By Steph McNicol
MACEDON hair and creative makeup artist Debbie Müller has described Australian film The Legend of the Five, as her ‘favourite project so far’.
The movie, which first screened at cinemas last week, finished filming two years ago in the Blue Mountains, NSW.
Ms Müller said it took weeks of hard work to create fantasy characters out of prosthetics and special effects.
The film features a group of teenagers who encounter an ancient relic on a school trip, and find themselves caught up in a magical world, battling evil from destroying the world.
Ms Müller has had more than 25 years’ experience in hair and makeup for television including at the ABC and Network 10, and as an additional makeup artist for Wolverine and The Great Gatsby.
“I was contacted by the costume designer Andrew Infanti, who designed all the costumes for the movie, to come on board and help collaborate in creating some creatures,” she said.
“We met with the producers and production designers to work on the characters. In total we had five main characters who were a contemporary cast and about eight fantasy characters.
“There’s a character for every child, and it’s an easy-to-watch film about teenagers going through life and school.”
The artist said there was problem-solving and challenging creative work that went into developing the characters.
“We shot within a six-week time-frame and creatively worked for a total of 10 weeks, so we worked quite fast,” Ms Müller said.
“My favourite character to create was the beast, and in the trailer you can only see a silhouette. Because it was such a big character to create, I had help from two other special-effects artists.
“We also made the call to a Hollywood team of artists to help design the prosthetics; because on the budget we were given, we still wanted that Hollywood approval.”
The creative artist said it had been her favourite project to work on because she was able to use her skills.
“It has probably been my most major achievement of my 25 years working in the industry,” she said.
“It’s my most valued movie because it put my entire skill set to use, and I had an assistant with me full-time to do everything.
“I’ve been so blessed to work on such a big production.
“It looks like it’s a scary movie but it isn’t, and it’s perfect because children have been isolated at home, so they can be taken into another world watching it.”
The Legend of the Five is showing in cinemas across Australia now.
“The Legend of the Five is about youth, coming of age, finding your place, and understanding that you are worth so much more than the nay-sayers tell you,” director Joanne Samuel said.
“It is intended to be an invitation for the youth of Australia, and beyond, to engage their imagination, and find the power within themselves to join and protect the world around them.”
