Limerick based prop studio Odyssey Studios have once again teamed up with the Waterford and Wexford Education Training Board (WWETB) and Impact Training to launch a course designed to provide people with the skills to create and mould their own sculptures. This course will train students in the art of Creative Sculpting for Film and TV and will begin on the 17th of November, running for 5 weeks thereafter. It will be run in conjuction with John Cassidy and Nicola Long at WWETB, and Niamh Fitzgerald at Impact Training.
As part of this course students will be taught by James Dooley, who has a background working on Amazon’s ‘The Rings of Power’, and will have the opportunity to learn techniques to create their own unique characters. Mark Maher, head of Odyssey Studios, described the process; “We’re going to take a mould of that creature in the course, and then we are going to do a kind of resin copy.” After the resin mould has been created, Mark says that students will be working with Paul Rossiter, “one of the head air brushers and senior model makers”, to finish their piece.
These courses are something that Maher is proud to be a part of developing and providing for students. Odyssey Studios has previously run several courses in conjunction with the WWETB, allowing students to develop skills including prop making, miniature figure creation, prosthetic makeup creation and application, and sculpting. These courses are fully funded by the WWETB, and students are provided with the best of facilities in a “unit down in Wexford specifically built to run these courses.” as Mark explains.
This course is designed for students to work in small groups with some of the most talented experts in the field, and there were only 14 places on offer. “It’s a portfolio-based course, so we’ll be looking at your portfolio and seeing what level you’re at. Even if you’re just drawing and we see that you’re a decent drawer, there’s a high chance you’re getting in.”
For Mark Maher and Odyssey Studios, being able to provide these courses for free in conjunction with the WWETB is very important. “What we want to avoid doing is ever charging for courses, because in Ireland we should be able to have education for everything. That’s one of the things that we are trying to stand with, that these young students aren’t paying astronomical prices to be doing makeup courses or prosthetics courses.” Mark says these courses are not just important for the students who are participating, but also for Odyssey Studios, as it creates “a possibility that we get some people for work with Odyssey, which is beneficial for everybody.”