End of the Future, Part 34
Hill Valley Vignettes, Part II
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I am doing wrong (to correct it).
Edited to Correct a wrong detail about Brundle's project.
Hill Valley, California, USA
McFly Residence
Late Wednesday
Rei Ayanami walked a bit unsteadily to the kitchen, yawning discretely; she needed to take a nap after school after reconstructing Dr. Akagi's body. The former pilot would be tired for some days more, according to Egon. Thankfully, her headache had been a one time occurrence, but she was terribly hungry all the time.
At the kitchen bar, she found her host, George McFly, and two unexpected visitors, eating snacks and talking animatedly about old movies. "Mr. Tyler, Ms. Gehman." She bowed. "George. Good afternoon to you all. What did I miss?"
George smiled, "Not much. Doc went on an errand on his car; Marty, Jennifer, Asuka, and Shinji went to play video games at the 7-11, and Lorraine went to pick up a couple of dresses." He opened a pack of peanuts, and poured it into a bowl. "Winston, Egon, and Ray are watching over some experiment at Brown Industries. Wanna eat something? I can prepare some salad or soup, if you want."
"Not right now, George; I'd rather wait until dinner." She sat down on a stool, and claimed the peanuts, as he had pushed the bowl towards her. "The peanuts will be enough until then. Thank you."
Rollie waited for Rei to go on, but the girl focused on her peanuts. He continued his talk, "As I was saying, some effects can only be done with miniatures, like Godzilla, though it's very difficult to make a rubber-suit actually convincing. They had planned to film the movie in stop-motion, like King Kong, but there was not enough time, and there were not enough animators familiar with stop-motion techniques anyway; so, rubber suit time!" (1)
Andy sipped her soda, and added, "I've always wondered how a stop-motion Godzilla would fare." She sighed, "But after the first movie, they kept to the man-in-a-suit style stomping on a maquette."
Rei paused before eating another peanut. "Have you found a good place? I would like to learn the trade."
Rollie rubbed his chin. "Not yet. We have a few possible places, but need to actually check them out in person and get some extra specs. An old warehouse would do for space, but if we are gonna work with all kinds of effects, we will need access to a lot of things. Especially electricity, studio lights are notorious power eaters, and I don't want to keep changing fuses just because the place is cheap but can't handle the output."
Andy elbowed Rollie, "Yeah, but that can wait. Today we can begin with something basic, don't you think?"
"Oh, yes." He turned to Rei, and raised his mug of coffee, "Make-up!"
George nodded in approval, "Do you need something in particular?"
Rollie shrugged, "Just a well-lit place you wouldn't mind getting a couple new stains. The garage would be fine."
"Actually, Doc and I built a small cabin/workshop between our lots, for the kids to use as they please. It's empty apart from a work table and a set of stools."
"Splendid!" Rollie rubbed his hands together, "Andy, you and Rei go with George and open the place. I'll go get the box."
He returned a few minutes later, carrying a big fisherman's box, full of all he needed for basic make-up. He put the box on the work table and opened it with the air of a Wizard imparting wisdom to an apprentice. "The first thing you need to know, it to work from photographic reference." He said, pulling a bunch of Polaroid pictures.
"These are real. As we are in the business of faking reality, we need to be really familiar with what we are faking. So, every chance we have, we gather photographic reference. Now, one of, if not THE most basic work in SFX is nothing but simple make up. The right colors applied in the right way. One of my neighbors in New York was an amateur boxer, and worked in construction. So, he got accidentally pummeled one day at work, and got voluntarily pummeled another as a hobby. We shared a few beers, and he let me take pictures of his bruises from fresh to fully healed." (2)
Rollie spread the pictures over the table, each one was dated and numbered. They showed the man's face in front, profile, and three quarters angles. "You can see how his face went from bruised and swollen, note the almost closed eye, back to healthy. The cauliflower ear is a bonus."
Rei examined each picture with a very focused facial expression. Rollie spread a second set of pictures on the wooden surface. "Next level, wounds and scars. I'll not go into detail with wounds yet. These are real scars. One of my friends back in New York is a former cop. Leo McCarthy, good guy, a bit annoying. He was wounded some years ago, and he got some nifty scars (3)." Rollie said, while Andy prepared a work area. Rollie tapped each picture in turn. "Gunshot, the bullet went right through his arm. This one is the entry wound. And this is the exit wound."
