idw_johngoodwin

John Goodwin interview with IDW PUBLISHING comics

(taken from "Bad Rap"--A Graphic Novel in Five Parts. #3--"Lipstick on Your Collar". October 2003.)

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John Goodwin Speaks!
John Goodwin, the Emmy-winning Special Effects Make-up Artist

1. Describe your duties on CSI.

Along with my partner Jackie Tichenor we tend to all the special effects make-up on CSI. This can involve anything from the creation of a skinned gorilla to a small glass cut on someone's hand. Also, we make the models of parts of the human body that the computerized effects camera roves through, such as blood vessels burst by a bullet or snake poison being absorbed by an ulcerated stomach. Many of the "victims" on CSI are actors wearing rubber or gelatin pieces to simulate, for example, a burned man or a victim who has fallen from a great height. Others, such as a frozen corpse of a woman being run over by a bulldozer, are complete lifelike dummies constructed of silicone or rubber.

2. CSI is one of the most visually complex shows on television, winning an Emmy in 2002 (ands nominated again in 2003) for Outstanding Make-up in a Series. How do you develop the appearance of the show?

CSI is visually a very complex show. The make-ups and dummies are constructed after a careful reading and discussion of the plot of the episode. The writers, directors, and our technical consultants describe the specific nature of the things to be filmed, and pictures from anatomy, medical and forensic books are studied. Authenticity is sought, but dramatic reality is also necessary. Oftentimes, for dramatic purposes, a body must be recognizable as the same character portrayed in another part of the show, when indeed only a trained CSI person could make the identification. When the computer-controlled camera journeys into the body, the look is largely a combination of "real" anatomical details and a "mind's eye" view of the body. These shots are usually imagined in the mind of Grissom or Dr. Robbins and the significant details are highlighted, while the surrounding anatomy is sometimes deleted or abbreviated for the clarity of the idea. This is not unlike some of the artist's work in a comic book, where a panel may represent an action that is not shown in the artistic detail of the other panels but is abstracted to sell the idea of, say, an explosion or a car's tires screeching to a halt. A probe camera is often used for the extreme close-up nature of many of these significant dramatic details.

3. Crime scenes are usually the most graphic-intensive parts of an episode of CSI. How do you achieve accuracy in your crime scene depictions?

Crime scenes are usually, along with autopsy procedures, very graphic in nature, and we construct our make-ups and dummies using pictures from real crime scenes. We try and limit our recreations to specific plot points for the script, both for the sake of clarity and to limit gratuitous gore that has no dramatic function in the story.

4. What are the biggest challenges you've had to face on the job? Most rewarding experiences?

The biggest challenge on the show, as in all television production, is the ridiculously short amount of time alloted to the creation of the suitable make-up effect. At the most there are maybe only four or five working days from the time the actor is available for the necessary head or body impressions needed to create the make-up pieces, and you can't get behind because the demands for the next show will be right on the heels of the filming of the present one. The most rewarding part of CSI to me was the way the public embraced it. From the start I thought it was a gripping, involving show, and its subsequent popularity has vindicated my early feelings about it. Also the best part of the show is working closely with so many other talented artists. Indeed, what we do is so interrelated with the special effects, art, props and the make-up and hair departments it would be impossible to separate the contributions of one department. And when the actors "lean over your stuff" and bring it to life it is very exciting!