Workshop with Michele Mulkey

Michele Mulkey has been a Special Effects Make-Up Artist and Prop Maker for over 12 years, working in both Los Angeles and New York City for film and television. In addition to owning her own Special Effects Studio, Michele is also the Co-Creator of ANImakeup as well as the blogger for “Behind the FX…”

At the convention Michele presented a workshop for fans to learn different tricks on how wounds, special effects, body suits and make-up are put together for TV shows and movies. Michele’s credits include over 37 feature films and television shows, including “The Last Samurai”, “The Chronicles of Riddick”, “Constantine”, “Seed of Chucky”, “ CSI: Miami”, “Firefly”, and many others.

The fans learned how to make a realistic knife wound, bloody autopsy body, and even Jane Rizzoli’s scalpel wound to her palm. Michele doesn’t even consider this a job because she gets pay to do what she loves. One thing she said that quite often when she watches shows or movies, she notices some special effects’ details and analyzes how she would have done it, which sometimes takes all the enjoyment.

There are lots of different things involved in the applying special effects and make-up and some of those tricks take a very long time. In order to keep continuity on a TV show, all make-up artists keep special continuity bibles with pictures and comments so if there are absent the other make-up artists, writers or directors would know where all the wounds are, and how the special effects were done.