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Make Up Artist Issue # 43, 2003

Pirates of the Caribbean Pirates you say?

Thievery. Skullduggery. Tall ships, short ships and dinghies. Eye patches. Parrots. Pigs and pillaging. A skull and cross bones. Swords and setting sail. Loot. Coins. No, doubloons or, even better, pieces of eight! Well to do skeletons seated atop piles of gold they'll never spend, not because they're cheap but because they're DEAD! Wenches chased by scoundrels. Cannon fire and lots and lots of bottles of rum. Evil-deed-doers dunking a corrupt Mayor in the well attempting to "loosen his tongue". When someone mentions the Pirates of the Caribbean these are the images that come to mind. Well, had that Mayor been a make-up artist, those pirates wouldn't have had any problem getting him to talk. "Mark well my words, Mateys, dead men tell no tales…" but seasick make-up artists? Just try and keep them quiet!

Into the World of Buccanneers
It was back in June of 2002 when producers first contacted Ve Neill about her availability for the upcoming Disney production of the ride-based movie. Then, mysteriously, nothing happened. It seems the studio had shot down the project for a while and there was not a peep to be heard from Pirates anywhere. So Ve, like any rational redhead, signed on to the film Blackout. It was toward the end of that production that the Pirates were back in business and Johnny Depp had agreed to star. Depp, having worked with Ve a number of times, going all the way back to Edward Scissorhands, asked for her to once again be his make-up artist. But production had a better idea, why not get her to head the department? She was going to be there anyway. But it was already the middle of September, and shooting was set to begin in only two weeks. So while she and her trusty Second, Joel Harlow, were tied up on a film in San Francisco, Ve called another ally, Douglas Noe, to start doing some of the leg work.
Thanks to Noe's organization, when Ve and Harlow returned to Los Angeles, they were ready to start doing tests. Ve wrangled together a team of some of today's top make-up artists. "There were eight of us all together on the entire movie," she said, never segregating herself from those working under her. The eight artists on the film included Ve, Harlow (again acting as her 2nd), Noe (her 3rd), David Dupuis, Ken Diaz, Deborah Patino, David De Leon and body make-up artists extraordinaire Jene Feilder-Harris.

Preparing Pirates for Battle
Included in the plethora of make-up accumulated for the enormous task ahead of them was good old-fashioned Rubber Mask Greasepaints, a little M.A.C and plenty of Skin Illustrator colors. Premiere Products Inc. even made special labels that read "Ve's Pirate Pallet". The RMG (in the colors Bronze, Sunburn, Yellow, Red, Blue, Maroon, Dirt and Black) was used in washes only to cover large areas of exposed skin. They prepared in two different ways. Some of the RMG colors were thinned with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and left until the castor separated naturally, the oil was then poured off, more alcohol added and the resulting liquid was then poured into small squeeze bottles. For a more solid RMG pallet Ken Diaz came up with the idea of cooking the castor oil out in a microwave. This make for a more dense and opaque color that better held up against elements such as sea water and humidity.
For the first test on Geoffrey Rush, Ve used old-age stipple over his entire face to create a more rugged texture. She decided to keep him on the pale side, as opposed to the rest of the pirates who were quite tan and very dirty "because he looked meaner that way". She threw him together using a little of this and a little of that: a stock wig, beard and mustache, extended his eyebrows and glued on a scar that ran from the corner of his eye down his nose. RMG colors were very lightly splattered in, and Skin Illustrators painted in little strokes at a time to break up the evenness of the skin and add capillaries. "This film was not so much about make-up," says Ve, "It was all about texture." Director Gore Verbinski loved what she created for Rush so much they ended up using that exact look. Even Ve, a perfectionist so say the least, was satisfied and adds, "It was pretty terrific." To add to the whole effect, Rush grew out his own fingernails to wicked lengths.
In contrast, Depp was probably the easiest make-up on the show, reveals Ve. She simple darkened around his eyes, glued braids into his own goatee and had a wig made. She spattered in M.A.C. foundation on a torn sponge then used Skin Illustrators to punch up particular areas such as small wounds and scratches. They basically kept him as the rugged pretty boy.
Most impressively, Depp went to the dentist and had silver and gold caps put on his own teeth. The gold caps were in three different karats so as to make each one reflect light differently. He originally had them on his front teeth but when the studio saw them they flipped out and asked that he have them removed. Depp, the consummate actor and devotee to character that he is, refused to lose them completely and instead compromised by having them moved to his side teeth.
Captive Audience was hired initially to design the look of the pirates in their rotten "zombie-faced look". But at the last minute ILM stepped in, and it was decided to do it all digitally. In the end what they supplied the production with were scars and teeth. The veneers were made out of vacuum form plastic to fit over the teeth of several of the other characters. All of the veneers were painted from the inside, but some had added teeth glued on the outside of the plastic as well to really "F-up" their smiles. The boatload of scars were made using the method ingeniously created by Christian Tinsley (creator of the Tinsley Tranfer tattoo line) of pouring thickened Pros Aide into a mold and freeze drying it. The scars were then stuck to paper and used as transfers. "It's a very cool thing [Christian] came up with," offers Ve, " and so easy to put on."
And then there was the hair. John Blake made most - if not all - of the facial hair pieces that were used. Ve paused to think about it, then states, "In fact, I can't think of one beard or mustache we used that wasn't his." Martin Samuel headed the hair department and Ve makes sure to point out what a fantastic job he and his crew did as well.
Extra's bags were put together and handed to whatever visiting artists were there each day. Every bag contained the aforementioned products plus black and brown M.A.C eye linders, W.M Creations Matte Adhesive Spirit, Gum and Age Stipple A, Pros Aide adhesive, alcohol, acetone, tooth enamel, sun block, cut white sponge, orange stipple sponge, powder puffs, and more. Everything one might need to complete a pirate make-up except brushes and scissors. But a proper make-up artist probably shouldn't need those supplied for him anyway. It was a very tightly run ship.
Toni G. was called in as the wrangler for the extras' make-up while shooting took place in town but had to bow out to go work with Charlize Theron on her new film. Zoe Hay, a Los Angeles local, took over that role and she and Nikkita Rea, from England, went ahead to the Caribbean and set up the department on St. Vincent.

