eep in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, lurks a demonic mastermind. Adjacent to the friendly confines of the Staples Center, seemingly innocent, almost innocuous, is the laboratory that produces the myriad of Demons, Monsters, and various Hellspawn that constantly plague our anti-hero, Angel and his beloved Slayer. A name that almost mocks Angel with its similarity, Almost Human is that laboratory, and the man behind the studio, Robert Hall, is the modern day Dr. Frankenstein, bringing nightmares to life and striking fear (or at least awe) into the hearts of thousands each week. How does one become such an evil genius? What drives someone to create monsters? I was able to ask these questions and more when CoA recently had the chance to visit Almost Human and talk with Rob in the Los Angeles studio where all the magic takes place.
SWEET HOME ALABAMA
Special Effects Make-up Artist, Robert Hall
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To know the whole story, I guess it's best to start at the beginning, and for Rob, that beginning was in rural Alabama. He knew from a very early age that monsters were in his future. In his own words, he's wanted to do this sort of work, "just as long as I can remember. While I was watching Creature Feature, other kids were playing sports, basketball and football. I've never been into sports and that kind of thing," he admitted. "I would just be in my bedroom, messing my face up with whatever make-up I could scrounge up." And in his neck of the woods, finding the necessary materials wasn't always an easy thing either. "There were no make-up stores or anything like that. I couldn't wait for Halloween so Wal-Mart would have their make-up sale and I could stock up. I had three shoeboxes full of stuff," Rob confessed. All of this doesn't seem too out of the ordinary. However, while a lot of kids leave the creature feature phase behind, (from age 10-15, I myself rarely missed the Creature Double-feature on Saturdays I used to pick up on a Boston cable station. Who can go wrong with Godzilla vs. Monster Zero?) Rob found himself more and more drawn to it the older he got. It was something that wasn't always met with rousing approval. "I've been doing make-up since I was 10, on family members and stuff, so by the time I was 15, I was getting pretty good at laying a gash across someone's throat and that didn't go over particularly well in the Bible Belt. Making demons and gory kids running down the road in the Bible Belt just doesn't work," Rob states laughing. As a result, he decided fairly quickly that maybe Alabama wasn't the place he ought to be.
. . . SO HE MOVED TO BEVERLY (Hills that is, Swimming pools, Movie stars)
At the age of 19, Rob struck out for Los Angeles, the logical place to be for someone of his obvious talents. He started off working at the smaller shops, then a few of the larger ones, and by the time he was 21, he caught a big break and went to work for Stan Winston. For those who don't know his work, Stan Winston owns one of the more prestigious make-up
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" . . . after the meeting I [thought], they're going with the Emmy Award-winning guys with the big shop and the $12,000 leather sofa!"
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and effects studios, and was responsible for a few small movies you might have heard of: Terminator, Aliens, Predator, and all the Jurassic Park films, just to name a few. Given the way things went for him, I asked Rob what sort of training he had at this point in his life, and what experience would he recommend for someone who wanted to break into the business themselves. "I'd say 80% of it was self-taught, up until the time I moved here when I was 19," he began. "Self-taught in the sense that I scrounged up as much of the information as I possibly could from books, TV, magazines. Kids today, I think, are fortunate with the advent of the Internet. They actually have a medium that they can go to for tons and tons of information. That didn't exist back then, so I just -- God, I sound like an old timer!" as both Rob and myself have a good laugh. "It didn't exist," he continues, "so I would just get all the books and magazines and stuff. I was fairly self-taught in terms of the basics and then I just started working for the studios, the make-up and effects studios like I am now. I think that's kind of the only real schooling that I would suggest if you want to be a Make-up and Effects person. It's to actually intern or volunteer your time and work in a shop environment, where you're actually seeing these guys sculpting and molding and that type of thing. Schools, if you want to do some 'on-set' make-up, I think schools might teach you some basic, basic principles, but I'm not a big fan of schools for what I do."
