Recent Highlights:
COMING SOON!! A gritty 1970's crime action movie starring Alan Ritchson, Ben Foster, Shailene Woodley and Pablo Schreiber
Directed by Potsy Ponciroli -
Makeup & Prosthetics Designer
& Makeup Department Head:
Jamie Kelman
Jamie Kelman's Makeup work plays extensively in these new projects:
AMERICAN PRIMEVAL
Six months of filming outdoors in Santa Fe, New Mexico under Director Pete Berg produced some wild and grisly results.
Key Makeup Artist Jamie Kelman set out to the desert location invited by Dept Head Howard Berger, and together they tested and established the looks and levels of grime & blood for the main cast struggling to survive in the year 1857, plus carefully crafting Native American warrior looks with utmost respect & massive historical research & input from the local American Indians & their tribal advisors. KNB-EFX makeup studio produced the prosthetics and hairpieces which Jamie Kelman used to create the makeups to depict the onscreen scalping FX and aftermath looks on actor Dane DeHaan playing Brother Jacob Pratt, for the Netflix series AMERICAN PRIMEVAL.
Actor Dane DeHaan as character Brother Jacob Pratt, in Makeup by Jamie Kelman - corrective & handsome turns to trauma, post scalped & crudely stitched up, in the style of medicine circa year 1857
Jamie Kelman prepping actor Dane DeHaan for the Scalping effect with Blood plumbing.
On-Set Still Photography by Matt Kennedy
Howard Berger readies to squeeze the blood pump on-cue, while Jamie Kelman finalizes the makeup effect for the big bloody Scalping, working with actor Dane DeHaan
Timelapse of Makeup and Wig application for actor Dane DeHaan by Jamie Kelman
After the Jacob Pratt character is partially scalped and left for dead, he survives to reach medical attention - but in the crude style of year 1857 medicine, the result is a stitched up head resembling Frankenstein's monster. Jamie Kelman helped the sequence happen, creating a protective plate under the makeup and helping instruct the actor playing the doctor where and how to safely stitch up the prosthetic makeup for filming.
Kelman enjoyed playing Dr. Frankenstein between the takes, behind the scenes!
Jamie Kelman handstitched each day's prosthetic appliance, in the makeup trailer, before application. A new piece was required for every day that the character went on camera. The wig, also applied (and cleaned & blocked daily) by Kelman, was re-usable.
KNB-EFX Studio produced the prosthetic appliances and the wig in their Los Angeles studio, shipping many pieces over 6 months of filming to the Santa Fe, New Mexico location
Behind the Scenes magic! Here is what KNB-EFX created (minus the pre-paint and stitching which was done daily for each prosthetic piece by Jamie Kelman), for the makeup application process on actor Dane DeHaan - Sculpture by J.D. Bowers, Silicone Castings by Derek Krout and Gabi Gonzales. Hairpiece Wig made by Khanh Trance. The beautiful bloody eye was a specialty contact lens painted by Cristina Patterson, and applied into Dane's eye by Lens Tech Teresa Stone. Makeup Application by Jamie Kelman
Another memorable makeup Jamie Kelman created & applied for AMERICAN PRIMEVAL is an Eyeless Witch character at a Cannibal Campsite, played wicked & wonderfully by actress Alaina Warren Zachary
Despite the horror a classic Witch can ignite in our deepest psyche, while filming AMERICAN PRIMEVAL we never forgot for a moment how lovely the actress Alaina Warren Zachary really is, just a few millimeters under the foam latex makeup, glimpsed here as a 'before makeup' inset photo.
More Behind The Scenes magic! : The script called for blank white eyes, which we have all seen too many times before, so to avoid cliché, Makeup Designer / Dept Head Howard Berger got the great idea of the witch character instead to have NO eyes; as if at the cannibal camp, somebody had scooped them out to eat perhaps as hors d'oeuvres once upon a time. Maybe she even ate them herself... THE HORROR!
