HG4 PRODUCTIONS
Home Grown Productions, strive to highlight northern voices and stories. HG4 Productions believes that creatives should be the driving force behind the camera, and looks to empower emerging talent by creating a working community around them.
The Hekk
In 2023, Scott Handcock recommended us to his friend and colleague Jacob Dudman to assist in the creation of props and alien masks for his short film Finger Food.
We worked closely with Jacob and producer Elisha Applebaum to bring to life two scratch made alien masks.
These masks were made with only a few weeks before the shoot day and encountered a lot of challenges, but through team work and determination from all involved we managed to make it happen.
Josh Martin worked around the clock, clay sculpting the aliens design based on Jacob's designs. Kasim Rehman Bhatti assisted with additional digital sculpting of some of the more fine detailed features of the Hekk, such as the cheek bones and neck. These models were then resin printed and joined to Josh's clay sculpt.
Josh then molded and cast the 2 masks: A hero one in Silicone, which was the "Stacey" design and a latex one, which was the "Nana" design. He then painted them and handed them over.
James Sutton then finished the masks off, adding the printed eye sections after finishing up their paint work.
Clay Sculpting & Creature FX: Josh Martin
Project management & finishing work: James Sutton
CAD Design: Daniel Howard
Digital Sculpting: Kasim Rehman Bhatti
Paint consultant: Josh Howe
Hekk Translators
Alongside the masks we completed four Translator props, which were to be worn on the actor's chests and would illuminate to help distinguish which Hekk was talking.
These had been adapted from the early concept design stages and were originally based on vintage Radios. These were modeled by Daniel Howard.
Kasim Rehman Bhatti and Josh Martin printed and wired up a set each of the props and all were sent to James Sutton to finish off ready for the shoot.
Three out of the four props were used during the shoot, both of the "Stacey" style blue props and one of the "Nana" style orange props.
Filming and beyond
James then spent 2 days on set in June, overseeing the use of the masks and even ended up portraying the "Stacey" alien during filming, whilst associate producer Rakan Zahed portrayed "Nana", however James wore both outfits for the promotional photo shoots.
The "Nana" Mask and three of the four Translator props were retained by Little Shop Props. HG4 Productions kept the "Stacey" Mask and Translator prop.
On Set creature FX and Performer: James Sutton
On Set Creature FX Assistant: Eliza Wasiak