A longer, more complete version of what appeared earlier in stitchkingdom
moviefone
"Maleficent" week
on Moviefone continues with this inside look, provided by Disney, at
how the artists and designers behind the movie created the iconic
villainess's style -- horns and all.
Bringing the evil Maleficent -- who first appeared in Disney's classic animated 1959 film "
Sleeping Beauty" -- to life in this year's live-action "
Maleficent" involved the acclaimed talents of Oscar®-winning actress
Angelina Jolie and a team of artists and designers dedicated to create the villainess's uniquely wicked style.
Everyone familiar with Disney's classic "Sleeping Beauty" knows what the
animated Maleficent looked like, so getting the look right for the
live-action film was important to both director
Robert Stromberg
and Angelina Jolie. "Angelina was really passionate about not only who
the character was, but what the character looked like," says Stromberg.
"We worked together to come up with a character that wasn't that
stereotype image but was close enough that people would immediately know
her to be Maleficent."
Recreating Maleficent's costume from animated film to live action fell
to London-based costume designer Anna B. Sheppard, known for her work on
"
Schindler's List" and "
The Pianist,"
both of which earned her Academy Award® nominations. The costume
designer was tasked with creating two very different worlds, one with
creatures living in a forest fairyland and the other a human kingdom.
Sheppard began her process with research that guided her from the 15th
century to the Renaissance period of French and Italian art, including
paintings, sketches and sculptures.
Maleficent's character look in the 1959 animated film was designed by
animator Marc Davis, who is credited with creating Maleficent's horns
and designing her elegant style complete with flowing capes and high
collars, so Sheppard started with those references for Maleficent's
specific style. After watching the classic "Sleeping Beauty," Sheppard
incorporated the design elements and notes, "The persona that comes to
you straight from this film is Maleficent. The colors I used are similar
to the Disney prints from that film. I think Maleficent looks exactly,
in the big christening scene, as everyone expects her to be. This is
Maleficent from the animated version, just more beautiful."
Although Sheppard designed the line and shape of Maleficent's costumes,
she says that she could not have achieved the fully realized look
without the collaboration of specialty designers who were hired to work
with Angelina Jolie to help create the character's style. "Maleficent's
costumes evolved from mossy colors and 'floaty" fabrics to become dark
and sculptural shapes in much heavier fabrics with lots of volume,"
explains Sheppard. Artificial furs, leather and feathered accessories
created by the specialty designers were used to form a much darker and
sinister-looking character."
One of the first costume elements to be created were the horns and
Maleficent's facial contours as those looks were intrinsic to creating
Maleficent's full-on style. Seven-time Academy Award®–winning special
makeup effects designer Rick Baker stepped in to handle the process.
Baker began immediately with a digital painting of what he thought
Maleficent's look should be. "Personally, I thought for Angelina Jolie,
you didn't really want to do too much to her. For me, it was maybe horns
and ears. I pretty much left her face alone," says Baker.
But with Angelina Jolie's input, the design evolved. As Baker explains,
"Angelina wanted to wear appliances for Maleficent's look, so I did a
number of designs with appliances that were subtle. She also wanted a
nose, which I actually thought could give her more of a Maleficent look.
We ended up with numerous sets of cheeks and ears and horns in the
beginning stages. First we made sketches and then later we actually
sculpted on a cast of her head and made pieces for her to review."
Baker created cheeks, a nose and ear appliances for Jolie that were
silicone and gel-filled. Maleficent's cheeks look sharply prominent in
the film, but the appliances are actually very small. Baker explains,
"It's amazing because the appliances are less than a quarter of an inch
at their thickest points and only about a half inch wide. They sit right
at the crest of her cheekbones."
Special makeup effects artist Arjen Tuiten was on set daily to transfer
Baker's designs to Angelina Jolie. "It was important to Rick [Baker]
that all Angelina's prosthetics conform to the angles of her face," says
Tuiten. "From the life cast of her head, we formed the rubber
cheekbones and ears, following those contours. The whole application
process, including hair weaves, which took about a half-hour, was about
four hours every morning. Angelina was very patient with the process."
