The Story of Masters of Make-Up Effects!

Reprinting my introduction for the book I wrote with MUFX wiz Howard Berger in the hope you'll buy several copies as Christmas gifts, and by all means go ahead and treat yourself to one too.

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I was invited to interview Howard Berger for The Sunday Express. He’d just won an Oscar for his remarkable work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and after a hit cinema release, with the movie bound for DVD, Howard had flown to London to help spread the word about that.

That was in April, 2006, and one of my all-time favourite interviews. Not only because the chat was friendly, interesting and uncommonly candid, but also because, by the end of it, Howard had transformed me into Mr Tumnus, or at least, his older, stockier cousin. So there I was, with hair for the first time in years, and faun ears for the first time, well, ever, and god, it was all just so much fun.

Through it all, Howard could so easily have played the Hollywood Bigshot. I wouldn’t have even minded, because, fair dues, the guy’s a legend. Having played a part in so many classic, fantastic films, and worked with so many legendary filmmakers and make-up effects artists, he could have exuded BIG I AM vibes, and I’d have just lapped them up, happily fanboying out.

Except, Howard’s not like that at all. You see, I’m a big, dorky nerd. That’s my tribe. We love films and TV. We collect, we create and we obsess, because it’s all just so damn meaningful to us. So we’re defined, I’d say, by our enthusiasm, and immediately, I could tell that Howard was one of us.

“I’m still such a fan,” he told me then, “and I get so excited about everything. I love it all. I love the movies. I love the effects stuff. I love every aspect of it.

“And you know what? Everything I do now, I did as a kid. I played with puppets, I made monsters and practised make- ups on my sisters. The only difference is that now I get paid to do it!

“It’s still a great big hobby for me, and I’m as excited about it today as I was when I was 10 years old.”

We’ve stayed in touch ever since.

Visit Masters of Make-Up Effects’ official website for books, merch, podcasts, pictures & more!

Around 2010, I think after Howard first told me about his all-time favourite movie book, Al Taylor and Sue Roy’s Making a Monster, we had our first conversation about how great it would be to write something together. Howard wanted to interview his friends about their adventures in movie making, so not a dry, instructional thing, but rather something focusing on the fun of it all. Fun being Howard’s operative word.

But he was always so damn busy! Always working on something new with Sam Raimi, or Quentin Tarantino, or Mark Wahlberg... But I never gave up on the idea. So every six months or so, for ten years, I’d check in with Howard, see how things were with him, and drop in a mention of the book. So maybe, yes, there was the faintest whiff of stalker about me, but Howard never sent me packing, or nixed the idea, so I always thought of it as something we’d hopefully get to one day.

And then HOORAY! Yes! Finally... The Pandemic.

Suddenly everyone was home with too much time on their hands, and so, without shame or delay, I reached out for a Skype, and within minutes we’d agreed that the time was finally right to get on with our book. And that was that. We were instantly all in, and worked diligently to make it happen for the best part of the next two years.

And what a grand collaboration it’s been. Conducted entirely by email, WhatsApp, Facetime and, of course, Zoom, with Howard in LA, and me in London. In fact, at the time of writing – October, 2021 – we’ve still only met in the real world once, all those years ago for the Narnia interview. So it’s a very modern friendship we’ve built, and honestly, collaborating with Howard on this book kept me going through the lockdown.

So Howard reached out to legend after legend after legend... Most of whom responded almost immediately, and cheerfully made time to chat. Certainly that aspect of the process proceeded with greater speed and success than I’d ever experienced before. Without Howard at the helm, I doubt this book could have ever happened.

There’s just no way an outsider, a journalist like myself, could have gathered such a dizzying array of talent, or gotten them to share so much of themselves, or dig through their archives for personal pictures that no one’s seen before. No. Creating this book demanded the sort of access only enjoyed by a handful of industry folk. And beyond that, someone with a lot of friends, who’s always put himself out for others, and generated a tremendous amount of good will.

Essentially, then, creating this book required Howard – specifically, Howard – and what a privilege it was to join him on that journey. To be privy to all those relaxed, revelatory catch- up sessions with people I’ve admired for years. Most of whom turned out to be geeks like us! Just friendly, fun, approachable people, excited to talk monsters and make-up, and happy to share their stories, thoughts and photos.

I hope we’ve captured the fun and warm familiarity of those lively, unguarded interviews in the chapters ahead.

After discussing the format at great length, we settled on quotes alone, as we wanted to pack as many stories as we could into the book, cutting straight to the good stuff every time. So this isn’t a definitive history of the make-up effects industry. And it’s not a detailed how-to either. Neither of those options was ever the plan.

What we wanted to produce, and hopefully what we’ve achieved, is something much more inclusive, intimate, and fun. And though Howard was initially reticent about being included as a make-up master in his own book, I insisted on interviewing him as there’s no way I’d deny you his amazing stories.

Enjoy!

Visit Masters of Make-Up Effects’ official website for books, merch, podcasts, pictures & more!

Much has happened since I wrote this introduction, exciting publicity events in Los Angeles and London, and I’ll cover those adventures, and much more besides, in future posts. For now I just wanted to get the ball rolling with a shameless plug. So… Have you bought our book yet? What do you think?