SPLICED Issue 04\r\n\r\nX-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST\r\n\r\nISSUE 04\r\n\r\nMAKE-UP MYSTIQUE\r\nby Cameron Murray\r\nWith credits that include The Curious\r\nCase of Benjamin Button and both\r\nJJ Abrams Star Trek movies, it’s no\r\nwonder award-winning make-up\r\neffects artist Brian Sipe was a key\r\nplayer in bringing Mystique to the big\r\nscreen for X-Men: Days of Future Past.\r\nWhat made you want to become a specialeffects make-up artist?\r\nGrowing up, I was one of those kids who\r\nalways watched Godzilla, King Kong, Star\r\nTrek – all that stuff. And I had a fascination\r\nwith magic. I think I got fascinated with the\r\nthought of the illusion and fooling somebody.\r\nTell us about your job on X-Men: Days of\r\nFuture Past.\r\nThat was a great experience. The producers\r\nknew going in that they had Jennifer\r\nLawrence, who had just come off Hunger\r\nGames and Silver Linings Playbook and was\r\nthe frontrunner to win the Oscar. The last\r\ntime she was Mystique [in 2011’s X-Men: First\r\nClass], I was told it took seven artists up to\r\neight hours to do her make-up. And then it\r\nwould take them two to three hours to clean\r\nher up at the end of the night. I mean, that’s\r\n11 hours, not counting how much time they\r\ncould shoot her during the day, so I think\r\nthey figured, “We’ve got this hot actress and\r\nwe need to tighten this up.”\r\nHow did you streamline the process?\r\nBy the time I got the call, the process of how\r\nwe were going to move forward streamlining\r\nthe make-up was already in motion. But then\r\nit came down to me to be like, “OK, we gotta\r\nmake this faster and we gotta make it last all\r\nday so we have minimal touch-ups and we’re\r\nnot holding up production.” I did countless\r\ntests with different make-up materials and we\r\nknocked it down to three artists, three-and-ahalf hours on and 45 minutes to get her out\r\nat the end of the night.\r\nWhat was Jennifer Lawrence\r\nlike to work with?\r\nJennifer was great, a real trooper. We\r\nwould go through three-and-a-half\r\nhours of make-up and she would still be\r\nsmiling. We watched a lot of South Park\r\nand Family Guy… got us through the 4am\r\ncall times. When we put Jen in make-up,\r\na lot of the time we also put her stunt\r\ndouble, Renae Moneymaker, in makeup. She is also a sweetheart and was very\r\npatient with all that we did to her.\r\n\r\n66\r\n\r\nDays is set to be quite a monumental film for\r\nmultiple reasons - firstly we see Bryan Singer\r\nreturning to the director\'s chair, which will hopefully\r\nmean a decently emotional portrayal of the plight\r\nof the characters and a cohesive story. Then we\r\nalso have the reunion of some of the veteran\r\ncast members of the previous trilogy,\r\nincluding Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Ian\r\nMcKellan (Magneto) and Patrick Stewart\r\n(Professor Xavier), which means a\r\nmassive ensemble cast, a great story and\r\nthe rather good First Class to follow on\r\nfrom. Excited yet?\r\nDays of Future Past is set in the\r\n1970\'s, 10 years after the events of X-Men:\r\nFirst Class. Things aren\'t going all that well\r\nfor the X-Men. Xavier is despondent\r\nfrom the betrayal of Raven (Mystique),\r\nreprised once again by the talented Jennifer\r\nLawrence, and Magneto who has made\r\nseveral failed attempts to create a\r\nsafe, nurturing place for young\r\nmutants. Nothing is going well,\r\nthe mansion is falling apart\r\nand the morale of the team\r\nis all but nonexistent. This\r\nis very much along the\r\nlines of Singer\'s original\r\nvision for the X-Men\r\n(until that terrible third\r\nfilm and unmentionable\r\nWolverine... things...\r\nhappened and ruined\r\n\r\n