Turning his attention to the horns, Baker faced several challenges. "The
horns were one of the big issues because no one would want to walk
around all day with big horns on his or her head," relates Baker. "So, I
wanted to make them as lightweight as possible and removable because
when you have something that sticks out a foot beyond your head and
you're not used to it, you're apt to run into things."
Baker and his team sculpted at least four different designs of horns. "I
did some drawings and modeled some of the designs for the horns on the
computer," says Baker. "Then we actually ended up sculpting them. We
chose the one that we liked the best and did all the work using that one
design."
For comfort, the horns are very lightweight and thin, and made of
urethane casting resin. "After much experimentation, we ended up
basically with a maxi-form skullcap that had on it the base of the horns
and the first inch or so of the horns," explains Baker. 'The rest of
the horns stuck on with a magnet. They were very strong magnets that
held them in place but we could then pop them off in between shots."
The magnets also protected Angelina Jolie while engaged in wirework or
performing stunts. "If something crossed over or bumped they would
disconnect easily," says Baker. "But because of that, we had to make
many duplicates because if they fell, they would break. We also had a
stunt version of the horns that were more rubbery, so that they would
not hurt anybody. It was a lot of experimentation on how to keep them
affixed to her head and how to make them seamlessly removable.
Fortunately, the horns had a sculpted texture of lines, like a growth
line basically, so that made really good connection points. We probably
made at least 20 sets of horns of different types and replacements."
Maleficent's green skin in "Sleeping Beauty" is nowhere to be seen in
the live-action "Maleficent." "We still wanted her to look pretty and
attractive," informs Baker. That was an important thing and we didn't
want her look to be too creature-like. Keeping it relatable seemed like
the right thing to do for this film."
Baker also had contact lenses made to complete the look of Jolie's
Maleficent. "Angelina designed them," says Baker. "The lenses were
hand-painted by an artist who is an expert in that field. I have a lady
that does them all the time for us and we had some pictures made of
these eyes and had the eyes amped up a little bit."
After the horns were designed and built, milliner Justin Smith came on
board to design the covering for the horns and all the headwear for
Jolie's Maleficent. His first step was to get a sense of the costumes
Anna Sheppard had created for the character and then apply his specific
talents to bring innovative millinery to help create an iconic look
based on the original character from the animated film. Explaining his
approach, Smith comments, "I created several head wrap designs. The
designs emerged from the story of Maleficent, who of course has horns. I
worked on designing and creating looks that would capture the tension
between menacing and magical to become a contemporary couture version of
the 1950s animation."
To approach the basic design of the headpieces, Smith conferred closely
with the film's star Angelina Jolie. "Angelina wanted something that was
going to cover the head and completely lose all the hair, but also not
be a turban or fabric just wrapped around the head. So it was quite a
specific brief, and it took a little bit of time to understand where we
can go with this to try and create an identity for her."
"There's python skin, some very fine leather and some fish skin, and
it's all based on being quite clean and simple silhouettes with a
wrapping technique that looks like it's just twisted and wrapped around
the head in an easy way," concludes Smith.
To create his designs Smith looked to references that had already been
established and then he expanded from there. "There's obviously a theme
that we had to build in and a lot of the fabrics were supplied already,"
says Smith. "So I delved in there and had a look at what I could
actually use to bring it in with all the rest of the costume. I brought a
lot of my own techniques and my own skills to do with how I've
developed millinery in a modern way. A lot of my own references are
artists like Michael Parkes, who is one of my favorites, especially his
very elegant, very beautiful lithograph paintings. Then there are some
rope-knotting books and various books that I use for my own work."
With these resources, Smith manipulated his techniques and ideas
together with the costume. "I tried to come up with something hopefully
quite new and a little bit edgy, a little bit futuristic but nothing too
scary that would take away from anything else," explains Smith. "It's
more about complementing the whole look to make everything work in
harmony."
