[Please notes there's been some edits]
What do Lance Henriksen and Robbie Williams have to do with one another? Not much really....
Most of you are aware that I had a part to play in the special make-up FX for the television series 'The X-Files'. That show, at it's peak the most watched and popular television show on the planet Earth (and maybe beyond), was created by Chris Carter, a former surfer from California who also dreamed up another show that the special make-up FX shop I worked for and did effects for that series as well.
'Millennium', and we'll turn to Wikipedia for the most correct description: "Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter (creator of The X-Files), which aired on Fox between 1996 and 1999. The series follows the investigations of ex-FBI agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), now a consultant, with the ability to see inside the minds of criminals, working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group."
This series, as well as 'The X-Files' pushed the envelope for violence on television at the time. In fact, the FOX Network as a whole did. Shows like the 'Simpsons' and 'Married With Children' were all part and parcel to the violence and depravity we see on networks today.
Back in the day, the American's 'Standards and Practices' oversaw for the FCC, what was allowed and not allowed to be show on TV in America.
I can remember we'd get faxes from the head office (Ten-Thirteen Productions) listing what we could and couldn't do. Blood couldn't be "too red", dead bodies were not allowed to be shown "With their eyes open".
Word had it at the time that after each 'X-Files' and 'Millennium' episode Chris Carter would get a phone call from an unnamed woman at Standards & Practices' and they'd have long arguments over what the latest episodes had shown and it was during these conversations that Carter was pushing further and further what we'd see the next weeks and months.
At the shop, when we got the first scripts for 'Millennium' we couldn't believe our eyes. Most episodes consisted of murdered men and women, violently killed, chopped up, burnt, eviscerated, tape over mouths and nose.. For us, and this is kinda sick, but for us, it was awesome! This was our bread and butter, aliens, monsters, dead bodies. It's what we did. We brought forth from Carter and the other writer's imaginations, the evil and ghastly, bloody and violent ideas into reality.
We actually had an RCMP forensic adviser who worked with us on the show, to try and get 'right', how a dead body looked after being dead for days, what a burnt body would look like, what a 'bloater' looked like (A bloater is someone who's been found dead in the water after some days).
At one point the RCMP adviser came into the shop and showed us his "presentation" that he gave to students and detectives new to the job. We actually saw things that most of the public never saw or even heard of.
I've been watching, after many years, the series in full (Millennium), which only lasted three seasons. It's kinda fun to watch these and see an effect we made, because you forget all the 'jobs' we did for each episode, what those episodes were about. I have a 'tongue' from Episode 4 'The Judge' in my basement (don't worry, it's made of gelatin, which was kinda my specialty at the shop - making effects out of gelatin not just tongues).
The series had some problems. It didn't seem to get it's footing. Was it too violent? I don't think so. I think it was the writing. Season 1 was sort of serial killer/occult prophecy filled, while season 2, was more occult-ish and then the last season was a mix of both. Perhaps this drove people off...
When you watch shows like, Game Of Thrones, Hannibal, American Horror Story and so on. You can thank us that worked on the television shows of the 1990's for the crazy graphic violence you see today.
I think the most frequent questioned I'm asked when people find out that I worked on shows like 'Millennium', 'The X-Files' and piecemeal work on others is, "Do you miss it?"....
It's a hard question to answer, because I do and I don't. I'm sure the industry has changed an awful lot since the 1990's. It's an unhealthy industry or was, we worked nearly 7 days / week and missed most holidays. Why? because we loved being apart of what we did. Working on two television shows, you have an episode (or two in this case) that you're working on, two you're getting ready for, perhaps one or two that are in second unit shooting... So it was a lot, a LOT of work.. But we did have a blast. Working on set, which I wasn't there as much as most of our crew, was exhilarating, some find it horribly boring, but getting to watch everything going on is a great thrill, then getting to see the work you did, being shown on televisions all over the globe? It's awesome, very rewarding. We worked hard and partied harder and I'd never change being apart of all of that for anything in the World.
The 'Other' Millennium.....
Of course after I left the make up FX shop, I was hired at Electronic Arts and ended up in the motion capture department, where we worked with a lot of pro athletes from the NHL, NBA, FIFA and others.
