Vamping
Vampires on Buffy the Vampire Slayer really are more Lovecraftian than vampiric.
In the first season episode "The Harvest", Giles says that demons known as "the Old Ones" ruled the Earth with humanity as their slaves and food source. Viewers later learn that a group of god-like beings known as the "Powers That Be" lived on Earth, but that over time some of them became corrupt. These corrupt gods became the "Old Ones". The Old Ones gained more and more strength, and the Powers That Be fled to other worlds or dimensions. (Angel, "Shiny Happy People", S4 E18)
The most powerful of the Old Ones (pure demons) ruled over vast territories, commanding huge armies of lesser demons. The Old Ones constantly made war on one another, and some were killed. Others fled or were banished to other dimensions. (Angel, "A Hole in the World", S5 E15)
Old Ones cannot really be killed. Their corpses retain an essence, and theoretically they could be resurrected. To prevent this, each "dead" Old One was placed in its own sarcophagus, and the sarcophagus lowered into the Deeper Well. This is a hole in the world that links the Cotswolds in Britain with New Zealand. (Angel, "A Hole in the World", S5 E15)
Giles tells Buffy that the Old Ones began to lose their purchase on reality. This allowed the rise of humankind. (Buffy, "The Harvest", S1 E2) Although most humans worshipped the Old Ones as gods, (Angel, "A Hole in the World", S5 E15) some humans learned to use magic. (Buffy, "The Harvest", S1 E2)
The origin of the demons known to humankind as vampires is unclear. The book Vampyr says that the last Old One infected a human being with its blood as it was banished, creating vampires. (Buffy, "The Harvest", S1 E2) However, the Old One known as Illyria claimed that the demons later known as vampires already existed during the reign of the Old Ones, and only began to proliferate as the Old Ones were banished and more humans survived. (Angel, "Shells", S5 E16) Illyria's tale seems more likely. Giles later tells Buffy that the Turok-Han were the "uber-vampires", an extremely powerful vampire-like demon which roamed the Earth before vampires did. (Buffy, "Bring On the Night", S7 E10)
Sineya was the first Slayer. Three powerful magicians known as "The Shadowmen" kidnapped the teenage girl, chained her to the floor of a cave, and imbued her with the heart, soul, and spirit of a demon. (Buffy, "Get It Done", S7 E15) Sineya was the most powerful of Slayers, and slaughtered demons by the tens of thousands. But she lived alone, isolated from humanity. Eventually, she stopped speaking and became little more than action, a cry, absolute destruction. (Buffy, "Restless", S4 E22)
A group of witches known as "The Guardians" became concerned for the Slayer and began to watch over her. To assist the Slayer, they created the Slayer's Scythe -- a nigh-omnipotent weapon which could kill the last remaining Old One on Earth. (Buffy, "End of Days", S7 E21)
Eventually, humankind learned enough powerful magic to banish most of the Old Ones to the "Hell Dimension". (Buffy, "The Harvest", S1 E2) The Slayer used the Scythe to kill the remaining Old Ones. The last Old One was slain atop a hellmouth in what would later become Sunnydale, California. (Buffy, "End of Days", S7 E21) The Guardians then hid the Scythe from the Shadowmen and embedded it in a rock. Only a Slayer could remove it. (Buffy, "End of Days", S7 E21)
Giles told Buffy that nothing remained on Earth of the Old Ones except vestiges like certain magic items and certain creatures. (Buffy, "The Harvest", S1 E2) According to Anya, without the Old Ones, all demons left on Earth were eventually force to mate with humans or animals in order to remain in this dimension. Thus, all demons which Slayers encounter are hybrids. Over time, all hybrids have grown weaker. (Buffy, "Graduation Day, Part 1", S3 E21)
Those humans who formerly worshipped the Old Ones managed to pass on their beliefs to a small number of followers. In the late 20th century, there were dozens and dozens of these cults. (The Cult of Aurelius, which The Master led, was one of these. [Buffy, "Welcome to the Hellmouth", S1 E1])
A human being could take the form of an Old One through a process known as Ascension. (Buffy, "Graduation Day, Part 2", S3 E22) An Old One's essence could be released from its resting place if placed in a human body, although the human died in the process. (Angel, "A Hole in the World", S5 E15)
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The writers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer started with the vampire myth, and then added ideas from Lovecraft, other myths, comic book villains, the movie The Exorcist, and the way demons had been depicted previously on film and television.
