hey everybody its norm from tested I'm here monster Palooza 2016 it's a
creature monster effects and makeup convention in Southern California
there's so many artists sculptors painters here but one booth I'm going to
stop at is the iron head Studios booth this is the company that makes the
costumes helmets for many of the movies you've seen before I'm gonna chat with
their founder Jose Fernandez to learn about their work come on Jose it's great
to see ya this is amazing confetti you guys don't
do a lot of conventions the first convention first convention and the
catalyst was a recent film was Batman Superman we did the batsuits Wonder
Woman the MEK pretty big reception people loved it I'm almost used to if I
didn't get screen credit so kind of pissed me off a little bit upset me yeah
so I thought I if they're not going to give me credit need to take my own so I
decided to take a booth and start promoting my own company people keep
saying I didn't know you guys did that so I'm like well that's shouldn't be
that way so I decided to take a booth build this show and bring my stuff here
so other people can enjoy it as well absolutely I mean people might not know
you right now and I think that's going to change as you spread the word get you
more presents but they definitely know the work so tell me a little bit
Ironhead and you know its creation and some of the stuff you guys have worked
on so my background was I started about almost 30 years ago just sculpting in
the shops like you know most people that want to do film and I just I'm an artist
I'm not sure where it leads or where it's even going to lead but I started in
like I could do creature stuff and I used to mess with clothes they used to
sculpt a lot monuments and then I think Catwoman was my first break in a costume
like this is sculpture and it's costume so it started this I guess journey on
like the next thing I did the full bat suits and I did you know x-men and then
to start to know I was the superhero guy there's a few of us around but I've
turned into one of them and that's kind of how so 20 years freelance and then
the last 9 years of my on my own do my own business and in that past nine years
I mean there have been explosion of movies requiring your services and also
just the evolution of styles but film directors and creative directors want
out of the superheroes what's going to work best with
actors what interpretation of the characters on screen can we go through
some of that work and have explained just like where you work creatively then
and what new interesting processes yeah so let's take a look here because it's a
really beautiful display I love that you're not just bringing the new stuff
because you have I love it you have Batman's
his armor helmet from the new movie but right on top of that daredevil which is
a little bit of notable film yeah and essentially that daredevil
never made a screen that was one of the many concepts the studio went this huge
arc which is interesting to me because two weeks in I sculpted the helmet it
should have been and they went on this arc and eventually landed up where I was
in the beginning which is fine to me but this was a helmet version never made the
screen we wore it in fittings then to make but I thought it was really well
done so I just brought is like a homage and if you move through the case this
you know Snake Eyes and Cobra this are interesting too these are like the newer
iteration of this world like this is all hand sculpted and this one is all
digital completely digital but I don't solely do it I still go back to
traditional it has its place to me for sure but this this world is great
because now you can not only do the external but internal becomes more like
a product where it meaning not in a bad way but in a way where you can it's
modular if something fails or breaks you can just reproduce another one and put
it in the old days everything was custom made each piece so it made it very
labor-intensive yeah it's still labor-intensive but I can now use my
labor to make it better instead of just trying to get fit which is great yeah he
talked about how that process begins you know if a director comes to you and they
say you want to design a cowl for our new Batman movie or something right and
they know an actor so you get a life cast and they have some sketches or
something or maybe that's interesting question the I did three other Batman
films this is my fourth time at Batman so the first ones we did the
old-fashioned way we did plaster bandage you know molds of their bodies you know
plaster head casts now it's all digital completely like back in the day to get a
backhaul to fit which I did multiple times we do anywhere from two to three
versions because they would always shrink in different rates the foam
shrink so I would have to enlarge their heads to shrink and sometimes I would
miss the marks I'd do it again but now with computers I rough out the
sculpt by hand so it actually looks like I wanted to look now I can take that
information into the computer and then enlarge and expand shrink areas I want
so now I print the help print the cow so it still has my hand but now it's also
enhanced by digital a bit of a hybrid right and speaking of digital you know
things movies like Tron Legacy where that movie is so embedded in the digital
world it's about two digital world there's a lot of CG in it but you
there's also a lot of practical people might not know you know the helmets that
may be on screen just for a few minutes all practical because there was an actor
on set yeah so that was we're super exciting to me because until this day I
only did sculpture and physical so I knew I needed to get into this world I
understood it a bit but I hadn't done it so when I landed this job in particular
I was multiple levels excited I love the work besides that I knew I could do it
digitally so all these are purely digital you know rendered in the
computer and then print it but then done practically in the real world so so
great I guess getting my feet wet and then since then I've taken it a lot
further because these are all just shells now like I'm saying I'm doing
internals externals fan pathways battery mounts comfort there's all sorts of
things we're adding to it now which this was the first gen for me
you're also electronics inside you know the old Keaton bat Cal's none of the
electronic stuff but now you could actually put it in scene oh yeah and
also the thing about the old way somebody's just sushi about clay on
someone's head unless you made allowances for it sometimes you can have
spots where does their head doesn't fit anymore right so in the computer now you
can you can you know large like a layer over their head so now you ensure it's
gonna fit you know going back to superheroes this this display here is
