The weathering of the Myers Mask, answered!

Michael-Myers.net General Discussion
41

This is a tough topic. All we can really rely on is what we can prove. Unfortunately, people’s memories of what happened ‘with’ or ‘to’ the mask is often based on what they hear from fans. I spoke to a lot of these people 10-15 yrs. ago and they knew very little and could answer very few details. Now a lot of them know it all by repeating things they’ve read or heard from fans as ‘facts’ to what happened back then. It certainly skews their opinion which skews the truth. That’s the problem with investigating this.

I personally do not think the mask had any blue on it based on what Tommy Lee did to the mask and what Bill Malone did. They’ve never talked of blue paint of any kind.

Looking at the pictures it’s fairly obvious that any darkening areas on the mask are mostly the raised areas or areas that got the most wear. Nose, lips, eyebrows, cheeks, chin, neck, etc. The areas where white would get rubbed off revealing flesh below and areas that picked up dirt and grime. I also think the mask was touched up around the face area with the grease paint or possibly more spray paint as it does seem to get whiter as it aged. I spoke to Ken Hertlein about the mask once and I remember him saying the original mask appeared to have several different layers of white paint on the immediate face area of the mask with the neck and ears appearing to have the least white overall. Any pictures of the mask always have some sort of light direction causing shadows of some sort which gives more false details, darkening, shading, flesh color, etc. The Kirk has features that grabbed light well.

42

I pretty much know for a fact there’ll be someone out there who knows and remembers everything about this mask and what was done to it etc,i don’t mean fans or people who’ve heard this from him and that from someone else but people who either worked on it or were there at the time in the vacinity when the work was taking place,it seems even with the explanation’s we’ve had from TLW & DW its just not enough info obviously or there wouldn’t be all this array of opinions and debate,i’d love someone to come forward with all the true,real,factual info to clear this up.

43

You have to remember outside of this board not everyone is OCD about every aspect of a mask in a movie over 30 years ago. To them it’s just a Captain Kirk mask painted white nothing more. End of story.

44

Wow, I love it when someone voices their opinion the way they see it. You know who you are, you said what I wanted to say, and I respect you a tad bit more now. :wink:

In my honest opinion I have to say that I believe the mask was painted white. I believe they filmed H1, the mask went into storage, then comes H2. Blood tears scene? Definitely the Hero. The blood was probably washed off and scrubbing of the mask caused a lot of paint to come off. What is the best option? Repaint, of course! They repaint and do whatever it was they were going to do. They don’t like it, or more paint comes off, so another repaint. Now I don’t know how much experience you guys have with spray paint, but I can personally promise you; if you paint white on top of a different white it can get a bluish tint to it over time.
Now I can’t link a pic because I’m on my iPhone, but look at the picture of the Hero with the Jason mask. That is just a straight forward photo, and what is that on the neck? Flesh Tones of course!

Now as you look at the neck on the pic ask yourself if it’s the lighting that did that Billy?

45

Is this the pic your asking about, I really can’t see the neck on the mask. I have a really nice 8x10 of this shot but I’m moving and everything is packed.

Or this one, pic courtesy Jigsaw Joe

Now again, Dick said he never had the mask painted while in his possession. Why would he lie? Devil’s advocate here.


I don’t think they changed the jagged edge of the hair.

It’s there, just some of the hair is matted down.

46

Alright, enough of the name calling, fingering and threats.
If some of you guys can’t stay on topic, take it to pms or just stay out.
Would be a shame to have this thread locked.

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Thanks for removing the Finger, even though it was just meant as a humorous post, i apologize if any feelings were hurt Kirkus…

But back on topic, What I was trying to say is with the little you can see of the neck on the first pic, it is obviously flesh, on the second picture, it is even clearer it is flesh tone.
I’m not calling Dick a lier but a mask doesnt just turn white, and the lighting would make the whole mask look flesh if it was the lighting, not just the neck. So ask yourself, in all honesty why cant you accept that you and Dick are wrong? Again, masks don’t just change colors.

Sincerely

J

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I’d like to add, the image I posted has very low saturation. I know for a fact that the saturation is not correct in the original image because it’s a Polaroid and the prop next to it in the original photographs is not the correct color.

