Hybrids in TV and Film

There are not only hybrids in the nature or transportation but we also have hybrid creatures in TV and Film. 

When I was first looking into this more I found it bit hard to find what I was actually looking for as mostly you only get hybrid genre in TV and Film. Which is as you can probably guess a mixture between at least two different film genre. As example we could use Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow from 1999. It is a combination of Horror, Drama and Mystery( it has also a few moments of Romance). As you can see the film doesn't only belong to one genre anymore but is a combination which makes it a hybrid film. But nowadays films consist of more than one genre most of the time.

Now, because it was hard to fund something about hybrid creatures in film and TV I was going through the films I know and tried to find hybrids in there.

The film that came into my mind first was

Avatar.

In Avatar we have the human/ alien hybrids or to be more specific the human/Na'vi hybrids. The appearance is still very similar to humans but they also have inhuman elements. 

Human elements:

Body statue, arms,legs, face looks quite humans

Other elements:

blue skin, animal like ears, animal like teeth and behavior, tail, bigger in size( way taller than normal humans, longer and bigger arms,legs,hands and feet).

When I watched Avatar for the first time years ago I thought the Na'vi behave a bit cat like in ways of how they move and also their facial expression.


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Avatar Trailer

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The film is from 2009 and was directed by James Cameron. Some of the MUA that worked on that film were Linda DeVetta, Richie Alonso, Michele Barber, Tegan Taylor and many more. You can find the full list here.



Hellboy

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Hellboy is a film from 2004 and way directed by Guillermo del Toro and is an adaption from the Hellboy comic books by Mike Mignola. This time I could find way more special effects MUA working on the film. A few of them are Steve Wang, Diana Choi, Georgina Abanto, Rick Baker, Jason Barnett, Jake Garber and many more. I will definitely look more into those special effects make-up artist later to see on which films they worked as well and to maybe find out how they all started.

Hellboy

























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Those two images show the same actor but on  the left side you can how completely different he looks as Hellboy with a lot of prosthetic's and make-up.  Hellboy is portraying a demon but you can still find a lot of human elements in him. First of all how his body is built. It looks very human and has the typical muscles in abdomen area and looks just a bit like a body builder. His face looks despite the huge changes through prosthetic's still human. He also has facial hair. And his ears look very human- normal as well.

Abe Sapien

Is a hybrid brtween the scientist Langdon Everett Caul and a jellyfish like deity. After doing a ritual in the Oannes Society he transformed into an icthyo sapien.


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I really like the image above as it shoes the transformation from the actor to Abe Sapien. This was just a practice to see how the SFX make-up would look on the actor. This is important as you can then see if there are any changes that have to be done.


Another film (or series of films) where you can find hybrids is

X-Men

2000-2017, Directed by  Bryan Singer, Matthew Vaughn, James Mangold, Brett Ratner, Gavin Hood.
Ann McLaren was the prosthetic artist and Christopher Allen Nelson the special effects Make-up artist.

X-Men shows a lot of different mutants which you can also count to hybrids.
But before I go more into the characters of X-Men I will explain what mutants are.

Mutation is a natural process which happens all the time. In fact we wouldn't be here if mutation hadn't happened. And it is also something that keeps us alive as through changes in the DNA we can get immune to some very fatal diseases for instance there we people that were immune to the plaque. As they were mostly the only survivors, more and more plaque resisted people were made.

But now to mutation.
What is mutation?
Mutation are changes in DNA but are not always bad. If the change doesn't happen in a gene that is important it will probably go unnoticed. Most of the time mutation gets fixed my enzymes that go up and down the DNA helix and check for any errors and normally fix them. If they are not able to a mutation happens.
There are different types of mutations.

Genemutation ( a single gene is affected) which can be divided into

Point mutation  through

Substitution
-> a base is being exchanged for a different one which then won't fit with the RNA string. Either the enzymes will fix the wrong base on the DNA string or the opposite on the RNA string can be exchanged.


Example:
normally it would be c->g
c gets switched out with a
a->g ->does not match,
now enzyme could fix it and it will be c->g again or it stays as a->g or g will be swapped with t which will result in a->t ->matches again.


