PTPOP - A Mind Revolution

Mask Magic: Behind the Scenes with Immortal Masks

• PTPOP • Season 7 • Episode 5

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Join PTPOP on A Mind Revolution for an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview with Andrew Freeman of Immortal Masks, where we dive into the art of creating realistic Halloween masks, silicone monsters, and movie-quality creature designs. #ImmortalMasks #AndrewFreeman #SiliconeMasks #RealisticHalloweenMasks #CreatureDesign #SFXMasks #SpecialEffects #HorrorPodcast #BehindTheScenes #MaskMaking #Halloween2025 #PTPOP #AMindRevolution #AlienMask #MonsterMasks Immortal Masks: http://www.immortalmasks.com 3D Mantis 3D Printing https://www.instagram.com/3d_mantis/

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Peter:

Hey there everybody. Peachy Pop here, leading you out of the rabbit hole, one grain of truth at a time. I've got a great show for you today, perfect timing for Halloween. Today on the show, we're diving deep, deep into the world of monster making, mask magic and the kind of craftsmanship that blurs the line between fantasy and reality. I guarantee you this. This is going to be a great show.

Peter:

We're joined by Andrew Freeman, co-founder of Immortal Masks, the industry-leading creators of hyper-realistic silicone masks for movies, haunted attractions collectors and die-hard horror fans. This guy's work and his staff's work is just tremendous. Immortal Mask was founded in 2010 by Andrew Freeman, george Afrangadakis and Chuck Banker, and the company has since become a powerhouse in the world of special effects and creative design. They're based out of Van Nuys, california. It's about 10 minutes from Hollywood, california. They've built a reputation for amazing, cutting-edge design, incredible realism and masks that are not just terrifying, they're wearable art.

Peter:

This is the truth. This is one of their masks right here. This is my Zontarski mask. This is what they call their alien mask. I call it my alien green mask. I wear it for my Midnight Mutant Theater show and I love it. I become a different person. You can kind of become a kid again and you wear this and I become Zontarski, I just transfer or just become somebody else, and you're just going to love loving to hear how Andrew makes his mask. So, andrew, thanks so much for being on the show tonight. Your masks are amazing. Hello, hey there. Hey, we're good. Hey, how's it going Good? Good, how's it going Awesome? I'm so glad to see you. I was. I was wondering if I was in the right place, because I always have a problem with Zoom for some reason.

Andrews:

Right, I hope we didn't hear all that gross shit we were just talking about. Was it something disgusting, I guess yeah, the guys that make rubber monsters are always fucking around.

Peter:

Yeah, you're not exactly that's cool, though. It's got to be a fun place to work.

Andrews:

It is. Yeah, there are stressful scenarios or deadline situations. Right now is the busy season so we are cranking away, but we I think everyone here loves what they do, so we definitely keep it light, yeah that's awesome.

Peter:

I've been watching some of your videos on youtube where you guys are just somebody made a little documentary and showing you and your buddy mike, or is it?

Andrews:

no, it's george, george yeah, I met him at another shop aside from Immortal Mass and it was an effect and I was like a key artist there doing a lot of the designs and sculptures and paintwork and I was even going on set, you know, doing animatronics and on set application and George was hired to be the shop supervisor supervisor and that's kind of like where we first met. And once I moved on from that shop and immortal was getting bigger and I think george was actually going to move back home, I hit him up and was just like hey, you know, can you come by my shop and tell me if you think? I think I just wanted his advice as a shop supervisor, like how I could tighten it up Around. That time we got a big like a client who's a billionaire and he wanted to buy 100 masks to set up a haunted attraction on like the front lawn of his mansion. Wow, it was all for his son.

Andrews:

His son was a huge Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights enthusiast. His son knew that I was one of the sculptors for a lot of the masks. So his dad, being this billionaire, had some connections and he got Universal's permission for us to remake some actual mazes from one of the years that this kid chose and they sent like blueprints and stuff and it was a pretty big deal and George was kind of instrumental in helping me oversee that that size of a project. And so I think at that time he was just kind of like like a shop supervisor for me. Like I brought him on for that and after seeing how well he dealt with it I offered him, you know, a partnership, because as an artist I guess I you know it's it's hard for me to deal with the business side of stuff sometimes.

Andrews:

You know, oh, yeah, yeah you know, just just creating cool art is, like you know, hard enough.

Peter:

So I went online and bought this really horrible alien mask made. I think this is rubber.

Andrews:

Okay, maybe latex.

Peter:

It looks like Latex, yeah, yeah yeah, and I've recorded a few music videos with it, and it's just. It was horrible. When you move your head, it it doesn't, it stays straight like a yeah, it's like a bucket almost.

Andrews:

It doesn't really conform to your head shape yeah, and the mouth doesn't open.

Peter:

And then I found you online and I love your mask because the mouth it opens when your mouth opens and I thought that was like I'm like a little kid again, like this is so cool. Where did this all come from and how did you go from just doing visual effects to starting your own mask business? Was there a dream? Did you have a dream of making masks or?

Andrews:

yeah, I guess that's a good question. I, you know, I I've always been drawing monsters since I was a kid. Uh, you know, like I've always been fascinated with creatures, that when, when we go to the library you know which I guess I sound old because I don't even know if kids go to the library and check out but uh, I would always check out the same books. So you know, there's certain books about like cryptozoology, like bigfootfoot, loch Ness Monster. I was always checking those books out. And then I was always also checking out like books that had images of, like the creature from the Black Lagoon and like some of the old school monsters. I was just really fascinated with creatures, I guess. So drawing monsters was kind of like, uh, maybe where it all started.

Andrews:

And even in high school I went to like a, uh, like a Catholic school. So you know it was kind of uh strict, I guess we had to wear uniforms and it was, you know, maybe more strict than just public school. But sometimes they would try to like combine art class with religion, maybe like kill two birds with one stone kind of thing. And I remember I got in trouble one time because they said draw your favorite passage from the bible and you know I, basically you know I knew the story of David and Goliath.