I WANT TO ROCK & ROLL ALL NIGHT (and Party Everyday)
So when you're young, creative, and working for one of the bigger shops in Hollywood. What do you do then? If you're Rob Hall, you decide that maybe it's time to strike out on your own and see what that has to offer. I have a good friend of mine who used to be in the music industry, doing scores and soundtracks for movies and television. Since he let me know that the movie scene can be very difficult and cut throat, I decided to ask Rob how hard it was to break out and establish himself on his own. "It's tough," he admits, "I think I'm probably the youngest guy in town that owns his own shop. I've had my own shop since I was 22. It's not about being the alpha dog or anything, it's just about creative freedom. That's what I've always loved about it." He goes on to explain, "I've worked for a lot of other people and got some very valuable training, working with Stan Winston, but unfortunately those kind of places where you have 6 months and million of dollars to do stuff, I personally think makes you a little lazy. So I quickly jumped out of that and jumped into doing music videos. I'm sort of a poser musician myself," he confesses, "so I love working with bands."
 A face only a mother could love. Not Rob's, the Demon!
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 Sweet from the Buffy Musical episode, "Now that's Sweet!"
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 Rob slices and dices it with Charisma Carpenter
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Rob shared with me that he occasionally plays in a band with some buddies, among them Matthew James who portrays the lizard demon Merl on Angel. "I started doing a lot of music videos and realized I liked doing my own thing, even if it was on a smaller scale. I named my company Almost Human, which is a KISS song, and started when I was 22 doing low budget movies. Then I hooked up with Roger Corman, who's the king of B-films and worked with him for about 5 years off and on doing about 22 movies." Rob informed me that he worked on the television series Black Scorpion, and not just in the demony-make-up sense. "I got to do some directing for Roger. I actually directed a documentary on Black Scorpion that was hosted by Adam West, [the original Batman] so I got to actually direct Adam West, which was really cool. I kind of ran that into the ground, and I realized that the Corman thing I could be doing for a long time. There was a lot more I could do, and then this whole Angel thing happened."
IT'S ALL ABOUT TIMING
Things were really happening now. Almost Human was making a name for itself, and BIFF, POW, ZOWIE, Rob's not only gotten to meet but also direct Adam West. But how did he end up landing the gig with Angel? (the best gig in town as far as this reporter is concerned, but perhaps I'm a bit biased) "There was certainly a lot of elements of right place, right time kind of thing. I won't deny that," Rob confessed. "Basically the long story short is; I was around the set of Angel, I was doing some make-ups, and I was noticed by some of the people that matter, like Tim Minear [producer/writer]. Tim Minear basically discovered me." Rob recalls, "He said, 'Hey, you're doing all this cool stuff for these movies. We want a new look for the show, more standalone. We want to see your stuff, and we want to talk to you.' At that point I was really flattered, but I thought, 'well, they're going to go with someone who's really big, established guys.' They called me in and I met with them, [executive producer, David] Greenwalt and everyone. They were really, really nice to me," Rob states, "but even still, after the meeting I was like, well they're still going to go with one of the Emmy award-winning guys with the big shop and the $12,000 leather sofa," he laughs, "and the next day they called me and told me I got the job.
Inside the Laboratory of Almost Human
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"I think I can credit a lot of that to David Greenwalt. I mean, they liked my stuff obviously. They thought my approach and what I wanted to offer the show was good, but beyond that, they knew I had done so many things for Roger Corman. David Greenwalt actually said, 'Well, we've had good luck with people from the Roger Corman school of film', and I think they appreciated the fact that I could do stuff relatively cheap and fast. I mean, you have to be fast to do Angel. You have to," as Rob explains, "Right now we're in that same kind of crunch, they called and said they need 10 demons by Monday. (today is Thursday) You're starting from scratch and it's like, 'okay, everybody kick it in gear!' I think there aren't a lot of people that are able to do that, and so I'm very fortunate that I can." Not only does he have to meet the demands that the Angel schedule incurs but Rob also helps out with the occasional demon for Buffy to bash as well! An outstanding example of this is the creation of Sweet, the big-bad of the highly praised Buffy Musical episode.
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