Although they have quite a few differences, superhero movies, emotional dramas, horror movies and sci-fi thrillers all have one blaring commonality: there is someone behind the scenes carefully curating characters. Whether it’s through molding prosthetic noses and ears seamlessly to real ones or painting on wounds so realistic one may think he had used a knife as a brush, he brings life, or in some cases death, to the screen.
To some, horror is one of the few genres that does not seem to have a limit. One may think they have seen it all and then out comes the newest movie pushing the definition of gore into new twisted heights. Between the graphic visuals of mutilated bodies, the sounds of knives slicing into innocents or the flashing lights that allow the attacker to sneak up on their victim, there are hundreds of jobs that go into creating these films. Alan Tuskes has mastered a large fraction of these jobs, making him the Renaissance man of move production. Tuskes is a widely accredited artist involved in projects from Cedar Point’s Haunted House to movies like Men in Black II, Dune and Mars Attacks!. Instead of honing in on one niche skill, Tuskes chose to leave every door open by learning as much as he could about anything he could.
“The bigger shops, you’re hired for a position. . . . There’ll be sculptors, there’ll be mold makers, and a lot of people are good at one thing, but I thought you had to learn everything when I was young, so I was sculpting, I was making molds, I was going [through] the magazines and the books [to learn more],” Tuskes said.
When Tuskes first became interested in special effects, the industry was still so small that there were no companies mass producing prosthetics or the type of technology needed to create certain effects. The only option for Tuskes and others was to either seek out new information or come up with it themselves. In today’s scene, the creative industry is so advanced, from the technology to the techniques people have created that it can feel daunting to try and catch up, much less come up with something new. One has to be able to look outside the box and see the holes or the empty space that needs filled. Tuskes has many examples of how he took already advanced equipment and transformed it into something even better.
“I turned one [camera] into a device called an optical printer, which basically I looked up, ’How do they do this stuff for Star Wars?’ And it’s really a simple concept, a simple device. I just had to get the parts to put it together. And I got those from camera stores and cobbled it together,” Tuskes said.
Tuskes began by going to college at Kent State University to study film but ended up dropping out after he realized they were teaching him skills that he already knew. He got a job managing lighting and operating cameras at a studio after catching the attention of a local film producer.
“[The local film producer] was the original teacher of the actual film program, the new cinematography program I wanted to get into, but because they were going to video, his position became irrelevant, and he was doing commercials and stuff. I … took him … a film that I had done with the lasers and [he was] like, ‘[Wow], how did you do that? This is great. Do you want to start freelance working?’ So while I was going to college, I started going on these films [with] very small crews. Eventually I dropped out. [I] didn’t have a degree, but I didn’t need one because I was teaching myself all this makeup stuff,” Tuskes said.
Looking back, even though the program at Kent State University was not what he was looking for, it opened a gate for Tuskes to be able to use the schools’ equipment and play around with new techniques. In the present, there is so much information out there and trendy, “easier” ways to get the same result. But are these techniques really better?
“Because everybody with a cell phone is now a director, there’s a lot more opportunity. And there are people that really, really want to do films. And so if you’re trying to learn how to do this, there’s plenty of opportunities to learn on your own, but you’ve got to be picky about where you’re learning from, because there’s an awful lot of bad information out there. Like makeup videos. . . . They get millions of views, but they’re making big thick creature makeups out of a combination of liquid latex and mashed potatoes or flail. Just weird Vaseline and baby powder, and they’re making what they call morticians wax, which you know, may look good for a still photo for 10 minutes,” Tuskes said.
The other side of the argument is that social media gives people exposure to new skills or art types and pushes boundaries. Sarah Pine, an English teacher at Revere High School, also runs the theater program and shares Tuske’s opinion that especially with makeup it can be dangerous to follow everything one sees online. On the other hand, Pine sees potential for a rise in new styles due to the abundance of new information and art.
“In terms of getting people interested and learning early about things like special effects, TikTok has actually been amazing because I think you see so many kinds of amateur makeup artists on there doing crazy cool special effects, and it gives people a platform . . . I do think we’re going to see over the next decade, a huge explosion in people who are really, really skilled in this area because we have these really awesome platforms available to us for people to learn and share from each other,” Pine said.
It can be hard to decipher who online is teaching the correct, safe techniques and who is using improper techniques in their looks just for views. That is one reason why Tuskes has invested a lot of his time into teaching for The Tom Savini Special Make-up Effects Program in Pittsburgh. Tuskes noticed while there that students were learning outdated approaches, so he began taking the students that were truly passionate about expanding their skills set and shared his newer styles with them. His biggest piece of wisdom to anyone in a creative industry is to use the tools available and never stop learning.
“The more that you can do, the more that they will let you do. And the more that you can do, . . . the more you’ll get hired. So if you develop the skills like learning how to lay a beard, learn how to cover up a tattoo, learn how to make a print of a tattoo, even if you don’t design it, do the mechanics of it; you can have somebody do the artwork. You can print those in the application or cover them and blend them in so that they last,” Tuskes said.
As a neurodivergent artist himself, Tuskes has noticed a pattern within the creative community, noting that a lot of other creatives tend to be autistic.
“My son is, my niece is. They’re all smart, and they’re all autistic. That was a good part of survival because . . . I actually have hyperfocus. I get myself into a thing where it’s like, ‘I’m going to concentrate on this.’ I will get so tied up in it that I put all my brain power in it. I don’t notice things going on around me. But it gives me this determination to solve the situation no matter what, which serves me well,” Tuskes said.
This mindset is applicable to many other expressive forms such as writing or acting; being so focused and determined on one goal highly increases one’s chances of achieving it. Neurodivergent people have not always been recognized but it is becoming more evident that neurodivergence allows for a different way of thinking and setting new standards for effort, understanding and passion for an art form.
“Neurodivergence is embraced because it opens up all kinds of possibilities in people from every walk of life. And amongst makeup effects, it’s more so because, like I said, it’s people that never want to grow up,” Tuskes said.
The way neurodivergent people perceive the world naturally lends itself to creative pursuits. The type of art form they choose to express themselves in depends on the type of neurodivergence an individual experiences. For example, many people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) excel in entrepreneurship whereas people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) thrive in careers related to music. Pine is involved with theater both at Revere and in her personal life. She believes her community also draws in a lot of neurodivergent people because they are able to share their unique way of thinking in a safe community.
“It’s a creative community, and people are kind of asked to be vulnerable and try things; I think it’s also a safe community for people that are neurodivergent because that kind of different thinking is prized and valued. So I think it’s also a place that people are drawn to not just because it’s where their talents can shine, but it’s where they can be their whole, authentic selves,” Pine said.
Entering the later stages of his life, Tuskes has not slowed down one bit. If he is not engaged in a project he is starting a new one, always looking for ways to challenge his skills or a new problem that needs solving. Tuskes is an inspiring example of a man who never worked a day in his life because no matter what film set, makeup studio or stage he was on that day, Tuskes was living out all of his creative aspirations. He took and continues to take every tool available to him to create something completely new, even in a climate that can feel polarizing. To experience some of Tuskes’ work, check out the haunted attractions at Cedar Point this year.
