Between Arachnid and Hard Place

Constance really gets to sink her teeth into a project of her own when art director Josh Separzedeh comes to SOTA looking for a special effect makeup for an upcoming film, Pretties For You. He hooks Cleve in by saying that, if they get the makeup for the movie poster right, the film might hire SOTA to do all of the makeup for the film. Constance is in her wheelhouse when it comes to facial appliances - she makes a spooky, sultry zombie fighter that scares the bejeezus out of everyone, and looks great on camera. The rest of the studio is busy fighting the good fight against the CG behemoth. Director Mike Mendez has laid out a challenge for them: Build a giant, flesh-eating spider that looks better in practical effects than it would in the computer-generated world, and he'll use it in his film, Mega-Spider. The team is hesitant to start without the final designs from the film's art team, but because they only have a week to build two spiders, shooting webs, a projectile vomit system, and a melting head, they decide to get to work right away. If they can pull this off, it'll be a huge win for practical effects. But it seems the CG world has it in for them: The final designs are way different from the original designs the SOTA team received, meaning they have to scrap all their work and start over. And when they finally get their little spider to set, it doesn't operate the way Mike thought it would. The CG world won this round. SOTA redoubles their efforts and kicks butt on the giant spider head. They even get it to set on time! And when the vomit effect isn't quite as projectile as it should be, Cleve rigs an ingenious fix using Red Vines to make the trajectory more aerial. The cascade of flesh-melting spider vomit is now magnificent. Practical may yet win the day. The final test on Mega-Spider is the melting head. Hill and the rest of the team have built a three-layer gelatin head, modeled after an actor in the film, that will yield to the heat of blowtorches and look as if it's being melted by spider bile. The effect is hideously smooth, and Mike is thrilled that so many of the effects in his movie will be practical. The SOTA team are thrilled to once again make movie magic.