An Altered State of Reality
In updating “The Blob” from Steve McQueen’s 1958 version, probably the most important element was bringing the cult classic into the world of modern special effects.
So naturally, one might assume, the producers turned to one of the top contemporary makeup-effects men, such as Rick Baker (“An American
There are those talented few among us who can make dreams come true, who can download the contents of a creative mind and bring a figment of the imagination to life. Tony Gardner, and his team at Alterian, are precisely those people. The Los Angeles studio, which specializes in reality-defying makeup effects, animatronics, costuming, and creature FX, has been a go-to for the entertainment industry for decades. Their behind-the-scenes work is an integral part of the cultural landscape, perhaps a name not as immediately known as those fixtures of the red carpet, but one that has impacted millions of viewers time and time again.
Long before the days of CGI, Gardner was building the otherworldly by hand, including the project that helped catapult Alterian into existence back in 1984, The Return of the Living Dead. Prosthetics, bodysuits, decomposing anatomy: these were the things Alterian quickly became known for. Following the success of Living Dead, Gardner and Alterian went on to provide services for dozens of films and countless episodes of television. They did the arm in 127 Hours, transformed Bill Murray in Zombieland, aged Johnny Knoxville 40 years in Bad Grandpa. And that’s not even scratching the surface. Alterian has worked with some of the biggest directors in Hollywood, from Spike Jonze to Michel Gondry, Robert Zemeckis to the Farrelly brothers. Gardner and Alterian have been equally impactful in the music space, arguably most indelibly with the creation of those famous Daft Punk helmets, a now-iconic look that has been as instrumental to the band’s identity as its sound.
As the technology available has changed, Alterian’s work has only gotten better, more precise. Still, even seen through the hypercritical HD lens of today, Alterian’s older magic retains a believable quality to it. The conjoined twins in The Addams Family—you don’t doubt it. The beached sharks in The Craft—you buy in. Anything that seems comparatively campy at present was surely far ahead of its time, and serves as evidence of how viewers have been happily fooled and transported throughout decades of modern entertainment. Alterian’s work serves almost as a visual timestamp: the physical manifestation of technology and cultural zeitgeist. There’s a reason why Gardner and Alterian continue to be an imperative part of that dialogue, and the reason is that they are very good at what they do.
Below, we talk to Gardner about the importance of early foibles, making a difference outside of entertainment, and being in a business where hearing “If the arm doesn’t work, the movie doesn’t work” becomes the norm.
BOND STREET
What were you doing before starting Alterian? Were you freelancing in effects space?
TONY GARDNER
I bounced around working for other makeup and effects companies for about seven years, learning the plusses and minuses of each different shop along the way, all the time saying to myself, “I am so glad I don’t own a business; the last thing I would want is that responsibility.” And here I am.
BOND STREET
And what pushed you into biting the bullet and starting your own shop, Alterian?
TONY GARDNER
I actually had a film studio believe in me and support me on my first solo film project; they sort of put together a shop for me and helped me run a show, and I realized that it wasn’t so difficult. I basically got my start with a safety net in place, running a business for myself, but underneath a larger corporation at the same time. I realized how much fun it was and what a challenge it was to figure out how to fit all these pieces into the overall puzzle. You walk into a show with a list of all these effects that you have to design and manufacture within a specific timeframe. The challenge becomes: how do I plug in these artist’s talent and skills over the course of this manufacturing calendar, stay on budget, and hit my shooting deadlines? Once I realized how much fun it was, I just wanted to do it again. In this business, you start off on your own and there is no name recognition for you as a newcomer, but fortunately you can say “I worked on Aliens or I worked on Thriller, as part of someone else’s crew,” and you are sort of associated with the quality, or lack thereof, of that project.
BOND STREET
How intense is the pressure to make sure that product is as perfect as it can be, since that product is always your calling card?
TONY GARDNER
They say you are only as good as your last film, so I think the pressure is always there. As an artist though, your name is literally on the work. It’s not like you are taking someone else’s words and adapting them; you are taking a sometimes abstract concept and it’s your responsibility to sort of breathe life into that, to turn someone’s idea into something real. The success of that—from the design to the manufacturing to the end result—it’s all on you.
Unfortunately, I am one of those people that when someone says “This is impossible” or “That will never work,” I’ll be the first guy in line for that job. I like the challenge offered, and I want to prove to everybody that there might be a way to pull it off—to achieve something new, even. I am always taking the jobs that add a little bit of extra stress. There’s a lot of pressure involved with making sure every aspect of an effect looks great, does what it’s supposed to, is filmed correctly, and the end result looks good on screen. So the pressure goes from concept design all the way through to the finished film.
BOND STREET
Obviously that means you have to tweak a lot of things as you go.
TONY GARDNER
Yes, certain things will come to light as you go. We try and test everything out in advance so we can make sure that everything is doing what it needs to do, that it photographs properly, and does what it’s designed to do accurately. We always have to think one step ahead as far as what sort of problems could arise or what factors are going to come into play when this effect goes on set. Like: this is going to be in a wet environment, so this machinery needs to be able to get wet and still work, or be sealed off; or this same character can’t be skinned with foam latex because the skin will soak water up like a sponge and his skin will delaminate and fall off. You are thinking in regards to how the effect is going to be used as well as the overall aesthetics of the makeup or effect.
When you are working with an actor, so much of the success of what you do is contingent on the performer that is wearing or working with your product. It’s a shared job, it’s a shared responsibility. If you are going to make up Johnny Knoxville as an 89-year-old man, he’s got to literally walk the walk. If we are going to create a realistic fake arm for James Franco to perform surgery on for 127 Hours, you have to buy that he believes it’s his arm; he’s got to sell it to the audience just as much as we do.
So during production you are involved with the director and the cinematographer as well as the actors. Then after the effect has been filmed, you are involved with editing and color correction to make sure that everything is presented the way that it was designed and intended to be seen up on screen.
BOND STREET
How do collaborations work? Do people come to you with an idea or vice versa?
TONY GARDNER
It’s always different, and that is kind of what makes it interesting. For example, we’re responsible for Chucky in the more recent Child’s Play movies, and it’s pretty specific as to what he is supposed to look like, and how he’s supposed to perform. The question becomes: how do we improve upon technology and performance to make him be all that he can be?
With a film like Bad Grandpa, the overall concept is that I need to disguise Johnny Knoxville so that he doesn’t look like Johnny Knoxville—that’s the whole point. There are a lot of different directions you could take a character like that in, so I will do a test makeup or a prototype or a Photoshop design, or something to illustrate what is in my head, and I take that design to the actor and producers for approval. Once you start constructing the prosthetics, the manufacturing process is very gradual, so you can still change direction as you go to a certain degree, so there’s still the ongoing opportunity for people to get involved, like producers or writers or directors.
We did a film called Zombieland and the big debate during the design phase was “What do these zombies look like? Are they traditional zombies?” Long dead or recently dead? Are these people suffering from a specific disease? We went through literally five different design options. We did designs in Photoshop, we sculpted designs on headcasts of actors, and we did test makeups on crew members. Something would sound really interesting in the script, and then you would execute that same idea and realize that to do this interpretation of the makeup effect every day for 30 days might not be so cost-effective for the production, because this particular approach might take a lot of time to achieve, and might not come across to the degree that makes it worthwhile visually. So how do we incorporate the business side of this and make this practical and effective?
BOND STREET
Is that something that you learn pretty early on—to incorporate the business end into the creative?
TONY GARDNER
Definitely. I think one of the things that really helps is experience. Originally, I was just practicing makeup [effects] on myself. Being the subject, you realize that somebody will have to sit still for three hours or whatever amount of time this makeup takes to apply. As you gain experience, you realize that someone has to pay for this time in the makeup trailer. So you’re seeing the situation from both sides. You quickly ascertain that you are there to support the actors as much as the actors are there to support your makeup. And the producers are asking for things to be better, faster, cheaper. All those factors come into play as well as the aesthetic.
BOND STREET
Are there any rookie mistakes that you look back on that you appreciate for what they taught you?
