"Placebo's" Humanoid Robot Faceplate - Built For the Student Film: STRANGE CHANGES

"Back in the early 80's, myself, and another film enthusiast, found ourselves working together to produce an amateur film.  That other person, was a guy named Ken Hawryliw.

​He would eventually become a successful film industry professional.  In the meantime however, he and I, as well as my brother—and most our friends (and pretty much everyone we could entice) ​participated in our first attempt at serious film making.
​This project was entitled:  STRANGE CHANGES.

​In the day, I was considered  the "build-it-guy" of the group, and consequently, it was my job to make any of the custom props we would require.  Of all the items built, certainly the most interesting was the face plate for the android character... "Placebo".

The origin and purpose of this character were deliberately left obscure in the script.  He was nothing more than a story device intended to draw the viewer into the strange alternate universe sometimes experienced by the main characters"

​"A few months earlier, I'd made a full size alien android figure as an exercise.  The head of the figure was made from one of those cheap styrofoam wig stands.  While the finished item looked great at a distance, its humble origins were easy to spot if you got too close. 

That's me above—trying to look "far-away" and "visionary".  I'm holding the unfinished "alien android" design study.

It pretty much had the same design language that I wished to use for the Placebo android.  All I needed, was a "Seed-Object" to use for the basic form.  This conveniently ended up being my brother's discarded street hockey mask!"

Being on a tight budget, thankfully, all the parts required for the build were already on hand (less the paint).  Each component had another life, prior to being repurposed for this build (see breakdown below).

​The mouthpiece aspect of the faceplate was salvaged from a tank model kit
More than likely, it was the one depicted below.

"Assembly of the found components was easy as I recall.  In fact, the only aspect that required some care was the painting process.

​I was concerned that the finish be durable, so ended up using Varathane satin white from a spray can.  The finish has held up to this day, and is still one of the most durable paints I've ever used."

"​In keeping with the overall WEIRDNESS of the movie, Placebo not only had to look somewhat disturbing... he'd also have to DO SOMETHING DISTURBING...  and so it was decided that an oily blue fluid should (without apparent reason) start to slowly flow from the apertures in its forehead." 

"I was not long after that I had my first professional prop building experience
(a self-contained "blood-knife" gag for a theatre company).  A few months later, I was the lead prop builder on a Disney feature film called
​HYPER SAPIEN: PEOPLE FROM ANOTHER STAR!"

"​Technically, the effect was pretty easy to accomplish.  The fluid (a mixture of water, glycerine, and blue food coloring) was loaded into three syringes that were connected by vinyl tubing to the back of each aperture.

​I remember that it was somewhat difficult to ensure that the tubing wasn't kinked behind the faceplate once it was attached to the cowl—but once accomplished, it was simply a matter of carefully applying pressure to each syringe plunger to achieve the desired effect."