One week during a production meeting we were told that we'd be working with an international superstar for a FIFA 2000 promo. When they said that "Robbie Williams" was going to be doing some guest motion capture, I was thinking, 'Robin Williams? The comedian?' But I was thinking, that couldn't be right... They were calling him "Robbie"... So, instead of embarrassing myself to ask about this "Robbie Williams", when I went home I 'Googled' the name.
I really had never heard of the boy band 'Take That' or of 'Robbie Williams', why would have I? I didn't listen to ANY radio, we worked so much I didn't know who was popular in the Pop and Rock World of the day, so I was quite surprised to learn just who this guy was.
Let's let Wikipedia do the talking again, "Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995 and again from 2009 to 2012. He has also had commercial success as a solo artist.
Here's Robbie and one of his bigger 'hits':
Williams rose to fame in Take That's first run in the early-to-mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch a solo career, in which all but one of his 11 studio albums have reached number one in the UK. Williams also released seven number-one singles. On 15 July 2010, he rejoined Take That. The group's subsequent album Progress became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century at the time. Gary Barlow has since confirmed that Williams had left for a second time, although the departure was amicable and that Williams was welcome to rejoin Take That in the future."
So I've explained the whole Motion Capture thing before, but to catch up; When I worked for Electronic Arts Canada, in Burnaby, my job as a MOCAP Operator was to get our 'talents' (actors, stunt people, athletes or international superstars), into their mocap suits. These black suits, had Velcro on them, on which 'markers' were affixed to certain joints of the arms and legs and parts of the torso, as well as the head (usually a pair of glasses).
The 'talent' would go onto the floor (Or 'Capture space'), where there were over 20 cameras that captured their movements and those were translated digitally to wire frame skeletons (at the time). Those wire frame skeletons were then sent to animators and the moves that were captured, whether it be for hockey, soccer or some first person shooter, are then plopped into your video game (of course the animators and coders have much work to do). Motion Capture allows for realistic movements of animated characters.
So, back to my job. We'd suit up the talent, then take continuity photo's of the marker placements ...
and then we had a director direct them through a 'moves' list. Again, whether it's soccer moves, kicking the ball, heading the ball or for hockey, shooting, scoring, celebrations, it's all captured by myself and my co-workers. We arm the cameras, there's a 'call for 'action' by the director, cameras roll and capture the move, the move is 'cut', cameras stop, the move is named and numbered and saved.
So, for 'Robbie Williams', he was coming in with international media as a promo for the FIFA 2000 game. 'Robbie' is quite football player (isn't every Brit?)... I had still no real idea just how 'big' this guy was.
Like, just look how incredible famous this fucker is:
So, it's game day. We were all set for the talent to arrive and the door to the green room swings open and in walks Robbie Williams...
Now, I'm not a star-struck kinda guy. I've met the Rolling Stones, worked for Marilyn Manson and on the TV shows, met many of the stars we worked with. And I still really didn't digest WHO Robbie was. So to me, it was just some loud mouthed Brit.
After some press interviews and introductions, myself and my co-worker Ryan took Robbie into the dressing room and told him to git nekid!.. Well, keep those undies on! And suit up! Once 'Robbie' was away from the press and handlers, he was a great guy, we had conversations about tattoo's, he has quite a few and was asking about my tattoos, sports and just shot the shit. Guy talk ya know. He was a really down to earth guy, wasn't egotistical with us whatsoever.
We got 'Robbie' suited up and once we opened the door and came out of the dressing room 'Robbie' lit up again; brash, loud, and flowing with so much ego it was hard to believe it was the same man I had just been talking to...
I was astounded at the time, during the shoot, Robbie would go out and do some high energy crazy soccer moves, then each and every single break in a shot, he'd want to go out for a smoke. I was put in charge as a "handler" to make sure he only had a few puffs off his "fag", time is of course money.. But the amount this guy smoked and then would turn around and his energy to play soccer was kinda astounding. At the time, Robbie was allegedly not on any drugs, though like many Rock and Pop stars he's had his time with drugs and alcohol and has gotten 'clean', I think a couple of times.