amazing because you've worked on so many of these Marvel films where it's a lot
of helmets now you know Captain America it's a it's a helmet and the comic books
that might not be represented as in helmet might be cloth but it's something
that the audience are totally responding to keep talk about some of these designs
I mean there's the Thor Loki helmet even the Pharaohs and all the way to the
Black Panther in the early days they would bring sketches and I was a big
part of the process of designing bringing that to life now it's much
different process where they have this system set up and it's and it works
they bring like detail like a panther there's not one micron that wasn't
dictated by Marvel which i think is amazing it looks amazing I was part of
the process to make it come to life but they massage every month which is
amazing Loki they bring me a fundamental sketch
3/4 view like vein which is amazing to me then I was brought into this process
so I hope they're not going to like the fact that I'm saying I'll bring that to
life but now they're there have ownership of everything in it and I like
both ways I like it a sketch or bring the exactly what you want I work you
know either way even they give you all the dimensions all the reference even if
they do their own 3d model you sell to build it and you're working with
materials so it's the same thing with anything you give 10 artists one image
you're going to get 10 different outcomes you talk about some of the
materials that are used here and what you've learned over the years of what
looks best on film it varies show to show or particular
part see every one this is a urethane so it's got its flexible it won't get snot
hard these are like a rigid urethanes you want you don't want these things to
move like the horns or the wings so there may be stunt versions which these
will Bend for safety so it's always different I mean these days actually
using a lot more of a printed part like talked about that a lot 3d print right
but that can mean so many things there's a high-resolution print and there's
durable prints so we use this one called the SLS and it's a nylon composite and
most of our how much now are printed out of the machine and those words worn so
this is a print it's a lot of work to get to be finished but that's a wearable
part snake-eyes a print most of the helmets now have prints how much
actually finishing and sanding and a lot the vendor we use never envisioned that
being a finished part and they're always amazed like what do you do with our
parts because before we had to do a high-res print we body shop at molded
casted because the prints work fragile and they are but the new composite are
really strong but they're furry and fuzzy and grainy but we're I have an
amazing crew that can now take those parts and make
them perfect material science has changed quite a bit
prototyping design over nine years all the craftspeople I have that can you
know kind of follow me you know kind of help when I dictate something sometimes
they scratch their head but motion eventually gift that place where we're
all proud of it and then how does the process of designing and building
helmets differ from designing and building full-body costumes like for
Batman V Superman I mean costumes are a whole nother challenge a helmet is a
non-moving target you have to make it look amazing comfortable and not
suffocate the human being but it's less complex I mean the complexity comes to
not overwhelming your actor you have to have it frame them not overpower them so
that's the part I think I have which is that it's just that little those those
little movements that get overwhelm somebody or make them look amazing as
far as costume goes as a whole other level because now you have movement only
has to look good has to not restrict them different body types like Ben
Affleck was 6-4-3 abnormally wide shoulders so he was easy to make even
look bigger right was really heroic you don't need to add bandolier so shoulders
anything she an actor I'm like I don't know what imma do this but you know then
they shoot around I mean it works or they get stunt men who actually is the
body but you know it's going to work with that soul it's all you know magic
trickery their transformations I mean you taking any actor term these larger
and life characters and eating the creative process it's cool because you
brought this sculpt here it's apocalypse there's the x-men movie coming out but
this apocalypse isn't the version that we've seen the trailers no what happened
was I was actually in the running for the job another company want out the bit
so as bummed as I was because I really wanted to showcase what I could do I you
know I actually did almost every I work with a designer to do every other
costume in the film so we had my hands full so I was like okay then with the
image was released I like most people were a little underwhelmed for whatever
reasons you know I said okay but then I had a life cast of Oscar Isaac so I
thought well what would I have done so then I went and started putting clay on
it and was and then I thought well maybe it's not possible but make him look like
his character but that is sculpted on Oscar Isaac so I might one that was
possible so then I just thought well I'll just do my version in homage I
guess to this character so I sculpted the
makeup and then I'm you know kind of bashed out the armor fairly quickly but
just an impression of what that character I think could be or could have
been and that's why people have to go to shows like this monster Palooza to see
these concepts I'm so glad you're bringing these here now one last
question going forward you've done this for so long you've seen the trends from
leather superhero suits 3d printed helmets what are things that you look
forward to building what are the kind of costumes and helmets you want to build
in the next nine years i I don't know you know it's hard like you tell your
plans it's the things in the Bible tell your plans to God he'll laugh I have no
idea I'm just enjoying the ride something comes and I like challenges so
I love to tackle them Batman was a huge challenge I did three other ones but
this one I had it I made his head turn for me that was a huge thing 20 years I
wanted to do it and finally now Batman can turn his cowl which is huge so
that's kind of a neat surprise so I have no idea I mean if I'm doing this awesome
alright I'm working with tests or no SpaceX I designed a spacesuit for SpaceX
which I can't show but they're going to reveal it in the next possible year and
they're going to be wearing these to space I'm like well that's kind of cool
so I have no idea what holds I love to design cars
I love designs I'll design anything I just love building we love to join your
stuff on screen and now in person thank you so much for chatting with me