The Spread sits down with FX guru Dan Martin to talk about the mysteries of movie magic, being Ben Wheatley’s go-to guy and what Brexit means for British film.
Tom Hiddleston admires Dan’s work on the set of High-Rise
“Stabbings & Shootings: Prosthetic Makeup with Dan Martin” will be held at Cinema Jam HQ at Collective Temperance Hospital on the 3rd and 4th of December, from 10:00 to 18:00. Tickets are £399 and includes tools and materials. Readers of the The Spread can use the promotional code “DanSpread”, for a 10% discount. Click here for more info.
Dan Martin is a special effects artist and co-coordinator, as well as prop maker and prosthetics artists, with over a decade of professional experience and credits on films such as The Wolfman, Batman Begins, The Human Centipede II, High-Rise, Sightseers and Free Fire. We chatted to him recently about his past, his present and his future.
What first drew you to special effects work?
I was a child? [laughs] I was into magic, I found a book on the history of monsters in film in my school library and it was about the same time that the adults were asking us what we wanted to be when we were older. It seemed like the combination of the two things I liked the most which were movies and magic, at the time. If you think about the first filmmakers, people like Georges Méliès, they were magicians who were using special effects for that. That’s really been it all along, it’s been about creating illusions for film.
Who were your major influences when you were starting out?
Aside from the sort of yesteryear greats like Méliès and Chaney and Jack Pierce I think, my generation, for a lot of people the first person they ever heard about was Tom Savini. Because he was very good at putting himself out there. He’s written a couple of books called the Grande Illusions books which were sort of quite a Blue Peter-y introduction to special effects and definitely made it feel quite approachable, which was really important: it didn’t put you off. I remember I met someone in the industry years later, when I was around 17, who was actually quite down on the process and had I not been so steadfastly determined I may’ve given up. Savini’s real impact was that it felt like it was achievable, it felt it was something you could do from home. Because he did! He did things like Dawn Of The Dead and Creepshow and he was making these things in a Pennsylvania garage.
Dan’s early inspiration, the legendary Tom Savini
As you’ve pointed out, makeup and practical special effects are jobs that require a lot of skill and passion. Do you see the same level of interest among younger people compared to when you were starting out?
I didn’t really see it when I was starting out, mostly because it was so much more insular back then. We didn’t have the internet, we didn’t have social media, and it was a very different place in which to learn this stuff. I went into my school library and they ended up changing the rules on what you are and aren’t allowed to photocopy because I basically photocopied entire books so I could take it home and study the monster pictures in them. I think there is a lot of enthusiasm, it’s more accessible now. Which instantly, without wanting to sound down on anyone, sort of opens the doors up to people who are a little more casual about it. Whereas before if you wanted to know how to do it you really had to dedicate yourself, now there’s a thousand YouTube videos for that stuff - of varying quality [laughs]. But yeah, I think there’s an amazing amount of talent out there and there are great people coming over from from other industries, not just young people, who have been sculpting and experimenting and being discovered because of the internet, because of social media.
What advice would you give to anyone thinking of pursuing makeup or special effects work as a career?
Practice. Practice every day. All the time. Know that it’s okay to be bad, know that you need to practice to get better.
Do you feel that computer generated effects have become a permanent replacement for some practical effects work and, if so, how do you feel about that?
I don’t think they’ve become a replacement, that was definitely the fear at the beginning. I think it’s like digital watches in the 80s. Digital watches came along and suddenly everyone was wearing them and the analogue watches kind of drifted out of favour. But then, after a few years, digital watches sort of faded a little bit in popularity and analogue made a comeback; but by that point they were being run by the quartz crystals inside that had been developed for the digital watches. It was the hybrid of the two technologies that really won out and I think that’s always going to be the answer with any new development. Just because something new has come along doesn’t mean that all the old stuff is now useless. It just means you have another potential solution to every problem you come across. Just as a plumber wouldn’t leave one half of their tool kit at home, a director shouldn’t write off physical or digital effects just because it’s not necessarily what they’re used to using.
There’s been a lot of talk about the future of British film lately. Have you felt a change of attitude in the industry since the EU referendum result?
[laughs] Other than just the general feeling of misery? It’s all a bit horrible. There’s a short term upswing because all of the American budgets over here are worth more, so there’s a small advantage. A brief advantage. When our economy’s in the toilet the Americans are going to come and spend money, that’s always going to be a benefit. But there’s also going to be a massive drop in arts funding and tax subsidies so it could go either way. It’s a little early to call it at the moment.
There are a lot of effects driven films being made at the moment but they’re often pushed to be less graphic and more family friendly, do you think this hurts your line of work?
I think that my sort of niche has always been in the slightly more indie end. I’ve worked as a cog in the machine on the massive projects but I like the sort of the figuring-it-out aspect of a slightly smaller job, especially one I get to be in charge of. But I don’t think it hurts me, I think there’s room for both. Again, it’s one of these situations where just because one thing is happening doesn’t mean another doesn’t. I don’t think there’s ever been more films being made with my kind of stuff in. There’s just even more being made of the other kind.
You’ve worked with a great many people in the film industry over the years, is there still any one person who you dream of working with?
There’s people showing their skill every festival circuit, every year there’s new people coming out. There’s quite a few Asian directors I’d like to work with, specifically. But it’s more about the project than the people. The people can be fantastic but if they haven’t brought the right project with them it’s not going to be amazing. Similarly an amazing project can fall in the lap of someone who wouldn’t otherwise necessarily turn out a great thing. Like I said, there are genuinely great films coming out all the time from people you maybe haven’t seen anything from before. I think that’s one of the big changes, not in digital effects but in digital filmmaking, it’s opened the floodgates and it’s made it much more accessible. So there’s some really interesting stuff coming out.
What’s the one thing in your career that you’re the most proud of?
Normally the most recent thing. Aside from things I’m not allowed to talk about because they haven’t come out yet [laughs]. The head peel in High Rise was particularly pleasing. Ben Wheatley has a sort of preternatural ability to tap into something I’ve wanted to do for ages so he always gets the benefit of a decade’s worth of unpaid R&D [laughs].
What are you working on right now?
I’m just starting up on Jonas Åkerlund’s Lords of Chaos for Rook films which have partnered with Vice and Scott Free, which is exciting. I just finished on an action film called The Final Score for The Fyzz starring Dave Bautista and Pierce Brosnan. I’m doing some stuff on an indie horror called Double Date, which is great fun. There’s some other stuff in development, which I’m probably not allowed to talk about, but there’s is some really exciting stuff coming up over this year and next year.
Are there any films of the past few years that you feel have had really outstanding effects work?
There’s a lot of new effects companies coming out around the world that are putting out some really fantastic stuff. It’s always more impressive when it’s slightly smaller projects. When you’ve got millions and millions and millions of pounds it’s ridiculous if you don’t have perfect effects. It’s the ingenuity and the problem solving that I’ve always really liked. I’m very keen on some of the stuff from Green Room, which I saw recently, that was nice - figuratively [laughs]. It’s been a good time, that being said I’ve been so busy I haven’t seen as many films as I’d have liked. That’s the terrible trade-off, you like films enough to have the tenacity to work your way into the industry and it robs you of the time you used to spend watching films.