Using the story as a guide, with its numerous references to animals and
the creatures of the forest kingdom, Smith worked to bring some
animalistic influences to Maleficent's look. "It was the idea that the
headpieces weren't structured at all, that they didn't have any
stitching on them," explains the milliner. "They look very manmade, with
more taken from leathers and fabrics that would come from the forest.
It's as though Maleficent wrapped them around her head. The idea was
that they looked very easy and very natural."
Smith created six different headpieces that corresponded with the
seasons and specific scenes. Describing some of the different looks,
Smith informs, "There's the summer look, which is a python skin head
wrap. We've got the christening, which is the leather turban with
leather-covered thorns. We've got a spring look, which is a narrow strip
of leather sewn together so it creates a ribbed effect and then heavily
lacquered and painted. Then there's the stingray head wrap. So it's
stingray on the top and leather on the side."
No costume would be complete without footwear and accessories, so Rob
Goodwin, a couture footwear designer, assumed the role of leather
specialist. Goodwin approached his task with a vision, as he explains,
"Maleficent is a dark and complex character so I was inspired by the
darker edges of contemporary couture fashion which contrasted and
complemented the approach and vision of the more established film
costume design team. I wanted to inject an edgy, stylish and harder
aesthetic component into the mix, which I think helped us create a new
and iconic version of this fairytale anti-heroine. I worked closely with
a small design team and with Angelina to pin down and reflect
Maleficent's distinct personality in the garments she chose to wear."
Goodwin admits that most of his inspiration came from Angelina Jolie. He
comments, "Most of the inspiration came from discussions with Angelina
herself who inhabited the character completely. She is very
knowledgeable about past and present visual culture and so we drew from
our pooled knowledge and references to evolve Maleficent's appearance."
Goodwin worked in leathers and combined them with feathers, beads and
other materials. "These materials have the quality of savage elegance,
the scales and surface textures suggesting that Maleficent is somehow
non-human," says Goodwin.
Goodwin's most challenging designs for the film involved the battles
scene. "From early on, I had an idea for a helmet and footwear for her
battle scene, which had to be hard, formidable yet elegant. The helmet's
sculpted shape is covered in leather that looks reptilian and this
detail was continued onto the boots, which had customized bone-like
heels. Together, these pieces were my most challenging as well as being
my favorites."
Manuel Albarran joined the team to design Maleficent's accessories such
as jewelry and collars, which accessorized the look. Says Albarran about
his contributions, "l was mainly designing the accessories for
Maleficent: collars, rings, brooches, bracelets, shoulder-pieces and
spines."
Albarran envisioned Maleficent's look as very organic and rooted in
nature, with the use of as many natural materials as possible. "As l am
used to using metals and unusual materials in my creations, l looked to
legends, history and architecture as initial inspiration for my designs.
l then invented and developed the techniques needed to create my
visions and to create the pieces in reality."
The materials Albarran used to create his designs included various
metals, such as gold, brass and copper, precious stones and crystals,
different leathers, feathers and other natural materials all in order to
"create costumes that would be beautiful, yet dark in character and
powerful-like Maleficent herself," says the designer.
The collars Albarran designed for Maleficent were each different in
structure and materials. "The collars were all feminine and elegant in
silhouette, yet powerful and dark in atmosphere," explains Albarran.
"Really organic. Some were very detailed structures. For example, l
created collars where the collar, shoulders and spine were all connected
as a single piece in leather with a support to form the base structure,
where l then added various skins, feathers, etc. to create the final
design."
Describing his favorite design, Albarran says, "My favorite piece was a
collar with feather shoulders attached to a delicate spine. I placed
hand-dyed layers of duck feathers, the colors grading from different
greys through dusty blues and greens, to the structure, which formed the
shoulders and spine, creating a very organic feel. The spine l formed
using a metal base, which l covered in leather. The silhouette of this
piece is very elegant and feminine, yet also powerful."
