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Originally Posted by PacMan3000
Could you talk a bit of how exactly this came together? Meaning, you had Bob make a silicone 1:1 bust that had a hollow neck, and then you placed the bust on the mannequin?
How did you find clothes that you felt would be a good fit? Was it trial and error?
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A great question.
Yes, Bob makes the busts with a hollow neck area. They have a hard, supportive inner structure that allows them to be placed onto the mannequin's "neck." The flexible mannequin I used had a removable head that helped even more. The other nice thing about it was the neck was flexible, allowing me to bend it forward to replicate that "hunched over" Joker look. This worked out great, I don't think it would be as easy to achieve this look with a traditional fiberglass mannequin, at least not without some serious cutting, etc.
I ordered the clothes from Magnoli Clothiers in New Zealand. Working with Indy Magnoli and Bobby, I did my best to order sizes that Ledger would have worn. A problem arose because the mannequin was 6' 2" (the right height) but he was too muscular, which caused me to have to chop him down a bit.
...but it made the clothes fit properly. This worked out since Ledger was pretty slim during filming anyway. In fact, the naked mannequin looks extra slim because with so many layers (shirt, vest, coat, top coat) the clothes bulked him up a bit too.
The pants posed another problem. Bobby had a metal stand fabricated that the Joker stands on and went up the back of his legs. I had to have the pants cut up the back of both legs so they could wrap around this stand, then secured them with velcro that had to be sewn into the pants. Since you only see about 12" of the very back and bottom of his pants this works great. This allows him to stand on his own with no stand at all. It really adds to the realism. The metal stand is so heavy that he won't tip over.
When I get home I'll post a couple "behind the scenes" pics showing the mannequin and stand in action without the clothes.
I learned very quickly that these life-sized figures are a lot of work and preparation. In my opinion, the pose and clothing can kill even the best bust. It's really tricky to get them just right.
Hope this helps