Our guest speaker was Jim Beinke who owns his own Special Effects company known as Spectre Effects. Jim grew up in the rural Pond, Missouri and graduated from Lafayette High School. As a student he designed and built sets for Lafayette and Pacific High schools in the St. Louis area. As a hobby he made monster movie masks. Jim attended California Institute of the Arts in Valencia from 1981-1983 studying art direction. While there he realized he could make a living doing what he loved, make-up effects. During the eighties he worked as a scenic artist on many stage productions and into the nineties made specialty props for the Los Angeles Music Center where he was able to work with many famous designers.

Jim made three hundred (300) pairs of hands designed out of clay and made from a plastic mold for the movie Planet of the Apes. He has also made a gall bladder and other body parts out of silicone for the movie Three Kings, staring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. One of his claims to fame is his “blood shots”, that’s right, blood that he has made, some splattered, some oozing, or just plain flowing out of a fake gun shot wound or knife wound; done also for the movie Three Kings. Why is his home made blood so much in demand you ask? Because it does not stain like other blood provided by special effects companies. His blood wipes off clean, saving thousands of dollars for filming companies and saving much of the budget for other production costs. Jim has made ghosts, and skeletons for the movie Nomad and even a corps. He even made the cow in the movie Me, Myself, and Irene, which died in the road. He is currently making some Teenage Mutant Turtle costumes complete with shells for a Las Vegas show he will attend. In addition to the movies listed above, Jim has credits in: Haunted Mansion (Art Director, Zombie Supervisor), There’s Something About Mary (Make-up effects sculptor), Dr, Seuss’ Cat in the Hat (fabricator), and many others.

With many film credits for his work he is the current Technical Adviser for a TV show named Face Off, airing on the Sci-Fi Channel. He is also working on a friend’s film called “The Monster Project” for free, in order to gain an Executive Director credit. Thank you Jim for scarring, I mean sharing with us!

Pat Dolphin