Jeremy Foley, Director and Co-Writer: THE FACELESS MAN is a man who is down-and-out.
He’s depressed.
He wakes up one morning and his face has been transformed into a mirror.
This story was adapted from a short story that my father wrote in a reaction to The
Great Recession.
And I think it certainly was how he was feeling
Journalist voiceover: “This situation is that many Americans have lost their jobs and
they’ve lost their homes.
Frankly, a lot of the ones I spoke to feel like they’ve lost their identity.
They don’t see a recovery.
Instead they must find a new purpose in today’s world.”
“Gimme a break."
Jeremy Foley: I remember thinking that idea (a man searching for his lost identity) would
resonate with a lot of people.
Sara O’Reilly, Producer: This story had a lot of humor but also some serious themes
and all of that we wanted to preserve when we were adapting it.
It’s like the spirit of this whimsical adventure that the faceless man goes on.
Bill O’Leary, “The Faceless Man”: I personally love juxtaposition of comedy and
tragedy that are right on top of each other and something I really enjoyed performing.
“Nothing to see here.”
Even within this fantastic story.
I really wanted to bring the guy’s pain and effort.
“I’m sorry.
I just woke up like this.
Please don’t arrest me.”
Sara O’Reilly: When we first started figuring out how we were going to make this film (how
were we going to make a man with a mirror for a face), we decided we were going to make
it practically.
Will Myers, Director of Photography: I wasn’t quite sure what the ins-and-outs were going
to be and so it required a lot testing just to make sure of the reflection aspect and
whether or not it was going to get the desired effect, if it was going to show the camera
and those kinds of things.
“It is weird because you do not change in size no matter how much close I move the camera.”
Yes it was a huge pain in the a$$ but it looks so much better and I’m glad we did it this
way.
Jeremy Foley: The next step was about the fabrication of the mask.
Sara O’Reilly: So we hired a company called Rogue Planet Laboratories which is Ian Goodwin’s
shop and worked with him to really develop a mask.
We did a full life cast of Billy’s face where they pour all of the goop all over his
head and make a mold which we have like a perfect bust of Billy now in our living room.
And then using that mold he then sculpted that shape of what the mask what was going
to be with clay so we kind of had an idea of what it was going to look like.
Then he molded it with silicone and silicone kind of looked like skin but it’s really
pale, so once they apply that to Billy’s face, he then had to paint it.
So he airbrush paints it and blends it perfectly with Billy’s skin.
So for three hours every morning Billy was in the chair and make-up.
Bill O’Leary: Just the work they did was just mind blowing.
And for me, I’ve been doing this work a long time and I’ve never had an experience
before.
Sara O’Reilly: It was important to be able to have the mirror on and off because we wanted
Billy to be able to breathe and drink water and eat and eat cylindric foods or things
on forks.
I can’t imagine doing what he did, it was very impressive.
Bill O’Leary: It’s a lot like 14 hours of him just taking his hands and pressing
them on your face around your eyes in 106 degree….yeah like that!
For 14 hours..
Ian Goodwin: Except it’s not as much fun.
Bill O’Leary: But not as much fun!
“Action!”
Jeremy Foley: A lot of different disciplines, a lot of different filmmaking techniques went
into making this short film.
Will Myers: There are a couple of Easter egg digital shots in the film but 98% of it is
all practical.
Jeremy Foley: While the practical aspects of it work well as the mirror in terms of
a mirror, performance-wise and lighting-wise and everything else that came along with it
became exponentially harder.
“Down…down…okay…now to the right.”
Jeremy Foley: So we had this fun thing on the set called “The Mirror Game.”
“Tilt up your chin…yeah…closer…closer.
Head down…tilt down…and tilt it left…tilt left…head up.”
With the mirror we working working always with the tiniest degree of give or take.
If Billy had turned his head just a half an inch to the left or just a half an inch to
the right, it would have revealed ten people standing in that corner.
Bill O’Leary: I was having to just over and over and over I mean crazed and then I
come and see a kid and they’d go “No, you are off by a billionth of an inch.”
And then I’d go “Okay, I’ve got to go see a kid.”
And then “No!
Now you are off by a quarter of an inch.”
Aaarrgggh!!!
“Go out a bit.”
I will never have difficult sharing a footmark again in my life.
Those are easy, this was tricky.