Last of the Mohicans
The Last Of The Mohicans: This film came about thanks to the recommendation of make-up legend Dick Smith due to him I was flown down to North Carolina to meet make-up artist's Nick Dudman make-up effects supervisor and Peter Robb King over all make-up supervisor. After working a wonderful 6 weeks or so under the supervision of Nick Dudman he decided due to personal reasons to leave the project.And it was just before all the big stuff was about to happen a giant massacre ambush the attack on the fort and many other elements that entailed making up hundreds of extras, both Indians, the British, and the French, I was making plates of wounds and sculpting a burned 10 year old boy for the film when Nick was gonna leave the project.
So after some sad good-byes Nick leaves, And now the producers are searching for a new prosthetics supervisor. The resumes starting pouring in John Caglione, Craig Reardon, Matthew Mungle, the list went on and on, they were even considering Michael Westmore.
It was a scary time due to the fact I was gonna be out of a job. So I stepped forward and said to the producers listen I have my own crew I'm here I have been making the stuff, and we have an established crew already, let me do the job. After a full two minute conversation, and of course a salary reduction, they said you have the job go to it!
So I called on crew members I have worked with many times before the were Evan Cambell, Joe Mecchia, Vincent Schicchi, Ken Brilliant, with the exception of Neil B. Kelly a local from the area.
I am very proud of the work on this film because of the mere fact that most of the stuff you see -- a burned ten-year-old boy or when the extras or actors are fighting or any kind of violent interaction -- most of the actors are wearing fake parts and prosthetics on their bare bodies. And the blend lines are sometimes right smack in the middle of the camera, waiting for a prop axe or weapon to hit them, and I feel the work was seamless. And all done in the heat of the North Carolina location, in the middle of the mountains.
I felt like Indiana Jones the make-up artist on that show. Jiggers and all kinds of bugs ate me alive; rain, mud, you name it -- every plague to man was on that show, but I had a blast because I was working for my favorite director, Michael Mann.