Called upon to use his skills with leather in a different way, Albarran
was assigned the challenging task of creating the full-body suit that
Angelina Jolie wears in the final battle scene of the movie. Explains
Albarran, "Designing the costume was the initial step. Then l needed to
bring the design to life. This involved many technical complications, as
l had to ensure that she could move, jump and fight while wearing the
costume. I needed to make different samples, in order to check the
mobility, weight, and balance before the design could be perfected."
No look would be complete without beauty makeup and that's where Toni G,
Angelina Jolie's personal makeup artist, came in. To begin the process
of designing the makeup for Maleficent, Toni G looked to nature for
inspiration. She explains, "The story has so much nature involved with
it that it definitely triggered more of a look into nature and the
browns. With the palette we wanted a combination of colors that could be
used in variation, such as Concrete, a grey brown, for more natural
contour and a darker brown (Ground) and black (Carbon) to add a dramatic
pop to the eye, with a little Goldmine for highlight that would
complement the yellow in her contacts."
As red lips were part of the classic Maleficent design, it was an
important element to retain in the character's live-action look. "We
tried so many reds; we wanted a true bright red, but it also needed to
be the right constancy and be fully pigmented with a dash of shine. I
love the color we ultimately picked, so dramatic!"
After special makeup effects artist Arjen Tuiten applied the prosthetics
and did a light fine painting to match the skin, Toni G would begin her
work. "We would start in with the beauty and basically highlight the
upside down triangle under the eyes to the outside part of the cheeks to
the bottom of the nose. Basically the same principle with a normal
beauty makeup."
Toni G's approach to the makeup for the Maleficent character was "about
finding a way to bring the animation to the flesh." She elaborates,
"Besides her prosthetics, her eyes where the perfect way to achieve
this. I was very inspired by the labradorite stone. The Eskimos call it
the Aurora because of the dimensional shift in color as the light hits
it. Beautiful greens, blues and yellows. She wore very detailed contact
lenses painted with these colors. The perfect way to help her feel
magical."
Working with the contacts and the eye makeup was a balancing act for
Toni G. "Those contacts just made her eyes pop that much more, so had we
gone with strong colors on her eyes, we would have lost the balance,"
states the makeup artist. "Her contacts were supposed to be part of who
she was as her own natural face. We wanted to keep a sense of her being
relatable and natural, but also a strong sense of the classic
Maleficent. We wanted to find what worked for this story and also make
sure that it wouldn't become overly distracting as a theatrical makeup."
Maleficent's nails also had a special look. They were painted underneath
with black and on top with a pearlescent-like polish, but for the
christening scene, the nails underneath were painted blood red.
Although Toni G enjoyed the transformation that took Angelina Jolie from
her movie-star self to the evil Maleficent, she was concerned about the
use of glue to apply the prosthetics. "It was exciting for Angelina to
have prosthetics and such a cool transformation, yet I was concerned for
her skin having pieces glued on for four months! But it was all good.
We opted to use a mix of coconut and argan oil for removal, which seemed
to really help keep her skin from being irritated by strong glue
removers."
But Toni G admits that the most challenging aspect of designing the
beauty makeup was finding the balance. She explains, "It was just always
about finding the balance of everything. When we got a new costume on,
we had to decide what we wanted to do with her eyes and had to think
about the emotion of the scene. It always seemed to be about finding the
balance between her costume and where she was in the film."
On May 30, 2014, when Disney's "Maleficent" opens in U.S. theaters, the
work of the talented designers and artists involved in creating
Maleficent's look will be showcased on-screen and audiences will be
swept away to another place and time by the beauty and style of
Maleficent, whose evildoing is sure to lead another generation to
appreciate the art of villainy as only Angelina Jolie can bring it.
"Maleficent" casts its spell in theaters May 30. Buy advance tickets now.
