Special Effects Makeup Design
THEA 4315
Spring 2013 · Comment ·
From witch faces to demon horns to werewolf paws, students in Associate Professor Joseph Kongevick’s Special Effects Makeup Design class create props that bring imaginative worlds to life. Each semester about 20 students enroll in the upper-level theater arts course to learn the styles and techniques of specialty makeup applications for stage, film, and video. Kongevick teaches how to cast and mold body parts and then transform them into the prosthetics needed for special effects of all kinds—cuts, bullet holes, even cyborg faces. For their final project, students draw numbers that correspond to pictures of special effects they must duplicate. “The big thing my students learn is that you can’t rush anything,” Kongevick says. “A cast can take a day to set up, depending on the materials you’re using. Sculpting a mask takes a good deal of time. Patience is key—and that’s true for me, too. I have to relearn it each time I teach the class.”