Andrews:

You know the story of David and Goliath has always been one of my favorite stories, like I guess the uh, the idea of like a giant and giants in general kind of always fascinated me, and that still does. But I, you know the the the story is is that, you know, david kills the, the giant, with a slingshot and a stone and then he has to decapitate him and and present the head to the King at the time. And so here's the champion that I slayed, and so I drew that part of the scene where he's standing on the glass back and he's kind of like pulling his hair and he's like cutting his throat as he's decapitating him. And all the priests and teachers and principal, they all freaked out and called my mom in and they're like look what he's doing.

Andrews:

And they kind of said the same thing. They said, well, this is part of the story. So, yeah, we read the Bible and, like it's, it's in there, Like he, did he not decapitate Goliath at the end. And they're like well, yes. And they're like well, wouldn't there be a bunch of blood if that happened? And you know it, just you know, I always had really supportive parents in that regard.

Peter:

That's cool.

Andrews:

Even though they sent me to a Catholic school, I think they did that maybe just so I would get an advantage in the education system, which I do feel the private school system in the 80s did have maybe an advantage to what the public schools had to offer. So in that regard, you know, I'm very fortunate that you know I did go there and sparked up some good friendships and learned you know about, you know, culture, even though you know I was raised Catholic. I'm not like a, you know, practicing Catholic, so to speak. I do believe in, you know, I guess, other theories.

Andrews:

There are parts of the Bible that interest me and stuff, and then parts of the Bible that interest me and stuff, and then parts of the Bible I do believe, since you have an alien, I do believe in aliens and stuff like that there's that show Ancient Aliens. There's a lot of theories that kind of align with those beliefs in terms of what's out there and us, uh, and us not, you know, being the only thing you know out there. So, yeah, I don't know, I guess, uh, aliens have always fascinated me too, not just you know, they're creatures, I guess too, just like humans, if, uh, if, they are out there.

Peter:

But there's, yeah, there's always that idea or the, the idea of the gray alien, you know, like from communion and the descriptions of them, uh, that have always been kind of fascinated with yeah, it's the whole idea that there's something other than us out there is always fascinated me, even when I was a little kid and I'm probably considerably older than you, I'm about to turn 60 and we used to play in the backyard, my friend and I, and when I were 10 we'd sit there with binoculars and telescope looking for ufos, looking for spaceships, because we had seen all these. You know, like I've got the metal in a mutant here from this planet earth, I think it's called.

Andrews:

I can't remember what it's called we're thinking about doing, uh, that metal metaluna style mask, oh cool. I don't want to, you know, copy the original design, but I do love that idea and even with, like the claw hands type thing, I think it would be cool to uh like our version of that kind of alien. What?

Peter:

was the first mask you ever made.

Andrews:

I guess.

Andrews:

Yeah, well, I guess the first mask I ever made was probably a mask for Universal Studios. It was like I guess they call it the freak, which it's not, the freak that's in the Immortal catalog, excuse me, it was a mask that I made for Universal Studios, which is where I kind of learned how to make masks. I did a lot of sculpting. I went to a trade school in Los Angeles called Associates in Arts and at this school there was a lot of sculptors that work in the effects industry that were teaching classes on the weekends, and I was fortunate enough to take a couple of classes with some of these master sculptors who kind of taught me the beginnings of sculpture, I guess. And I took that home and just kind of practiced making little busts and full-scale busts until I kind of figured out, because of the internet, that if I wanted to paint one of my busts, my sculptures, I'd have to make a mold of it and then create a mask or some kind of bust that would be paintable. So I realized that mask making was probably going to be the easiest way to. You know, take one of my sculptures and, you know, finish it. And I contacted a local effect shop and basically asked them if they would, you know, spend a weekend with me and I would pay them. I think I offered like a couple hundred bucks just for their time to explain to me how to make a mold, one of my sculptures, and they were nice, but they were just kind of like, oh sorry, we're really busy and we don't have time for that, and I was just kind of, okay, well, I guess that's that. And then, maybe like a week or two weeks later, that same studio contacted me this time and or they were like, oh, hey, uh, so you say you have sculptures, do you mind if I see you know the quality of your work? And I sent them some photographs, uh, in an email, of the sculptures that I had. And then, uh, they asked if I could go down there and meet them in person. And and then it, uh, it led to them offering me a job working for universal studios making the mask for them. So I was super lucky.

Andrews:

I think I'm one of the few rare stories that I got paid to learn all this stuff, basically, and I learned, you know, from people, just you know, that were in the studio doing it. So the I guess the information I was learning was, you know, hands-on, and I would stick around after my shift was over and watch people and ask questions and it was and even eventually hire some of them and learn from them directly. Yeah, I was lucky enough to uh start with universal studios. I think the very first mask I made for them was like a uh, kind of like an elephant man looking mask called the Freak. I think there's pictures of it on my Facebook. I have like a really old album on there that just exists from when I first started my Facebook, but maybe not my proudest work, but definitely important in terms of learning how to make a mask and stuff.

Andrews:

And at universal studios I you know, maybe in the seven years I worked for halloween horror nights at this studio, I probably made close to maybe like 300 masks or something, wow. So I really, I guess, learned how to I guess, for lack of a better term sharpen my teeth there and uh, and that's where I kind of learned, I guess, the materials and stuff like that. Because it was a halloween event, we would a big halloween event we would have to prepare in the summertime, so usually we would get together, maybe in the end of june, sure, and then we would be making all these masks and prosthetics and dead bodies and all this fake dead bodies and all that stuff, and then we would take it to the event in the month of October and then, come November, it would kind of be dead though in that studio. And that's what kind of led me to seek work in other studios that were working on films and stuff like that. And that's where I worked, at the studio where I met George, and I guess eventually, you know, I George and I guess eventually, you know I kind of saw, like you know, what would happen was this because I worked at a Halloween event for four months it was usually about four months out of the year, for the other six months out of the year working at these studios with some of these kind of hot shot effects, artists from the 80s and stuff who I've become friends with some of them and some of them have, you know, we've become friends and then kind of lost, lost touch, but a lot of them in the beginning would kind of turn their nose up to the word Halloween.