TONY GARDNER
Yes, definitely. One of the very first creature suits that we designed for an actor was a leathery, naked creature for Stephen King’s Tommyknockers. It was this tall, thin, spidery creature that required an actress named Karyn Malchus to hang from a wire harness while wearing a full body suit with leg extensions. We had Karyn sealed into the suit, on the wires and leg extensions, with this mechanical creature head on, and suddenly had a moment where we realized, “Oh, my god. There’s no way for her to go to the bathroom.” There’s literally no way for her to go to the bathroom. So we split the back of the suit and pulled her out and started over again.
BOND STREET
But you never made that mistake again I’m sure.
TONY GARDNER
No. After that, we learned. We were more aware that we needed to design wrinkles around the spine so that we can hide a zipper, and maybe do a removable “cover” over that area on a suit. Or create two different suits, one that you see from the front—with a zipper down the back—and one with a zipper down the front, that the camera only sees from the back.” You figure out the specifics of your approach based on the design of the character. But yeah, that is the kind of stuff that you learn as you go. When you start, you are involved in the design and the chance to create something new, but quite often, some of the parameters that are also involved kind of get pushed to the side and you get focused on the aesthetics without taking all of the elements into consideration. People have to breathe, people have to go to the bathroom, people get hungry.
BOND STREET
All the human things.
TONY GARDNER
Yes! It’s funny, the longer you work in the profession, it seems you become almost parental to the actors you’re working with. Once you are more aware of what you’re putting them through or the makeup you are putting on them, and how that affects them, you have a greater sense of responsibility for your actor above and beyond the maintenance of the makeup they’re wearing. You become responsible for them as people too, making sure that they are eating properly, getting rest, taking breaks, getting air, getting their protein and electrolytes and so on.
BOND STREET
I imagine that it becomes not just about your reputation with the directors and the producers, but also the actors.
TONY GARDNER
For sure. Attitude is super important. I am very well aware that I am not curing cancer with my rubber whatever-it-is; it’s purely entertainment. I enjoy doing good work and it’s a thrill to have people respond to it. But, at the same time, in the world perspective, I am very aware that what I do is entertainment.
The downside to that awareness is the knowledge that I am not really doing anything to help people out ‘in the real world.’ As a result of wanting to do something positive, we started designing and creating medical training aids. We had done all the babies for the TV show ER way back when, and every time we did something medical or anatomical, like the bodies and body parts for Three Kings or 127 Hours, I’d get involved with all these medical consultants just to make sure that everything was 100 percent medically accurate. On each project they would comment, “You should make stuff for medical students and nurses to learn from.” So eventually we started a side business manufacturing neonatal training aids for schools and hospitals, which has been very rewarding. I am also teaching a makeup effects class at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts now. USC is where I started, and it feels good that I can give back. It’s more about trying to mentor artists and creative people and give to individuals if you can’t give to communities.
BOND STREET
Are there things that have changed in the business since you started?
TONY GARDNER
I think technology has made a big difference in how much easier it is to work with people now and how much faster people can pre-visualize an end result and understand it. I feel like comprehension is vastly improved now because of it and the whole process now can move faster.
BOND STREET
So before cellphones and technology, would there have to be studio visits to see how an effect was progressing?
TONY GARDNER
Yeah, you would send photos or use the almighty fax machines. It’s fun to have seen all that technology come to be. There’s so many more tools available to all of us now. It makes it more fun and more interesting and we can do better work as a result of it. It’s exciting to see what is around the bend in regards to what we get to play with next.
BOND STREET
It becomes like limitless in a way.
TONY GARDNER
The access to information and materials inspires you to try new things. And even then, we will be working on a show and some material will collapse or do something wrong and you go, “Oh, my god. That’s a failure.” And it’s not, because three years from now, Alterian might need to make a miniature building collapse, and this year’s failure becomes that project’s amazing new material. Everything is of value. It’s just about trying to remember the big picture. Thankfully it’s easier to share knowledge and techniques now.
BOND STREET
How has HD changed your business?
TONY GARDNER
It’s sort of a huge motivator when you can see every single pore on somebody’s face up on screen—there’s really no margin for error. Bad edges or coloring are visible even in low light or diffusion with HD; all the minutia is up there on screen in extreme detail all the time. You need to rise to the challenge.
BOND STREET
You have worked on so many incredible projects. Is there one that stands out to you?
