In the early 2000’s, Neill Gorton was running his industry company Millennium FX in Buckinghamshire. Millennium’s work was appearing increasingly in TV shows and films, and as a result, people began contacting the company to ask where they could learn prosthetics. Then the brilliant IMATS trade shows began in London; Neill was a regular guest, and the question people asked him most was…where they could learn prosthetics!
Having been asked this innumerable times, and with a natural propensity for sharing his knowledge, he decided to open a school, and in 2003 Gorton Studio was born.
Neill’s objective has always been to teach the skills needed to work in the contemporary film industry, with Gorton Studio’s curricula evolving to reflect changes in industry practice. In recent years this has involved introducing the digital skills that are now part of the professional prosthetics workflow.
As well as our prescribed courses, we have delivered bespoke training all over the world, including Australia, Bali, Taiwan, the USA, Israel, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, France and the Republic of Ireland, as well as teaching teachers and students from many colleges, universities and film schools such as The National Film and Television School, London College of Fashion and The National Film School of Ireland.
Image: National Film and Television School short film directed by Christopher Goodman.
Our first training studio was in the Millennium FX workshop in Chesham, Buckinghamshire.
Our first offerings were short courses on prosthetic application and working with silicone.
Our 7-week Makeup FX and Prosthetics Creation courses began with Neill teaching; they would run for 18 years!
We began providing a module for the NFTS that included making an FX-heavy short film. This collaboration would last 14 years and produce 14 films, including The Mayflower, shown here.
Neill devised a 5-day Boot Camp on silicone prosthetics that debuted in the Chesham studio in 2013 and would run for almost a decade!
The 7-week course format now included an anatomy sculpture class with Neill that always featured his favourite sculpture subject: an ape!
By now we were providing bespoke training, often for tutors at colleges and unis, like this course taught by Neill on silicone makeup for tutors at University College Birmingham.
We geared up to move premises with Millennium FX. 2014 was our final year in Chesham, with 7-week courses taught by various tutors, including Steve McClure, shown here.
We published a free magazine about prosthetics, makeup effects, body and face art that we gave away to gauge its potential. It would turn into something bigger than we’d imagined!
Gorton Studio opened its second teaching studio in Falmouth, Cornwall.
The Falmouth studio was designed to teach makeup effects, while the main studio was equipped for larger prosthetics and creature FX as well as prosthetic makeup.
We opened our Falmouth studio with Neill’s popular Prosthetics Boot Camp, for which students travelled from seven countries, including Australia, the USA, and Italy.
A new 7-week course, Creative and Character Makeup, launched in our Falmouth studio, taught by Danny Marie Elias, pictured in grey.
The new 7-week course incorporated making short films, with the students providing makeup effects and prosthetic gags, giving them first-hand experience of the whole production process.
We launched a new event in Birmingham about prosthetics and makeup FX that sold out and would still be running over a decade later!
Millennium FX moved its expanding workshop to Aylesbury and Gorton Studio went too!
Our new studio in Millennium FX’s Aylesbury workshop was larger and more versatile than the old Chesham one that had served us well for 11 years.
Business as usual after the move with the start of our 7-week courses in Aylesbury that had been running four times a year since 2007.
The first issue of Prosthetics Magazine went on sale and needed a second print run to meet the unexpected demand from customers around the world!
We launched a new weeklong summer course for 14 – 18-year-olds that would introduce us to many young, talented artists.
Summer School’s messy class on traditional blood hits was always popular!
Year two of our Creative and Character Makeup course saw the introduction of The Morgue, a class on cadaverous effects that featured in all subsequent courses, by popular demand!
Neill took Prosthetics Boot Camp to countries such as Austria, Australia, and the USA. One of the first international courses was at the Make-Up Designory (MUD) in New York, shown here.
Neill taught a one-off advanced version of his Prosthetics Boot Camp in Falmouth, for which students travelled from countries including Australia, Finland, and Iceland.
