Celine Godeau

"When I was really young I’d take the black soot from around our fireplace and put it around my eyes. I can’t tell you why. It was an urge from within. I remember seeing punks for the first time at the end of the ’70s. It was the first time I’d seen coloured hair and Mohawks. I was compelled and intrigued. I would make eye contact with anyone who looked shocking and it would freak my parents out."

When I was a little girl, I saw POLTERGEIST. Sylv and I kept our cool until bedtime came along. Monsters in closets and under beds, evil clowns, alternate dimensions in TVs, secret Indian burial grounds... there was a lot to be scared shitless about. Our mom, being the very cool lady that she is, told us that there is a team of people behind the scares that designed everything from the story to the creatures. We couldn't believe that someone had actually MADE the monsters! How cool is that? Scaring people as a job? Wow. That's when our unbridled love for prosthetics and the artists behind them.

My mom was talking about people like Celine Godeau. Celine is one of the most talented and humble artists I've ever had the pleasure of meeting and working with. She's one of the insanely talented people that live in my fair city of Vancouver, but I didn't meet for years. So, what did I do in the mean time? What any sane individual would do. I cyber stalked her and drooled over her amazing work. Just give this ridiculously gifted girl's name a google or snoop her IMDB page and see that's she worked on WATCHMEN, X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, FREDDY VS JASON, ELEKTRA, SLITHER, UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION, SMALLVILLE, RED RIDING HOOD, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, SUCKER PUNCH, SNAKES ON A (mother fucking) PLANE, MAN OF STEEL, and our upcoming AMERICAN MARY. Celine is also an instructor for the very impressive make up school Blanche Macdonald. Oh, and she's won a Gemini.

"At Blanche Macdonald it was like a window opened. I was able to see the career options open to me that had never been discussed before. I realized that all my interests linked up and ma de perfect sense here, even my interest in medicine, archaeology, and true crime scenes."

FACE CHARTS by Marian Mina, facebook.com/marianm.mua & www.marianmina.com

FACE CHARTS by Marian Mina, facebook.com/marianm.mua & www.marianmina.com

A true innovator and mistress of her craft, Celine has even gone on to design her own line of film make up products named The Lab of Godeau.

"As a Vancouver based makeup artist sometimes we don’t have the option of purchasing things available in other established film areas. Out of necessity as much as passion I started creating products that were really useful. Everything from sealers to mouth stains that looked and tasted good. It’s all natural. When you work on a lot of different faces and different skin you have to be conscious of allergies and different requirements people have. Sometimes it’s personal choice – a lot of products contain animal products and some people don’t want any of that. When I started looking at what it took to formulate them I realized that there were options that involved no chemicals or animal products. I didn’t need to be a chemist to formulate them.

It took me back to my time growing up in the country and exploring nature – pulling flowers apart and seeing where the nectar comes from. Later on, I had this opportunity to reverse engineer products. I took products from the States that worked well but didn’t show the ingredients. I could break them down and recreate them."

My working experience with Celine can only be described as creative intercourse. From the moment she walked in I became a total fan girl and even admitted my online obsession with her and her work. She did make up, prosthetics, and even hand doubling on AMERICAN MARY with her precise and flawless work. I wish I could share some shots of her from set and her work, but I'm afraid our wicked lips must remain sealed at the moment. I can say that Celine absolutely puts her everything into her work. She is a true artist and even speaking with the woman is inspirational. She conducts herself and her work with true professionalism, class, and an obvious love for her work.
< style="font-style: italic;">"As soon as I got into prosthetics and saw that it involved sculpting, life casting, mold-making and air-brushing my mind went crazy. I was instantly drawn to that direction. I realized that with a lot of wonderful character makeup, you wouldn’t even realize it was makeup. You don’t see the makeup, you see the character. It’s a paradigm shift realizing that with good makeup – you don’t even see it right away."

If I could ever have a career other than my own, it would certainly be make up and prosthetics. To be able to dream something up or have a nightmare and then be able to bring those creations to life is astounding. Maybe one day Celine will let me clean brushes for her. Until that fine day, I look forward to bringing new beasts and beauties to life with her and am so grateful to know her in more than an online stalker kind of way. Celine is truly an inspirational woman and if you're interested in make up and prosthetics, do yourself a favor and go study at Blanche Macdonald with one one the coolest women to ever lift a brush.

Fatally Yours,
Jen

Dick Smith & Dead Hooker in a Trunk

This just happened. Thank you to a man as kind as he is talented - Todd Masters, of Masters FX and the man behind the effects on upcoming AMERICAN MARY - who took this pic of Dick Smith, prosthetics and effect GOD - in front of the fabulous New Beverly Cinema.



If you can make it to the New Beverly Midnight screening of DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK - it would be an honor. The flick plays sick in front of a crowd, so bring your cool friends and have a blast!

OMFG - Dick Smith is the man!!

Sylv

Eye Am Honored

SPOILER ALERT - IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK AND DON'T WANT TO RUIN ANY SURPRISES, DO NOT CONTINUE READING.

One of the first things I ever learned about horror movies is that all that gore and blood and monsters and whatnot (some things are indescribable) are created by talented artists who pretty much design, build, rig, and create every aspect of your nightmare. This lesson came to me at the age of ten after seeing POLTERGEIST (I said I would be ok watching it/I was not). After learning the truth, it became so much more interesting what could be made to get a good scare. And what scared the shit out of me also in my youth was seeing a kid get him in the bat of the head with an aluminum bat - causing his eye to pop out of the socket.


There is a sequence in DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK that we are extremely proud of where all holy hell breaks lose ending with someone losing any eye. It was a beautiful eye made by the best - God. You see, pigs have different colored eyes just like humans - blue, brown, green, hazel - and they are just the right size too. Get them at a discount at the butcher shop. They are a godsend to indie horror. We used some fancy ten minute film school (a la Rodriguez - see DVD extras on ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO) and used a locked shot to blend our mold and our actress's face. The rest is eye-popping history.

It is with a gigantic sense of pride that I share this incredible news -- The Horror Digest, in an article written by the fantastic Andre Dumas -- has included our gore on fear-inspired list entitled: "BJ-C'S FEAR OF EYE TRAUMA TOP 9 PICKS OF TRULY TRAUMATIC EYE MOMENTS." She includes us amongst such gory gloriful flicks like: KILL BILL VOLUME 2, HOSTEL, THE BIRDS, AUDITION, SESSION 9, SAW 2, UN CHIEN ANDALOU, and ZOMBIE -- on Andre's list. Thank you for this sincere honor and beautiful your words --

"The Soska sister's Dead Hooker in a Trunk was one of the more entertaining and eye opening experiences in my indie horror watching career. A film that takes exploitation and runs with it and a film that is stuffed to the max with gore, gore and beautiful gore. One moment in particular however had me exclaiming with wonder, confusion and holy eye trauma madness. After the peak of the greatest scene in the film, Geek (played by Jen Soska) is standing in a parking garage when some dude with a baseball bat smashes her head---causing her eye ball to pop out.

I stopped trying to figure out how this scene was possible seconds after it happened because I realized it was just too fantastic to be talking logistics about. It is at once fantastic and extremely cringe inducing when you imagine such a thing happening to yourself."

There is a whole other list with rad eye-cringing moments for your thrill-filled fancy. Check the whole list here - it's the raddest of rad. Now, don't run with scissors, girls and boys, or you might... >insert eye gag here<

~Sylv