Creating C.S.I.'s Special Effects
The hit drama, "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation," solves murders with science. So for Halloween, The Early Show's Julie Chen found out how the show's startling special effects are put together.
They take shape at Stargate Studios in Van Nuys, Calif. The creation of an innovative team that have helped make "C.S.I." TV'S most watched drama.
"We're going to go from an exterior shot of somebody hitting his neck and then jump into the interior that the audience is used to seeing. And see the neck actually physically crack," says Visual Effects Supervisor Larry Detwiler.
The effects follow the evidence deep inside the body. It's here that "C.S.I." investigators unravel the murder mysteries, layer by layer.
"There's no place that we haven't been in the body," says actor Billy Peterson, who portrays Gil Grissom. "We've been to the liver. We've been in the heart. We've been in a brain. We've even been in some of the unmentionables. But the body is endlessly fascinating."
John Goodwin is the show's make-up and special effects artist.
"I don't know whether it's important on every television show to have different kinds of blood, it is on "C.S.I." This particular blood dries," says Goodwin. "We'll put it down and it dries to the brown color that it should be. And looks very authentic, too authentic, it's all over my car. If I ever get pulled over I don't what's going to happen."
Next is an artificial version of a man's arm. "The clue here is that he's a fry cook and they see these little burns on his arm. So later on, we'll be dropping hot stuff on here that will actually burn through this low-temperature gelatin, and we'll see a red layer underneath," Goodwin continues.
Goodwin pays close attention to anatomy, ensuring every gory detail is realistic. Even in the autopsy room, the make-up is all too real.
"We had a dead body on a table with a big bullet hole in his chest and I thought it was dummy. And he went to scratch his face and that really freaked me out," recalls actor George Eads (George Stokes).
"And if you come in early, like at 6:45 on a Monday morning and there's somebody there with like a gash in their neck and like their skull is hanging out, and they're covered in blood. Yeah, it's pretty horrible," adds actress Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) with a big smile.
"We have this super goop that everybody loves around here. Every time you do that effect, no matter what else you've done, they go, 'Oooo! Ha ha," says Goodwin.
"I do think there's a conspiracy that I get the grossest stuff, maybe, because I'm the most sensitive to it that I think that," says Fox."Yeah, if there's body parts that don't match bodies, I'm in it."
The effects take from 5 to 10 days to complete and the cast doesn't usually see the completed scenes until they're on the air.
"We were at my house watching the episode and going 'ooooh, arghhh!'" says Eads.
In Thursday's episode of "C.S.I.," a woman climbs into a magician's box and vanishes on cue, but then fails to reappear. You can catch "C.S.I." on CBS.