MORE ON BARNEY AND HIS ‘DARK’ WORLD
And I was like, Yeah I’ll do it if you pay me
Yesterday, we talked about Barney Burman’s Oscar moment, the one he won for his tremendous makeup on J.J. Abram’s 2009 film
Star Trek. We got to know the person behind the amazing skills that brought to life unforgettable characters on film and TV; the fanged creatures in Teen Wolf and the mystical and folkloric supernaturals in Grimm.
In this column, we continue to learn more about Barney, his humor and why he found more freedom to be one of the industry’s renowned makeup artist after he stopped “caring.”
We will also know what he’s currrently working on after directing the award-winning
Barney Burman’s Wild Boar, a thriller that is inspired by George
Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Here is the continuation of our conversation with Barney Burman, who was one of the guests and sat for the “In Conversation” session at the recently concluded 30th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which is part of the bigger and on-going Singapore Media Festival.
Daily Tribune (DT): Did you notice any changes to your creative aspect after you stopped caring?
Barney Burman (BB): I don’t know. Did I change creatively? That’s a hard question. It’s just, you know, stepping stones. I think I’ve gotten better artistically. As I work, I try to work each thing better than the last. And sometimes I fail but I try.
DT: But Teen Wolf was not the last time you worked on TV, right?
BB: No. After Teen Wolf, I got a call about a year later for Grimm. And I think that was kind of when I realized that I didn’t care so much anymore. And I was like, ‘Yeah I’ll do it if you pay me.’ They got somebody else for an episode. I guess it didn’t go so well and so they called me pretty quickly and said, ‘Can we negotiate?’ I was really happy. I’m always happy to negotiate. Grimm did that. They told me their budget and I said that’s cool. I can work with that. So I signed on and did the six seasons after that. And I got to make things most people only dreamed of being able to make.
DT: Because it was a fantasy and a lot creatures. And you also got to work on an episode that tackled the manananggal of the Philippines?
BB: We didn’t get to make the aswang (vampiric creature). There’s a lotofCGI (computer-generated images). I was really devastated. I’ve always wanted to do the manananggal (a kind of vampiric creature whose body splits into two and loves to eat unborn children). They decided that it would be more efficient to do it with CGI. I didn’t agree. I think they used too much CG on it.
On the show, in general, I think they relied a lot on seeing things transform in and out. I personally want to do more fantasy character makeup. First season we did a little of that. Like the old man with the mousy ear effect, a little bit of character enhancement. I wanted to do much more of that. But I understand that they probably didn’t think it was worth the value because people would probably not notice it. But I would argue that even subliminally, it would have enhanced the show’s design.
DT: What do you think about CGI heavy movies when you could have done wonderful makeup?
BB: I think everything’s got its place but CGI is kind of useful. My problem with CGI is, it’s not CGI per se, it’s the mentality. Two things. One, CGI allows people not to make a choice now. They make the choice later. Sometimes, that’s a really good thing but I think you should decide to do it and commit to it. And even then, if it’s wrong, you could potentially change it later in effects.
With CG, now you can do anything, nothing is special anymore. I don’t even have to necessarily believe the real stuff even if it is real because CG fantasy has taken things to such extremes that it kills the specialness of special effects. And I missed that. I would like to see a more plain, real life story that has some special elements rather than go into this whole special fantasy world that does not just stimulate me. There’s no risk, no gravity, no physics, no impact that matters.
Tung Le (Vietnamese reporter who joined the interview): Do you want to be a director?
BB: I am a director. Thank you for asking. My film, Wild Boar, just won Best Horror Film at the Studio City Film Festival. I wrote, directed and produced it. Acted in a little bit. It’s about these mutant pig men that turned tables to society and chased humans to the desert and kill and eat them as mutant pig men will do. It was fantastic. I loved that. I wanna do more of that. I may have done a lot as a makeup artist. If you ask if I was satisfied as a makeup artist, absolutely. Do I want to stop? No, I’m still having a good time. And if someone comes up with something that excites me, I’m happy to do it.
DT: What was your vision when you wrote it? Do you want
to convey a message as to why you wrote it?
BB: Well, I want to make people think. I’m not preaching anything but I know of one person who said that because of my movie, that person become a vegetarian and I’m not a vegetarian. I’m not a big meat eater or a huge carnivore. But I’m also not opposed to consuming some animal. And I don’t fault anybody for doing it. It’s the way of humans; we’ve been eating meat and each other for a long time. But I think people should be aware and contemplate their choices. And if it makes them vegetarian and makes them cut back on the amount of animals that they consume, that’s a good thing.
DT: What are your upcoming movie projects?
BB: A friend wrote a script and I joined as a co-writer. It’s called the Murdering Kind, a sort of a character study of a serial killer. The original writer came up with a concept of a woman who has studied a lot of serial killers. I think it’s a really good script, story, a riveting relationship piece. And I think it’s a great big kind of warning about your neighbor because you don’t know who they might be.
DT: Why are you drawn to something dark?
BB: Good question. I don’t know that I am entirely drawn to dark things. I like good stories and I like people in peril of one kind and another.
I’ve also written other scripts. I’ve written a Jewish-Orthodox even though I’m not an Orthodox-Jew. Also wrote a screenplay that sadly I lost. It’s about a theater company in the Philippines. It’s kind of a character ensemble comedy in a Philippine Repertory company.
DT: Do you people watch?
BB: I’ve been watching you guys looking at me. I don’t know if I do it consciously but I do watch people and watch their mannerisms and quirks. I like very much the reality of behavior.
Kristoffer King earns another acting award
There’s no stopping critics and cinephiles from recognizing Kristoffer King’s remarkable performance on his last film,
Verdict.
The late actor was awarded with a Best Performance citation for his role as Dante in the feature film directed by Raymund Ribay Gutierrez, which was in competition under the Asian Feature Film segment at the 30th SGIFF.
Festival jury noted that King’s character “could easily lapse into caricature, but his nuanced, outstanding, performance gave an insight into the mind of a perpetrator.”
Another Filipino, director Kristin Parreno Barrameda, was also awarded the Residency Prize for her film, Bing.Bong.Bang,
“which stood out for its ironic voice on the dichotomy of life and death” and her ability to provide a “fresh and unique perspective on otherwise universal themes.”
The film features an amateur criminal who unknowingly takes a suicidal person as hostage as he robs the local bank out of desperation for money to bury his wife. Congratulations to the winners. Follow me on Twitter, @ celluloidsurfer.