'Ghost Shop' - Creature Make-Up and Special Effects - Part 1

Visual effects veteran Richard Edlund standing between the other ingenious minds of the 'Ghostbusters' production.
Storyboarding of a supernatural comedy hit!
What a start for his newly founded VFX shop 'BOSS Film Studios'.
After some very successful years at ILM, Richard Edlund started his own independent effects studio in 1984 with 
two challenging projects, "Ghostbusters" and "2010".
He saw his chance and took over the EEG (Entertainment Effects Group) facility in Marina del Rey, formerly operated by 
Douglas Trumbull and Richard Yuricich.
Over the years the BOSS shop became one of the top players, a prominent highly esteemed American visual effects company, 
developing their own special 'BOSS style' for visual effects.
Even decades later, their pre-digital effects look still fresh, forceful and competitive.
'Die Hard' was brilliant in 1988 ...and still is in 2018!
It was a wise idea to continue with EEG's preference for using 65mm film for the creation of optical effects work. 
This provided potentially cleaner effects than ILM's VistaVision (the big competitor) format due to its much larger negative area.
The company also established itself in other business fields.
BOSS produced many television spots for products including Budweiser, Dodge, United Airlines, and DHL.
For a short time BOSS Games Studios was active in the difficult but ever-growing video games market.
But the extremely expensive and fast technical changes in the business of magic dreams were very difficult for an 
independent effects house.
Boss Film announced it was closing its doors on August 26, 1997.
Now let's go back to the early good old days of the Boss Film Studios and their first steps into the ghostbusting business.
'Ghostbusters' involved nearly every kind of special effect, from animating puppets and a man in a suit to 
matte paintings and tricky opticals, everything.
But the one who wants to battle with ghosts, should first get to know his opponents.
The Boss/EEG 'ghost shop' and their bizarre creatures - Part 1.

Boss Film Studios promotion photo that shows the boss, Richard Edlund, wearing a 'Ghostbusters' T-Shirt.
The dynamic shop of Richard Edlund created the magic moments for movies like 'Big Trouble in Little China', 'Die Hard', 
'Outbreak', 'Air Force One' and so many more.

The first supernatural job for the 'Ghostbusters' is a seemingly harmless, translucent old librarian lady, 
floating between the bookshelves of a Library.
But the old lady quickly shows her true face and transforms into a horrifying demon.
A cable-operated mechanical figure.
The cable-operated fiberglass underskull of the library demon.
The fearsome look of the head was achieved with eyes that sank in and sharp crocodile teeth that could came out.
What a transformation.
John and Nicholas Alberti designed the articulating mechanisms.
One of the imposing rooftop statues outside of the Gozer temple. 
An elaborate Set constructed on stage at the Burbank Studios by production designer John DeCuir.
A set design legend!
Some of the key action elements were filmed on the huge DeCuir set. 
Here you find a story about his terrific work for 'Cleopatra' in England: Pinewood Studios Ghost town.
The DeCuir statues soon develop their own life through spiritual forces of the Gozer ...and become the Terror Dogs!
These cuddly dogs will deliver a great show!
Sculptor and Stop-Motion animator Randall William Cook sculpted the stop-motion puppet and the creature shop built the
full-size dogs.
A pair of limited-action foam rubber monsters (supported by fiberglass structure) used for wide shots (long distance) 
and a pretty closeup beast.
The splendid, much more flexible, closeup dog is fully loaded with cable operated functions like mouth opening and closing, 
blinking and moving eyes and other gadgets to realistically represent movements of the body. 
The closeup dog.
Look at this sweet puppy. 
"Quiet, Killer, quiet, ...we already lost two grip boys."
Mike Hosch and a team of sculptors were in charge of the full-size dogs.
Terri Hardin is giving the head of a Terror Dog some finishing touches.
Molding a Terror Dog.
Fresh out of the mold - Forepaw of the Terror Dog.
Fine tuning sculpting work.
The two sizes of the Terror Dogs were built almost simultaneously to be a perfect match.
It was without problems possible to intercut them for specific scenes, as there was virtually no difference between the two.
Stop-Motion expert Randy Cook animated his Terror Dog against a blue screen for later optical compositing with 
the live-action closeup dog plates.
A tedious job to let the small stop-motion puppet rushing out in the street or running up the stairs of the Gozer temple.
Randy Cook produced some very impressive stop-motion scenes with his little foam latex dog.
Skull of a Terror Dog with early stage skin (foam latex).
The snappy monster gets some nice little features ... to surprise the Ghostbusters!
The fiberglass underskull of a Terror Dog loaded with several cable-operated functions.
You can take a look on the inner mechanics.
All movements and expressions of the head were accomplished via cable-operated mechanisms controlled by 
an external crew of puppeteers.
Visual Effects Cameraman Bill Neil filming a scene with the articulated 'closeup' Terror Dog.
The puppeteers who control all the cable-operated gags are crouching under the stage floor 
to breathe life into the creature.
The Terror Dog show (full-size & stop-motion) is topnotch, pure state-of-the-art film magic!
All the Players & Makers on 'Ghostbusters' did a wonderful job.
It's great fun to follow Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis battling with exhilarating special effects 
...and the ancient Gozer.
Perfect entertainment on all levels ... even on the supernatural.
The upcoming Part 2 will feature more creatures of the ghost shop.
You will see the green Onionhead drinking champagne, 
and how the huge Stay-Puft marshmallow man is terrorizing New York City.
The Ghostbusters mania brought an incredible number of surprising products to the hungry market in the 80's.
Almost everything was possible.
There were even toothpaste in different flavors to fight the caries ghost.

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