Im far more experienced than anyone else, however, I had been out of special effects for 10 years and was VERY rusty.
We called the time and materials limitations the 'great equalizer'.
So while I had much more experience, that was in the 90s and since then I have grown complacent in that I pretty much make my own schedules and do things at the pace I want.
Then you have these 'kids' who may only a have a few years experience but its recent and they are hungry and full of energy.
Plus there are new materials Im not familiar with that they grew up using.
I was talking to the producer last night and he told me there is no way I would have been on it if I hadnt been out of the business for 10 years.
So really, its a pretty fair competition when you consider all the factors.
Plus they DO grade us on a curve based on our levels of experience and talent. So if I and say, Sue , did the exact same makeup she would get a lot more points for it.
I knew they were going to play me up as the cocky old timer. Remember they had almost 30 hours of footage of each of us to edit together to create the 'character' they wanted.
If you took 30 hours of anyone you would have enough footage to portray them in any way you want.
For example, theres a good backstory to that shot of me sitting in the chair...
My model was a pain in the ass who hated wearing the makeup. She had never done it before. I got my makeup about 60% done and she decided she couldnt handle it and needed it taken off.
So I take her makeup off and she goes to clean her face in the bathroom and I sit in the chair for a few minutes waiting for her to come back out.
Anyway we finally convince her to let me put the makeup back on but only glue it lightly and not around her eyes so it looked pretty bad.
Of course they dont show or mention any of that, nor do they say that my model was FIRED after that first episode for being too difficult.
They also dont show or mention that I made all the tree-limb fingers for the mens team scarecrow and that I formulated all the silicone rubber for the mens Lion and tin man since the other guys didnt know how to do it. So I held 'school' for a while.
Its a tv show. I knew it going into it since Im in the business.
But I had a ton of fun doing it and knew that my reputation in both the film and toy industries is solid so I didnt worry about looking bad.