Andrews:

They would be like oh hey, andrew, like what studio were you working at before we, you know, started this project and I would say, oh, I was working at Halloween and before I could even say Halloween, horror Nights. Like I would say, oh, I was working at Halloween and before I could even say Halloween, horror Nights, like I would say, like Halloween. And they would just be like, oh, never mind, and they would put their headphones back on. Oh, really, wow. Yeah. I was kind of like, oh shit, maybe I shouldn't talk about Halloween to these guys because they worked on Terminator and Jurassic Park and all these movies. I was like, yeah, they probably don't, they probably think Halloween's a joke. So, yeah, I even made like a mental note, like when I work with these old-timers, like don't talk about how wow but the other flip side of that was when I was working, the halloween events.

Andrews:

You know these, these clients, these haunted attractions, specifically universal studios. They wanted, they know they, they want their event to mimic a film set. You know, they want their quality of their haunt or their haunted attraction to be film quality so that when you, when people pay tickets and go to this immersive, interactive type haunted attraction, the makeups, the masks, the set, the acting, everything you, you know, as film quality as possible. So, in that regard, the, the people that were spending lots of money, the clients, and I think at the time I heard that halloween industry was something like a six billion dollar industry you know these haunted attractions, really not six, six billion dollars yeah, yeah, and then that was and that was maybe uh 10 years ago, so I you know uh oh, wow

Andrews:

it's. It's. It's kind of like kind of remained in that in that area some years it's gone up and then some years it's gone down, but for the most part it's kind of uh, hung in that area. But there, you know, then then I started thinking, okay, well, there's a lot of more haunted attractions than just universal studios, florida and hollywood. There's a lot of much smaller mom-and-pop type haunted attractions. And then there's the ones in between that are almost theme park size, like the Netherworld and the Darkness and things like that and everything in between, like these Field of Scream franchises and things like that.

Andrews:

So then I started kind of just developing silicone masks and I guess at one point I had to kind of like take the leap away from the studio that I was working at with Horror Nights because they were basically saying, hey, listen, like either you follow your passion with this silicone mask thing that I was always talking about it and trying to get them on.

Andrews:

You know, silicone mask, silicone mask, and they were like you know, the mask we made for for universal studios and all the masks that I learned making. Those were foam latex masks which typically are used as background masks in the film industry. You know they don't really take wear and tear because foam latex is. It's a much softer material than the older latex mask that you have. Even though that mask doesn't have movement and it's kind of like a bucket, it is probably durable for the most part. It should be hard to tear when foam latex wants to tear. It's very soft, which was another reason why, in the very beginning, I created a prototype where I put a material inside the silicone, kind of you know, impregnated or encapsulated it within the silicone itself.

Peter:

So I saw that on your website. What do you call it? It's like a, it's like a sheath or a cloth sheath.

Andrews:

Yeah, we call it power mesh and it's a yeah, it's a material that it's a four way stretch material that doesn't minimize the movement, so that it's a four-way stretch material that doesn't minimize the movement. So you know, you need the mask to stretch a certain amount when you're putting it on your head and you also want it to stretch a certain amount when you're moving your neck and opening your mouth. We designed this hood that we encapsulate within the silicone to kind of have panels to maximize the movement. So every kind of thought or every process of the production has been kind of well thought out for the kind of maximization of the comfort of the wearer.

Andrews:

The alien is one of the masks that doesn't have nose holes, and there are a handful of masks that don't have nose holes. But I feel like it's kind of like a subtle sacrifice that needs to be made to really make this thing look not human, you know. So I could have put the nose holes right where the human nose holes are, but I feel like people would have seen the human more. Or, you know, the more I can do to try to hide something and design it less human. There's a kind of a term I like using with some of the sculptors that I work with, which is, I say, hide the human, you know, because in some, in some masks like a realistic old man. I want it to look very human and as human as you know, as realistic as possible.

Andrews:

But then in some masks I definitely want to try to hide the human because I want it to look, you know, otherworldly or from the underworld. Or, you know, sometimes buildings like a skull or something like a zombie is tricky because you're having to make something look thin and emaciated on top of, you know, a human head. And then if I was wearing, you know, I've got a little bit of weight, so it would. You know it's. It's all about kind of cheating anatomy and and having a good knowledge of not just human anatomy but maybe you know a little bit of animal anatomy and and I feel like then you can almost play like you know, it's almost like Dr Moreau, where you can be, like I'm going to make, like a lizard guy, but this one I want to be 60% human and 30% or 40%, or maybe 30% lizard and 10% insect.

Peter:

So are you? Are you the primary designer, or do you have other designers that work with you?

Andrews:

Yeah, I'm on the main like a designer art director, but I do work with other artists that bring pretty heavy duty designs to the table on their own. For instance, uh, right now I'm working with the video game company blizzard. Their lead designer, his name is ben, and his name is ben ert it's it's his last name is spelled e r d t, but if you google Ben Ert images, you'll see a lot of really cool 3D video game style creatures and he's just really good at designing, you know, in his own right. So we'll come up with an idea. Like right now he's working on something that we're kind of for the working title and it might become its actual name. We're calling it a snailian, which is like a like an alien snail looking thing but it's eyes have like these kind of stocks and stuff and it's very snail looking and he does a really excellent job with the whole hiding, the human thing that I was talking about.

Andrews:

But you know, for the sake of him being, in my opinion, like kind of a genius designer in his own right, I kind of just he showed me some designs that he did and I I kind of picked one and then we'll, we'll, we'll talk about that design. We'll kind of, I guess, segregate it as a design and then, uh, away from the other ones and then talk about that design. We'll kind of, I guess, segregate it as a design and then away from the other ones and then talk about, okay, if we made this into a mask, what's the plausibility of the mouth movement based on his design? So then there might be little tweaks where you say, hey, the mouth design might have to change this way so the guy can open and close. I like to design these masks so you can kind of party in them too, because they're cool masks. When I go to parties wearing them I know people are going to trip out, but then I feel like they trip out even more when they see it chugging a beer.

