Prosthetic Makeup & Special Makeup Fx

From Feature Films and TV series to global Media projects, HYBRID manage the whole process from script

or concept breakdown, FX design & creation, to on-set application and supervision.

- We are the industry leaders in the regular development, creation and use of lifelike Silicone Prosthetics -

Late last year we worked for 'Wall to Wall' in London on a 'Stoneage' based documentary which shot in East Anglia. We created and applied all the extensive Neolithic Character Makeup's.

With a Makeup team of four, up to fifteen characters were created each day over the efficient 5 day shoot, from tribal elders to Hunter-Gatherers, Fishermen and their children.

A key feature of the shoot was the team's ability to quickly change and re-dress the wigs & beards to adapt makeup designs for each actor to allow them to play multiple character roles over the long and varied historical time periods.

The programme aired on the National Geographic channel in the UK back in April 2010 and May over in the USA.

Hybrid are proud to offer a range of Special Makeup Effects Courses targeted at all Industry Entrants from pure beginners to the more experienced and Professional Makeup Artists...

From a ' One Day Introductory ' Course to the all encompassing ' Six Week Intensive Prosthetic Makeup ' Course we also run a special ' Three week long Character and Creature Creation ' Course.

Additional weekend ' Advanced Silicone Prosthetic Application ' Courses are also available, suitable for anyone looking to refine and polish their craft, as well as ' Bespoke Courses ' designed and run to order, tailored to suit individuals or small groups

The web site also has a secure, online payment system and a dedicated local rate telephone number for any questions and advice people may have and need. Please Call 0845 - 604 5525

Hybrid have award winning tutors that have over fifteen years experience in the Industry and who are all currently working on many well known shows and projects today

' Undercover Dad's ' originally aired from the 26th July '09 for a 13 week series on BBC Two for CBBC

Hybrid designed & created all the challenging 'Male to Female' transformations required for the show.

From 'Goth Chicks' to 'Floral Ladies', the game for a laugh Dad's underwent a four hour makeup process

'Anonymous', The New Undercover Disguise Show aired at 6.30pm on Saturday 18th July on ITV.

We were hired to disguise a trio of well known celebrities including Louis Walsh, Jenny McAlpine and Matt Dawson.

A Tiger Aspect Production, it follows on from four successful years of the Irish 'Anonymous' TV show made for RTE.

Both Prosthetic Character and Makeup Artists were supplied by us for the shoot. The Series Producer was Richard Cook.

Mike Stringer, Mike Bates, Kim Freeland and the Hybrid Enterprises team have won this years 'Makeup Design: Entertainment and Non-Drama Productions' Category for their Prosthetic, Makeup and Hair work on the Production 'Sex and the Neanderthals: Revealed' for 'Wall to Wall'

The presentation was at the Intercontinental Hotel, Park Lane, London on Monday 24th November, hosted by Fern Britton

“The jury said that the make-up was convincing to such an extent that you forgot you were watching actors in heavy prosthetics and genuinely got involved in the travails of the characters, as you would with any drama documentary.”

We designed and created a range of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon characters for the science based documentary, supplying the complete Makeup Service for the show from Prosthetics through to Character Makeup and Hair

We'd like to thank our brilliant team for all their excellent work. Specifically -

Kim Freeland, Mark Kilburn, Ricky Leach, Lisa Parkinson and Dawn Whitehead-Binns.

'Flick' Premiere at the Raindance Festival...

On Friday 3rd October In London, Leicester Square, the retro' 50's Zombie love story 'Flick' was screened for the 1st time. Starring Faye Dunaway, Hugh O'Connor, Mark Benton, Michelle Ryan and Liz Smith.

We were hired to design and create the Iconic look of the principal character 'Johnny 'Flick' Taylor' played by Hugh O'Conor as well as all the additional Special Makeup Effects for the film. Our in house team handled all the prosthetic makeup applications and Fx Supervision in Wales for the entire shoot over several weeks during 2007.

In March this year we completed shooting on a Project for 'Wall to Wall' titled 'The Neanderthal Code'. The documentary show for 'The National Geographic' was also shown on Channel 5 under the alternate title 'Sex and the Neanderthals: Revealed'.

Neanderthals are the closest relative to modern humans - and the most misunderstood. Once dismissed as backward brutes, now the question is whether they interbred with our ancestors and so whether we are all in part Neanderthal?