We finished up his capture and on the way out, while photographers were snapping photos for magazines all over the World and video cameras rolled, I was right with Robbie and threw a towel over his shoulders and he through his arm over my shoulder as we walked off the studio floor together. It was a moment to be sure. I'd always wished I had asked the MOCAP dept. for their footage of that event. Because damn it, it was pretty cool.
While only with Marilyn Manson did I ever ask for an autograph, I felt with Robbie, it was an instance that I needed to have down. So, I took one of the Polaroids we used for continuity of the markers and asked him to sign it. he didn't make it out to me, but, well he's the photo:
I know most if not all of my 'Metal' friends would be thinking "Who gives a fuck about this guy?"
To this day, I don't own any of his albums, I am a fan of a few of his earlier 'hits'.
But it still kinda moves me to this day to think back to this time and know I got to spend time with one of the World's biggest Pop stars, like, one on one and got to hang out with him a bit. As I said, once away from the handlers and press the guy was just like you and I.
It was a very cool day and one I'll always remember... I've often thought of trying to sell the Polaroid to some crazed 'Robbie' fan, but I think I'll hold on it.
Here's the opening for FIFA 2000 which featured Robbie Williams song, 'It's Only Us' as well as MOCAP footage of FIFA player Sol Campbell and the MOCAP of Robbie Williams
Sol Campbell, that's another story. We shot some MOCAP with him as well (Different shoot day). When Sol came in I met him and it was just him and I in our green room. I handed him his MOCAP suit and pointed to the room where he could change. All of a sudden Sol, just dropped his pants, and I guess by his own choice, was 'going commando'... and I was like, 'Whoa! Um.. yeah, uh, there's a change room there...' but he'd already slipped into the MOCAP suit... As he had gone in the suit commando, I told Ryan to maybe put the suit through the washer and dryer twice....
Holy Crap! i just found this video that I'm in! I appear at .46 seconds!
What do Lance Henriksen and Robbie Williams have to do with one another? Not much really....
Most of you are aware that I had a part to play in the special make-up FX for the television series 'The X-Files'. That show, at it's peak the most watched and popular television show on the planet Earth (and maybe beyond), was created by Chris Carter, a former surfer from California who also dreamed up another show that the special make-up FX shop I worked for and did effects for that series as well.
'Millennium', and we'll turn to Wikipedia for the most correct description: "Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter (creator of The X-Files), which aired on Fox between 1996 and 1999. The series follows the investigations of ex-FBI agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), now a consultant, with the ability to see inside the minds of criminals, working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group."
This series, as well as 'The X-Files' pushed the envelope for violence on television at the time. In fact, the FOX Network as a whole did. Shows like the 'Simpsons' and 'Married With Children' were all part and parcel to the violence and depravity we see on networks today.
Back in the day, the American's 'Standards and Practices' oversaw for the FCC, what was allowed and not allowed to be show on TV in America.
The 'Demon' from Episode 2 'Gehenna' - I fabricated the wings that folded in and out
I can remember we'd get faxes from the head office (Ten-Thirteen Productions) listing what we could and couldn't do. Blood couldn't be "too red", dead bodies were not allowed to be shown "With their eyes open".
Word had it at the time that after each 'X-Files' and 'Millennium' episode Chris Carter would get a phone call from an unnamed woman at Standards & Practices' and they'd have long arguments over what the latest episodes had shown and it was during these conversations that Carter was pushing further and further what we'd see the next weeks and months.
Gelatin 'tongue' from 'Millennium' Episode 4 'The Judge'
At the shop, when we got the first scripts for 'Millennium' we couldn't believe our eyes. Most episodes consisted of murdered men and women, violently killed, chopped up, burnt, eviscerated, tape over mouths and nose.. For us, and this is kinda sick, but for us, it was awesome! This was our bread and butter, aliens, monsters, dead bodies. It's what we did. We brought forth from Carter and the other writer's imaginations, the evil and ghastly, bloody and violent ideas into reality.
We actually had an RCMP forensic adviser who worked with us on the show, to try and get 'right', how a dead body looked after being dead for days, what a burnt body would look like, what a 'bloater' looked like (A bloater is someone who's been found dead in the water after some days).