Peter:

Is there any way that you could make these eyes blink? Well, yeah, technically it would require like pretty advanced animatronics, though I guess, like it's not even like a little bulb you could squeeze or something that would make them open and close, or would it be that too complex?

Andrews:

it would, it would still. I guess the trick is you know the silicone has weight to it, you know it's. I designed that one with a foam insert to try to alleviate some of the weight. But I'm sure you know, once it goes on, you know, it's kind of. I feel like. I compare it to like a book bag, where if you're holding a bag like a backpack full of books in your one arm it's going to feel heavy, but the second you put it on your shoulders it just strips your way. You're able to like hike miles and shit with it. But I feel like that's the same with the mask, like in your in when people hold it in their hands, like wow, this has weight, but then once they put it on they're like, oh okay, I get it and and it is like that. But for the sake of that weight that is just inherent in the. You know the viscosity of the when we pour it and the nature of like the.

Andrews:

We're developing something right now where it's it's, it's, it's basically an animatronic, but it's uh, we're trying to make it where it's actor driven, where basically your jaw movement had like there'd be like a, an under structure, like a, an underskull. That has to be hard and it has to be hard to accommodate for a series of cables. They're basically like a golden rod-type cable, it's like a cable within a cable. It's like a plastic housing and then a little-realistic chimpanzee or gorilla mask where the muzzle comes really far off the mouth. But with this cable system it's kind of like, I guess, like a Chewbacca mask where when you open the mouth this lip activation peels the lips back and when you close it closes completely. So if you're just sitting there it would look like just a docile, chill primate, like chimpanzee. But then the second you start opening the mouth, like the lips curl back.

Andrews:

And we're thinking about trying to have a secondary motion where on the brows, like we can go from kind of like sympathetic brows to like kind of angry. So so it can go from, depending on how far you open the mouth, like you can kind of hang in between like a neutral or you can make it go from docile to like pretty insane angry looking. If, if we're able to develop that you know the alien is a popular mask and there is a possibility that we could try to use that same type of wire pulley system so that maybe when you like you know it would be, rather than something that you would hold, or maybe you know there's a possibility that, if that works, maybe instead of you know your jaw activation, you know that way. You just have your mouth closed and you want to blink, maybe something that you squeeze, or some kind of secondary emotion that could be hidden in your pockets or in your hand, or something.

Peter:

That's brilliant, that's really brilliant Wow.

Andrews:

It's definitely not out of the question.

Andrews:

I guess we are trying to take these things to the next level, I guess, because, you know, I guess when I entered the film industry in like the late, I guess, I want to say maybe the early 2000s, yeah, mid-2000s, yeah, I guess, like CG and computer-generated imagery, it kind of like was competing a lot with the practical effects and the old like rubber monsters and stuff, practical effects and the old like rubber monsters and stuff.

Andrews:

So when I came in, in my opinion a lot of the studios that were doing like advanced animatronics kind of got the shit end of the deal because, right, well, I feel like right, when we were getting really good at this, cg came and said anything, anything that could have been, that can be this now, and and producers and directors were like, okay, we, yeah, and so a lot of these like wizards that were getting really good at this kind of had to stop because there was you know, it was like a competition and the cg guys were doing it faster and cheaper. I'm not going to say better, because I hate how some of it looks. So you know, I feel like it would have looked. These movies would have been a lot cooler if they were in shots, but how does ai affect what you do?

Peter:

is I mean, are you still work for the studios universal or?

Andrews:

yeah, yeah, we just made a bunch of stuff for them and last night was their uh preview night and a bunch of uh my crew went and checked it out. I guess for for that, a very exact example of halloweenights, which is like a theme park human interactive event, I think. For that very reason, I'm kind of luckily, insulated from AI. Okay, like there would have to be like some kind of competitor that would come out and specifically use AI designs and then have to interpret those AI designs either digitally or have an artist sculpt those to try to like somehow take me down. But you know, because of the size of our catalog and our reputation with not just, you know, the quality of our work but our customer service, I feel like you know it would take, like you know, I don't know like a lot to try to. You know it would take like a you know, I don't know like a lot to try to you know mess with this.

Andrews:

I guess you know there's always going to be people that want to, you know, be something different. You know, and these masks, you know I I feel like you know the. You know my main thing is just trying to like get people to know what they are and try to get them to catch on more, because I feel like, uh, you know, such a small percentage of the population know about these and if more people know, it would be cool to you know, like I have some celebrity clients that, like they're some of the biggest like celebrities in the world and come to me for these masks to like disguise themselves and like I want so badly to like post these videos, because they even send me videos like here's a video of me taking it off and I just fooled the people downstairs and I love it, it's the answer to all my problems and it's like yeah yeah that's the best commercial like these.

Andrews:

These celebrities get paid millions of dollars to make commercials by these, some of these companies, and this is like a commercial they just sent me for free thanking me, but I can't post it because then I would ruin the anonymity that is helping them. So it's kind of like you know, but I just wish more people knew about these for the art's sake. It's my art. I want more eyeballs to see it, you know.

Peter:

But maybe that's why I called it immortal, even even if I'm long gone and eyeballs keep seeing this shit like job done, you know yeah, have you seen the music video by paul mccartney where I it's from his paul mccartney three album during the pandemic and beck is in it and and throughout the whole video it looks like Paul McCartney when he's young in the 60s. And then he approaches the camera and pulls off this rubber mask and it's really Beck underneath it.

Peter:

Yeah, I don't know if, but I always wonder. There's all this rumor that Paul McCartney died in 1966. There's an imposter in his place. He's wearing a rubber mask and all this stuff.

Andrews:

But it was like I guess you know that he's definitely, you know, gone. I do remember that and we've actually been asked many times to do those types of gags and stuff and when we have, for same thing, celebrities. In fact, george got hit up by michael bay one time. You know he didn't realize it was michael bay because you know, he has like a, I guess, a friend named michael bay on facebook and he thought somehow this guy was calling him.

