The works behind Mannequin Mask

 When creating the book firstly, Mannequin Mask came as a recurring nightmare back in middle school.  After having the dream and on the brink of going insane (not seriously), but growing tired of waking up in a cold sweat and the urge to scream; I decided to write down the dream in the hopes that when on paper, it would leave my mind.  Once written, the story grew and grew over the years and soon became a novel.  The novel that I had created sat on a shelf of mine for years until I started going to college for film directing and producing.  While in a script writing course, I was short of ideas for the start of a project, so I came across my old novel and began writing it in script form.  From there, it was turned into a short film, and then this blog series.  During the time of filming; a plethora of opportunity presented itself to me and my peers as we set out on this journey.


When creating the MASK!

When creating the mask, I started with a sculpture of wet clay on a styrofoam head.  On the wet clay, I molded the shape of the mask that I wanted and made melted looking skin as the base of the "skull".    When the shape of the face was sculpted to my liking, I poured liquid latex straight onto the wet clay and let it set until dry. ( I had a plate underneath to catch any liquid latex that would fall from it ) Any of the leftover liquid latex that fell to the plate, I also used a paint brush to "scoop" the latex from the plate and back onto the head in places I missed.  For the small areas, I used Q-tips to spread the liquid latex over the clay.  I did this layer after layer until maybe about 9 or 10 layers later, my mask was formed.  To remove it from the wet clay, I peeled it slowly off using another paint brush and baby powder to help remove it from the clay as it was sticking very much to the molded head.

 With more makeup, and photo shop, we were able to create our first film poster in a one hour photoshoot.

Once the mask was initially finished, I put it to my actress; Molly Grell, who was kind enough to work as Victoria.  The mask fit nicely to her face, but needed some adjustments.  So, with the help of a friend; Brad Flemmings, a well versed makeup artist in spfx makeup, was a great help in successfully adhering it more to her facial features.  With more latex, some torn tissues, and a heat gun, we were able to successfully apply the mask features to her liking.



     Now, we were ready for our first shoot.