We began teaching bespoke courses in other countries including France, Israel, the USA, The Republic of Ireland, and Poland, shown here, taught by Stuart Conran and Bianca Judd.
The filmmaking on our 7-week Creative and Character Makeup course in Falmouth was popular with students, so we enhanced the experience further by working with accomplished local production crew, Dogbite.
We provided a series of bespoke courses for industry giant MAC Cosmetics, owned by Estée Lauder, including for their events team, shown here.
We welcomed many high-profile guest tutors to our Aylesbury studio to teach specialist courses, such as Hollywood sculptor Don Lanning.
We started delivering courses in places such as Taiwan and Indonesia; in 2017 tutors Stuart Conran and Dan Frye taught a course at Fauno Studio in Taipei, shown here.
We provided a 3-week prosthetics module for The Iver Makeup Academy at Pinewood Studios for three years, starting in 2017.
Our last Falmouth 7-week course was taught by Michelle Bromley assisted by Amber Hertzberg, shown here, with The Morgue still a student favourite!
The films made on our National Film and Television School module began gaining recognition at film festivals, these included The Good Samaritans directed by Chris Goodman, shown here.
Our short courses in Aylesbury expanded to include subjects like mould making, anatomical sculpture, and likeness sculpture with hyper-realism expert, Richard Martin.
Another popular short course was Prosthetic Application and Colouring Techniques for Black and Ethnic Minority Skin Tones, taught by Sangeet Prabhaker.
Having taught many teenagers in the south, Boot Camp moved up north to Greater Manchester, and was taught by Richard McEvoy Crompton and Bolton University’s Centre for Film FX staff.
Neill launched his online courses covering a wide variety of subjects for all skill levels, with planned regular content additions over the coming years.
Having grown year-on-year, The Prosthetics Event needed more space and moved to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena. The 2019 event ran two months before Covid 19 brought the world to a standstill.
Our 7-week courses began again as soon as lockdown rules allowed, now with senior Millennium FX staff teaching, such as company co-director Rob Mayor, pictured here.
Individual, screened workstations were created for students to maintain safe distancing in the world of post-pandemic teaching.
Our last prosthetics module for the NFTS produced another glorious gore fest film, Rude Awakening, directed by Chris Goodman; a fitting end to a wonderful 14-year collaboration!
After several years of planning, we launched our master’s degree in partnership with Falmouth University’s School of Film and Television, navigating ongoing Covid-19 lockdown rules during the first course.
The master’s degree incorporates visits to the Millennium FX workshop in Cornwall for students to experience a professional prosthetics environment.
MA Prosthetic Effects was the first course to teach both traditional and digital prosthetics skills such as 3D modelling, scanning, and printing, mirroring developments in the film industry.
After nine years of Boot Camps and needing to commit his teaching time to our MA, Neill taught the final weeklong tour-de-force of silicone prosthetics in Aylesbury.
We were able to run the new master’s degree course without lockdown restrictions and all teaching was done in person for the first time.
After 8 years running the event, (which is hard work!) we passed the baton to the team at TILT Professional Makeup, who continued to run it with style!
After nearly two decades of our Makeup FX and Prosthetics Creation course helping launch many successful careers, it was time to wrap it up to concentrate on postgraduate-level teaching.
Paper and shipping costs had skyrocketed during the pandemic and made producing the magazine financially unviable, so sadly after eight years of publishing, issue 23 was our last.
The final showcase of work from our MA Prosthetic Effects students is always a highlight of the academic year.
We were thrilled to publish a biography of the late, great Dick Smith, written by journalist Joe Nazzaro, who had written for every issue of Prosthetics Magazine.
Gorton Studio now concentrates solely on advanced-level teaching with our MA in partnership with Falmouth University, as well as our expanding online courses for all skill levels.
Graduates of our prosthetics and makeup FX courses have gone on to start successful careers and enhance existing ones with their new skills. Their work can be seen in film, TV and entertainment experiences all over the world, from huge movie franchises like Harry Potter, Star Wars and Marvel, to epic TV series such as Game of Thrones, Doctor Who and Foundation, period dramas including Poldark, Call the Midwife and Peaky Blinders, cult comedy like Red Dwarf and The Catherine Tate Show, and attractions by Merlin Entertainments and Madame Tussauds.
Right: Gorton Studio graduate Fiona Walsh working on the set of Doctor Who.
Gorton Studio’s in-person teaching is now at postgraduate-level, focussing on the advanced skills used at the forefront of the film and entertainment industries. These skills often incorporate the use of new technologies to improve efficiency and enhance creative output, and it’s this hybrid skill set that our master’s degree in partnership with Falmouth University delivers.
The first course of its kind, its teaching quality and state-of-the-art facilities have set a benchmark for education in the field since its launch in 2020, with impressive student work emerging and a high rate of industry success amongst graduates.
Below: MA Prosthetic Effects final project by Ritagya.
Our other focus now is making our teaching as accessible as possible both geographically and financially, with online courses that are available globally and at an affordable price point. We’re constantly expanding the collection of lessons, which currently stands at 100+, and the bottom line is you can buy access to all of them, along with downloads of the voiceovers that can be translated into most languages (the Google Translate app supports 249 languages for example) at a cost of £18.99 for a month. You can continue with the subscription if you want to, but there’s no obligation, and you can cram a lot of learning into that month if you try!
Gorton Studio has produced other projects in addition to its teaching, but all on a common theme: prosthetics and makeup effects! Prosthetics Magazine enjoyed an 8-year publishing run and was closely followed by The Prosthetics Event. We ran this colourful celebration of the craft for seven years until it grew beyond our capacity to manage alongside our teaching, and it’s now thriving under the leadership of Thiago Ferraz and his company TILT Professional Makeup.
Our latest extra-curricular project was a biography of the late, great Dick Smith. Dick Smith: The Godfather of Makeup by Joe Nazzaro was an honour to be involved with and it felt great to step back into the publishing world again.
Image: Pennywise demo by Adrian Rigby and Sam Shuck for Titanic FX at The Prosthetics Event.
There are no standard subjects required to become a prosthetics artist, but practical subjects such as art and design are very relevant. The digital skills taught in IT and computer technology are also helpful, and science subjects like chemistry will help you understand the materials used in prosthetic manufacture.
It’s fine to show collaborative work when applying for jobs but be transparent about exactly what you contributed to the project; giving the impression work is yours when it isn’t is unethical and could trip you up later by setting expectations that your skills don’t meet.
A core prosthetics skill that’s easy to work on independently is sculpture. Sculpture skills are used in everything from facial appliances to creatures and will always be in demand in professional FX workshops, so learning and practicing sculpture techniques at home is a valuable use of your time.
If your aim is to be a makeup FX artist, understanding basic makeup techniques is useful. Face painting is one way to learn these; it teaches the principles of how colour, highlight, and shadow can create form and character, which is a great foundation for character makeup and prosthetic design.
Yes, but it’s limited. Making prosthetics is a longer process to work on, plus you’re more likely to be hired if you have workshop skills and can do both aspects of the job. If you want to make prosthetic application a career, however, adding straight makeup and hair to your skillset will increase your employability.
No, but making industry contacts helps. Ultimately employers hire talent and skills, however, there are no caveats to this and there’s no ‘it’s not what you know it’s who you know’. Your popularity on social media is also irrelevant; you’ll get hired based on your talent and skills first.
Like CGI before it, AI will doubtless be important in filmmaking, but it’s unlikely to replace prosthetics. Concerns that digital FX would take over when Jurassic Park was released in 1993 were unfounded; over two decades later prosthetics and creature FX are more in demand than ever, so instead of worrying about new technologies, we incorporate them into our work. More here.