Andrews:

But it was like transformers director michael bay, and like yeah, and he was calling us to ask if he, you know, if we could quickly make a like that, that type of gag for a like a mask pull-off thing and it's for a super bowl commercial and he needed it in like a week and it was like man, like that's like kind of impossible. But then you know, we, I think we told him no. He said you know, sorry, it's just, you know, if you gave us a little more time we could do it, but it's impossible, like no one can do that, you know, because he wanted it, it had to look like what's that guy's name? Eric or rodriguez, a rod, alex rodriguez yeah, from the yankee yeah.

Andrews:

So and you know he's got a specific look and I was like man, like no one can make a mask that looks like him in less than a week, with all the hair work and everything that's oh yeah yeah, but then we found, we found a mask and we ended up, you know, it ended up working because we, you know, silicone's kind of a funny thing.

Andrews:

You know, like I was like you know it was a fully punched mask but it didn't quite, uh, resemble a rod. But if I gave it a haircut then it did and so that's what I did. I got an actual, like a straight razor and, like you know all the hair work that was in there, I just like gave this thing a haircut and it resembled him not enough. Where we sent them pictures and they're like, yeah, we'll take it and they used it and we've been a pro. There's also the entertainment side of this, which is what I enjoy from being the kid that loves drawing monsters and being curious about aliens and shit, and I'll always be that way. I love that stuff. I I still love giants. I'm still painting pictures about giants and stuff.

Andrews:

But there's sometimes we get contacted about like weird things. Like there's government agencies that want disguises to get people across like I don't know borders and shit. Wow, like there's the facial rec. So there's two sides to the coin. There's government, you know, we've been approached by different agencies that want us to make kind of like, you know, disguise masks. And then we're also approached by companies that create facial recognition technology, that are aware that we make these masks for people and they they're trying to, they're trying to basically advance their technology using so they'll buy masks from us custom masks and and try to use their. I don't know what like part of me is thinking, you know, I don't know if this is true or not because they don't share the results, but it almost seems like they're. They're like trying to use like infrared, like predator type vision, to like pierce through the veil of a mask. Yeah, yeah, pick up your heat signature and almost, almost pick up your facial recognition based on heat signature type stuff. So it seems like that's part of the tests they're doing and things like that knowing that we exist and that we you know we try to, we definitely work with you know, the FBI and like our government, and trying to not create masks for like bad people, because you know, I just want to make fucking aliens and monsters.

Peter:

You don't want to get stuck working for the CIA and then you're a slave to them.

Andrews:

Yeah, but there have been instances where people contact us for you know, what we think is just a custom mask. And then we agree, you know, sometimes we don't want to do it. We say you know what, tell them we'll do it, but for like I don't know, like $70,000. And then the guys come back and we're like, okay, we'll do it. And we're like, fuck, now we have to do it, you know. And then at one point, one of these things, the FBI hits us up and they're like, hey, we need to talk. And it's like, ok, shit, you know, but we are. We, you know, we're always cooperative with you know, the authorities If something's weird. Wow.

Peter:

So then, are we going to get in? Do you get in trouble for for admitting to this in a podcast? I don't think so. They're not going to knock on your door and say hey, what are you doing? Tell them that you didn't sign any NDAs or anything with them.

Andrews:

In fact I hooked them up, man. They came here without a subpoena and without a warrant. They basically said they can come back with that stuff. But I told them no, I'll talk to you, I'm cooperative. I'm not trying to help other governments, I'm cooperative. I'm not trying to like help fucking. You know other governments create, you know, or get, do bad shit or Sure, sure, sure, and then you know, I get. Apparently, though that's kind of part of the whole thing Anytime another government comes to the U? S to do business over a certain amount of money, I guess they're supposed to, like, you know, clear it with. You know they're supposed to do certain things and these people didn't do that. But surprisingly enough, yeah, not surprisingly enough, yeah, our government still knew about everything they were doing. Yeah, so you know there's nothing I can do except for cooperate. I'm not trying to. You know, I'm on our side.

Peter:

That's got to be, that's just got to be fascinating. I mean, do you wake up every day and just feel like you're the luckiest guy? This is what you do for a living. I do. Yeah, it's got to be for grant.

Andrews:

I love this stuff. Yeah, you know, I can make whatever I want and we have interesting clients. We get asked to do interesting things. You mentioned dildos earlier and like we've been asked to make weird alien monster dildos. Okay, and we've considered it, because it's just like, I don't know, like there's, there is always like the. You know, you know I'm always making, you know, monster heads and monster sleeves and monster body suits, but sometimes I'm always like well, what does this thing's dick look?

Andrews:

like I don't know, but I don't think too hard about it. But if someone's gonna help me to develop it, but then sometimes it's like, yeah, you know what, we don't know enough hard about it. But if someone's going to develop it, but then sometimes it's like, yeah, you know what, we don't know enough about this stuff and that's you know, like we're good at masks, you know, and so you know we, that's what we, you know, we enjoy doing, that's what we're good at. So sometimes, you know, even though we get asked to do lots of things, for the most part we like to just stick with what we're good at.

Peter:

What movies could we see on YouTube or on Netflix that your masks are in? That you've done in your shop there, not when you were at Universal.

Andrews:

We did some background masks on the last Guardians of the Galaxy film, which was actually I think it was their Christmas special right?

Peter:

No, it was three.

Andrews:

You can't really see it in three, but you can see it in the Christmas special.

Peter:

But they were four.

Andrews:

So yeah, we do some, sometimes big-budget background masks. We did some masks for the Guardians of the Galaxy. Those were background characters that aren't immortal masks, though. They were sculpted to look like Ravagers. There's a scene where there's a big Ravager battle and we sculpted some background characters like that. Same situation for the movie Furiosa.

Andrews:

There's a scene where someone's set on fire and silicone isn't fire. It's not fire safe, but it is heat resilient. You combine, you know, the this fire gel with a silicone mask and, you know, have all the safety people and precautions. Like a lot of times people will use silicone masks to protect their stuntmen during these fire scenes. So if you watch, if you see someone on fire during furiosa, it's most most likely one of our body suits under there. And then I guess actual movies that have used this are usually more lower budget. I guess there's one horror movie called the Rental. The Rental is like a horror movie. It's about some people that rent an Airbnb and then shit starts going around. At the very end the killer kind of reveals itself and that's an immortal mask.

