Oscar® winner Howard Berger and special make-up effects artist Gino Acevedo have been added as guest speakers for the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show (IMATS), held Sept. 12-13 at the Sydney Convention Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Berger, who won an Oscar® for his work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, will take the stage along with the make-up team from Narnia. A Los Angeles native, Berger was hired by Stan Winston to work on Predator and Aliens. Later, Berger was hired by Rick Baker to work on Harry and the Hendersons. In 1988, after working for various studios, Berger and Gregory Nicotero formed their own studio, KNB EFX Group, Inc. in Los Angeles.
KNB EFX has opened their official website detailing the incredible body of work that the company has achieved over the years. I must say, though, that it is a site that is definitely for adults only, as the company does do work with scenes that depict blood related events. It’s not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. Parental guidance suggested.
One thing of definite note to Narnia fans, and a very good thing indeed, is that they are ramping up to start work on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader this summer! Their work on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe earned them an Academy Award, which was well deserved. Though they were passed on for the excellent work on Prince Caspian, one would assume that’s because it looked so natural, that people forgot that it was the work of an effects house. That’s how good KNB EFX is.
The website features some Narnia concept art that they created that hasn’t been seen anywhere else.
If Howard Berger is reading this, I’m looking forward to running into you sometime this year!
A recent press junket went to both Disney’s Pixar studio, and KNB EFX. Both are places that I dream of one day visiting. Who knows, perhaps I could supply some voices to some characters in a Pixar film. And I generally look like a faun, so KNB EFX would just have to apply some horns, a curly wig and ears, and I’d be just about set before Special Effects.
KNB EFX is the company that provided all of the furry prosthetics and creatures for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
With both films arriving on Blu-ray and DVD, Disney decided to have a press junket that covered Wall-E and Prince Caspian at the same time. The first stop was a visit to Pixar, who has made no bad film! I love them all! Get Wall-E!
Pixar was just day one. Day two lead to KNB EFX. Everyone took a short flight to Hollywood, and went for a rendezvous with Disney’s head of disc production at Burbank.
The looked at the new Circle-Vision Interactive feature, on the Prince Caspian Blu-ray Disc, that allows for 360-degree scene navigation.
Following the preview, the group of reporters was driven to KNB’s studios, where Greg Nicotero and his team created the costumes for Prince Caspian.
All in all, the efforts of the teams at both studios showed the variety of work that went into making two very different films. But it also displayed the passion that both teams had for the work they are doing. And that is what drives each them toward perfection in their work.
In both Narnia movies, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, creatures from Narnia have filled the screen with unique and mystical appearances. Thanks to both the makeup and prosthetics team and the costume team, Narnia is truly brought to life.
I had the amazing opportunity to become a Narnian creature myself. I saw up-close what it was like for each of the actors and makeup artists every single day of filming. The process took 1½ hours for me, which was half the time it actually took on set.
My makeup artist was Kevin Wasner. He told me that during most of the filming, he had 20-hour days with only 4 hours of sleep. His day started at 4 or 5 am and went until 12 or 1 the next morning. The morning hours were spent transforming the actors into creatures; the afternoon and evening hours were spent making sure they stayed that way, then turning them back into humans.
Becoming a Hag
Sarah Transform begins I was assigned to be a “hag.” They showed me a picture of what I would soon look like. Wow! It was mind-boggling!
Disney/Walden Media: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Howard Berger – Creature Supervisor
Shooting for Narnia was done in New Zealand and Czech Republic. This story is bigger in scope, with a new look and vision. “Darker and more savage” because of the storyline( the Narnia creatures have been exiled), but still family entertainment. One aspect as a director that returning to Narnia allowed was to change / do over the creatures. Felt that last movie all the creatures were 20 – 25 years old. This time wanted to make younger and older creatures to give a fuller back drop to story.
Showed a 5 minute video presentation of “Prince Caspian.” *Very* rough cut, with many special effects missing. Was funny to see actors with “green” legs, or with partially completed horse bodies. Arrow shots from Susan were blotching and fat. Reepicheep was not complete – very cartoony. Still – looks like its faithful to the story line and full of sword fighting action.
