Films: Jac Charlton and Chad Atkinson talk about niche career in film industry

Pulling teeth and working with blood and guts is all in a day’s work for Gold Coast special effects wunderkinds Jac Charlton and Chad Atkinson.

PULLING teeth and working with blood and guts is all in a day’s work for Gold Coast special effects wunderkinds Jac Charlton and Chad Atkinson.

The geniuses behind FX company Stingray Sushi Studios, have worked on a series of the big films and TV shows including The Pacific, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Kong Skull Island and Thor Ragnarok.

Jac Charlton and Chad Atkinson on set of The Pacific.

On set of The Pacific which Jac Charlton and Chad Atkinson from Stingray Studios worked on, winning them an Emmy Award.

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The pair met while working on the award-winning mini series The Pacific, in which, they both won Emmy’s for “Outstanding Prosthetics Makeup for a series, miniseries, movie, or special category.”

In a particularly gripping and confronting scene, both Charlton and Atkinson worked with actor Rami Malek, who recently won an Oscar for his role as Freddie Mercury, in which he pulled gold teeth from the mouths of dead Japanese soldiers.

Not only did the pair meet on the World War II epic, but they became lifelong mates, before deciding to ply their trades collectively.

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Teeth by Jac Charlton from Stingray Studios.

FX by Stingray Studios.

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Mr Charlton has been making movie dental prosthetics and teeth for more than 25 years, while Mr Atkinson is a special effects makeup artists, having worked on dozens of films and alongside iconic American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino several times.

Mr Charlton started his career in dentistry in the early 90s — giving it up after five years to follow his passion.

“I kept making vampire teeth for films and then all of a sudden I turned around and said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore. I’m going to join the film industry’,” he said.

“I pitched what I wanted to do and (people) said I’d never make it. But within a year I was inundated with calls.

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Jac Charlton has been creating teeth and dentures for major films for the past 25 years. Picture: Glenn Hampson

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“I’m very busy. Dental prosthetics is very niche, especially in the film industry. There are only four major players around the world and I am one of them.”

But even though Mr Charlton specialises making very unique teeth, enough to make you cringe, and predominantly working on horror sets — you’d think he’d be a fan of his own work.

“I don’t watch them (horror films). Even though I know I’ve made the stuff I have, I look at it and go ‘ugh’.”

Within a year of opening their “extremely niche” business based in Labrador, they are looking to move to a bigger space as they are “flatout” with work.

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Dentures created by Jac Charlton from Stingray Studios.

Barbed wire dentures created by Jac Charlton from Stingray Studios.

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“Instead of just specialising in teeth, we’ve got the whole thing from props, costumes, prosthetics, dental prosthetics and makeup,” Mr Charlton said.

“We have outgrown our first (office), (now) out growing this premises and we are looking for a third place.”

The pair’s most recent work was for the indie horror feature film House of Inequity, produced by Josh Hale, which was filmed on the Gold Coast.

The Bulletin was shown a still clip of one of their dental prosthetics in a scene which looks gruesomely realistic as it was taken in one shot.

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Jac Charlton in Stingray Sushi Studios in Labrador with his Emmy award. Picture: Glenn Hampson

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“It worked really well. When the scene was shot everyone was screaming. It was disgusting,” he said.

“These films are good for stuff like that. You get to explore things you want to try.”

Both Mr Charlton and Mr Atkinson are working on one of their next big films which they could not reveal.

FILMS JAC CHARLTON HAS DESIGNED TEETH / FX PROPS FOR:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Kong Skull Island

Thor Ragnarok

The Dressmaker (Victoria)

TV series The Pacific

Day Breakers

San Andreas

The Conjuring 2: Maze

I, Frankenstein

Bait

Aquamarine

House of Wax

Scooby-doo

Matrix

Ghostship

Wandering Soul