Howard Berger is the 'B' of KNB-EFX, so his studio serviced the show & created an appliance of shriveled down eye holes. I don't know who sculpted this, sorry not to credit! The prosthetic came to me with Howard's request that I take it forward, gladly tasking me with figuring out the look for the character. In prep I placed that piece on our actress Alaina, photographed her with & without the appliance (no glue at this time) and using Procreate on my iPad, I did a paint up look, designing what the finished makeup might look like (image above, black background). Howard approved and off I went, applying the actual physical makeup for the Witch Cannibal character whenever she filmed. Interesting how similar the final makeup comes to the digital design - I guess the technique of painting with the Apple pencil on an iPad isn't very different than using a makeup brush ... one's warm & analog, one's cold & digital ... but no judgment!
A last 'Making-Of' something of note here for AMERICAN PRIMEVAL : I brought my little Revopop 3D scanner with me to New Mexico, and scanned Alaina in the Witch makeup. Using the 3D sculpting program Nomad Sculpt on my iPad, I modeled her head-scan into a three dimensional model of an homage to an old 'Buffalo Nickel'. I added Dane's character scalping scar to this sculpture to represent both of my main 'standout' contributions to the show (not to ignore /forget the dozens of other character makeups I did as Key Makeup Artist for AMERICAN PRIMEVAL!). I made holographic stickers to hand out to most everyone I knew on the Crew; but for our makeup crew and main actors and Pete Berg the director, I sent the 3D .obj digital file to a foundry. They cast up gorgeous medallions with pin backs in Nickel-plated Pewter. Check it out:
I also 3D printed one at a larger size, as a wall mount.
I gave it my best antique old-timey style paint job.
The above image is the digital 3D sculpture as it looked on my iPad before emailing the file to the foundry for metal casting
Above: The many faces of actor Ben Foster as Harry Haft in Barry Levinson's THE SURVIVOR. Bottom right is Ben Foster without makeup.
Ben wears a daily character multi-piece prosthetics makeup to turn him into Harry.
Trauma and injury makeups take him through the fights in the boxing rings, and aging makeup spans the decades within the film.
Jamie Kelman designed, built and applied the makeups for Ben Foster.
The story portrayed in the film is non-fiction. This film is a biographical account of what actually happened to the real Harry Haft.
Harry Haft was forced to fight death matches for the Nazi's entertainment. Whoever loses the fight, loses their life. Harry never lost, but was forced to fight many of his inmate friends, and regrets the lost life that passed through his fighting hands. This is a true story - Harry Haft in real life endured all of this.
These gorgeous still photography on-set pictures are by Leo Pintér
In real life, actor Ben Foster has a body covered with many tattoos. While the goal is simply to render them invisible, it is quite a feat of makeup - especially when the action is so geniunely physical! Keeping actor tattoos covered is a major part of the makeup artist's job that, hopefully, nobody ever sees nor realizes, proving whether or not that aspect of the job was done right!
After fleeing the Nazis and making his way to the U.S., Harry Haft became a professional boxer. He was successful enough to work his way up to a bout with the real Rocky - Rocky Marciano. True story!
In his later years, as Harry Haft aged, depicted here with Jamie Kelman's aging prosthetic makeup taking actor Ben Foster to Harry's late 50s / early 60s, Haft in both the movie & in real life grappled tenuously with PTSD, before such a term existed, of having survived such horrors in his life. It affected his mental state & family relations greatly, permeating his home and daily life via nightmares and anger issues with which he constantly struggled to overcome.
Jamie Kelman working in his home studio creates the character likeness looks, aging looks and fight swellings & trauma appliances - first by sculpting clay over the face cast of actor Ben Foster, before turning it into molds which yield the silicone appliances, which are affixed to the actor's face and colored with makeup to create a believable character look for filming
Jamie Kelman applies the prosthetic aging makeup onto actor Ben Foster in the makeup trailer for THE SURVIVOR. Annamaria Dunai applies the wonderful wig made by Justin Stafford. Delicate Eyebrow Hairpieces made by Sasha Camacho Van Dyke and Specialty Dentures made by Yoichi Art Sakamoto complete the transformation of Ben Foster into Harry Haft.