Yes, professional workshops and studios are always looking for people with a range of skills, of which sculpture is just one. They also need mould makers, silicone technicians, animatronics technicians, hair punchers, costume and fabrication technicians, 3D print and modelling technicians, to name only a few.
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ONLINE COURSES
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PROSTHETICS MAGAZINE
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MASTER’S DEGREE
“I wanted to thank you for all the support and help throughout this amazing academic year. The immense amount of knowledge I gathered this year is unparalleled and I am extremely grateful for this opportunity.”
ACADEMIC SUPPORT
“SFX pioneers don’t come more experienced or diverse than Neill Gorton. Not only is his experience in the SFX industry as comprehensive as it gets, but his clear passion for sharing his experience, talent and common-sense approach is a rare and gracious one.”
DICK SMITH: THE GODFATHER OF MAKEUP
“If you haven’t already ordered it do so now and quickly. The complete history in text, photo and anecdote of one of the greatest Makeup Artists to ever live. A Superlative work.”
“All my prosthetics skills and knowledge are due to the Gorton Studio Online Courses. They were so resourceful…my skills have improved a lot, which has strengthened my work portfolio, and I am getting hired on great projects. All credit to Neill Gorton and the knowledge he has shared in his online classes.”
“Best mag on earth!”
“Brad and Neill, I wanted to let you both know that you have absolutely changed my life – coming onto this course was the best decision I’ve ever made. You have both been an endless source of inspiration throughout the year, while de-mystifying processes I never thought I would learn… my brain has exploded with new ideas, and I feel like I finally have direction. I am a huge advocate of you both & the course and your work. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“I have recently purchased access to your online courses. I wish to thank you for providing these videos. These have been the best I have seen online and are such an asset to me and fantastic value. I’ve never reached out to an online provider to compliment them, so this just shows how impressed I am!”
“A must read. Best magazine in the trade, hands down!”
“Neill and Brad, I have just been reflecting upon the last year and how amazing the opportunity to study with you was…thank you. It has been a pleasure to have studied under you, and I have taken away so much from the year. Both of you were fantastic tutors, and always so patient!”
“Neill Gorton and his amazing team came up with a prosthetics module for us and the students always engage with every aspect of it. Gorton Studio instils the highest technical, creative and professional standards.”
“No one has contributed more to the art of movie makeup and makeup effects than the Godfather of makeup Dick Smith. This book takes an in depth look at his career, his extensive technical innovations, and why he still inspires generations of professional makeup artists all over the world. For anyone interested in movie makeup this book is a must have.”
“These courses are fantastic! For someone who is new to prosthetics Neill provides a clear path from idea to final product. It’s great to have online prosthetics courses based in the UK, as the materials are far easier to obtain.”
“This magazine is beyond what I hoped it would include, from hints and tips to life stories.”
“Coming onto the Prosthetics MA has been a really positive experience, it’s allowed me to refocus my career prospects towards something I’ve always wanted to get into! My best takeaways from the course are the friends and connections I have made and learned from throughout the year and hope to work with in the future in industry.”
“Love the new service Neill!!! I’ve been watching the online lessons and like your magazine articles, I learn more each time I watch and read. Greetings from the USA.”
“Love this magazine, it has many helpful articles and tutorials!”
“My time on the MA Prosthetic Effects course was fantastic, and throughout the year and its three projects I was able to build a diverse portfolio and develop the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue a career in the effects industry. Coming from BA(Hons) Film, the course and its tutors enabled me to turn my interests into reality and gave me the confidence I needed to achieve my personal and academic goals. I would recommend the course to anyone who would like to do the same.”
“Neill is an outstanding teacher; he took us through the important areas we needed to know about, including the importance of understating the materials. He is a fountain of knowledge and gave us so many tips on all aspects of the industry. He really built our confidence and gave us an excellent foundation to work from.”
“Outstanding service, great book, highly recommend.”