Peter:

Excellent.

Andrews:

The old timer, the old timer Without giving it away. And then there's another one called Blood and Honey, which is like a Winnie the Pooh slasher movie. It's kind of silly. It got a lot of attention, winnie the Pooh slasher.

Andrews:

Yeah, I'm sorry. So yeah, like a couple of years ago you know we make a lot of. You know I was on a TV show called Face Off and that TV show it's like a competition. Oh yeah, it's like a top chef type show, but I'm on season 12. If anyone wants to watch season 12, you can see. Okay, I actually make silico. In the very last episode I make a couple silico mats.

Andrews:

So that's, that's awesome but during that, the filming of that uh show, one of our challenges was I was tasked with making something whimsical and you know, a lot of the immortal catalog is either realistic stuff or kind of, you know, horror, sci-fi scary stuff.

Andrews:

So when I was asked to make like a kind of a silly, whimsical, happy character, I came up with this like kind of like goofy looking woodchuck and the story was that he builds homes for you know, like homeless woodland creatures and shit. It had it needed like a nice story to go with it. So I came up with this character and I tried to make him really like happy and whimsical, like a like a Disney character come to life, I guess, and I didn't really think about it at the time. But I gave him a chainsaw because you know he builds homes and stuff. You know, when I once I saw it all on set, I was like, oh fuck, it's actually kind of terrifying. It's like this big, like uh, disney looking character like holding a chainsaw. I was. I was like it wasn't on purpose but I was like man, it's actually like me trying to make something happy and child friendly, like it was even more terrifying. It turned out even more scary.

Peter:

Have you seen the guy on Tik TOK that wears the Jason mask and he pulls up alongside people in traffic and he holds? His horn and looks at them and all the girls scream and people laugh at him and stuff. But yeah, I've thought of going into the drugstore wearing this, you know, and going to pick up some beer pop or something and makes you sure you're in a safe part of town.

Andrews:

You don't want to get shot or something.

Peter:

Yeah, no, I thought. Well, somebody else will think I'm, you know, a crazy person or something. Attack me same thing.

Andrews:

We make lots of bigfoot masks and these people are ordering these fully haired bigfoots. Yeah, hey, if you're out in the redwoods doing that photo shoot, please don't get shot oh yeah yeah, bigfoot's big in southeastern ohio. Everyone down there is chasing after bigfoot in the forest yeah, you're gonna go do wait, wait till uh hunting season's over oh yeah, oh, that's very true.

Peter:

Do you have a mask? That is like favorite shit.

Andrews:

Man, that's a good question. You know it's hard to say because like I look at them like almost kind of like children, like yeah yeah like all.

Andrews:

Like it's funny when george and I we do a big trade show in st louis called trans world and it's it's like the world's biggest halloween trade show. Everything halloween related at the show. That's really cool. But every year we go there we have the world's largest display of silicone masks somewhere between six and seven hundred masks wow. But we always have like the struggle of being like what mask do we take and what? Which ones do we leave behind or do we take one of everything?

Andrews:

Because part of me you know like you never know what haunted attraction you know like, for instance, we might have a character like a bird guy and the bird guy doesn't really sell in here. So it's like maybe we should leave the bird guy home and take, take more of the aliens, because people love the aliens. Uh, but like but then it's like you never know if that's the year that, uh, some haunted attraction wants a bunch of bird things and then and they don't see that and they, they don't, they don't order it, they get it from someone else and it's like oh shit, like uh, and you see, their advertising was like oh, they went, they didn't burn things. So you know, part of me is just like I I feel like it's like a family reunion. We should just bring them all. So I personally love all of them, I guess.

Andrews:

But I know this might sound kind of hokey, but like my favorite mask is always like the, the next idea like I'm always really excited about, like the next one, like we're sometimes we try to like, do and so you know, like those, the, uh, the animatronic mats I was telling you about that. I have the, like I'm really excited about that. I really hope that that we can develop it. It's been one of the trickiest things I've been, you know, trying to develop and and if we can get it going, I think it it'll really. It'll basically open a whole new category of creatures that I can sculpt that will have secondary animations and stuff, kind of like the Predator with those Totally. Yeah, there were the animals I can do insect creatures that you know their things are kind of coiled and then when you open your mouth they can.

Andrews:

I mean, even if we just take it to the realistic realm and I have just a realistic scary looking old grandma lady who maybe looks like just a normal lady, but when you open the mouth, something happens.

Peter:

From Psycho or something with the old lady in the attic and stuff.

Andrews:

Yeah, I guess I don't know. Old people always scared me as a kid. I think it was the movie, uh, poltergeist 2 with the red king. Yeah, watching that movie did a number on me. So I growing up, I was always afraid of scary looking old people, you know. So I think you know, like like my last halloween in front of my house, I filled it with a bunch of like really scary looking old people and the neighborhood got all fucked up over it. It was really pretty cool.

Peter:

You've got a mask on your site which I think is an alien in, like a bubble helmet. Oh yeah, is the helmet part of that mask, or is that just something you put in for the photo shoot?

Andrews:

Yeah, that's the costume. Soorge george is, uh, my business partner. He's. He's really good at costuming, you know. In fact I think when I met him at that studio in the effects world, he kind of came from like a costuming effects costuming kind of background making predator suits, like you mentioned. A predator earlier like george, was a big part of, like the early online predator community, wow and uh. For that reason he knew a lot about materials and costuming and kind of specialty type costuming. So in conjunction to being really knowledgeable about effects-related things, he's also really knowledgeable in costuming-related things.

Andrews:

So not just the costuming elements. Also you know where to source these things and stuff like that. So it's a really important part, in my opinion, to help elevate these things. Like I said, you know we, we do use them in big. You know cinematic type movies, like guardians of the galaxy, but you know for to really showcase them as cinema, like movie quality.

