Conclusion 

The past 100 years has contributed a significant change in the way designers use prosthetics. Methods and products used have truly left the theatrical stage and are an inherent part of film culture. After World War II, limitations meant prosthetics would only be seen in horror movies and were dominated by white males; even with schemes such as ‘Give your Job to a veteran’ to revaluate ex-servicemen, the prosthetics film industry was unaffected by the increasing presence of women at the middle of the past century. Due to the massive influx of injured veterans there was high demand for developments in the medical prosthetic industy, in turn this coursed advances in the materials and designs developed. Pioneers in the field crafted innovative techniques, which appeared dramatically up until the 50s.

 

Between the 50s and 90s, actresses were finally introduced to the prosthetic foreground, and many of the prosthetic techniques were well established, and based on the technology and cameras available, such techniques did not have much need to change as rapidly as they had beforehand. In the past 30 years, the most iconic influence to cause change was the introduction of Computer Generated Imagery; a fusion of well-known techniques and sophisticated camera trickery resulted in a convection of hyper realistic and unique prosthetic creation. In the present day, the American film industry shows prosthetic artists are a majority of white males, with statistically increasing numbers of female artists joining the fold.

 

From my research, prosthetic make up has come so far in the past 100 years, from the time scale needed to make and apply appliances to the type of actors under the make-up. Over time we’ve seen the creators of prosthetics experiment with different material such as wire and fish hooks to silicone to change the appearance of actors. Along with prosthetic materials, the way in which prosthetic are used, have changed, instead of appliances being built on or applied to the skin, allowing little movement in the face or body, prosthetics have been developed to see the acting through the appliance. Although prosthetics are used alongside CG effects nowadays, it seems that an overwhelming amount of films opt to use CG over traditional prosthetics appliances. This creates composition between both effects but it doesn't completely rule out prosthetics being used. If I were to develop this work further, I would like to explore where prosthetic make up is going in more depth.     

 

 

 

Youtube. (2011). Fantastic Flesh The Art of Make-Up EFX Documentairy. [Online Video]. 04 November. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLi91ZNTdYQ. [Accessed: 24 April 2015].

 

Crook, J, 2014. This Real-Time Projected CGI Makeup Is Beautiful And Terrifying. techcrunch, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/18/this-real-time-projected-cgi-makeup-is-beautiful-and-terrifying/ [Accessed 24 April 2015].