Evan Hedges is a 29-year-old special effects artist working as the art director for 13th Floor Haunted House in Denver. He’s also a current finalist on season 9 of Syfy’s “Face Off,” a reality TV show in which special effects artists compete for a prize of $100,000 and more.
While in Chicago to visit the 13th Floor Haunted House in Melrose Park, Hedges stopped by RedEye to chat with me about special effects makeup and competing on “Face Off.” He even gave a step-by-step zombie makeup tutorial, making me over to look like a character that could be on the “The Walking Dead.”
One of things that really struck me about Evan was how easygoing and laid back he was throughout the entire interview. It was really a pleasure getting to talk to him about haunted houses, horror and more.
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What initially got you interested in special effects makeup?
“Movies. My dad was a big fan of movies. He never held anything back from me when it came to that. I saw all kinds of movies as a kid, and I always loved watching the behind-the-scenes for them. So yeah, it was really my dad taking me to movies and just growing up around that.”
Where did you go to school and what did you end up studying?
“I went to the Art Institute [of Colorado] for one semester, and I realized I didn’t like it because it was motion graphics and I just didn’t like computer stuff. Really, I like doing stuff with my hands. I quit that and then I went to Tom Savini’s Special Effects Makeup School in Pennsylvania. I had a friend that was going there and he’s like, ‘You should check it out.’ I knew nothing about makeup or sculpting, but I was always good at drawing, painting, graffiti and designer toy stuff. So I thought, ‘OK, I guess I’ll try it.’ I loved it, and I just kept with it, so the Tom Savini school definitely got me to where I am.”
From there, how did you find your place with 13th Floor Haunted House?
“Well after that, I came back and really didn’t have a job. I ended up designing rock climbing walls and handholds — so like sculpting handholds — and designing the whole wall. That company kind of went under, and I was looking for work. I found them on Craigslist, actually. Just like, this was when they were first starting 13th Floor and they were looking for somebody who could make masks. I just happened to find it at the exact right time.”
What do you enjoy most about doing special effects makeup?
“Really, it’s just being able to come up with something and bring it to life. I mean my opinion of it is that there are makeup artists who are on set applying prosthetics and stuff like that, but then there are effects artists who are the people in the shop that are actually sculpting these things and mold making and doing all of that. I think that’s kind of more my realm—the actually physical part of it. As far as being a makeup artist, I really do enjoy it, but I think creating in every aspect, and making something 100 percent yours is probably the most exciting thing. Seeing a character come to life and seeing people be amazed by it is pretty cool.”
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So then what do you think is the most difficult part about doing special effects makeup?
“Keeping it original. Developing your own style is very competitive in nature in this field. A lot of people like to duplicate things. There are people who sculpt The Predator a hundred times because they can do it. It’s cool and amazing in detail and looks just like it, but to me, it’s originality and creating characters that nobody’s ever seen. Actually making it something that someone can appreciate. Originality is the hardest part about effects makeup work.”
What’s your favorite horror movie?
“It’s probably between “The Exorcist” and “The Shining.” I really like “The Shining” a lot even though it really doesn’t have a lot of makeup in it. But “The Exorcist” is pretty sweet. It’s still scary. It still gives you the creeps, and it has pretty good makeup for the time.”
Favorite Sci-Fi movie?
“My favorite Sci-Fi movie is “2001 Space Odyssey.” It actually has no makeup at all. To me, it’s the movie that set the foundation for all modern day Sci-Fi and [Stanley] Kubrick is probably one of my favorite directors. I don’t know. That movie, I just love it. The next one would have to be “Aliens” because, of course, it’s amazing.”
Do you find yourself watching movies and paying special attention to all the effects makeup?
“Yeah, that’s ALL I do when I watch them. It’s pretty crazy. “
So that’s your job — just watching movies and looking at the makeup?
“That’s one part of my job, and playing video games to get references. Video games have a lot of great reference in them like sets and character development. So I get to play video games and watch movies and get some ideas from those worlds, too.”
That’s where you draw your inspiration then?
“Yeah, definitely. That’s pretty much where all my inspiration comes from.”
What was it like competing on “Face Off”? Have you ever done anything like that before?
“No. Never. I was always kind of debating doing it from when it first came out. Chris [Stafford, 13th Floor Haunted House owner] was always kind of pushing me to go on the show back then, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to. I don’t know what it’s about.’ It kind of seemed silly, and then as it got better and better, as far as the reality part of it, I decided that I was going to do it.
“I honestly did it to learn more and become a better artist. I never went in there being like, ‘Yeah I want to win $100,000,’ that’s great and everything, but I did it to get a little more confidence and just meet some really good people and be able to share my art. I wanted to do it really to better myself and become faster for the haunted house world. It was awesome, and I’m glad I did it.”
What’s it like watching yourself on TV?
“It’s weird. I used to have really bad stage fright. Like before I went on ‘Face Off,’ when I had to just do normal news stuff, like ‘Go down and show the news how to do makeup and stuff.’ I hated it, like crazy bad. I’d be like, ‘Please don’t make me do it.’ When you’re in ‘Face Off’ getting filmed for two months straight with cameras around you, you literally just get desensitized to it. And then when you start seeing the show, you know, the first couple episodes were weird, but now it’s like I don’t really care. It is what it is, so I kind of lost the stage fright thing.”
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So you really did live in that “Face Off” house for two months with everybody?
“Yeah, well as people got eliminated, it was less and less people, but yeah, I was there because I made it. If you haven’t watched, I made it all the way to the top three. … So, I’m in the finale right now, but yeah it was weird seeing all of your friends just like literally leave. They eliminate them, they go home, they pack their bag and they leave. So the house had a lot of energy at first but toward the end, when it was the last three of us, it was just dead in there. But yeah, no Internet, no TV, no phone, no books, no drawing. Nothing.”
What did you do then?!
“It’s kind of a weird method because it really gets you thinking. You’re looking at, like, the carpet for inspiration. You know what I mean? They don’t want any outside influences on the show. I mean that’s a great way to be creative, like if you don’t have anything, you have to think for yourself. You can’t just be like, ‘I’m going to put on this movie and get an idea, or I’m going to draw an idea.’ It was like absolutely not. So you weren’t allowed to do anything —no outside communication. The only way you could communicate with people was through a handler. He would have all the numbers, and he’d text people for you. And you couldn’t see the text. You’d be like, ‘Just tell my dad that I love him,’ and he’d be like, ‘Oh your dad loves you too.’ “
What?
“Yep. For as long as you’re there, you’re not allowed to communicate with the outside world.”
Oh my gosh. I feel like that could make someone go crazy.
“Yeah, I mean the hours were nonstop. You got two days off I think the whole time we were there. And they weren’t even really days off. They were like, ‘We’re going to take you to the park.’ And that’s about it. It was THAT strict. You had to lock everything up. Like they would take your phone, turn it off and lock it up. We got to watch ‘Face Off’ season 8 because we were there while season 8 was playing, so that was like our treat. It was crazy. The thing is, if you watch a lot of reality shows, there’s always like alcohol involved. Like you go, ‘Oh, ‘Real World,’ there’s a bar with anything you can drink,’ because they want to create drama, but there’s none of that. You could have one beer or a glass of wine every other day.”
So it sounds like they didn’t want any drama at all.
“Nope. It’s a drama-free show. That’s what makes it so unique. There was no drama between us. Everyone actually liked each other. We were all really good friends. The drama that happened was literally in the shop like, ‘I can’t get my mold open, or am I going to make the time?’ We’re all really sad when people got eliminated. And we’re always very helpful toward each other. That’s really the reason I did it. In the first seasons of ‘Face Off,’ if you watch them, there’s a lot of drama. After season two where there was all this drama, they were like, ‘OK, we’re not getting ratings, we’re just like any other thing. So we’re going to cut all that out and focus on the art.’ And I think that’s why they got the People’s Choice Award for Best Reality Competition Show. That’s a pretty big deal when you’re going up against ‘The Voice’ and ‘The Amazing Race’ and all that kind of stuff.”
Do you have words of advice for young Chicagoans looking to get into special effects makeup?
“Um, yeah if you’re already into it, obviously practice a lot. With the popularity of ‘Face Off,’ I think special effects makeup is on people’s radar now. There’s a lot of information on the web. I mean if you really are dedicated to it and you think you want to go to a school, I would definitely advise to do that, but at the same time I would say that I’ve learned 80 percent of the stuff I know now all on my own. The school definitely helped, but I would say research on the Internet. You can type ‘special effects makeup’ into Google now and find a thousand things about it. So practicing and constantly researching it is my advice.
