www.manbehindthecurtain.net
Special effects
Where did you start your special effects endeavors?
I started back in Cleveland, when I was a 24 year old
carpenter- I saw an old high school friend, who was now a photographer,
looking harried, pushing a cart through a lumberyard. I asked what he was
making.
"A set," he said. "Hey, do you want to build it for me?"
I said, "Love to, but I have no idea what that involves."
"Two windows in an eight foot wall. And it only needs to stand up for
six hours."
"I can do that," I said. And not long after, I was his studio
manager, rigger, and effects guy.
What was your first rigged contraption?
When I was six or seven, using bits of wire,
springs, and scraps from the garage, I made all the doors on my father's
old work car pop open when he opened the driver's door. The trunk as well!
Do you work more with photographers or in video?
I started out with photographers, then got into TV commercials. But
now I'm getting more work with still photographers again. The money's the same,
and the pace is a little less frantic, so I enjoy it. And I've got a lot of
the more complex equipment and tools from video shoots, which I can bring
to still shoots.
For your over sized props like OfficeMax, what were they made
of?
The Office Max props were a combination of
MDF (medium density fiberboard), urethane foam, Bondo, fiberglass, and metal.
The giant sheet of paper was just a piece of .016" polystyrene plastic. The
giant Dorito was upholstery foam, a two part pourable soft urethane foam,
and pigments. Oh, and bits of cut out tissue paper, for the "spice flakes".
What’s your favorite rig you have made?
Hmm... recently, I rigged up a laser guided high
powered baseball cannon. I went down to Cincinnati, and spent the
day shooting 120 mph baseballs into pinatas full of guacamole and nacho cheese
dip, for a Pepto Bismol commercial. They just blew apart. That was a pretty
great day! (Video here- save time, and skip to the 1:00 mark) http://www.youtube.com/
What’s your favorite prop you have made?
A recent favorite was a giant piggy bank, mounted
on a mechanical bull rig. That was a couple of weeks of carving, sanding, and
painting with my good friend Martha Schrik. The spot, and the pig, came out
great! http://www.youtube.com/watch?
What do people come to you most often for?
I've been getting a lot of beverage work,
recently- bottle dressing, ice, frost, and pours. And I do a lot of grill and
flame shots, although it's not the majority of my work. I've got a whole range
of equipment for that, with a "cracker fogger" to make room temperature steam or
smoke, a set of very nice acrylic "hot coals", and a great, controllable flame
rig for grills. And I sometimes make custom grills to match the layout, welding
up the grill rods on site, and cutting up the backyard grills as needed to get
lights underneath.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THtD2gvNC9g&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THtD2gvNC9g&feature=player_embedded
Your work is so specific, does your work come word of mouth or do you
market yourself to potential clients?
Mostly word of mouth. A lot of recommendations come from the
food stylists. When they see a layout with flames, steam, smoke, pours,
splashes, or anything tricky, they'll often say to the photographer, "You know
who'd make this all go smoother? Geoff." I owe the stylists big time!
Did sculptures come before or after your special effects work?
About the same time, starting years ago. I was fascinated with
prosthetic makeup effects, and got into life cast sculpture that way.
Although I don't do that sort of f/x makeup work- it's very skilled and
specialized- I use a lot of the same sculpting materials
and methods in prop making and rigging.
What’s your favorite medium you’ve worked in sculpting?
I've been doing some vacuum formed pieces over life casts, that are
really interesting. You can get the feeling of draped wet silk, with the color
and texture of corroded copper.
Photo credits:
Giant Dorito, Ink/Paper/Scissors; Geoff
Binns-Calvey
Foam Pizza Painting, Pig and Martha; Amy
Binns-Calvey
Standing by Giant Pig; Martha
Schrik
Welding the Grill; Justin Paris
No comments:
Post a Comment