Actor Ben Foster spent many fruitful hours in Jamie Kelman's makeup chair; they have a great working relationship with many shared hours of illuminating conversations, humor, and helping each other do the best possible job every chance they get, to create great art within great movies. This film was their 4th together - there has since been a 5th... MOTOR CITY ... more to come, soon! But as with all their jobs but especially on THE SURVIVOR, tons of trust, sweat, blood and tears went into creating these character transformations TOGETHER - of various ages and stages of life and of trauma, to tell the amazing story of the life of Harry Haft.
MEDIEVAL
For Petr Jakl's MEDIEVAL, Ben Foster plays true-legend fifteenth century Czech icon warlord Jan Zizka, a warrior legend who lost his eye during his battles for kings but who defeated armies of the Teutonic Order and the Holy Roman Empire.
Makeup for actor Ben Foster Designed, Built and Applied by Jamie Kelman
STAR WARS :
THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT
Makeup for both heads of the Alien Banquet table (above):
Boba Fett (far left) and the King Boss Klatooinian (far right). For STAR WARS : THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT , Kelman applied daily makeup with Designer Brian Sipe for the show's star -- the multi-stage burn/ healing makeup for the galaxy's most famous bounty hunter, Boba Fett himself, as played by Temuera Morrison.
Team BOBA FETT!! Left to Right: Makeup Designer / Dept Head Brian Sipe (L), flanking JANGO FETT now playing BOBA FETT actor Temuera Morrison (Center), with Makeup Artist Jamie Kelman (R) taking a group photo after finishing one of many morning makeup sessions to give Boba Fett his Sarlacc Pit stomach-acid scarring - which gets progressively worse and then healed over the series. There were Eight separate makeup looks /stages to the look of the character Boba Fett in the show.
Boba Fett / Tem Morrison gets his makeup maintained on Tatooine / on set by Makeup Artist Jamie Kelman
The new yet classic updated alien species of Klatooinian creature was sculpted and painted by Jamie Kelman; made into 8+ silicone masks, used in BOOK OF BOBA FETT and MANDOLORIAN Season 3, and turned into 2 lead characters as prosthetic foam latex makeups on actor Ardeshir Radpour playing the lead Klatooinians, both the green 'King Don / Boss Klatooinian', and the brown pie-balded & pierced thug boss, ' Kaba Baiz '.
Art direction by ILM Lead Concept Artist Doug Chiang and Mando/Boba Lead Designer Brian Sipe, based on the Original Trilogy Barada Skiff Guards design by ILM Key Sculptor Dave Carson.
New sculpture used for the Klatooinian species by Jamie Kelman (pictured below):
Jamie Kelman sculpts the new Klatooinian, in his home studio (during the COVID lockdown!), to be used for STAR WARS : THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT
Behind the Scenes: Jamie Kelman's Klatooinian sculpture was used to populate an entire alien species for the series STAR WARS : THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT. In this screen-grab, six Klatooinian thugs assassinate the Gamorrean Guards.
If you look closely, all six Klatooinians wear Kelman's one sculpture as silicone masks, all painted differently, with help from their individual costumes to look varied!
Kelman is super grateful to be part of the official STAR WARS universe - it was the focus of much of his childhood & BIG inspiration for his career.
Actor Ardeshir Radpour gets the prosthetic makeup applied to become the King Boss Klatooinian.
Makeup Artist Mo Meinhart assists the application with Jamie Kelman.
Sculpture, Moldmaking and Pre-paint /color scheme by Jamie Kelman.
Mark Viniello ran / cast the foam latex appliances from the molds.
Kelman also made the custom dentures which hook with dental ball/bars onto the teeth, firmly pushing the lips out to create a dog-like, muzzle shape.
Here Jamie Kelman finishes the character creation via makeup application as seen in the time-lapse video from Behind the Scenes of STAR WARS : THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT
'VICE' WINS ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST MAKEUp
Jamie Kelman is part of the VICE Makeup Team,
having Keyed the Makeup Department and
designed, created and applied the makeup to transform
actor Sam Rockwell into the lead character George W. Bush:
