Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film

[palitoy]

This is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

[Werewolf]

That looks really good. I prefer the make up effects over the CGI apes.

[PNGwynne]

Looks fantastic. Also on dvd and with a screenplay by Tom Burman.

I think the Penguin nose I wore at Megomeet was sculpted by Burman Studios.

[enyawd72]

No denying what John Chambers accomplished, but ape makeup HAD been done before, and just as convincing.

Jack Pierce created this startling makeup in 1926 for The Monkey Talks...42 years before POTA.

[PNGwynne]

Impressive. And I think one of Universal's later Ape Woman films--the last one?--featured a detailed hybrid design.

Chambers early career was as a prosthetist, and I think his real achievement was creating a verstatile makeup that was sufficiently apelike but allowed a fuller range of expression and dialogue. One of the things I liked about his work and the films--which some people don't--is that the make-up and performances suggested that the apes, in becoming domesticated, had somewhat "evolved."

It's also interesting to look as the more detailed "Class A" makeup and hair goods in the first film, compared to the more streamllined, slightly simplified versions in the later works.

[Confessional]

Happy this grassroots film project finally happened! The doc is very good… an homage to the aging and passed makers, acknowledgement of their innovations, and snapshot of their relationships (some strong, stressed and broken). The recent Making book is still the most comprehensive look into the everything of the film and fills in many of the gaps in other efforts. Together, book and film, you really get the whole story.

The documentary does acknowledge the innovations of Jack Pierce and several others. Chambers and his crew invented new recipes that often were able to create applications that could withstand more handling/movement, heat, sweat, and even re-use in some cases. Every ingredient, hair type, and placement was exhaustively considered. Failure and mentorship were integral parts of the process. Creating one impressive ape make-up could be done; a feature film filled with them was deemed impossible by almost everyone except Jacobs and Chambers in the era.

As it's been well documented, the ability for movies stars to emote through the make-up, convincing as hybrid primates, but still unique as personalities (Roddy trained them all!) is the remarkable feat. Think about the sound/recording challenges alone. It's ultimately what green-lighted the movie to be made after years of pre-production set-backs. The amount of chemicals and make-up artists used across the development was unheard of at the time and propelled dozens of careers into motion. The production of the film is just as important to the history of film making as it is to film viewing and pop culture.

[PNGwynne]

WW, what book are you referencing?

[Confessional]

^^ Definitive tomb of Ape knowledge outside of the Sacred Scrolls themselves!

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Planet-Apes-Jonathan-Rinzler/dp/0062840622/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1539364537&sr=8-2&keywords=making+of+the+planet+of+the+apes&dpID=61N4ACanxHL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

If you're little patient you can snag a copy on eBay for under $20 too. Incredible given the quality, size and content of this book.

Some of us chatted about it here too: http://megomuseum.com/community/show...ng+planet+apes

[PNGwynne]

Thanks much, looks like something I should own.