We had a very short creation time of around 20 days. The production's needs and the project's development were very 'organic' and we needed to be enormously flexible to facilitate all the creation processes involved to bring the characters to life.

For maximum versatility, we designed and created 3 Different original prosthetic looks that would eventually facilitate 8 different actors faces, ages and genders!

Individual unique teeth designs were created using only 2 versatile, hand made dental plate variations. Copies were then made, adjusted & detailed, and special silicone linings were added to allow an individual, comfortable & safe fit for all the actors involved. 2 original designs were therefore able to fit 8 different actors, 5 of which we'd never met, including a 12-year-old girl.

Our on-set team also designed specific Cro-Magnon (Tribal) Makeup that represented the natural colouration and texture of the materials understood to be used by our ancestors.

Multiple Hair and beard styles were also specifically designed & dressed for each race and gender.

The application of the Prosthetics, hair and makeup had to be completed in 3 hour turn around shifts, starting at 5am for the first group and then a second round of principals straight after, including a child on one day. In reality, a high number of additional 'background' characters were in fact used equally as 'foreground', and our excellent team ensured they all stood up to the level of scrutiny needed, for the show was all shot in HD.

'Outpost', the Black Camel Pictures Production with Ray Stevenson, Richard Brake & Enoch Frost.

We finished our busy year of 2007 with a welcome return to working with the most amusing Alan Ford as 'Grumpy Santa' for More4, which was Aired over Christmas 2007. A great way to work into Christmas by lovingly applying a selection of very hairy Beards and wig work to Alan, and bringing a rosie glow to his cheeks...

The award winning Ident was expanded as Hybrid were called on this second time to create two new characters, as well as bringing back the original Grumpy and a little foul mouthed Santa Clause. We feel that he liked his new Elf persona, but we weren't too sure about The Reindeer!

The busy end of year rolled over into a mad workshop frenzy as we were running multiple projects at once...

From creating fat prosthetics for the new series of 'Shameless', a new project with Gillian McKeith, as well as six more undercover disguise makeups for the third season of Irish TV hit 'Anonymous', we've also been running a range of Prop's for 'Heartbeat', as well as stunt Guns + makeup Fx for 'Spooks-Code 9'... it has been a frantic few months.

In amongst all of that we had another Bollywood film, a new undercover disguise production and the creation of multiple 'character' makeups that date back to prehistoric times, more on all that soon.

Hybrid Nominated for 2007 Craft & Design Award.

Alongside Davy Jones, Mike Stringer, Mike Bates and the Hybrid team were nominated in November 2007 for the 'Makeup Design: Entertainment and Non-Drama Productions' Category for their Prosthetic work on the BBC2 Comedy series 'Hyperdrive'. Together we Designed and created a host of new Alien Characters again for the second season of the Sci-Fi show.

For Season's 1 and 2 shot in 2005 & 2006 we designed and created a whole host of Prosthetic Alien characters of different races for the comedy series Staring Nick Frost showing on BBC 2. Designs ranged from simple ears and foreheads to very large full head silicone appliances.

Lenny the unhappy Hair Louse for a TV Commercial for 'Full Marks' Hair Shampoo.

Prosthetic Effects included articulated 'Antennae' and a second set of pose-able arms for a whole range of different emotions & poses, all shot against blue screen .

Dhoom2 won best makeup for film at the IIFA Awards held in Yorkshire in June 2007.

Here is a selection of the Prosthetic work we contributed to the show for the highly acclaimed lead actor Hrithik Roshan.

Mike Stringer & Mike Bates tending Sean Harris's prosthetic persona for his next scene.

Crazy Old age characters, created with full head silicone prosthetics for the 2004 Holsten Pils Press and Poster Campaign

Caprice and Craig Charles, Special Make-up designed & applied for the Maverick TV - Channel 4 show

Replacement Silicone Prosthetics for John Rhys-Davies as Gimli the Dwarf, created
for new scenes in the second and third installments of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Ideal - BBC - 2010

