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 NAPOLEON

For Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (director’s cut) I was asked by Charley Henley to orchestrate two shots for the Marengo charge sequence in which Napoleon, played by Joaquin Pheonix, chops off some poor soldier’s head. The job involved creating a silicone replica of actor Joss Carter and puppeteering it so it looked appropriately ghoulish.  

We quickly worked out that the sequence was Ridley’s homage to 2001’s bone sequence, or at least had the same rhythm. The two shots had to match previously filmed reference footage in lighting and style, and had to have some weight and poetry to them, which the original plates lacked. Given this, I was inspired by the opening titles to American Psycho.   

What I was after from the head was a sense of ignomy, as whenever I’ve seen pictures of real severed heads (something that are plentiful in the job of make-up fx artist) it always struck me how confused the people looked, like they were caught by the camera just having woken up. So the job was to try and capture that moment of dumb realisation. A sense that maybe the head had made the wrong decision in life. 

To achieve this I went to master boncesmith Waldo Mason.   

As we were going to shoot in 120fps slow motion we decided to construct a head with a loose jaw and the floppiest silicone rubber imaginable. I really wanted to see the gravity affect the skin in the way that you see in slow motion videos of people getting hit.

Joss Carter was then headcast and the resulting clay pour resculpted by Justin Pithketly so that the eyes were open. The hair and finishing was then completed by Nikki Grimshaw. 

The silicone head has a detachable handle down the back so it could be slammed down onto the ground with accuracy. This was then doubled by Joss who bounced his head against the ground. We spent a whole day filming the head, and Joss, throwing it around a field in Windsor getting bloody.     

Joss’ eyes, blood, horses, smoke and bodies were then arranged painstakingly in Adobe After Effects, retimed and revised until Ridley was happy and I was bored. Overall a resounding success!