Fun With Liquid Rubber

Debra Sussman (Lynn Hendricks) came out to the DaJa Vu Films office space today so that we could do a torso casting of her for when her character gets killed in The Bunnyman. Debbie is currently involved in a big project which we are unable to talk about. I think she's working for the CIA or something, but she swore us to secrecy so we can't say a word. Anyway, she called me this weekend because she was telling her make up guy on the huge project that we were doing a casting of her and he didn't want to have to work on her if her skin was all messed up, even though the appliances he's put on her have caused Debbie to break out in blisters. Oh, what little faith she has in us. But I assured her that we're not using any cheap stuff. We're using a liquid rubber (we did a test of my arm using alginate, which is what most make up books say to use, but trust us, save your money, cause alginate sucks ass) that's made by the same company that produces the material the new bat suit for Batman Begins was made out of.

We made sure to feed her first. Generally, our rule is not to feed our actors. Food costs money and we have better things to spend our money on than something you basically only rent anyway. But when you're going to have actors in an uncomfortable position for four to five hours, its best to feed them so they don't get cranky.
After lunch, I put on Wild Hogs so Debbie would have something to watch so she wouldn't just be standing there for hours doing nothing. Jason and I set to work.

Things didn't go exactly as planned. We had latex gloves to put on the release cream, that worked out just fine. It was the liquid rubber that proved to be the problem. No where did it say that you need to use a thinner for the first coat except on the instructional DVD that we had to buy. We thought we could do the casting without it. We thought wrong. The liquid rubber began to dry almost as soon as Jason could mix it and it clumped up on the bristles of the paint brushes we were using. Same thing for the latex gloves, so we asked Debbie if it was okay if we did it without the gloves. Trooper that she is, Debbie said, "Go for it." So we stripped off the gloves and got down and dirty. Reason number one why it's a good idea to use friends as guinea pigs instead of complete strangers. Friends are less likely to slap you when you are "forced" to grope and man handle them.

We put on two coats of the liquid rubber and filled in the gaps. Wild Hogs had ended so I put on Heartbreakers and we started putting on the plaster strips. These are purchased in rolls of gauze with dried plaster, which are cut into the desired lengths. When cut, the strips are dipped in warm water and applied. They form a support and shell for the mold. We had to wait for everything to dry before we could go any further, so we took a break and enjoyed the movie. Once the mold and plaster were dry, we removed the shell. Then Jason had to cut a strip down the back of the mold so it could be removed.

I had put some of the rubber below where we'd put the release cream, so Jason had to cut some of the rubber from Debbie's skin, accidentally leaving a gash (and they say I'm clumsy). Which is reason number two why it's a good idea to use friends as guinea pigs instead of complete strangers. Friends are much less likely to sue when injured.

And we now have a perfect casting of Debbie's torso, replicas of which will soon be available on our website. Hey, we've got to finance this movie somehow, right?  

Editor Note: The last paragraph is an example of David's poor sense of humor. Replicas of the torso will not be sold on our website.