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Deletion
-> a base is being deleted and it will mess up the originally order, number of base is wrong
(a section is being deleted or lost)

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Insertion
 -> an extra base is being inserted, number of base is wrong, order will not match anymore

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Duplication
-> duplication of a base codon
Example:   AAG AAG GAG
                 TTC TTC CTC

->I actually wanted to find a chart where all of the genemutaion sub types are shown together but that was a bit hard.Somehow there is always something missing,so I will just put up a couple of different charts.

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Frameshifting

-> insertion or deletion alter the gene so much it no longer readable 

Example:

Normal -> The fat cat sat.

After change-> hef atc ats at

->the code is no longer readable and the gene message can't be carried on

I found a quite nice video about Genemutation from Paul Anderson on YouTube.

All the screenshots taken are from this video.

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There is also Chromosome mutation which divides into

Deletion:

This mutation results from the breakage of a chromosome in which the genetic material becomes lost during cell division. The genetic material can break off from anywhere on the chromosome. (http://biology.about.com/od/genetics/ss/chromosome-mutation.htm)

Inversion:

 In an inversion, the broken chromosome segment is reversed and inserted back into the chromosome. If the inversion encompasses the centromere of the chromosome, it is called a pericentric inversion. If it involves the long or short arm of the chromosome and does not include the centromere, it is called a paracentric inversion. (http://biology.about.com/od/genetics/ss/chromosome-mutation.htm)

Translocation:

The joining of a fragmented chromosome to a non-homologous chromosome is a translocation. The piece of chromosome detaches from one chromosome and moves to a new position on another chromosome. (http://biology.about.com/od/genetics/ss/chromosome-mutation.htm)

Duplication:

 Duplications are produced when extra copies of genes are generated on a chromosome. (http://biology.about.com/od/genetics/ss/chromosome-mutation.htm)

Isochromosome:

 This type of chromosome is produced by the improper division of the centromere. Isochromosomes contain either two short arms or two long arms. A typical chromosome contains one short arm and one long arm. (http://biology.about.com/od/genetics/ss/chromosome-mutation.htm)

 

1. Deletion
2. Duplication
3. Inversion



1. Insertion
2. Translocation


But we also differentiate between numerical chromosome mutations and structural chromosome mutations.

Numerical:
->also known as genommutation
-> missing a chromosom or has too many ->monosomy ,trisomy

Example: Down syndrome - Trisomy 21, instead of two pairs of 21 chromosomes it has 3 pairs
Turner Syndrome, example for monosomy, only one sex chromosome -> x


Structural:
-> structure of chromosomes is altered ( deletion, duplication, translocation, etc)



Okay now let's finally go back to X-Men. Through changes in their DNA all of the X-Men went through special mutations  which makes them also hybrids. Hybrids also made through mutation. Either from external influences weather, sunlight, toxins and chemicals or 'internal' influences through a mistake while replicating the DNA.

Well known mutants from X-Men:

Wolverine
Professor X
Storm
Mystique
Magneto
Nightcrawler
Quciksilver
Iceman
Beast
Banshee
Angel

and many many more.
I will add some images with other mutants as well


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I also found this image and I think it is quite funny^^ After all this going back to biology I needed something funny:)


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But it is not only X-Men. Generally you can count a lot of Marvel characters as hybrids.

Fun Fact:
after reaching adulthood humans weren't normally able to digest milk until they 'invented'(I pretty sure that's the wrong word for it^^or is it discovered??) drinking cows mild which is very similar to human milk. More and more people adapted to drinking milk even as a adult and nowadays people think that's the norm and being lactose intolerant is abnormal and just an allergy when in fact the lactose intolerance is the norm as it means that those people still have the original DNA code. Lactose intolerance is especially common in Asia as they didn't adapt really to drinking cow milk and used soy milk instead.


Underworld

2003-2016, Directed by  Len Wiseman, Patrick Tatopoulos, Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein.

Hybrid created through combination of Vampire and Lycan's (werewolf) bloodlines.


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Not the best quality but it shows Micheal's transformation into a hybrid.

There are also many kinds of Hybrids in the Vampire Diaries. We have Vampire-Werewolf hybrids, Vampire-Witch hybrids, Werewolf- Witch hybrids


The Scorpion King

2002, directed by Chuck Russell and starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson as the Scorpion King.
Dwayne Johnson- please let me swoon for a moment :D
It is probably easy to guess what the hybrid will be. Of course it is half human half scorpion.


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The Chronicles of Narnia

Directed by Andrew Adamson and Micheal Apted, 2005

Mr. Tumnus -> Faun which is a human/goat hybrid.

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Of course there are many more but I will stop here as I just wanted to show some examples of hybrids in film and TV and this post has gotten quite long.

It was quite interesting to find all those hybrids and to actually think more deeply about these films. It also shows how much research the whole film department has to do before creating all those characters as a lot of Biology is behind it. And you do want the characters to be realistic to a certain extend.





I just saw this trailer to the film 'Hybrid' and it doesn't look too bad.
It is a Swedish sci-fi thriller from 2014 and was directed by Billy O'Brien.
I can't say yet if it is any good because I haven't watched it yet but I will add some notes after I watched it

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What is a hybrid?

A hybrid is something that consist of at least two different elements. We know hybrids especially from the flora and fauna.

I found these definitions on dictionary.com and they explain the word hybrid( when it comes to flora and fauna) quite well.

1.

the offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties,species, or genera, especially as produced through human manipulation for  specific genetic characteristics.

2.

a person or group of persons produced by the interaction or crossbreeding of two unlike cultures, traditions, etc.

( dictionary.com)

Hybrids between different species tend to be sterile.

But a lot of people also think about cars when they hear the word hybrid. A hybrid car is being powered by an internal combustion engine(diesel, petrol) and an electronic motor. But now there are more than just hybrid cars. You can find this kind of  combination  also in ships, aircraft's and trains.

Some well known hybrid cars are:

 the BMW i3 hatchback,

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 Volkswagen Golf hatchback 

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or the Toyota Prius hybrid hatchback.

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But now more to hybrids in fauna in flora.

When it comes to hybrids in biology we distinguish between different types of hybrids.

There are the :

• structural hybrids
• permanent hybrids
• genetic hybrids
• numerical hybrids

But we can also differentiate between inter specific hybrids(  hybrids between different species with same genus->lions,tiger), intra- specific hybrids (hybrids between subspecies within one species-> Siberian Tiger, Bengal Tiger), inter generic hybrids (hybrids between different genera, for instance sheep or goat), inter familial hybrids( are extremely rare and an example are gamebird hybrids -> these are a mixture between domestic poultry and different game birds (ex. ducks, goose)

Animal Hybrids

"Liger" / "Tigon" (depends on the species the father and mother was from-> for Ligers the father was a Lion and mother Tiger) -> Lion/Tiger

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"Mule" -> Horse/Donkey

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"Cama" -> Llama/ Camel

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"Gamebird Hybrid"

"Blood Parrot" -> Midas Cichlid / Readhead Cichlid

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"Killer Bees" -> African Bee/ European Honey Bee

"Carball" -> Ball Python / Carpet Python 

"Grizzly- Polar Bear Hybrid"

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"Savannah Cat" -> Domestic Cat/ medium- sized wild African Cat

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"Sphynx Cats" -> "hairless" Cats

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"Sheep-Goats"

"Zebroids"

Plant Hybrids

"Grapefruit" ->Pomelo/ Orange

"Peppermint" -> Spearmint/ Water mint

"× Fatshedera lizei"  -> Hedera helix / Fatsia japonica

"Leyland cypress(× Cupressocyparis leylandii)" ->Monterey cypress/ Nootka cypress

"Rose Hybrids" -> different coloured roses combined

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"Hybrid Tea Rose"

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"Pansies Hybrids" -> same concept as with roses

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ScareCon

ScareCon website. Just if you want to know more about it or want to see the winner from the Scare Awards.

Anyway we did a trip to ScareCon, kind of as it wasn't an actual official ScareCon event. We went to Broaditch Farm Hauntfest. Broadditch Farm isn't only doing Halloween events you can go there all year around and have a look in the farm shop or check out their website for events. 

I was quite exited to go because first of  all I thought it was an actual official event (it wasn't) and I have never been to any kind of convention or theme park/adventure parks. So I thought it would be quite fun. I think it would be an understatement to say that we were slightly shocked when we arrived. Because it said ScareCon on our tickets I assumed it would be held in a massive hall or something but no we ended up on a muddy- very muddy- farm. Don't get me wrong I don't mind mud, my dad lives in a very small village so I am used to farm life and mud but it would have been nice if someone would have told as as we were all quite overdressed. And it was a bit awkward because we received those really weird looks from the staff there like they were saying look at those city girls in their dresses and heels and tons of makeup walking around on a very muddy and slippery farm. How stupid... Well nevermind. The funny thing was I felt like I was back home in Germany at my dad's place and we had one of those really boring village parties ^^. Also I don't quite understand why we had to be 7 hours early? It would have been enough to be like 2 hours early and then we could have done the talk, the tractor tour and looking around the mazes. Because it was just really boring to sit there for 7 hours and do like nothing. But at least we got free coffee and tea and the toilets weren't too bad either. Also the food was good as well. We also fled into the pub that is located at the main street ,because it was too cold outside. But let's end the complaining here -for now^^

It was really nice that they allowed us to go and see the mazes without actors first. There were 5 different themed mazes. Spooky Castle, The Edge, MassAcre, Biometrix and Thirteen. As I  usually get quite bored while watching horror movies and also don't mind being outside alone in the dark , I thought I would be able to handle the mazes quite well but oh was I wrong^^ I was really excited in the beginning as I never went to such a place but after going through the first maze which was Spooky Castle I wasn't so sure anymore. By the way going through the mazes without actors was totally fine and we kind of guessed where the actors would later appear and tried to be prepared but I certainly wasn't. The only maze which I also found quite terrifying was Thirteen because the floors were totally uneven and I figured that if we go in later with actors we would definitely trip at that part and just pile up on the floor. Also the mirror room was very irritating. You can't really see as the light keeps flashing really quickly and you can just see a split second of the movements so it feels like the person will be there within a blink. The only maze we weren't allowed to see without actors was Biometrix because they said it would ruin the effect without them but honestly with actors it was the most boring one! It was supposed to show some kind of zombie soldiers and they were actually allowed to touch you but yeah somehow it was the most boring one for me. Anyway back to Spooky Castle.When we entered we were only allowed go in in pairs of three and I had to lead. I don't know if it was because it was the first one and didn't really know what to expect but man my heart was racing like crazy and in the end I just dragged the other two out half running. But getting all this adrenaline is an awesome feeling :D Afterwards we went into the Edge which was filled with vampires and a naughty priest who waited until we passed to chase us. But this one was definitely less scary. Then we went into the MassAcre which was fine until we reached the end where a guy with chainsaw was waiting for us. So I know the chainsaw wasn't real or at least didn't had any blades in but I still felt very uneasy when he started coming at us with it and wouldn't let us pass. It was just for  second and even though as I said I knew it was not real but this one second I thought but what if ? and was kind of afraid. In the end we managed to run out like crazy and I usually don't do running but hell was I running fast :D We then had to wait for a bit to get enough courage to go into Thirteen^^ And I have to say it was a bit disappointing as it was less scary with actors.  I really don't know why but it was scarier without actors and I really thought that would be the worst but it was alright. But apart from the actors in the mazes there were also actors walking around with awesome makeup on. In the beginning they were quite intrigued because they would just come up to you and be really close( of course no one was allowed to touch you, same for the actors in the maze apart from Biometrix) and that was a bit scary. But after a few minutes I got used to them and just enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the Joker Duo and the girl who was crawling on all four the entire time. She was on a leach which belonged to a Domina and her mouth was sewn up and she would come really close at you and sniff and just stare so intensely at you that it makes you so uncomfortable but in the end I thought she was quite cute. But here again I have to complain about something! Personally I think they should maybe hire some more professional actors. I can completely understand that it must be tiring to stay in character for hours and walk around the farm but that doesn't reason it when they start bullshitting about us students. I specially mean the Domina who was just standing like 2 meters away from us bullshitting and making fun of some of our students and that's not okay. They should have stayed professional until the end. 

Apart from that the talk with had in the beginning was also quite alright, I was interesting to hear about everyone's projects and what they plan for next year. 

After seeing the mazes at Boradwith Fafrm I really want to go to the actual ScareCon next year at Dreamland Margate. I think it will be super awesome. Also when they talked about going and testing different scare attraction I thought oh yeah I want to do that as well. That would be so much fun!

So here are some pictures I took. They are not the best as I took them with my phone and it was already dark.

I also made some short videos which I will try to upload as well.

But yes overall it did was a quite fun day but I think because it wasn't an actual ScareCon event the shouldn't have charged us that much for the tickets-.- 

But the again I am still very impressed with the makeup and use of prosthetics. They all just looked really cool and a bit scary at the beginning.It was also quite interesting to see how they worked backstaged and how tiny and cramped the space was,