Interview with... RALIS KAHN NOTfilms:How did you get into special effects make-up, and what was your first job? KAHN:Ahh, that's a long story, but I'll do it quick. I had a rock band, and I was inspired by the Charley Daniels Band--The Devil Went Down To Georgia...because the Devil had a band of demons, and when I had grown up I wanted a band of demons. So, I had a rock band and I used to draw us as demons and stuff, and when I got older i discovered Tom Savini and Scream Yates of Fangoria magazine, and I said, hey I can make a band of demons. So, I just started doing this. I never thought I could do it for a living though. My first job, I was "blood boy" for a film called, Vampires and Other Stereotypes, and that means I carried around blood and splashed it on the walls. [he laughs] That was my first job. NOTfilms:How has new CGI and digital effects affected your profession? KAHN:Actually, it's affected the people that do the animatronic part of my profession. You know, the guys that make the moving stuff because what they'll do now is they'll have me sculpt something, and then they'll just digitally move it or morph it. Also transformations have been changed as where you would do a bunch of stages and have cuts in between. Now they'll have you do two or three stages and just morph it. I actually think that that aspect, if it's done right, actually looks better. NOTfilms:Do you prefer any genre in terms of the projects you do? KAHN:Yeah, I like horror films. [he laughs] NOTfilms:Horror over sci-fi? KAHN:Horror over everything. Horror over PORN. NOTfilms:What projects have you done that most people would know? KAHN:Uh, well, I do all of Marilyn Manson's stuff. Everything Marilyn Manson's done for like the past four years. That's probably my most fun I have doing. The zombie appliance I'm doing here, I actually got to do for George Romero, and that was for the Resident Evil 2 commercial. And we're doing Faust which is coming out real soon with Brian Yuzna directing, and it's being shot over in Barcelona. And that's a real effects-heavy show with not that much CGI at all. We did SO much stuff, we did old fashion transformations and then they're enhancing them some digital stuff, but we actually had a lot of say in how that happens. And in fact we're even doing some of the rough edits to show them how we want it done. So, we designed it and we just have the technicians execute it. NOTfilms:Are there any other projects coming up for you? KAHN:Yeah, actually right on Monday when I get back, I'm going on set for the new Iron Maiden video with Bruce Dickinson back in the band. NOTfilms:Really?! KAHN:Yeah! The new Eddie is Matt the Giant, who is in the Marilyn Manson videos. He's also been on the Howard Stern Show, Dead Hate the Living. And Eddie's looking better than he ever did before. We're going to have fifty Eddies in the audience, but it's going to look like hundreds of Eddies running around gong nuts in a big mosh pit. It's a blast. I got to meet Bruce Dickinson last Tuesday, he just showed up and I was like, Ahh! No way! That's Bruce Dickinson! NOTfilms:What kind of advice can you give to anyone starting off in your profession? KAHN:Practice. Don't try and buy an education because, unfortunately, I found out that a lot of the guys that go to make-up schools and stuff, when I got out to L.A. and started stuff, I noticed that when people see that on resumes they just laugh and throw it out. So, if you do go to school to learn, just don't rely on that. Then after you've learned spend the money on your materials, get together, work, and get a good portfolio. And once you've proved you've got good looking work, it doesn't matter how you learned as long as you can do it. And keep trying! You always have to keep pluggin'. And the best thing that I did was I lied and I said that I lived in L.A.. I lived out here [Maryland], I had some friends in Burbank, and I said I lived in L.A. because they were never calling me when I had my home address on there. So, my friends called me up as soon as a job came through because they called my friends asking for me. I took a red-eye flight that night, and I as working in L.A. the next morning.