Andrews:

You know pieces, you know we like to. You know, find movie quality wardrobe and and pair it will, will even go as far as to if it's a character that has the actor's eyes exposed, well, we'll find contact lenses that you know hide the human, uh, so to speak. So, uh, and even, you know, add teeth and things like that, just to kind of enhance the creature or character, to show people. Look, if you did want to use this in a, a movie, and you wanted to see what it might look like, with all the bells and whistles, with the context, the teeth, here's a little example and, you know, showing it in its most maximum form in my opinion is the best way to showcase it. Because then if someone doesn't quite want that and wants a more simplified form, well, that's easy, you know. But if people do want to see as far as it goes, like we like to kind of, you know, showcase that right out the gate, kind of introduce the character in in its best light.

Peter:

You know, yeah, oh yeah, that's that's. That's really cool. I've always wanted some type of space suit and everyone, whenever I find them online, they want like and fifteen thousand dollars, oh, yeah, yeah, or these like apollo 12 suits and I'm like boy, that's, that's too much for me yeah, yeah, sometimes, yeah, I mean yeah, sometimes they'll find suits and they're they're a little bit of an investment for us.

Andrews:

It's, you know it's. It's an easier buy, I guess, if we know that we'll get multiple use out of it, if we could showcase it with, you know, several different astronaut type characters or alien type, you know real quick. Getting back to one of your questions about other movies that people could see our stuff in, uh, I just remember there's another one coming out called popeye the slayer man and uh, you know, the interesting thing about this winnie the pooh and this popeye thing is that they, they just, you know, winnie the Pooh became a public domain, I think back in 2023 or 2022 or something, when they did that movie, which is why those people did that. It became public domain and they can't get sued, so they made a. Basically, they took a friendly Winnie the Pooh character and made a horror you know slasher film out of it and it did fairly well, to the point where I think they made a part two and maybe they're making a part three. But the same thing happened with Popeye. He became public domain a couple years ago and these filmmakers approached us and had us make a custom Popeye mask. So if you see that movie I'm sure it's just like Winnie the Pooh or Blood and Honey. So if the viewers have seen those, they're very probably similar. But if you like those kind of fun slasher films, that's another one. And also we also make the mask for the band Ghost. I don't know if some of your viewers also listen to the rock band Ghost, but if they do, they'd be familiar with the Papa Emeritus character and we did his latest mask that he's currently touring with, which is kind of a face mask, and then we did his last iteration of his Papa as well. I guess.

Andrews:

You know, sometimes I do get to like, you know, kind of leave my immortal cave and work on film, like I worked on, you know, you know, star trek, the star trek discovery series, wow. And recently I was able, I was lucky enough, to work on the upcoming frankenstein film, so that guillermo del toro directed. So that's coming up in a few months or pretty soon here. I guess they're starting to show it at some film festivals, but I think it's going straight to Netflix. I'm not sure they deal with that, but a friend of mine, mike Hill, did all the creature effects for that and he's a really amazing artist. I was lucky just to have a very small part, just kind of helping out with some of the dead bodies and the Frankenstein body itself a little bit, but hopefully the movie's cool. But the stuff we made but you know it's the the stuff we made. You know it was fun to work on the project.

Peter:

Do you, do you get residuals from those films, or once, that's it.

Andrews:

Yeah, yeah, I just get paid. Uh, just get paid for the work and that's it for me. You know, it's not so much about the money, it's just more about the opportunity, and I guess if this becomes an iconic movie, it's cool to have a hand in it a little bit.

Peter:

Is there anything that you want this to become? Do you have a vision of where you'd want to be in five to ten years, or are you happy just doing what you're doing?

Andrews:

I guess I would like to just keep advancing it to 10 years, or is? Are you happy just doing what you're doing? You know I, I guess you know I would like to just keep kind of advancing it. You know, like, in five to ten years it'd be cool if I have, if I have that animatronic thing figured out and a whole line of uh, apes and werewolves and aliens that can uh, sneer and blink and do stuff. I'd also like to take things to the next level. You know like. You know like maybe more creature suits. You know more, more, more things, more big things that could, you know, push our stuff more cinematic, I guess, as much as possible.

Andrews:

You know, like sometimes, you know the hard part about making a product like we make is, you know, considering the one size fits most factor. You know, like a lot of these masks kind of, you know, go by that, that that rule here we are starting to develop a mask that's a little bit bigger for, you know, really big guys but for the male and female fit mask are one size fits most. And when it comes to masks it's a little easier to to find the happy, I guess, the happy place where that works. But when it comes to body suits and sleeves, it's a little harder, just because people have, you know, just different sizes and the bodies and arms vary much more than just a skull and a neck. So there are challenges, but I'm really happy with where we are.

Andrews:

I definitely want to keep building the uh, the catalog you know. We have, I think, like 500 characters. So, wow, I feel like you know it'd be cool to, you know, eventually have like a thousand characters. Oh, yeah, you know, I uh, yeah, I don't know, I maybe make a, uh, it'd be cool to make like toys and shit at some point. You know, like with, with where technology's heading, we were able to 3D scan and 3D print, like the alien mask, for instance. I was able to 3D scan the mask and then, in a program I made here, I'll grab it real quick and show you?

Peter:

No, that's fine, right here.

Andrews:

Basically by 3D scanning the mask in a program, I was able to make these little busts of the alien wow, that's great.

Peter:

I have a friend in LA that does 3D printing. Her company is called 3D Mantis. If you need someone to outsource some of your 3D printing to, she printed the Metal and a Mutant for me, yeah.

Andrews:

If you don't send me the link after we're done here, I would you know in the email.

Peter:

I would love to check it out. Yeah, I'd be happy to.

Andrews:

This is also. I did same thing. This is the same alien, but I just put a body on him.

Peter:

Oh, this is him.

Andrews:

Yeah, yeah, I'll get it kind of close up so you can kind of see.

Peter:

It's kind of like that one they saw in somebody's backyard. I mean, if you saw that recent video, yeah yeah.