Here is the same image with increased saturation. No color was added to this image.
fleshonneck.png

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I think jigsaw is reaching. It seems fairly obvious to me that it has not been repainted since after h2, but rather it was cleaned. Much of that weathering is probably grease or dirt that would wipe off easily. That’s why you can still see much of the weathering there, only fainter.

50

Love this Thread and reading all the different possiblities.

I do think the mask had a slight blue tint to it, Yes White spray paint over white spray paint does create a slight blue tint. The camera does hate white and love blue, for Example, my GP H5 is white and no tint to it, all of the weathering and features blend together a bit on cam and making the mask look whiter than it really is. On the other hand my MS H20 has blue on it and is based in off white… all the features and such stand out on cam.

I do think the mask was touched up through out H1, since spray paint does not bend and it cracks. Tho not a complete re-paint. I dont think it was ever repainted till after the blood tears scene. Maybe Dick wasnt told it was repainted and he never noticed it, could be the reason why he said it never was repainted. :slight_smile:

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I thought I would bump this thread, as there are many great opinions on the paint/weathering of the Hero.

About the flesh tones: We can clearly see heavy flesh tones, mostly on the neck, on the Hero in H1 (and behind the scenes photos). But in the picture below, most of them have disappeared. I was thinking, if the Hero was never repainted, or ‘touched up’, perhaps the surface of the mask began to oxidise. For example, look at the Statue of Liberty. Underneath all that green patina, is copper. Maybe, a similar chemical reaction occurred on the Hero. Looking at this picture, the paint does look quite powdery. Just a thought.

Mark

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I have some thoughts on this original H1-2 mask issue. First off, you never “spray paint” a rubber latex mask, as it will crack like a hard boiled egg shell. I know, because I’ve done it . Any mask the TLW spray painted was never used in the film. Court documents I’ve found paint a clearer picture of what actually transpired with the film makers and DP studios and the Kirk mask. What probably occured was TWL did buy a Kirk, rip off the sideburns, darken/mess up the hair, cut out the eyes and “spray paint” it white. They liked what they saw other then the paint hardened and cracked like an egg shell and peeled off. So they went to DP and said make us a few masks that look like this.

From the court documents:

“Don Post Studios modified the Captain Kirk mask as per the film representative’s instructions and delivered it to the filmmakers. In return, Don Post Studios was paid $150.00 for its work on the
mask.”

“The prototype of the mask worn by the Michael Myers character was created by plaintiff, Don Post Studios,2 at the
request of the Halloween filmmakers. At the time that Don Post Studios created and delivered the mask prototype, it did not claim nor did it reserve any rights to the mask worn by the character Michael Myers in the movie. It was this modified Captain Kirk mask that was worn by the character Michael Myers in Halloween.”

This should help clear up the “who did what” to the mask(s). Don Post poured 5 Kirks (which dry in a skin tone color) then painted and haired them to look like the one TLW brought to them “spray painted and ruined.”

Whether the fleshtones on the neck were deliberate or not (probably were) this was the original latex color bleeding thru. The more wear and tear the mask sustained, the more white paint faded and the more fleshtone (original latex color) bled thru. I don’t believe any blues or any other colors were used. DP’s cheap latex of the time along with a host of other things could have contributed to any weired dis-colorization of the original mask.

53

Let’s keep in mind that the whole film was shot in 21 days…After a while, the spray paint will crack everywhere as Bogey said, as it would crack, but the cracks would mostly be in the stress areas (around the eyes & mouth) The cracks would be very very small & not show up on screen as we see the movie & the way the mask is shown. In 21 days there is a decent chance that “on screen” & with the lights used by Dean Cundey & given the mostly shadowed or night time & sometimes far away shots, one would not even be able to notice any cracking or peeling while the mask is in motion as the cracks would be minute & very small/faint on screen.

Everything was done within 21 days…Start to finish.There was no “holy grail Kirk” back then, no knowledge of what was to become of this film & while we watch the film as a whole,some forget that most scenes were just 15 seconds here…25 seconds there, 30 seconds there before they would yell “ANNNDD CUT!!!” Add up all of the “Michael Myers/mask” scenes in the movie & in real time it might have been 30 minutes of use at best.

No predictions that the mask would be put under a magnifying glass…Just a low budget movie to a make a few people a little money & try to scare some people in the theaters. The mask, at the time was far from treated with any kind of royalty. Was it repainted at some point? To me, of course it was…But that’s my opinion, just like all others.

