The Makeup Artist Behind The Night King Makeup

 

The Artist behind the Night King Makeup:

BGFX Ltd. Is the company who made the prosthetics for Game of Thrones, they also created prosthetics for films and TV shows such as: (BGFX, 2021)

  • ·         Mamma Mia! Here we go again
  • ·         Snow White and the Huntsman
  • ·         Life of Pi
  • ·         The Iron Lady
  • ·         Resident Evil
  • ·         Kick-Ass
  • ·         Little Britain
  • ·         Dr Who
  • ·         Merlin
  • ·         Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
  • ·         The End of the F@%#ing World
  • ·         Chernobyl

Due to this being such a huge production with the tv series having 8 seasons, there was a huge team of makeup artists, this was also due to the show being filmed in multiple countries. According to IMDB, Patt Foad was the main prosthetics artist, Barrie Gower was the prosthetics supervisor and designer, and Sarah Gower was the co-head of the prosthetics department.

Patt Foad is a prosthetics makeup artist who studied at the Christine Blundell Makeup Academy then he developed and graduated from the Dick Smith Advanced Makeup Course. He has worked on many productions including Maleficent, Guardians of the Galaxy, Chernobyl, and Game of Thrones, he was also nominated 2 prime time Emmy Awards for Chernobyl and Game of Thrones (IMDB, No Date).

Patt Foad 

Barrie Gower is the founder of BGFX Ltd. And he is a prosthetics designer, he is most famous for his work on Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, and No Time to Die. During an interview he said that the Night King had to look different from the other White Walkers so rather than giving him long white hair, they gave him a crown. They considered a crown of thorns, but they changed their minds on this idea and said that they preferred the idea of a crown of horns, this is the idea they used for the actual makeup (IMDB, No Date).

Barrie Gower Sculpting the Iron Lady Prosthetics

Sarah Gower is a makeup artist best known for her work on Game of Thrones where she was Co-Head of the Prosthetics Department, Hot Fuzz and X-Men: First Class, she also has 1 Emmy Award (IMDB, No Date). 

Sarah Gower 

The prosthetics for the Night King’s makeup took roughly 4-6 weeks to sculpt and create and would take roughly 8 hours to apply and an hour to remove at the end of the day. Barrie Gower created a video that was posted on YouTube that shows the process and what goes into the makeup for the Night King (Radio Times, 2019).

In the YouTube video, Barrie Gower said that they take a whole head cast of the model then they make the prosthetics, and these take roughly 4 hours to apply. They are on set for 12 hours a day to make sure that nothing is falling off people (YouTube – Game of Thrones, 2019). In another video he explained that they take a head cast then sculpt the whole look and make molds and make silicone prosthetics from that. He described makeup looks to be like “a big jigsaw piece” (YouTube – Insider, 2019).


Looking at the Night King makeup we can see the different elements including face prosthetics, a bald cap, prosthetics attached to the bald cap and neck prosthetics. There are lots of different prosthetics which are blended together and painted using white, grey and a small amount of black. The most prominent prosthetics are the eyebrow, nose, and ear prosthetics.

Night King 

Bibliography:

BGFX (2021) Credits Available at: http://www.bgfx.co.uk/Credits/ (Accessed: 30th January 2021)

IMDB (No Date) Game of Thrones Full Cast & Crew Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast (Accessed: 3rd February 2021)

IMDB (No Date) Patt Foad Biography Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3859386/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm (Accessed: 3rd January 2021)

IMDB (No Date) Barrie Gower Biography Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0332968/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm (Accessed: 4th January 2021)

IMDB (No Date) Sarah Gower Biography Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1429092/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm (Accessed: 4th January 2021)

Radio Times (2019) Game of Thrones reveals the incredible amount of work that goes into making the Night King Available at: https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/game-of-thrones-night-king-makeup-prosthetics-video-watch/ (Accessed: 4th January 2021)

YouTube – Game of Thrones (2019) Inside Game of Thrones: A Story in Prosthetics – BTS (HBO) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3MUpuRF6Ck&feature=emb_logo (Accessed: 5th January 2021)

YouTube - Insider (2019) How the Prosthetics From ‘Game of Thrones’ Are Made | Movies Insider Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3MUpuRF6Ck&feature=emb_logo (Accessed: 5th January 2021)

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