"They are different." Rei noted.
"Yeah. As it goes through, a bullet pushes flesh in front of it. Exit wounds tend to be bigger than entry wounds. On an arm or a leg, the flesh can, say, get out of the way, but head bullet wounds are a different matter."
"Head wounds can be horribly messy." Andy said, shaking her head.
Rei thought about it for a moment, "You mentioned something about it before the filming. The pressure accumulates in the bullet's way, and would basically explode as it exits the body." She said calmly, while George looked a bit green.
"Um, yes. But that's a lesson for another day. Those pics are not easy to get, we need to get medical/forensic magazines for that." Rollie continued, "Back to less gory matters, this one is a knife wound. A mugger slashed Leo's chest with a switchblade during an arrest. Note the dots surrounding the scar line; it was a shallow wound, but he needed some stitches anyway."
"I see." She didn't comment just how familiar she was with pain and wounds, as that had been, literally, lives before.
Rollie put a towel around his shoulders, covering his shirt. "Let's begin with a simple bruise, pick one of the pictures from after the swelling has gone down. The swelling would require prosthetic pieces."
Rei picked the first picture to comply with Rollie's condition. It was a really big and dark bruise over the man's cheekbone.
"Excellent." He approved. "Andy is best at this kind of work." He relaxed his face into a neutral expression. "Now, pay attention to what Andy does. I'll stay here quiet as a cat in a dog show while she works and explain the hows and whys of the job." He closed his eyes.
Andy took a make up set, its box stained and scratched, and began to apply a base over Rollie's right side, over the cheekbone. "First thing, an even layer of base over the area." She said, while Rei and George watched. "Note that this color is close to Rollie's own skin color; also Rollie's skin shade is quite similar to his neighbor's. Otherwise I would have to compensate the difference." She pointed at one compartment, "If it was you instead of Rollie, I would use this one, much lighter in shade."
Quickly, she progressed through a series of colors, applied with brushes and sponges, until Rollie looked like he had been in a fight several days before. "Aaand we're done. Ready for the close-up!"
"Amazing!" George scratched his head, "I could have sworn its real!"
Rei examined the fake bruise, comparing it to the picture she had in her hand. "May I try?" She asked.
"Sure, I'll guide you. Don't worry if it doesn't look convincing enough. No one nails it in the first try."
Hill Valley, California, USA
Brown Enterprises HQ
3I Lab Section
"He/he/hey, boys!" Lisa chirped from her screen, spinning around in happiness, "I go/g/g/got it! Code brok/k/k/ken and all files compiled/piled!"
Egon raised his eyes from the letter he was writing, at the same time ignoring the nearly filled up waste basket next to his desk; while Winston and Ray paused their game of checkers.
Lisa stopped her spinning. "I t/t/thought you'd like/like/like to know that the teleporting project Brundle was work/king on actually worked. And I'm not/t/t talk/k/king about p/p/partic/c/c/cles!"
Immediately Egon perked up, Ray had the mental image of a prairie dog coming out its burrow.
"I've been wondering that myself. The design of the things he had in the lab doesn't make any sense for simple particles. There's no way to make a true vacuum, or to locate any particles." Egon put the letter into the drawer. It was a personal matter he didn't feel inclined to share with even his closest friends.
"Well, I got good/goo/good and b/b/bad news."
Egon wiped down his face, annoyed. "Okay, good news first."
"The t/t/telepods can p/p/port macro/cro-objects! Even liv/ving c/c/creatures!"
Ray was the one to ask. "And the bad news?"
"The c/c/computer c/c/can't manage it/it/it!"
Winston paced around. "Wait. What do you mean?"
"Brundle's system sends any/any/anyt/t/t/thing from one p/p/pod to the o/other. But/b/bu/but two or mo/mo/more things insi/si/inside get mixed up. The co/computer can't/t keep t/t/track of different things. He port/t/ted himself naked (woo-hoo!) to avoid mixing his b/b/body with his clothes."
