Behind the scenes at the 'X-Files'<\/p>\n
By Lynn Elber<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES (AP): Makeup artists Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf and
\nKevin Westmore were confronted with the task of turning a chubby-
\ncheeked doll into a believable corpse for the hit U.S. television
\nseries The X-Files.<\/p>\n
\"So Kevin throws the doll on the studio sidewalk and he's
\nstomping on its head. A guy walks by and says, 'That's really
\nsick, buddy,'\" recounts Montesanto-Medcalf.<\/p>\n
It's just an average day for the special effects experts who
\nconspire to make the Fox drama one of television's most ghoulish
\nand reliably chilling experiences.<\/p>\n
The truth isn't out there, as lead character Fox Mulder
\ninsists. It's in the wizardry of technicians who can make us
\nbelieve that aliens have landed, that a patient has been
\nbarbecued in an MRI machine, and that a handsome young actor is
\nwizened and ill.<\/p>\n
A small army works behind the scenes of the show, which stars
\nDavid Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents solving oddball
\ncases while trying to expose a government conspiracy possibly
\ninvolving an alien invasion.<\/p>\n
The prop department alone has six to seven people, double the
\nusual number for a TV show, said property master Tom Day. There
\nare three people in Bill Millar's visual effects squad and an
\nequal number in the department run by Montesanto-Medcalf. John
\nVulich contributes additional makeup effects.<\/p>\n
Some joined the series when production was moved to Southern
\nCalifornia two years ago, after five years of filming in Canada.
\nAnd they really love their work.<\/p>\n
\"I do nice beauty makeup but I also have a kind of sick mind
\nand can make people look disgusting as well,\" said Montesanto-
\nMedcalf, cheerily. If she's haunted by frightening images, it's
\nonly professionally.<\/p>\n
\"I've been up since 2 a.m. thinking of zombies because of
\nyou,\" she chided Duchovny recently. An upcoming episode he's
\nwritten and directed is filled with undead souls, and Montesanto-
\nMedcalf had to devise a makeup scheme for them.<\/p>\n
Day's Fox studio prop room is filled with evidence of the
\nmayhem he regularly helps fake. There are boxes marked \"human
\nguts,\" skeletons and a rainbow of body bags - yellow, black and
\nwhite representing different law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n
Many items are custom-made, such as a machete that was shown
\nslicing into a scientist's shoulder in the season's opening
\nepisode.<\/p>\n
A weapon with a cardboard \"blade\" patterned to fit snugly
\nagainst the actor's shoulder was created, then held in place with
\na thin metal plate and straps. Makeup provided the bloody
\nfinishing touch.<\/p>\n
\"It looked great, but it was kind of silly to watch the guy
\nwalk over to craft services and get himself a sinker and cup of
\ncoffee in the morning,\" Day said.<\/p>\n
The aliens who make occasional appearances in the series are
\nMIA from this storage room.<\/p>\n
\"We have a selection of alien bodies at another warehouse, the
\nones with big eyes that look so friendly,\" Day said. \"As we use
\nthem and they get more and more beat up ... then they become the
\nbody of the guy from Florida who's just been eaten by the swamp
\nmonster and is inside the bag.<\/p>\n
\"As long as they don't complain, they'll go into any body bag
\nwe can fit them into,\" Day said, a grin stretched across his
\nface.<\/p>\n
Some props are benign. A baseball-themed episode last season
\ncalled for a mechanical bank. When a suitable one couldn't be
\nfound, Day and his crew researched and engineered a bank with a
\nballplayer whose hat tips in coins.<\/p>\n
\"All that happens in five or six days,\" Day said, referring to
\nthe average prep time available for each episode. \"That's the
\npart that amazes me. How quickly it winds up happening.\"<\/p>\n
The various departments collaborate on each episode. Although
\ndivision of labor is the rule, sometimes one unit - such as CGI,
\nor computer-generated imagery - will take the lead on a special
\neffect.<\/p>\n
\"They decide by virtue of what gives them the most bang for
\ntheir buck, so to speak,\" Day said. The big-ticket effects, such
\nas giant spaceships, provide a respite for his department.<\/p>\n
\"When we read 'CGI' in the script, it's great. We're at craft
\nservices (eating and relaxing) for those parts,\" he said.<\/p>\n
For performers, the X-Files experience can be truly memorable.<\/p>\n
\"A lot of times the actors are hired and think, 'Oh, I got a
\npart.' Then they read the script and go, 'Oh, my God, this is
\ngoing to happen to me?\"' said Montesanto-Medcalf.<\/p>\n
In one episode involving poisonous snakes, a guest actor was
\ncovered with prosthetic blisters that seeped a pudding-like
\nsubstance with the help of air pumps. For another episode, titled
\n\"Theef,\" the MRI victim was \"burned\" by four makeup artists
\nworking for eight hours.<\/p>\n
\"We put a bald cap on her. Then the hair people glued on yak
\nhair, which is wiry, that had been singed,\" said Montesanto-
\nMedcalf. A blend of acetate, gelatin and paint was used to
\nsimulate charred flesh, with dog rawhide serving as exposed bone.<\/p>\n
It was \"X-Files\" perfect. \"It looked so disgusting,\" said
\nMontesanto-Medcalf.<\/p>\n
Most actors are good sports, including the stars. Anderson was
\na real trouper when subjected to a swarm of insects, including
\ngiant winged beetles, in the season's first episode, while
\nDuchovny was equally game when facing live snakes, Day said.<\/p>\n
Duchovny even relished being transformed into an elderly man
\nin one story, Montesanto-Medcalf said.<\/p>\n
\"Not only did he have to look old, he had to look diseased. So
\nhe wasn't a good-looking old guy, that's for sure,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"But he loved it. Everyone on the set was so amazed at how
\ngreat it looked and kept going up to him and saying 'You look
\nfantastic.\"'<\/p>\n
There seems to be only one thing that can frighten an \"X-
\nFiles\" veteran - sharp-eyed fans looking for flubs.<\/p>\n
\"If a baseball bat is used in an episode in season two and I
\nbring out the same baseball bat for something in season seven,
\nthere will be people who get on the Internet to carp,\" said Day.<\/p>",
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