Married, Single, Other - Series – Left Bank Pictures - 2010

Stoneage Atlantis - Wall to Wall - 2009 - 2010

Anonymous New UK Pilot - Tiger Aspect / ITV - 2009

Undercover Dads - 13 part Series - Tiger Aspect / BBC - 2009

Emmerdale - ITV Productions - 2008 - 2010

Heartbeat - ITV Productions - 2009

A Touch of Frost - ITV Productions - 2008 - 2009

Nineteen Seventy- Four - Revolution Films - 2008 - 2009

Anonymous Series 4 - Animo TV / RTE - 2008 - 2009

Heartbeat - ITV Productions - 2008

Survivors - BBC - 2008

Spooks / Code 9 - Kudos - BBC - 2008

The Neanderthal Code - Wall to Wall - 2008

Anonymous Series 3 - Animo TV / RTE - 2007

A Touch of Frost - ITV Productions - 2007

Lost In Austen - Mammoth Screen Ltd - 2007

The 3rd XI - Avalon Television - 2007

The Royal Series I - VII - YTV / Granada Media - 2007

Anonymous - Telethon Charity Special - Animo TV / RTE - 2007

Blue Peter - BBC - 2007

The Chase Series 1 & 2 - Rollem Productions

Hyperdrive Season's 1 & 2 - BBC

Anonymous Series 1 & 2 - Animo TV / RTE

Jamie's Return to School Dinners - Channel 4 Television

Shameless - Company Productions (North) LTD

Funland - BBC

Full Marks Hair Shampoo - TV Department - Creation of 'Lenny the Giant Hair Louse' - 2007

The Royal Armouries - Creation of stunt Jousting Lance Coronells & props' - 2007

"Nitty & Gritty" - Stop motion character merchandise development for Border TV

Lifelike 4 Year old Child Figure - Created for the international Artist Adam Fuss (New York)

Please feel free to contact our Makeup Effects Supervisor, Mike Bates on +44 (0)1277 - 654862 (South East Office - UK)

Our silicone face duplication used for the Cover of the 2002 November issue. Our work was also included
as part of their TV channel documentary on "Skin" detailing how humans have learnt to synthesise it.
The Photo taken by Sarah Leen, won 2nd prize in the World Press Photo Awards 2003

Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway - A range of characters designed for their "undercover" segment of the show

Under our prosthetic makeup they were able to completely fool both well known TV celebrities and the public into believing they were Old Men, Jamaican Ladies, German Popstars, a Corporate Manager and his mature lady Secretary

All the characters were created and applied by our team using full face silicone prosthetics

Back in 2002 we developed and refined the Art and Technology of Special Make-up Prosthetics to offer greater realism, comfort, and flexibility.

We use our own specially formulated medical grade (Platinum) silicones to create wonderfully soft and flesh like appliances which react, move, wrinkle and appear exactly like real skin tissue. The system (designed by ourselves for our own specific prosthetic use) is a safe, reliable, and cost effective alternative to all other translucent prosthetic materials and standard foam latex. It can be used for concepts of ANY size and scale. Our prosthetics are NOT sticky or oily. Over any period of time and condition they don't stiffen, deform, melt, freeze or degrade in any way, and require no special 'on set' treatment or storage considerations - once made, they may be stored indefinitely.

The translucency and softness can be adjusted to replicate any skin type and requirement. From mould to make-up room an appliance can be supplied ready coloured faster than traditional foam latex, with superb edges which blend imperceptibly into the skin with little effort.

Our silicone appliances accept make-up extremely well (including water based products). Prosthetic make-up literally bonds to the material, ensuring that it does not rub off on the actor or their clothing, and requires minimal on set maintenance. Likewise, the bond to the skin is extremely tenacious, and absolutely reliable, using any form of prosthetic adhesive, as well as popular, hypoallergenic, NON solvent based brands.

Being extremely comfortable to wear, our appliances warm to the actors skin, and due to their incredible flexibility, are far less like a restricting mask, and more a physical extension of the actors existing features and performance.

Full face silicone prosthetic character showing close-up of fine edge blending around the eye

Full head animatronic creature, rear view of human torso in late stages of decay, and burnt corpse (post car fire)

Since we opened our studio-workshop in '97, we have expanded considerably. The Studio covers several thousand sq. ft of permanent working area including centrally heated offices, meeting / presentation facilities, and a specialised life-casting, make-up test and prosthetics department. For particularly large projects, we also have additional adjacent studio space available when required.

Over the last few years we opened a second Office and Prosthetics facility 30 minutes away from Central London, directly accessible by train from Liverpool Street Station.

Any meetings or consultation arrangements may be made either with our South East Office (Mike Bates, 01277 – 654862)

or The Studio (Mike Stringer - Makeup & Prosthetic Designer, 0113 - 2171300)

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further and specific information.