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Yeah Bogey,ive read those Court Documents aswell and i go along with that,for me you can clearly see the stunt masks are a mess in comparisan to the Hero,eyecuts etc and look like the work of a sup par amateur,the Hero on the other hand looked very Professionally done/converted so i believe that story to be true imo,as for paint cracking Paul’s right it isnt/wouldn’t have been visible on camera,i have an old MMP Samhain thats been spraypainted with white Auto Motive spray paint and it cracks badly but its not visible until you are literaly inches away from the mask in any lighting situation aswell :bulb:

55

Where did you guys find information on the court documents?
I’d love to read some of this stuff, if anything just to expand my Myers encyclopedia of knowledge.

56

Does anyone have a Blu Ray screen cap of when the kid in the school yard runs into the shape ? There is a ton of flesh tone on that mask. Almost the whole bottom half of the mask.

57

.

58

That’s not the Hero, It was one of the stunt masks.

The mask above is the one on the far left while, Nick is wearing the Hero. Why they went with the stunt mask, i am not sure…Kaizu?? lol

59

James and I have had a theory about the HERO mask and STUNT mask for the film. We’ve always felt that the Hero mask was the one converted by Don Post. Merely because the eye cuts are FAR too clean and precise to have been done by TLW. The hair is also a concern.

TLW has famously been quoted by many (myself included) that he sprayed the mask white, enlarged the eyes, stripped the sideburns, and ran “streaks n tips” through the hair. My first sign that the HERO was not converted by TLW is because the hair is all one pretty continuous shade. Not “streaky” like it it was described. The mask has also not appeared to have cracked like it would have most likely done if it were spray painted. You can see so in the pictures posted above when Dick owned it.

What I’m getting at, and I believe James also agrees, is that TLW did convert one of the Myers masks himself. I’d assume that when he made the trip to the costume shop, he came back with the Kirk and wen’t to town. Sprayed it, enlarged the eyes, streaked the hair, etc. But after the mask was finished and agreed upon as the mask that The Shape would wear, they realized they would need a couple backup masks. This is where DPS comes into play.

TLW took his converted Kirk and asked them to make a couple copies of the mask. “Myers” style. But if I remember correctly, they were very busy at the time and were unable to pour up new masks, paint them, etc. But they WERE able to pull a couple masks from their line and quickly convert them.

My theory comes into play here. I think that a DPS employee is responsible for the HERO. My reasoning being that a skilled worker from DPS would be able to cleanly cut the eyes larger, paint the face white with a paint that would not crack like spray paint would, and add a browner shade of hair to match what TLW attempted to do. That’s why I believe the hairline is so choppy on the HERO. Especially compared to the precise, clean cut hairline that Kirks have. As for the brown hair, there would be TONS of the stuff around DPS, so access to a darker hair would have been very possible. Hell, the original blonde hair could have been stripped and dyed for all I know. But we’ve all seen pictures and behind the scenes photos of the HERO mask, and it’s just not that golden color we typically see on Kirks. It’s brown.

*Side note: The stunt mask clearly has the flesh showing through where the sideburns once remained. TLW had to have painted the mask white, then pulled off the sideburns after. If DPS did, in fact, paint the HERO to match TLW’s previous attempt, they would have probably stripped the hair first and foremost. Painted the mask, then added hair later. Possibly going in for touchups after. That could be the reason that we don’t see the flesh tones in the sideburn area on the HERO.

To wrap up my assumption, the STUNT mask (which I assume is the copy that TLW converted himself) could have been used to shoot a few scenes while the other Kirk(s) were being converted by DPS. Or it could have been used right off the bat, and the crew realized something was a bit off" about the mask so they decided DPS may help them out.

You can clearly see in the school yard photo that the hair is matted with a darker color in the front, but has the blonde showing through pretty sporadically. Especially in the back. The HERO mask we all are so familiar with does not appear that way.

All opinions and assumptions, of course. But I do think it makes sense. Especially with the clean eye cuts and the solid brown hair. But as for TLW saying he added blue to the lips and other features of the mask, I’m sorry but I just don’t see that on the HERO. Not at all…

1 Like
60

Certainly seems like a question that someone should ask either Carpenter or TLW, about DP making the Hero I mean.