Montreal physical effects wizards Karl and Erik Gosselin have a background that could be the subject of a movie-of-the-week – heavy on the sfx, of course. The two are identical twins who got their start in physical effects with a series for cable access – Twins fx – Secrets of Movie Making. Due to the charisma and expertise of the twin hosts, the cable access program was a hit and showed in reruns for six years.

Instead of translating their success into a regular cable show, a la Tom Green, the entrepreneurial brothers chose to open an effects shop of their own, Twins fx. With little money, the two worked in ‘special security services for seven years – bodyguarding, rock show security, escorts, strikes and protecting big clients’ – to earn the money to capitalize their venture. In fact, they even came close to becoming pro wrestlers ‘a long time ago.’

‘We’re kind of big guys,’ Karl Gosselin says.

The success of Twins fx came from this hard work. ‘We started getting small [effects] contracts and medium contracts. And we’ve been relatively known and busy for seven or eight years. But we’ve been the biggest in Quebec for three years,’ says Karl.

With a varied list of clients, ranging from features to television to commercials, and having served them for so many years, the brothers have seen a lot of change in the physical effects business.

‘cgi and animatronics are bigger than ever,’ Karl begins. ‘So instead of doing the rubber face or fake food or makeup, now we’re doing mechanical things, radio-controlled monsters. [Clients] just seem to have more budget and want more technical stuff.’

Although the Twins fx jobs are ‘50% American series and movies,’ Karl says the ‘commercials are [almost] always local. I remember one external commercial from France last year.’

The 8,000-square-foot Twins fx ‘lab’ is located on the site of Cine Cite, a Montreal studio complex. Within ‘walking distance from the airport,’ the state-of-the-art facility gives the twins another advantage in attracting u.s. business. ‘It’s kind of a miniature mgm studios’ says Karl, ‘six big studios with companies onsite to do catering and makeup, etc. It’s really nice. It’s like our own private city.’

Karl and Erik each bring a specialty to Twins fx.

Says Karl: ‘I’m totally the physical director. I just do programming, radio controls, mechanical skeletons and under-skulls. I do the Fiberglas and the blood pumping, and things like that. I never touch artistic stuff, aesthetic stuff. Erik only does aesthetic. Sculpting, molding and applying makeup.’

Karl says he has a great passion for ‘animatronics’ and explains that he and Erik ‘don’t do weather stuff.’

If Karl’s true talent is animatronics, then Erik’s, according to his brother, is reality makeup – ‘meaning making somebody fat or old, or adding a big nose, or modifying feet and ears, or whatever. Or making doubles. He really likes making doubles.’

The wild thought that Erik has created Karl to be his ingenious double passes quickly as the effects master discusses the particular challenges of spot work.

‘When we do a movie and the producer is not that knowledgeable about effects, we can [work with] the director’s knowledge and things like that. But in commercials, the final decision god is the client. And for some reason it’s always 24-hour shooting days and they don’t like that tint of yellow – they’d prefer a brighter yellow. They’d like that better. So commercials are kind of a pain in the ass compared to movies. And usually we have less time to prepare.’

Why then do the brothers continue to accept and ultimately excel at commercial jobs? Karl explains: ‘They’re good money and sometimes they’re really original. Sometimes they’re really nice things to do, really cool.’

He is particularly proud of a dog he recently created for Fido. The twins have also done spot jobs for Oscar Meyer, Telebec, Bell Canada, Carling O’Keefe and Nintendo, among others. They even made a ‘pig woman’ for Cochon Mignon Wine.

The Gosselin brothers don’t plan on changing their situation any time soon. ‘I really love what I’m doing,’ says Karl. ‘The Cine Cite shop that just opened here is really brand new and I just love it. So my mind is set, I’m going to stay here for the next 10 years. I don’t want to grow much bigger and I don’t want to move. I’m perfectly happy.’ •

-www.twinsfx.com