Hurricane Lagoon Took it's Toll
By January 2003 shooting in LA had come to an end and everyone who was anyone to the production packed their bags and set out for the beautiful, luxurious tropical island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean sea. Fifteen make-up artists from LA, two from Florida and the other eight were brought in from England.
"The American didn't want to share housing so they all stayed in these crappy hotels," Ve informs me, "but the British were much smarter. They doubled up and rented some beautiful houses." Diaz adds, "The accommodations were less than what we expected, but Ve really bent over backwards to make sure everyone's needs were met."
"The Caribbean wasn't like roughing it in America. Take away everything we were used to having and put us in the middle of nowhere. Nothing worked. Cell phones couldn't even hold a charge, much less get a signal," says Ve. Still she has nothing but praise for her team. "It was a great group of people. Everybody did an absolutely incredible job."

The Last Drink was a Long One
It was some 45 minutes to travel every morning on a windy road just to get to the base camp. The actors were made up in two trailers, and a huge tent was set up for the extras. Once all were ready it was another 45 minute ride on the tall ship, Lady Washington, out to sea to get to the floating set. So by the time they got to work, many people were either seasick or carsick. "At one time we had as many as five artists down," says Ve.
"I got as sick as a dog!" states Noe who didn't recover for three weeks. He wasn't the only one who took issue with the ups and downs of the boat rides across the sea. As Harlow notes, "We called it the 'Vomit comet'" It was an integral part of losing weight on the plan they came to call the "Caribbean Diet." Harlow adds, "People were dropping in waves. A lot of them ended up in the hospital due to dehydration."
For Jene Fielder-Harris, who has traveled extensively and experienced Third World countries and conditions, it was like getting back to her adventurous roots. "It was rough," she says, "but I had a great time."

Goodly Companions
When I mention the director Verbinski, Ve says warmly, "Gore's pretty cool. He allowed us a lot of freedom. We'd put something in front of him and say, 'Here's what we think looks best.' He'd just say, 'Yeah, great, whatever you think.' He was very supportive and gave our department many compliments."
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was equally generous with handing out compliments. Ve also makes sure to mention her favorite leading man, "Johnny's just a doll. He's always fabulous to work with."
"The humor helped also. Many time the trailer felt like an episode of Seinfeld," adds Patino. Certainly weekend hikes to volcanoes and waterfalls must have been quite a perk as well.

Divvy Up the Swag
Ve comes off as extremely generous and very sharing of credit. "Everyone pitched in to help each other, if someone couldn't make it one day due to whatever illness or problem, then someone else was always there to jump right in," she says. They formed a very tightly knit community. And the make-up team has nary a bad word to say about its leader. "Ve was really gracious. She treated us like we were all equals, all on the front line together," says Noe.
A good analogy in the sense that they were all actually at war with flies, that is. Apparently the flies on the island heard there was a Hollywood production in town and everyone of them wanted to be in it. So like every other character in the movie, they reported to the make-up trailer. Diaz came up with the most humane way of letting them down by squirting them with 99 percent alcohol as they flew through the air. "That ways they die happy… I giggled like a schoolgirl every time I killed one," Noe notes.

Sea Chanties Echoe from the Rafters
For anyone who knows the ride well, be sure to look for such familiar scenes as the dog holding the keys just out of reach of the alleged evil-doers in he burning jail house and the mayor getting dunked in the well. The movie has moments from the ride all through it. Plus ILM had computer body scans of every main character, and there's a rumor that the ride (currently closed while it gets spruced up a bit) will be incorporating some of the familiar faces from the film. What a sense of pride it would be for any of the artists to go on that ride at Disneyland in years to come and see even a glimpse of their work. Ve and her crew have high hopes for the film and faith in its already established following. "I remember going on that ride when I was a little kid," she says. "Nobody ever gets sick of that song."

Loaded with contraband, the pirates lurched off to their longboats and headed for the big ship anchored in the bay. As strong backs bent to the oars, the raucous harmony of "Yo ho, Yo ho, a pirate's life for me" drifted back to shore. For yesterday is gone and tomorrow might never come.

Barney Burman would like to point out to his critics that even though he worked on the film for a few weeks, there was not a single mention of it in this article…Doh.