At one point the RCMP adviser came into the shop and showed us his "presentation" that he gave to students and detectives new to the job. We actually saw things that most of the public never saw or even heard of.
'Burn victim' made of gelatin and latex
I've been watching, after many years, the series in full (Millennium), which only lasted three seasons. It's kinda fun to watch these and see an effect we made, because you forget all the 'jobs' we did for each episode, what those episodes were about. I have a 'tongue' from Episode 4 'The Judge' in my basement (don't worry, it's made of gelatin, which was kinda my specialty at the shop - making effects out of gelatin not just tongues).
The series had some problems. It didn't seem to get it's footing. Was it too violent? I don't think so. I think it was the writing. Season 1 was sort of serial killer/occult prophecy filled, while season 2, was more occult-ish and then the last season was a mix of both. Perhaps this drove people off...
When you watch shows like, Game Of Thrones, Hannibal, American Horror Story and so on. You can thank us that worked on the television shows of the 1990's for the crazy graphic violence you see today.
I think the most frequent questioned I'm asked when people find out that I worked on shows like 'Millennium', 'The X-Files' and piecemeal work on others is, "Do you miss it?"....
It's a hard question to answer, because I do and I don't. I'm sure the industry has changed an awful lot since the 1990's. It's an unhealthy industry or was, we worked nearly 7 days / week and missed most holidays. Why? because we loved being apart of what we did. Working on two television shows, you have an episode (or two in this case) that you're working on, two you're getting ready for, perhaps one or two that are in second unit shooting... So it was a lot, a LOT of work.. But we did have a blast. Working on set, which I wasn't there as much as most of our crew, was exhilarating, some find it horribly boring, but getting to watch everything going on is a great thrill, then getting to see the work you did, being shown on televisions all over the globe? It's awesome, very rewarding. We worked hard and partied harder and I'd never change being apart of all of that for anything in the World.
The 'Other' Millennium.....
Of course after I left the make up FX shop, I was hired at Electronic Arts and ended up in the motion capture department, where we worked with a lot of pro athletes from the NHL, NBA, FIFA and others.
One week during a production meeting we were told that we'd be working with an international superstar for a FIFA 2000 promo. When they said that "Robbie Williams" was going to be doing some guest motion capture, I was thinking, 'Robin Williams? The comedian?' But I was thinking, that couldn't be right... They were calling him "Robbie"... So, instead of embarrassing myself to ask about this "Robbie Williams", when I went home I 'Googled' the name.
I really had never heard of the boy band 'Take That' or of 'Robbie Williams', why would have I? I didn't listen to ANY radio, we worked so much I didn't know who was popular in the Pop and Rock World of the day, so I was quite surprised to learn just who this guy was.
Let's let Wikipedia do the talking again, "Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995 and again from 2009 to 2012. He has also had commercial success as a solo artist.
Here's Robbie and one of his bigger 'hits':
Williams rose to fame in Take That's first run in the early-to-mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch a solo career, in which all but one of his 11 studio albums have reached number one in the UK. Williams also released seven number-one singles. On 15 July 2010, he rejoined Take That. The group's subsequent album Progress became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century at the time. Gary Barlow has since confirmed that Williams had left for a second time, although the departure was amicable and that Williams was welcome to rejoin Take That in the future."
So I've explained the whole Motion Capture thing before, but to catch up; When I worked for Electronic Arts Canada, in Burnaby, my job as a MOCAP Operator was to get our 'talents' (actors, stunt people, athletes or international superstars), into their mocap suits. These black suits, had Velcro on them, on which 'markers' were affixed to certain joints of the arms and legs and parts of the torso, as well as the head (usually a pair of glasses).
The 'talent' would go onto the floor (Or 'Capture space'), where there were over 20 cameras that captured their movements and those were translated digitally to wire frame skeletons (at the time). Those wire frame skeletons were then sent to animators and the moves that were captured, whether it be for hockey, soccer or some first person shooter, are then plopped into your video game (of course the animators and coders have much work to do). Motion Capture allows for realistic movements of animated characters.