"That would have been both very deadly and very painful." Egon noted.
"But surely he was refining the process before fleeing." Winston raised an eyebrow. "Traveling naked wouldn't catch up. Except with a niche market, I think." He scratched the back of his head.
"There/there was no u/u/use, boys. He c/c/c/came out wrong. Ac/c/cording to his not/t/tes, he got mix/mix/mixed with a f/fly."
"Like one of those cheap monster movies from the 1950s? Like a guy with a fly head and arm?" (4)
"Nope/no/no. Gradual mut/t/tation. The fly DNA got mixed with his human D/D/DNA. As his cells were rep/p/placed, the fly p/p/part grew more evident. St/st/start/ting with the hair/ha/hair on his b/b/back, unt/t/til his whole b/b/body turned int/t/into a man-fly hybrid. His mind was also af/ff/ffected, he got to lik/k/ke the ch/ch/change!" Lisa showed them two pictures side by side, one was a slender guy with long black hair and big eyes, the other was a deformed creature, the skin full of pustules and coarse hair-like fibers bunched irregularly over his body. "And that's/t's just a mid st/st/stage, guys. He got even worse/s/se. He wrote a log det/t/tailing the changes. He lost t/t/teeth, nails, hair/hai/hair, ears/and even his j/j/junk/k/k."
All three men grimaced in empathic disgust for a minute, until Ray decided to ask a question, "Do you know what happened to him? How his girlfriend and the other guy really died?"
"No. Not exactly/c/ctly. The rec/c/cords stop/stop before then. There was a last/t/t activat/t/tion of the "A" telepod, but/t/t the "B/B/B" telepod was out of s/s/s/serv/vice."
The former Ghostbusters exchanged a look. Winston shook his head, "I think I know why."
"Yeah…" Ray sighed.
"Death by teleportation." Egon took his glasses off, and cleaned them slowly. "I guess the system is too dangerous to be used for its intended purpose."
"Just hearing about the danger makes me sick, guys." Winston said. "And I've seen things… even before joining the GBs."
"Then, I guess we mothball the whole thing and try to forget it." Ray shrugged.
"Let's talk with the others first, maybe we could use something." Egon put his glasses back on.
"Don't you think we should… um… tone things down? For the kids?" Ray asked, worry clear on his eyes.
"For the kids, Ray? That picture is getting first place in my nightmares, that's for sure. I don't wanna see it again!" Winston exclaimed.
"Agreed then. Lisa? Put the pictures in a separate, restricted archive."
"Already done, Doctor Sp/Spen/engler."
Winston shook his head, "if you excuse me, guys; I think I better work a bit on Ecto-1. I need to get that image out of my head. A full check-up might do that job."
"Need any help, Winston?" Ray stood up. "Same boat."
"Sure, Buddy." The former captain paused at the door to look back at Egon, who had an expression of worried curiosity on his face. "You okay, Egon?"
"Hm? Oh, yes. I'm okay. I was just thinking of something else. Nothing particularly problematic I assure you. Not for anybody else. Personal matters."
Hill Valley, California, USA
McFly Residence (The Workshop)
Later
"I can't believe! She nailed it in the first try!" Rollie smiled, looking as his bruised cheekbones in the mirror set in the lid of the make-up box. "Kid, you are officially accepted into the F/X crew as an apprentice!"
Enthusiastically, Andy hugged Rei with one arm. "Congratulations, Rei!"
A very small smile spread on Rei's lips.
Outside, the sound of a motor announced Doc's arrival.
Hill Valley, California, USA
McFly Residence
George went to the door to receive the scientist and the two took seat at the kitchen, away from their guests. "Everything okay?" He asked, while he passed a soda to his friend.
"Perfectly." Doc smiled, "All we need to do is wait while Lisa works on Dr. Akagi's documents and we catch up with her. She gave me a list of components she'll need to research ways to block the psychopomps from locating people after Rei/Lilith begin to gather the souls. I've been busy evaluating possible equivalent parts, I just put a big order of components. I'll contact Mr. Burton and check if he can do the pick up at San Francisco."
"Reliable service, that's for sure. Hum, I thought Dr. Akagi said the tech hadn't been invented yet." George scratched his head.