He’s hoping to be able to work on all movies made from the 7 books. They are starting pre-production on “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” right now. He mentioned that his company was one of several originally interviewed for “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.” He was asked why he wanted to do Narnia, when KNB was not known for this genre. He mentioned he wanted to do a film his kids could watch.
The Telmarines armor was influences by Spanish Renaissance armor. To date, his favorite creatures are Mr. Tumnus (McAvoy) and the Minotaurs.
Side note: McAvoy was brought in at the last minute because they could not find an actor they were happy with. They weren’t sure about him because he was so young and they were thinking of an older Tumnus. Obviously he pulled it off.
Howard Berger came out and spoke about NARNIA. Howard’s a great guy and I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time with him and the other KNB guys on many of the sets I’ve visited. Disney threw him out by his lonesome to answer fan questions and give a little talk about the flick before starting the footage up.
- He looked at the first film and figured out what he wanted to change… he didn’t put it this way, but I got the impression that CASPIAN was an opportunity for a “do-over” on the creatures. He wanted a difference in age with the creatures… so this one we’ll see young creatures, old creatures and more wild beings, not so “coifed.”
-Weta is doing miniature and VFX work as well as a VFX company in London.
- VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is already moving forward and they’ll do all 7 books if the Box Office stays strong.
The footage they showed had no dialog, only music over images. There were some really incomplete effects, ranging from animatic Reepicheep slashing bad guys and tying up cats to green-legged centaurs. There was also part of the mano-a-mano sword fight between Peter and King Miraz, the evil ruler of the Telmarines who have taken over Narnia while the Pevensies have been away (one year passes for them and it’s well over a thousand years in Narnia).
I’ll have much more detail on this next week… I was shown at least 45 minutes of the movie, so I’ll be able to spill a bit more then. I’ll just say that I wasn’t that keen on the first NARNIA, but this one has a darkness to it that I quite enjoy. I like that Berger, Andrew Adamson and co. have made the world feel a little more used and lived in.
A LOOK INTO THE CREATURES OF NARNIA
BY HOWARD BERGER
Makeup Effects and Creature Designer
Once in a lifetime, something so amazing happens and you are so grateful for it. But, to have it happen twice in a lifetime is unheard of. I am talking about the privilege of another journey into Narnia that the creative team at KNB EFX Group, Inc. gets to take for PRINCE CASPIAN.
The first film was a challenge, as we had never tackled a project so huge in scope and with so many creatures playing at once. It was important to bring all the Narnians to life and make it completely believable that they could believably live in this magical land. And here we are again, ready to meet up with the new Narnians that inhabit the land 1,500 years later.
The first step took partner Greg Nicotero and I back to the drawing board, as we wanted to mix things up a bit. We wanted to take another pass at what the Narnians would be like if they had become more wild in their appearance, seeing how they have been living in hiding within the forests all these centuries. What if they were all different age groups, sizes and races? We felt that the Narnians in the first film were all in their thirties, so we designed some study sculptures to demonstrate our concepts and approached director Andrew Adamson with the ideas. He liked our take and felt this could give Narnia an even more real existence.
In PRINCE CASPIAN, we have heavy set fauns, old age fauns, female dwarves, centaurs and their families. The minotaurs are now on the side of good. A new hag, a werewolf and the satyrs are back, but all newly redesigned to be more animal-like than the prior movie.
I think in every film there is one character you fall in love with. The first movie had Mr. Tumnus, played by the great James McAvoy. This time it is Peter Dinklage who plays Trumpkin the Dwarf. The character is so wonderfully written, and once you see Peter as Trumpkin, he becomes alive and real. We gave Trumpkin his look, but Peter gave him his heart, and the collaboration brings to life a new and interesting addition to this rich world.
A lot of the same crew from the first film have joined us, including my co-winner for the Best Makeup Oscar last year, Tami Lane (with key support from our third team member, Sarah Rubano). We are all excited and thrilled as there is an evolution that has occurred in Narnia and we are all privileged to be here to experience another wonderful adventure.
Oscar® winner Howard Berger and special make-up effects artist Gino Acevedo have been added as guest speakers for the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show (IMATS), held Sept. 12-13 at the Sydney Convention Centre in Sydney, Australia.
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