TONY GARDNER
There are a couple. I think being a part of the whole process [developing the helmets] with Daft Punk was just something to be really proud of. And to be involved with them creatively through so many music videos and even a feature film was a really amazing, collaborative experience. And with Bad Grandpa, to see this old age prosthetic makeup go from a super no-budget concept on a TV show through so many films, and be able to grow in technique, materials, and professionalism was a great experience. Having the work nominated for an Academy Award and then winning an award from the Makeup & Hairstylists Guild was pretty exciting to experience as well.
But I don’t know, I am kind of more drawn to the odd stuff. I am really proud of Billy Butcherson, the zombie character from Hocus Pocus, because of the challenges. At the start I was told, “We want to knock this zombie’s head off, chop off his fingers, sew his mouth shut…and let’s run over the cat with a bus too. Oh…and this is a Disney film, so let’s make sure all of this stuff is kid friendly.” Those are the sort of things that don’t go together in the same sentence…but we pulled it off. And then with 127 Hours, James Franco had to saw his arm off. Danny Boyle (the director) kept saying ‘if the arm doesn’t work, the movie doesn’t work,’ which was a ton of pressure.
BOND STREET
The employees you hire are integral to the product you create. How do you find your artists?
TONY GARDNER
We have a core group of seven employees that I would consider permanent. We bring on additional artists as the workload expands, or when we take on multiple shows. Creating a team comes down to that same mindset that you find on set: you find people that you can work with and communicate well with, and work well with as a team. It’s all about finding a group that is healthy, where everybody’s artistic skills or business skills complement each other’s, and everyone works well together. I am not really a big fan of ego. The group dynamic in a shop is really important because you are, as a group, presented with a challenge and you have to solve it and then take it to set and execute it or perform it as a collective. You are responsible as a team from start to finish.
BOND STREET
What has your relationship with Bond Street enabled your company to do?
TONY GARDNER
For Alterian, it has allowed us to be able to branch out and try some things beyond what we are hired for to do for films; we want to do things beyond what we are being paid to do for other people. There are things we want to do internally, like the PSA spot we recently produced with Katy Perry, but without a resource like Bond Street, Alterian wouldn’t have had the ability to even have a conversation about doing something like that. I don’t have the personal resources to get projects like that off the ground on my own, so it’s nice to have the ability to do things that I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise, thanks to resources like Bond Street.
BOND STREET
What is the most satisfying part of the creative process to you?
TONY GARDNER
The most satisfying part for me is when people believe what we have created is genuinely real, when the end result of all of this hard work actually makes people suspend belief and they buy this character or makeup as the real thing. I ended up in this business thanks to a magic set my grandmother bought for me when I was about six years old. I didn’t read the instructions, and was just looking at what came in the set. There was a simple little plastic box that you put a card in, you close the lid, and when you open it back up, the card is gone. I knew what the box was for, so I did just that, and when I opened this little box, the card was gone. I just remember my six-year-old brain was blown, completely blown. I went running to show my grandma in the next room and I dropped the box on the way. When it hit the ground, the fake bottom fell out and the card flew out. I was crushed. My stomach literally sank. But that moment—that one moment where I thought it was real—that is still what drives me. If I can make somebody else believe, even for a minute, that something is real, I kind of live for that.
QUICKFIRE
BOND STREET
Book every small business owner should read:
TONY GARDNER
Dr. Seuss’s Oh The Places You’ll Go.
BOND STREET
Material Alterian uses the most of:
TONY GARDNER
Clay and silicone.
BOND STREET
3 favorite independent businesses in LA (brick and mortar) and why?
TONY GARDNER
- Mountain High Market in Twin Peaks: Great service—and always with a smile. They’ll stock what you ask for, you feel welcomed, and you make new friends.
- The Oak Trunk in Lake Gregory: Great service, great atmosphere, a creative place to walk through. They’ll stock what you ask for, and you make new friends.
- The Grill At The Antler’s Inn in Twin Peaks: Great service, amazing food, ambiance, and prices. The owners and chefs know everyone, and are so genuinely warm. You could spend the day there because it feels like you’re simply hanging out with friends.
BOND STREET
Why is it important to support independent business?
TONY GARDNER
Shopping at independent businesses is like putting money back into your own local community. A lot of the small businesses support other local causes as well, so your entire community wins. The personal connection can’t be beat, either.