Hollywood Special Effects Show reveals movie secrets at Crawley’s Hawth

The Hollywood Special Effects Show is a brand-new interactive family production that takes audiences behind the scenes of their favourite movies to see how special effects are created for the screen.
David Brown. Picture by Karla GowlettDavid Brown. Picture by Karla Gowlett
David Brown. Picture by Karla Gowlett

It plays Crawley’s Hawth on September 30 at 7pm (01293 553636).

Spokeswoman Charlotte Prentice said: “Join a team of professionals who’ve been behind the special effects on a vast range of productions, including Game Of Thrones, Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Dark Knight Rises and Phantom Of The Opera.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“They’ll be exposing the trade secrets to creating movie magic and giving a revealing insight into some of the most spectacular scenes.

“For families and movie-buffs alike, you will feel the heat from spectacular explosions, get up close with gruesome sci-fi monsters, be blown away by apocalyptic weather and possibly star in your own high-octane stunt sequence. This is a dangerously-exciting theatrical experience like no other.”

Make-up artist David Brown is among those taking part.

“I had been working in costume for several years and had gotten to a point where I wanted a change. I was watching the special features of a movie and there was a section on makeup. I thought it looked interesting so I looked into courses.

“I began by taking Stuart Bray’s three-day prosthetic course and then a two-week summer school in Glasgow. That built up a few pieces in my portfolio and the rest was luck and hard work!”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Preparation is essential, says David, whose credits include Game of Thrones, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Dark Knight Rises.

“Depending on the size of film it can take months to prepare. As designer there is the job of script analysis and a lot of paper work to get the ground work done. Meetings with the creative team of the movie will refine the designs and ideas to within the concept that the director envisions.

“Then it is into the workshop to take lifecasts of the actors, sculpting the creatures, aliens, ageing onto the lifecast. Moulding all of this in fibre glass and after some hefty cleaning of the moulds injecting it with silicone. Sometimes all this prep is done a few months before filming begins so that a stock of prosthetics can be built and then while filming is happening more pieces are being made and painted ready for application at a later date.”

“Time is always an issue on set as every minute costs a lot of money. Usually, as a make-up artist who is applying, you are given a time to complete the makeup. Sometimes on smaller movies you are asked how long it will take. A small and very simple piece can be applied and painted in five to ten minutes, but the longer the better so you have more time to work on it.

“Full character makeups can take up to six hours to apply.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The start time for these makeups will be early morning 1am or 2am to get ready to begin filming around 8am-7pm and then an hour or so to remove the makeup.”

For tickets call 01293 553636 or visit www.hawth.co.uk.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page

3 Follow us on Twitter

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

Be part of it.