Andrews:

And they also did some Miami mall. They said there was a bunch of aliens. Yeah, yeah, something like this. I was like, oh, you know, it might be cool to like create like figures where you know people that have the mask, that are fans of the mask, that they would be like, oh, you know what, I'd buy that and put it on my desk, you know, because it's cool, you know.

Andrews:

And if you could make it poseable too, that'd be awesome that was that's where I wanted to take it to the next level, because george actually collects these little one one six scale figures and some of them are actually silicone and there's little wire armatures that make composable. So it's definitely been talked about. Maybe make them a little larger and even if we just did a very limited run of I don't know, like, let's say, we we chose five characters and we only make like 200 of each of them, so there's a thousand toys that we make and we just put them out there. There's highly collectible because we'll probably never do it again.

Andrews:

But you know, george and I do this because we like making shit that, like you know, we always like when we were kids and masks and toys and all that shit and I don't know. I feel like it keeps us young and we never get old. We love it. You know I love, you know, mythology and horror movies and video games, and you know horror and fantasy, sci-fi related TV shows, comic books. I love all that stuff. So you know there's plenty of inspiration out there for us to. You know, just keep pushing and keep going, is there?

Peter:

anything you want people to look out for, that you're proud of coming up, that people can keep scanning the horizon for you know we did the thing with Activision.

Andrews:

If people follow us on Instagram, we'll probably make a post, but there's a new Call of Duty video game coming out and we did some cool stuff.

Andrews:

That's kind of out of the normal wheelhouse of Silicon Mass, making that people share, little share, but yeah, same thing if people you know want to check out the frankenstein movie, I I, you know I have a very small part to play in that, but but one of our good buddies, mike hill, is the main guy that you know that did a lot of the work on that and he he actually sculpted our fred mask, which is one of our most popular realistic masks. Oh, wow, if people watch the Frankenstein film and really like it and they want to buy a piece of art that Mike the artist made, it's the Fred mask. Right, it's a really cool mask. In fact, that video was a lot of fun to make and I feel like the hair work on the Fred mask if you, if you were to get it fully hair, really it's like probably one of the best disguise masks out there excellent, that's excellent, and your website is immortalmaskscom.

Peter:

I'm really happy to try to help promote your stuff because I just love this mask. I don't know if you've seen my my little dinky youtube show where I have Zantarski the monster movie host and I make fun of the old B-roll B-movie horror movies like Plan Knife, Modern Space.

Andrews:

I have seen some of your videos.

Peter:

Oh, you have Okay.

Andrews:

And I came across some of your videos. Because even when I'm sculpting in the sculpting room, I go on YouTube and I just kind of because people will link the Immortal Mass to it and stuff it'll pop up and I'll be like, oh, because you know, people will link the immortal mass to it and stuff it'll, it'll pop up and I'll be like, oh okay, and it'll just kind of like cycle through and I was like, oh, that's cool, yeah, me and some of the artists in here will watch it.

Andrews:

and uh, yeah, no, it's sometimes like, sometimes I watch because I'm just I'm always curious to how it fits and stuff and, you know, because that's an important part, to kind of, you know, make it look, you know, uh, not so human. And uh, yeah, I know, and yeah, your videos are awesome and it fits you great and I'm sure, if you wear it out in public, I'm sure, yeah, you get a crazy response, I bet.

Peter:

Yeah, I might wear it at the door for Halloween this year If my wife approves of it. I was going to do it last year and she's like, oh no, you might get some ass for.

Andrews:

I'm definitely thinking about doing an alien theme for Halloween in front of my house this year just because of that whole interstellar object that's going to be. I just keep fucking people's fears a little bit. But just to throw this out there too, right now we're making which is kind of interesting. We made a new set of sleeves. Our current sleeves that we have are on the larger size to fit like a grown man, but they can be a little loose and stuff, and the alien ones we have are three finger. But right now I'm making a custom mask, an alien mask for a comedian and he ordered some custom sleeves to go with it and what we did is we have a new pair of much, much more snug fitting human sleeves that are that would probably go with this character. But we basically get patched and we just patch over the fingernails to make them just look more alien. And if you ever wanted to get some sleeves to match the green, you can talk about that.

Peter:

I have some cheap ones I bought off of Etsy.

Andrews:

Oh, okay.

Peter:

And they're a murder. Trying to get on and I probably have to shave.

Andrews:

Probably have to shave my arms because it rips all my hair out there are four fingers, so you got to do, like a, some kind of thing with it, or is?

Peter:

there five, yeah, they are four, four fingers, but I think I've got about baby powder in it or something, because they, they stick together. You can't get them open yeah, yeah those are latex and well, if you don't, let me know. Uh, you know, yeah, we did the podcast.

Andrews:

You know, if you wanted to order some sleeves, you know, tell them. Tell them, uh, that you spoke to andrew and uh, I'll give you a little discount, you know, oh, that'd be awesome, awesome, yeah.

Peter:

Well, having me on here today yeah, I'm so glad, I'm really glad you accepted and it was a thrill to meet you guys. Andrew, it's been awesome. Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you again. And watch out for Zontarski.

Andrews:

Well, thank you so much for the support and thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Peter:

Yeah, you guys have a great night and thanks so much and have a fun Halloween Thanks.

Andrews:

Likewise you too.

Peter:

All right, take care.

Andrews:

All right, you too.

Peter:

Bye, bye-bye. Well, thanks for watching everybody. This is a great show. I had a lot of fun tonight talking to Andrew. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to like and subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss a new episode from TTPop. Huge thanks again to Andrew Freeman and the entire talented team at Immortal Masks. Thanks so much for giving us a peek behind the curtain and for creating some of the most jaw-dropping masks in the industry. They're really amazing. This is one of them here. This is the alien mask, or Zontarski as I affectionately refer to him, or Sven affectionately refer to him, or Sven. Until next time, stay curious, stay creative and maybe check under your bed. Tonight. This has been PT Pop Mind Revolution. Hasta la vista, baby.

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Peter Tompkins

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