Category: Making of

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Mask: Christiane Meyer & her Grandpa

Camera: Steve Bache

Music: Marc Eyrich

Compositing: Maestrone Pivetta

Note: “Feuer. Metall. Rotation.” used to be the working title

This is the moment to honor my grandpa’s incredible engineering talents, curiosity, precision, and his well-equipped workshop. I often came to him with various crafting ideas, and he always approached them with enthusiasm. Over the years, he built toys for me and, later on, even fire props. Thankfully, he was excited about the robot project!

He became the first person to help me create a large and intricate robot piece: The Head.

1. Plaster Cast

To make the mask fit perfecrtly I started by making a plaster cast of half of my face. This was intentional for two reasons: first, so I could still see and breathe during the process, and second, to allow the cyborg design to slowly reveal itself later. To create a plaster cast, you use plaster sheets of Paris or a similar quick-setting material mixed with water, which are layered over the object or body part to capture. Some Vaseline helps to protect the facial hair.

However, the plaster cast turned out too soft and fragile for further work.

2. Create a negative

We used the plaster cast to create a negative mold, using silicone – used for its flexibility and fine detail capture. It was kind of weird to see a head growing around the mask again.

3. Build the actual mask

Once we had the silicone negative, we made another negative mold out of  fiberglass, to recreate the mask of my face. This process ensured durability while preserving the intricate details of the original cast.

Fiberglass is often used to build boats and model airplanes because it’s incredibly strong yet lightweight. The process involves layering fiberglass sheets one by one with a special two-component epoxy resin (“glue”) until the structure is solid enough. However, working with fiberglass is far from simple. It’s a toxic material—both the resin and the fiberglass itself can be harmful. You must wear proper protective gear to avoid contact with the skin or inhalation of fibers, as the chemicals are hazardous.

My partner works with these materials in the boat-building industry, and he has to take extreme precautions: separating work clothes, taking multiple showers before contact, and being very cautious. He once even had a bike accident caused by passing out after working with these chemicals.

! ! So please, do not mess around with fiberglass without proper protection and ventilation ! !

Thankfully, my grandpa, a lifelong engineer and the embodiment of precision, tidiness, and perfection, ensured that we followed safety protocols throughout the process. Once the fiberglass headpiece was completed, we left it to dry for two days before I could start decorating.

4. Decorating the Mask

The decorating phase was a creative adventure. I dismantled my old radio, scavenged scrap materials from second-hand shops, picked up discarded items from the streets (“Sperrmüll”), and bought paints and tiny cogwheels. Piece by piece, the head began to take shape, its style emerging with every addition.

5. Presentation

The first presentation of this headpiece was at the Filmakademie Ludwigsburg, where talented students helped me create a stop-motion animated clip. We set the head in various scenes and took thousands of pictures to bring it to life. While the result was undeniably cool, the painstaking work of stop-motion made me realize: this technique would not be part of my final movie. It’s an incredible art form but incredibly time-intensive.

Filmclip Credits:

Camera: Steve Bache

Music: Marc Eyrich

Compositing: Maestrone Pivetta