the viewers of the films are able to see his transformation through makeup, and it is clear a lot of preparation would be needed for this, along with a huge amount of background research in order to create a realistic merge of human and sea creature/ship hybrid.
Once a mortal pirate, Davy Jones eventually merged into a cruel, fearful squid/human hybrid who roams the seas eternally.
This look isn't makeup and had to be created with CGI. However, he is still a human hybrid that has the stature of a human but has the face of an octopus. This is a very transformed interpretation, and is a clear merge of a a creature of nature and the human form. I like how they still incorporate some of his upper face shape, his eyes and his bottom lip as these show he still has some human features.
The Chronicles of Narnia:
Mr Tumnus is a human/goat/deer hybrid. I watched an interesting video that gave an insight of his makeup and hair process which shows it better than it can be described with words (included below).
The first thing that struck me was what the actor, James McAvoy, said. "You don't want it to be the animal infringing on the man, you want it to be one being- the singular". This is definitely an important factor when creating a realistic hybrid, I don't want to make it look as if one of them overpowers the other, they need to have an equal presence.
What I also liked in this video was seeing the prosthetic application, as it is exactly like how we do it in the lesson with the cotton bud and pros-aide. In addition to this, we see a makeup artist airbrushing the makeup onto the prosthetic which is a way of colouring the prosthetic that I haven't seen before. This would definitely be a better way of applying the colour as you won't have brush lines and it will go on looking very natural.
Avatar:
The creatures in Avatar to me are also a hybrid of humans and nature. They have characteristics from animals on our world, and have been described as 'cat-like' creatures. This I read in an article of an interview with the famous Jordu Schell who was a concept designer for the lead female character, Neytiri (pictured above).
He tells how the characters have a feline aspect, while still having human characteristics such as the build (e.g. mimicking of the human form as they have a head, body, arms, legs and hands), and similar facial features to that of a human. Although all these characters are CGI, they still had to be designed, sculpted and created. It was a very, very long process that took a lot of different attempts to get perfect, which shows that something can't be created straight away. A few attempts have to be made in order to create exactly what you want and to create the perfect hybrid.
References/Sources:
MOVIEWEB.COM., 2006. EXCLUSIVE: Stellan Skarsgard Puts On The Make-Up To Become Bootstrap Bill [viewed November 2015]. Available from: http://movieweb.com/exclusive-stellan-skarsgard-puts-on-the-make-up-to-become-bootstrap-bill/
DAVID, L., 2009. Avatar Concept Designer Reveals the Secrets of the Na'Vi [viewed November 2015]. Available from: http://io9.com/5354315/avatar-concept-designer-reveals-the-secrets-of-the-navi
SERAPHI, K., 2012. Making of Mr.Tumnus(from Japanese DVD) [viewed November 2015]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncKfRtxqzZ4
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