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| Behind The Scenes Turning Man Into Machine MANDROID Actors come in all shapes and sizes but some are never actually seen on film. Such is the case with Jake McKinnon, a veteran costume performer who plays Mandroid in Full Moon's upcoming release. The Mandroid costume was built in the United States and then shipped to Romania for the shoot. The suit is spandex unitard with fiberglass pieces attached to it. Polyfoam rubber covered with the same spandex material is used in between the fiberglass to achieve the rubber joint look. "It doesn't really restrict my movements because my joints aren't covered up," McKinnon explained. "But it's really hard to eat during lunch. It's a struggle to get my fork into my mouth!" McKinnon had an easy time slipping into the Mandroid mode: "Well, it comes naturally because your movements are restricted a little. It feels like a suit of armour basically. Once I get going I kind of turn into Mandroid," he said. ONe common ailment for most costume performers is the limited visibility through the mask. In the case of Mandroid, however, McKinnon was lucky, as he explained: "The little red lights are so close to my eyes that they just become like a little pink blur and the goggles used in the mask are bubbles goggles like motorcycle riders used to wear so I have pretty good field of vision, which is pretty good. "You can see where you're supposed to walk. You can cheat. I mean, I can be walking straight and looking up and seeing to the right or left, looking for certain cues or whatever the actor needs to see," McKinnon explained. The MANDROID shoot took the cast and crew to several unusual locations in Romania. Many scenes were shot at what was once a glucose factory built about 100 years ago that was falling apart. "in the big room upstairs it looks bombed out although it's just fallen apart," McKinnon said. "Ted Haines and I, we scouted the whole area around here and there's just tons of rusty old metal, pipes, bent stuff, really dilapidated stuff. It's great for set dressing. So we carted it all up there and just kind of stuck it in the ground and looks just like a real pipe sticking out of the ground. Another great location turned out to be a salt mine outside Bucharest. It was a massive underground cavern where filming took place for several days. Working with special effects is always tricky and the costumes need special attention. Fixing the Mandroid suit became a nightly ritual for McKinnon: "It seems to get destroyed every day and the last couple of days we did stunts and the stunt people weren't very careful with it. It kind of goes with the territory," McKinnon commented. Not to worry, however. Both McKinnon and Mandroid will be back for further adventures in INVISIBLE next year. Return to Behind The Scenes |