"It hasn't," Doc shrugged, "but she gave me the specs she'll need. I'm sure we can cobble up something equivalent. It will be like reverse engineering a 1980s computer with 1960s tech. It is possible, but it will be voluminous, slow, and expensive."
"I see." George nodded. "By the way, Rei is learning movie make-up. You should see the way Rollie looks. His face looks like he went six rounds vs Muhammad Ali a week ago."
"Great! She needs a hobby!" A shadow crossed Doc's face. Understanding the reason, George patted Doc's shoulder.
Doc sighed and shook his head. "I need to talk shop with Egon and Ray. At length. But first, let's see how badly Rollie looks." He grinned. Right then, the front door opened. Marty, Jennifer, Asuka and Shinji arrived. Doc and George exchanged a mischievous look.
Hill Valley, California, USA
McFly Residence (The Workshop)
"Hey, kids!" Rollie smiled at the just arrived group, pointing at his face and smiling widely. "Look at the number Rei did to my face!"
Marty gasped, and almost dropped the paper bag containing Einstein's cans of food. "What? Did you get into a fight?" Incredulous, he looked at Rei's Mona Lisa smile. "And she won?"
Andy and George laughed. Rollie slapped Marty's shoulder. "She won! But not in a fight. As it happens, she has just been accepted into F/X as an apprentice. This nasty bruise was her entry test, and she passed with flying colors. Shinji," he put a Polaroid camera on his hands, "take a couple of pics, will ya? Front and profile. It would be a shame to lose this quality job."
The boy shot the pictures asked.
Meanwhile, Jennifer studied the reference pictures, comparing them to the make-up. "Wow…" she wheezed. She was about to say something else, but changed her mind. A moment later, she continued. "Can you do regular make-up, Rei? Your own make-up is very… um… very basic."
"Haven't tried to go beyond the look I liked in the fashion magazines you let me borrow."
"Let's try for something more complex." Jenifer opened her backpack, and took out a magazine. She shuffled the pages quickly, until she found a very extravagant look. "Let's try this." She sat down on one stool, and pulled her hair to a ponytail; while Rei studied the magazine and the make up set Jennifer had.
"I would need some glitter to replicate the look faithfully." Rei mused, her eyes fixed on the picture.
Andy put a small container on the table. "Here you go. I bought this for a test, but didn't work with the lighting. Too shiny."
Five minutes later, Jennifer looked at her reflection. A satisfied smile on her painted lips. "Great! I wanted to try this look." She looked up back to Rei. "I bet you can make good money applying make-up for parties and that. Once the other girls know you can do make-up this good, this quick, you'll have your hands full."
Rei hesitated a bit.
"It will be good to socialize, at least." Doc noted.
Rei thought about it, and finally accepted. "I have no idea of the price ranges."
Marty hugged Jennifer with one arm, "Leave that to Jennifer. You're gonna need a vault at the bank!"
Asuka sat down on another stool. "Dibs on first paying client, Wonder Girl." She turned to Jennifer, "Price for natural look, emphasizing eyes and cheekbones."
Doc beckoned the other males, "Let's go, guys. The mysteries of the feminine are not for mortal men to know." He said with a smirk.
"Lest we go mad from the revelation?" Shinji blurted, immediately covering his mouth.
"Man, the game is starting to get you, Shinji." Marty slapped his friend's shoulder in easy camaraderie.
Even Rei cracked a smile.
Author Notes
(1) True.
(2) A curious anecdote from the filming of Jurassic Park comes to mind. During the filmation of the climactic scene, the actors had to hung from cables as they fled the raptors over a dinosaur skeleton. Laura Dern (who played Ellie Satler) got quite a few bruises in the process, and the SFX crew did ask her to let them take pictures of them, for future reference.
(3) There's no mention of any past wounds in any of the F/X movies, but it would not be unusual for a long-time cop to carry some scars.
(4) The protagonist of the original version of The Fly (1958), suffered that exact problem. And the fly that got mixed up with him, the exact opposite. The last scene is still creepy and tragic. If you haven't watched the movie, do so. It's one of the best monster movies from the 1950s.