So, back to my job. We'd suit up the talent, then take continuity photo's of the marker placements ...
Myself in a 'MOCAP suit' as an example of the 'continuity' shots we'd take
and then we had a director direct them through a 'moves' list. Again, whether it's soccer moves, kicking the ball, heading the ball or for hockey, shooting, scoring, celebrations, it's all captured by myself and my co-workers. We arm the cameras, there's a 'call for 'action' by the director, cameras roll and capture the move, the move is 'cut', cameras stop, the move is named and numbered and saved.
So, for 'Robbie Williams', he was coming in with international media as a promo for the FIFA 2000 game. 'Robbie' is quite football player (isn't every Brit?)... I had still no real idea just how 'big' this guy was.
Like, just look how incredible famous this fucker is:
So, it's game day. We were all set for the talent to arrive and the door to the green room swings open and in walks Robbie Williams...
Now, I'm not a star-struck kinda guy. I've met the Rolling Stones, worked for Marilyn Manson and on the TV shows, met many of the stars we worked with. And I still really didn't digest WHO Robbie was. So to me, it was just some loud mouthed Brit.
After some press interviews and introductions, myself and my co-worker Ryan took Robbie into the dressing room and told him to git nekid!.. Well, keep those undies on! And suit up! Once 'Robbie' was away from the press and handlers, he was a great guy, we had conversations about tattoo's, he has quite a few and was asking about my tattoos, sports and just shot the shit. Guy talk ya know. He was a really down to earth guy, wasn't egotistical with us whatsoever.
We got 'Robbie' suited up and once we opened the door and came out of the dressing room 'Robbie' lit up again; brash, loud, and flowing with so much ego it was hard to believe it was the same man I had just been talking to...
I was astounded at the time, during the shoot, Robbie would go out and do some high energy crazy soccer moves, then each and every single break in a shot, he'd want to go out for a smoke. I was put in charge as a "handler" to make sure he only had a few puffs off his "fag", time is of course money.. But the amount this guy smoked and then would turn around and his energy to play soccer was kinda astounding. At the time, Robbie was allegedly not on any drugs, though like many Rock and Pop stars he's had his time with drugs and alcohol and has gotten 'clean', I think a couple of times.
We finished up his capture and on the way out, while photographers were snapping photos for magazines all over the World and video cameras rolled, I was right with Robbie and threw a towel over his shoulders and he through his arm over my shoulder as we walked off the studio floor together. It was a moment to be sure. I'd always wished I had asked the MOCAP dept. for their footage of that event. Because damn it, it was pretty cool.
While only with Marilyn Manson did I ever ask for an autograph, I felt with Robbie, it was an instance that I needed to have down. So, I took one of the Polaroids we used for continuity of the markers and asked him to sign it. he didn't make it out to me, but, well he's the photo:
To this day, I don't own any of his albums, I am a fan of a few of his earlier 'hits'.
But it still kinda moves me to this day to think back to this time and know I got to spend time with one of the World's biggest Pop stars, like, one on one and got to hang out with him a bit. As I said, once away from the handlers and press the guy was just like you and I.
It was a very cool day and one I'll always remember... I've often thought of trying to sell the Polaroid to some crazed 'Robbie' fan, but I think I'll hold on it.
Here's the opening for FIFA 2000 which featured Robbie Williams song, 'It's Only Us' as well as MOCAP footage of FIFA player Sol Campbell and the MOCAP of Robbie Williams
Sol Campbell, that's another story. We shot some MOCAP with him as well (Different shoot day). When Sol came in I met him and it was just him and I in our green room. I handed him his MOCAP suit and pointed to the room where he could change. All of a sudden Sol, just dropped his pants, and I guess by his own choice, was 'going commando'... and I was like, 'Whoa! Um.. yeah, uh, there's a change room there...' but he'd already slipped into the MOCAP suit... As he had gone in the suit commando, I told Ryan to maybe put the suit through the washer and dryer twice....
Holy Crap! i just found this video that I'm in! I appear at .46 seconds!
Enjoyed the story so far! Thanks for sharing your experiences!
ReplyDelete