write up session - James Ward

On friday the 15th october, James Ward came into college from the National film school of Ireland. At the film school, James took a model making and production design for film and TV coarse, he finished last year. At the college, James demonstrated making a mask on a pupil. To make the mask, James started off by gluing a bald cap on the pupils head to cover the hair, he made sure all the pupils hair was in the bald cap. After he had glued the bald cap on, James mixed up a rubbery silicone which he applied to the pupils face. throughout the demonstration, James always wore polyvinle gloves, the reason for that is if he didnt use gloves it would ruin the silicone mix which would ruin the mask. James put straws in the pupils nostrils to ensure the pupil could breathe throughout covering his face with the silicone. James covered the pupils face in the blue silicone, he started off by covering his eyes, he pushed in the silicone quiet hard round his eyes to make sure the silicone would pick up the detail, then he put a thick layer around the rest of his face. After he put the silicone on the pupils face, he had to apply bandages to the pupils face which would harden and become much stronger. Before he put the bandages on, he put them in water then put them on the silicone. He started putting the bandages on from the outside of the face working his way in. James Always kept space around the pupils nostrils for beathing. He applied the bandages in criss cross patterns to provide more strength to the mask and less brittle. After he covered thr face, he smothed the bandages down with water, the mask was about half and inch thick after it had dried. Then James pulled the mask off the pupils head, there we could see the eyes, nose and mouth, he sealed the nostrils in order to pore in the plaster, then he covered up the nostrills with the bandages. James then made a plaster in which he would pore into the mask. The plaster was called Crystal Cal, he used this plaster as it was much tougher than other plasters, he started off with a slush coat which picked up all the details in the mask. James poured in the plaster gently to avoid air bubbles and lumps which could ruin the mask.

In the next session on 21st, James completed the mask, he let the plaster dry so he could add the features.