LMC: How is sculpting for an fx studio different from doing your own projects?

LR:  Ooh.  It depends on what shop and who you are working for.  Working on your own stuff is ALWAYS better.  You are in complete control, you set the rules.  What could be better than that?  The opportunities   where I was given the most autonomy   I enjoyed the most.  The shops where the owner is constantly over me, telling me what to do I find less enjoying.  Now, if that person is a  Kevin Yagher or a Steve Johnson, who is supremely talented, I actually like and want to be art directed.  But if it is some  bozo who can't sculpt his way out of a paper bag, I do not handle it well.  I quit in fact.

Another interesting thing about working on make-ups and shop stuff all the time is you have to sculpt characters   relaxed  and  straight forward so that they will have a neutral expression to begin with.  I have to remind myself sometimes when doing mask that the thing has to have an expression.  I love looking at all the great work on the internet that is just loaded with character and expression.

LMC: How fast do you have to work? Any tips you use to work really fast?

LR:    Once again, it all depends on the shop and the job.  At Hensons, I had  a week to two weeks to sculpt everything, which right now seems like forever.  On tv work, I have done whole body suits in two days (with help). Full head appliance sculptures in a day and a half.  I don't suggest learning to do it fast right away.  Learn how to do it right first.  Then you can pick up speed.  I've seen some guys on the internet who are churning out sculptures left and right, but upon closer inspection the anatomy  seems all wrong to me. Or the finish is off.  Once you get the anatomy right, the character right, the forms right,  then go for speed. Generally , you do need to be fast .  Some of my friends are so fast it's scary.

Tips for being fast?  Hmm.  I'm still learning that one.  I think you're faster when you learn to let go of thinking about what you're doing and   just let if flow.

LMC: Do you ever just not make the deadline?  How is something like that typically handled?

LR: Yes, sometimes you simply cannot make the deadline they give you.  Of course, a lot of the deadlines you get are not realistic, and they know it, so they give you more time. But if it's a real deadline, and you can tell when it's real, then you have to make it. 

I have been on several jobs where the deadline is shortened from 3 weeks to a week and a half and the number of make-ups doubles.  Actually, that's a pretty typical scenario.

LMC: Do you know know what corners to cut? do you have to have an idea of what the camera's eye can see as opposed to sculpting out full details?

LR:  Yes. When you are in a crunch,  texture is always last and is an afterthought. I try to get all the bold shapes right, and then if there's time you do nice texture.  In most cases, texture is just there to affect the way the light hits the sculpture.  You can use anything to create a neat texture- chip brushes, sponges, latex paint- when it gets molded and painted and filmed a lot of times that thing that you though looked like hell actually looks quite good.  Perfect textures are done to please yourself. To push yourself to do better. Also they are to convince the  producer that the toys that he paid millions of dollars for worth the money.  But I think a good goal is to make it look as real as you can and as good as you can in whatever time frame you have.  But I have done some really simple textures that I felt horrible about in the sculpt that actually looked pretty good  in silicone. 

LMC: Is it stressful?  Do you ever feel burned out?                

LR: YES . It can be very stressful. The hardest part as I have said before is people not letting you alone to do your job. Whoever it is.   This is when the stress comes in.  You know you can do a better job, you can make them look good, and they get in your way the whole time.  It can be exhausting.

LMC: Any interesting studio stories?

LR:  They are all interesting, but I can't tell you  any of them!

LMC: What led you to make tribute masks?

LR: As you've heard 100 times before, this is not a steady business.  I usually work on a make-up or something for my portfolio during the off times.  Well, I thought I might as well try to do something that I can make money at and enjoy, so I decided to do a mask and sell it on the internet.  At the time, the only mask site out there I could find  was a site called the HMA (Halloween Mask Association).  I had watched the HMA with a sick fascination for a year or two, wondering why these guys were so infatuated with one white mask .  And thought I could do a pretty good mask that people would like.   So I contacted the HMA head honcho Eric Austin to see if i could put a mask  on the site.  I  thought it would be easier to put it with Eric and the HMA than try to waste time on my own site.  He had great traffic.   So I did one and I enjoyed the experience.  Eric was really cool and helped me out a lot  and that's how I got started with the  masks.  Now that I've done a few masks with the HMA and have had success with them, I really enjoy dealing with and interacting with the mask community.  There are some real characters out there.  But my customers are the best.  I love hearing about how they enjoy the masks.  And if someone is crazy enough  to sell one of my masks to someone else, I love hearing that  they actually make money doing it.  Someone recently emailed me telling me he bought one of my masks for over 3 times what I sold it for!   I've also heard rumors that people have offered a few thousand dollars for one of  my masks and have turned the money down.  Music to my ears.

LMC: Do you think masks in general are a respected art form beyond the die hard collectors?  If not, how could that change?

LR: I assume you are talking about halloween masks.  Well, I would have to say no. And I think the reason is because masks are stuck in the " cheap rubber halloween" mode at this time and it will take work  and the right timing to get it out of that mode and into the next one.  Let's see what we can do about that.

LMC: Do you enjoy doing it, or is money during the down time the biggest draw?

LR: Most of the time I enjoy it more than working on a movie!  Actually, I enjoy some masks  more than others.  I honestly enjoy doing  my own original stuff better, but I'll sell 5 or six of those as opposed to 20 of a popular movie icon.  The thing about doing the masks that is disappointing to me is that I still can't  really do them the way I want to. Masks usually have a straightforward stance.  I hate that.   I would like to really go all out.  But you can't.  As a business person  you can't spend 3 weeks on something that you're gonna sell for $200.  And unfortunately no one is going to buy a mask for ten thousand dollars- yet.  So you have to make compromises, some of which are uncomfortable.  I barely make it with charging $250 a mask. Of course, owning a house  and cars in LA   will cause you to charge more,  I guess.   I  honestly don't know how the other mask makers do such a good job for such a good price.  They are amazing to me.  Erich Lubatti, Darkside Paul, Jeff Death  and the many others... how the hell do they do it!!! I'm still trying to figure out how to do such good work as  efficiently as they do.   If I ever do,  I'm gonna put 'em all out of business!  JUST KIDDING! There's room for all of us.  Even Big Joe.

Seriously, I think I will  have a much bigger presence in the mask business in the future.  But  it will be more mass production than custom pieces. 

LMC: Are you thinking of going the Steve Wang route, with lower priced, higher volume?

LR: Yes and no.   It will be mass production, lower priced and higher volume, but not like Steve or anyone else has done before.   A completely different direction from what I've done before. That's all I can say for now.  Stay tuned. And I'm going to do some more tribute masks along the lines of what I've done before. And some super limited edition originals that are going to blow you away. I'm going to be busy this year.

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