How do you make a comedy about one of the vital anxious and bodily demanding jobs on this planet? For the brand new paramedic movie Code 3, starring Rainn Wilson and Lil Rel Howery, the reply was a dedication to brutal realism.
On the heart of that authenticity is Prosthetics Make-up Designer Scotia Boyd. Tasked with creating the whole lot from an enormous stick lodged in an eyeball to the refined breakdown of an overworked first responder, Boyd’s philosophy was easy: no “fairly” film dust.
Her strategy was to floor each gag and harm in actuality, making the characters and their high-stakes world really feel visceral and speedy.
We sat down with Boyd to debate her analysis course of, the collaborative effort behind the movie’s largest gags, and the way her work on a gritty indie comedy compares to designing fantastical aliens for Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds.
Let’s dive in.
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NFS: Hello Scotia! As a prosthetics make-up designer, how do you intention to raise the comedic tone of a mission like Code 3 by way of your designs?
Scotia Boyd: As quickly as I learn the script, I knew that I needed to go concerning the make-up designs in probably the most lifelike manner potential, for each the straight make-up and the prosthetic components. I didn’t need to see any “fairly” film dust, no glam, and I needed to get all the texture that you simply see on the streets of Los Angeles in actual life. Christopher Leone and I linked straight away once I mentioned that I didn’t need to see any ‘make-up’, or the look of make-up, and that was one thing that I stayed dedicated to all through the method of filming. On the subject of the comedic facet, I believe that letting the ambulance calls be as lifelike as potential helped within the sense that it gave an actual want for that levity discovered between Rainn and Rel’s characters.
NFS: Contemplating its give attention to a trio of paramedics, Code 3 options a number of medical emergencies. What sort of analysis goes into attaining authenticity in these moments?
SB: The entire calls that the paramedics responded to in Code 3 have been real-life accounts from the movie’s co-writer, Patrick Pianezza, so I used to be consistently cross-referencing my concepts and findings with him. I’d first get onto the web to sift by way of the pictures I may discover on closely restricted web sites, after which as soon as I’d gathered concepts and references, I’d go to Patrick for extra particular notes and changes. It was at all times about realism.
NFS: These emergencies will need to have additionally required collaboration with a number of totally different actors on the movie. How did you and your group navigate working with a rotating solid of characters over the course of the movie?
SB: The actors have been superb and gracious with us as they sat by way of the generally lengthy make-up course of with a purpose to get it proper. Luca Jones went a few shoot days with one in every of his eyes fully coated to have prosthetics utilized over it. And he wasn’t the one actor that needed to go with out their eyesight. We had one other scene with an actor who had anaphylactic shock, whose eyes have been swollen shut. Stunt actors have been coated in blood and had their our bodies painted in livor mortis. The makeups have been meticulously utilized by my key make-up artist, Meg Wilbur, with the assistance of Allie Shehorn.
We additionally had rather a lot to ask of our solid, who didn’t have prosthetics utilized to them, too, for the dearth of corrective make-up and the extent of breakdown utilized to them as overworked paramedics. Rainn’s character began to look progressively extra damaged down in the direction of the tip of his 24-hour shift. Aimee Carrero and Yvette Nichole Brown each wore very minimal make-up for the movie. Rob Riggle had a breakdown make-up utilized in the course of the COVID-era flashback scenes, with redness and irritation from carrying the COVID masks.
NFS: Do you have got a favourite sequence or scene from the movie?
SB: There are such a lot of! However I’ll decide two. I believe that the motorbike crash scene that Luca did with the attention prosthetic had an ideal payoff, and it was a variety of enjoyable to observe. Within the scene, Luca’s character had drunkenly crashed right into a tree and rolled down a hill on the aspect of the freeway, not noticing the big stick lodged in his eye. Chris, our director, needed the follow be as massive as potential, which added to the absurdity of the state of affairs, and Luca performed it so effectively. There have been a variety of Monty Python “flesh wound” jokes on set, for positive.
And because it’s a comedy, I additionally liked the quick meals roleplay scene between Rainn and Rel within the ambulance. Once we have been on set, the whole crew was dying of laughter, and it was simply as humorous to observe within the film. I believe there was a second that you might see Rainn about to lose it within the scene, too.
‘Code 3’ BTSCredit: the make-up by Scotia Boyd, Meg Wilbur, and Allie Shehorn.
NFS: What was the collaboration like amongst you and your fellow division heads on Code 3?
SB: There was a variety of collaboration between departments to make it possible for the whole lot made sense on display. Within the very starting, it began with conversations with Charles Nance, the prop grasp, in order that we may have a light-weight stick made for the attention gag. Jason Collins at Autonomous FX created the prosthetic piece and a few of our different wounds for the automobile accidents.
In fact, I labored carefully with Hair Division Head Nina Paskowitz on daily basis to give you the appears and collaborate with the actors. Costume Designer Rachel Kunin and I collaborated to make it possible for the story we have been telling with the blood on the pores and skin and on the garments was a cohesive one.
NFS: How do your designs for Code 3 examine or distinction along with your acclaimed work on the Paramount+ sequence Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds?
SB: The worlds are just about evening and day. In Code 3, we have been making our expertise look worse, making them look worn down, and attempting to maintain issues as near actuality as potential whereas enhancing it for the digicam. Within the Unusual New Worlds make-up division led by Olga Kirnos, we obtained to stay in a complete fantasy. We nonetheless used reference photographs from actual life for the accidents, however so far as the make-up went, nobody was asking us, “Hey, when did the character discover the time to get all made up like that?”
NFS: How did your expertise as a make-up artist evolve into the world of prosthetics? Do you have got a desire between these two sorts of design?
SB: Proper from the start, I used to be very a lot enthusiastic about each straight make-up and particular results. Folks ask me on a regular basis which I choose, and actually, I can’t decide which I like extra! Once I’m doing particular results, it’s a lot enjoyable to delve into references after which recreate the textures and patterns and colors that seem naturally on the physique.
However, I really like making an individual appear and feel lovely, and attending to sculpt a face with mild and shadow. Whether or not it’s particular results or magnificence, it seems like portray to me, and I am going right into a circulate state. Every time I get to take an hour or two to unplug and get into that course of, it’s a present.
NFS: Is there anything you want to add about Code 3 or every other upcoming initiatives?
SB: I’m so happy with the way in which that Code 3 turned out and happy with the whole group behind it. It’s at all times been a particular mission to me, and now that I get to share it with my buddies and the world. I encourage everybody to go see it. You’ll be shocked, your eyes will probably be opened concerning the lifetime of paramedics, and also you’re going to chuckle rather a lot!
In 2026, I hope you’ll get to see ‘Untitled House Invasion Romance’ starring and directed by Jason Biggs, and ‘You’re Killing Me,’ starring Brooke Shields.
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