On the original 78 Myers mask, did the FX artists intentionally weather the mask at all? For example, I see with a lot of the masks on here the areas around the cheekbones are weathered or “dirtied” up to make them stand out more. Were these areas highlighted/accented and weathered on the original mask to achieve this look or were the shadowed distinctive cheekbones cast by the shadows of on set lighting and no weathering was necessary? And this is then replicated artificially by artists on the replica masks?
Basically should these areas be intentionally highlighted and weathered or should it be left to the natural contours of the mask to do this in proper lighting? Just in the interests of authenticity and accuracy.
Just wondering how clean the mask should be and whether it was just completely clean in the beginning i.e did they just spray paint it white and start filming. Or did they weather and dirty it up a bit and highlight the cheekbones before filming?
Always wondered the same thing myself. My thoughts are originally it was simply painted white and over time with handling on set, weathering naturally occurred. But lighting most likely played the biggest factor and that’s the mask we know so it’s replicated.
My understanding (and I’m no means an expert) is that the extent of the original conversion was ripping off sideburns and eyebrows, spraying the mask with white spray paint (color likely “appliance white”), and misting the hair with black Streaks N’ Tips hair color. Droplets of this color fell onto the white of the mask and additional color was transferred to the white portions via the mask being removed by pulling by the hair and nose. This led to some weathering, though much of the mask’s look is achieved through Dean Cundey’s amazing lighting and cinematography.
It’s from handling it, plus with Tommy doing the hair first and handling it a lot, that already laid a lot of the black onto certain spots, the white just rubbed off naturally from handling as well, Warlock grabbed the hair and pinched the nose before pulling it off on H2, and I think the stuck his thumbs under the eyes which explains the T mark on the forehead, any other details was the shadows from how it was lit, like so
Most artists that emphasize those lines try to get the look that the film’s lighting gave the mask, there is also compensation for loss of detail in the latex to try to match the Hero as so many masks are recasts or re-tools of recasts of masks that were made in the 70’s to early 80’s and so after decades they didn’t hold the same shape they used to (no pun intended) when they were re-cast. Then you have the fact that the type of spray paint that existed back then no longer exists due to changes in the formula and spray paint colors no longer looking like they used to with some colors flat out ceasing to exist in spray paint anymore. Most of the weathering was just paint rubbing off as the shoot went on and the hair coloring coming off on hands which then touched the mask. Supposedly the mask was re-touched with clown white paint at times as well.
From what we know, no. The mask was simply spray painted white. The mask just dirtied from use. From what I see, the mask isn’t actually that dirty in H1. The paint is just faded is many areas. Many replicas shade certain areas so that the features pop as the lighting in the movie popped some of the features. By h2, the mask had dirtied a lot but it wasn’t done purposely.
