Summary
Fallout’s practical effects are brilliant, but there’s one thing that the make-up gurus couldn’t manage: removing Walton Goggins’ nose. I don’t know if it was in his contract not to have his nose cut off or he just couldn’t be bothered with a lengthy reattachment operation after each day of shooting, but every Ghoul in the show had their nasal cartilage painstakingly removed in post.
It’s difficult to sell a Ghoul on the screen. It’s like playing an alien or orc – there’s no real-life reference point for the audience, so you need to make the effect as realistic as possible. The general consensus in the film and television industry is to use as many practical effects as possible, wherever possible. Some films, likeAvatarorPlanet of the Apes, use mo-cap suits and paint little dots on actors’ faces before working the real magic after the fact using digital effects, but for any transformation smaller than that, the make-up artists come into their own.
You want your Orcs to have the gritty feel of those in The Lord of the Rings, not the smooth, digital antagonists in The Hobbit.
A recent behind-the-scenes video shows thatFalloutdid what it could with practical effects, layering prosthetics onto the faces of Walton Goggins and any Ghoulish extras, leaving only their noses uncovered, which would be removed in post-production. The combination of make-up and digital worked very well, and I never thought for a second that the Ghouls looked fake or like actors in prosthetics while watching the show.
The video shows practical elements were applied by professionals on set. Walton Goggins sets up a timelapse with his artist Jake Garber, who the actor calls “one of the best special effects makeup people in the world”. Having seen his work, it’s hard to disagree.
Goggins’ Ghoul get-up was a full headpiece that also covered his neck and rested on his shoulders. Both Garber and series director Jonathon Nolan are keen to point out that the prosthetic was incredibly thin so that you could see every expression of Goggins’ performance. This is something that can be lost with heavy prosthesis or any but the most expensive mo-cap studios. Goggins’ face never looked like it was piped full of botox, and you could easily recognise his interesting features underneath the Ghoul makeup.
But seeing the footage from the set makes me feel a bit funny. I was so sold on Goggins’ Ghoul that seeing him with the weathered skin and a nose falls into the deepest crevasse of Uncanny Valley and creeps me the heck out.
Goggins is either himself or the Ghoul. I’ve seen him in interviews and other films as a regular human and it’s fine. He’s a bloke. Blokes have noses. I saw Fallout, andwhile it didn’t blow me awaylike it did the majority of the population, the practical effects were on point. The effects teams were able to suspend my disbelief and I fully believed The Ghoul had survived for hundreds of years in the Wasteland, much to the detriment of his wellbeing.
I guess they don’t have skincare routines in the post-apocalypse.
Even within the context of the Fallout show, there’s Goggins pre-bombs and Goggins post-bombs. Both are fine. But seeing the Ghoulified post-bomb Goggins with full make-up and a glistening red nose protruding from his face disturbs me. Now, when I see screenshots of the show’s Ghouls, all I think about is what they’d look like on set, with unmakeupped noses ruining the practical effects.
I usually love behind the scenes peeks. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the Appendices of Peter Jackson’sLord of the Ringsand Hobbit films, the latter of which gives you unparalleled insight into why the ‘10s trilogy ultimately failed. But I hope I forget this three-minute glimpse at Fallout before the next season airs, or else I worry that I’ll just have visions of noses running through my head whenever Goggins is on screen.
Fallout married practical and digital effects in perfect harmony for the show, and this short is a great way of appreciating those who made it happen. I just wish I’d never seen a Ghoul with a nose.
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