Conversations with Barney Burman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barney Burman.

Hi Barney, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Geez, that’s a can of worms. I was born into this life. My father– who was a make-up/make-up fx artist– used me as a guinea pig to design make-ups on and had me climb into creature suits, like Giant rats for Food of the Gods. In the meantime I was smashing clay onto my G.I. Joe’s to sculpt different faces on them. It wasn’t ever a conscious choice to go into this business so much as it was simply in the air that I breathed. Later, after I’d turned 18, and my mother told me I had to get out of the house– the best thing she could have done for me, by the way– I went to work, part time, for my father in order to make money to pay my rent. I worked for him, cleaning mostly, during the day, then went to work in a submarine sandwich shop called Pat and Mike’s Subs at night.
I worked in a few different make-up fx studios– my father’s, my brother’s, and others– throughout the next ten years and over all I kind of hated it; although I didn’t know how much, I thought I was having fun. In hindsight I realized just how much I felt underused, underestimated, and disrespected. On the other hand, I think I was also much too cocky and felt entitled. So it was sort of like I was butting heads with myself. On top of that, what I really wanted to do was to be an actor; which is probably another reason I was not being taken seriously as a make-up/fx artist.
But then, when I was 29-years-old, my father sent me to apply the make-up on the titular character in a movie called Powder and that put me in the make-up union.
That was like a whole new world that had opened up for me. I’d worked on set before, and I always loved it, but union sets were a whole new ballgame.
I worked on films and tv shows for almost another ten years before I decided to open my own studio. I remember working on a TV show that had some wild, fantasy characters, that someone else had made the prosthetics for, and they were terrible. And I thought to myself, if this guy can get work designing and producing prosthetic pieces like this on a substantial tv show– such as the one I was working on– then I can do better. And thus I started my own make-up studio, following in my father’s footsteps, which I never thought I’d do. But I had a wife and a child by that time and I found make-up to be not only fiscally rewarding but artistically, and socially validating as well.
The first year was hard and I did a good amount of extremely low budget jobs and even some volunteer work. And early in the second year– though having done the volunteer jobs– I started to get offers to create the fx and special characters for movies like Tenacious D: In The Pick Of Destiny, and Mission: Impossible: III. The later introduced me to both Tom Cruise and JJ Abrams, and they brought me along to their next projects, Tropic Thunder and Star Trek, respectively, both of which were happening at the same time, mind you. I had four other jobs in my studio as well. I’d never worked so hard in my life.
Star Trek ended up earning me an Academy Award. That was an incredible experience, which I highly recommend to anyone who might be interested in such a thing. But I learned that those kinds of accolades are fleeting. It doesn’t change who you are or how people see you. If people liked you before, they will continue to like you, and if they didn’t, they still won’t. lol
There was a writer’s strike during Star Trek and the US economy was in crisis and the movie industry practically came to a stand still and I went flat broke. I’d just won an Oscar and I had to close my studio and barely had a dime in my pocket. So I had to start again and rebuild my life.
I took any little job I could and I felt like I was doing some of my best work, but it was for peanuts on indie movies that, sadly, very few people ever saw.
And then, one day, I got a call from the producers of the NBC show, GRIMM. That really got the ball rolling again. Over the next six years I got to make such a crazy wide variety of monsters and dead people, it was amazing! We never had very much time but somehow, with the brilliant crew I had, we managed to pull it off.
Between the seasons I wrote, produced, and directed my own film called Barney Burman’s Wild Boar. That was really one of the best times I’ve ever had. It took me five years to finish and I loved every minute of it, even when it was challenging and frustrating and even scary to press on.
After GRIMM I had another dry spell and I had to do some real soul searching. I realized, I never really wanted to own and operate my own make-up studio, That was never my dream. But I could do it, and I wasn’t too bad at it, so it’s been a great way to make a living and be creative. So I still do that, usually on a somewhat smaller scale, while I continue also to write and make films, both shorts, and soon, my second feature.
In 2022, my wife and I decided to leave Los Angeles and move to New Mexico. LA, where I grew up, had become a different place then what I remember. Covid had a lot to do with it, but also everything and everyone felt, to me, so disconnected, and LA without a social circle I find to be a very lonely place.
I find New Mexicans to be much more friendly and grounded people, overall, and the landscape is just so beautiful and soulful. I also feel like my creative mind is stimulated beyond what it has ever been before. I write every day and I’m still having a great time making monsters and dead people for those productions — both local and abroad– that need them.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t think the life of an artist is ever a “smooth road.” The in-between times are the roughest, not knowing when or if another job is going to come along. My wife, Amy, she helped me learn how to take advantage of those times and go places and enjoy life rather than live in the fear of uncertainty. it’s important to stay in the present…and remember to breathe.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m sort of a creative hyphenate. I’m a filmmaker. I write, every day, and I produce and direct both short and feature films.. I also have a reality show pilot I’m currently working on. And I still make creatures, aliens, zombies, and enjoy making people bleed on command, lol. I have, what I consider to be, a unique perspective. I like to push myself in whatever I do. I know how things have been done before and I know how most people would approach something and I say to myself, now how can we do it…not just different for different sake, but better? How can we create a magic that they won’t see coming? Otherwise, what’s the point? Why create art that’s basically just a carbon copy of what’s already been done?

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was very much a 70’s kid. Riding bikes and motorcycles without a helmet. Shooting off illegal fireworks on the 4th of July. Running around shirtless and shoeless. Playing Hide and Seek at night on the weekends and staying out until the streetlights came on during the week. We had a ball.
But I was also the smallest and weakest and therefore the subject of much abuse and the victim of bullying. It made me strive for more, made me want to prove myself and be better. There’s healthier ways of instilling that in a person, I know that now, but I will say that being in that position became a great motivator.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.barneyburman.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barneyburman/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/B2FXinc/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barneyburman/