Meet Daniel Sukara

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniel Sukara a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I found my purpose from a feeling of having no purpose. As far back as I can remember, I knew I always wanted to work in movies and TV. I hopped around from different passions, from acting to filmmaking to screenwriting, but the one that was always at the back of my mind, the first real love, was special effects make up. When I was a kid, I watched so many horror movies and they never scared me. They just made me wonder “how did they do that?” I got my hands on any video or book I could find that would give me an insight to that world, from Dick Smith, to Rick Baker, to Tom Savini. I think the whole reason I wanted to get into movies was so that I could do my own effects in them. All throughout high school I was the go-to guy for blood and bruises and such for all of my friends’ student films. And I was good for what I had. But after high school, the real world took me down different avenues and somehow my dream became more of a compromise as I settled in to a career in post production. It was a position that never worked for me. I kept trying to force it but I just couldn’t get my mind or my heart into it. It was just treading water in different offices. One day it got to be too much, which is the only way I could have gotten the motivation to change. During a particularly tense job with a particularly stressed supervisor – both of which were causing my anxiety to reach profound heights – I was fired while walking out during a panic attack. I think back to that day a lot and I always say that if I ever meet that supervisor again, I’m going to walk right up to him and thank him. Because if it wasn’t for that experience, I wouldn’t have had the need, the desire to find some real purpose in my life. And in the domino effect that followed, I wouldn’t have gone with my friend to be an extra in a low budget zombie movie (“Witness Infection” in case you’re wondering), and I wouldn’t have been sitting in a makeup chair, having prosthetic boils and gashes applied to my face and blood pouring out of my mouth and realize that for the first time since high school, I felt alive. I felt a passion. I couldn’t shake that feeling for the life of me and within days I had scheduled a tour of MUD – the Makeup Designory – in Burbank and before I even stepped foot onto that campus, I knew that was my purpose. Later that year, I was enrolled in their mastery program. But it wasn’t a happily ever after moment there and then, as my scheduled graduation date was May of 2020. And well…2020 happened. It would be another 2 years before I graduated and almost a year after that before I got my first professional set gig but I never lost the love. Even know, with the strikes and the production drought, I still have the passion. I still know that this is my purpose.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I work as a makeup artist for film and TV, with an emphasis on special effects. Horror has been the mainstay of my career. I have brewed and pumped countless gallons of fake blood for quite a few film projects and I have a pretty damn good recipe. I also sculpt, cast, and run prosthetic appliances, fabricate effects rigs, and make appropriate props. I’ve been working for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights for the past two years, worked as a production assistant at Alchemy Studios for a season, designed and created effects for short films at AFI, and am looking into starting my own face painting company for parties and birthdays.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

My mentor Brian Sipe told me to approach every project as if it is the biggest project of your life. It doesn’t matter if it’s a backyard movie or fun face paint, it should always be your best work. I try to always do that and while sometimes it makes me brood too much on the things I didn’t perfect, it keeps me focused and striving to do more.

My wife Shanti Medina encouraged me to find my people. Having a group of positive, supportive, like minded friends and cohorts who are on your wavelength is such a blessing and I’ve been blessed with some of the greatest people I could ever want to work with.

Lastly, my nephew Nixon told me, when I was particularly nervous about starting a new gig, to be a brave cheetah. I’m not entirely sure what that means exactly, but when your 6 year old nephew is giving you words of encouragement based around a wild cat, you take that to heart and you run with it (if you’ll forgive the pun).

To anyone starting their journey, it’s not going to be easy. There’s going to be a grind. There are going to be some dark times. That’s a given. But there are also going to be some wonderful moments. Hold on to those and don’t ever forget them. Take any advice you get but don’t treat all of it as gospel. Find what works best for you, find what keeps you going, and don’t give up. Even if it’s a hobby, even if it’s something you just keep in your heart, don’t ever give it up.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

Grande Illusions: The Art and Technique of Make-up Effects by Tom Savini has been the most impactful book for my career. Tom Savini is one of the pioneers of gore and splatter effects and this book is a step by step guide to some of his most famous effects from his most noteworthy movies such as Friday the 13th, Dawn of the Dead, and Creepshow. It was important to me because it’s the first book I discovered that showed how these effects are done, and how they can be recycled into other effects. More than anything, it was the first book that made me think that I could do this. I still revisit it every now and then and find myself leaning on the old school concepts, especially when my budget is low.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @danielsukara_mua

Image Credits

Deverill Weeks