In myth and in Bram Stoker's Dracula, vampires were very odd-looking people. They are uniformly thin and pallid, with pointed ears and unnaturally sharp teeth. They also have hair on the palms of their hands. Stoker's Count Dracula has a long white bandit mustache, a pointed Van Dyke beard with a white streak in it, and a hooked nose. Vampires can be harmed by metal objects (Jonathan Harker hits Dracula with a shovel, which leaves a scar on his forehead for the rest of the novel), but not killed by them.
Traditionally, vampires in film and television look just like normal people.
Joss Whedon liked the idea of normal-looking vampires because this way his heroes could interact with them and be shocked and surprised when they turn out demonic. This would help create a sense of paranoia.
He worried, however, that unbalanced people who watched the show would start going around stabbing people, and decided to have his vampires take on a demonic visage when in vampire form.
Optic Nerve Studios was the special effects company hired to work on the vampire makeup and effects for Buffy. It specializes in prosthetic make-up, animatronic puppets, full body suits, and speciality props. The company was founded and headed by John Vulich (1961 - October 12, 2016), who was nominated 11 times for an Emmy for outstanding makeup. He was nominated four times for Babylon 5, winning in 1995; four times for Buffy, winning in 1998; and once for The X-Files, winning in 1999.
Whedon and some of the lead writers met with Vulich to discuss what they envisioned for the look of vampires and for the way vampires would die. Vulich created several prototype designs for the vampire look, and Whedon selected the one he liked the best.
Todd McIntosh was hired as the show's Head of Makeup. He administered the department, oversaw the budget and scheduling, hired and fired makeup people, and was responsible for ensuring continuity in makeup design. He also acted as a liaison, working with the producers, episode director, and the prosthetic lab foreman.
Once prosthetics were manufactured, they were delivered to McIntosh's home at 3 A.M. He took them to work, and he and his three assistants would assemble and apply the pieces and then color them.
McIntosh and his team had only a limited number of standard products to work with in the 1990s. These included cremes, pancake, and powders. He also had PAX Paint, developed by legendary makeup artist Dick Smith (Dark Shadows). It is a long-lasting opaque makeup that is a 50/50 mix of adhesive and acrylic paint. He also had 24-color Rubber Mask Grease Paint (RMGP), made by Kryolan.
Buffy required an immense number of prosthetic pieces in every episode. The Optic Nerve staff often turned out prosthetics the day of a shoot. McIntosh began using an airbrush for both beauty and prosthetic work, which made his job much easier.
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The vampire brow ridges were a foam prosthetic glued onto the actor's face. Latex was used to smooth the transition from foam to skin.
Skin is translucent. Light literally enters the skin, bounces around a bit, and then emerges. To mimic this "glow" of normal skin, the prosthetic was first painted with a light red tone. Skin tones were painted on top of this. The combination of red tint and skin tone made for a normal-looking skin "glow". Details were then added using creme and PAX, and then airbrushing done.
McIntosh found it was essential to darken the areas around the eyes to make the vampires look mean.
McIntosh originally painted the vampires very pale for the show's first season. Buffy was nominated for Oustanding Makeup at the Emmys that year, but lost. Emmy voters said that the reason the show lost that year to Tracy Takes On... was because the faces were pale and the necks were red.
McIntosh admits that this was a problem. Greasepaint was used on the neck to blend with the pale PAX paint on the face. But actors and stuntpeople were working in a converted water heater factory located at 1800 Stewart Street in Santa Monica, California. The building was made of sheetmetal and had little air conditioning. The greasepaint simply melted in the heat. McIntosh gradually shifted the vampires to have a more normal skintone, much to Whedon's dismay.
Optic Nerve also made all the vampire teeth for the series. Regular or recurring actors had custom-made teeth. A silicon mold of their teeth was taken, a hard plastic model made from the mold, and then fangs sculpted around this mold. These teeth had special modifications, such as slightly wider incisors and differently curved canines and premolars, which enabled the actor to enunciate clearly without a lisp. A mold was taken of the sculpture, and then a mouthpiece made from the mold. The actor was fitted to ensure good adhesion and comfort, and the teeth shaved or modified as needed to ensure that the actor could speak clearly.
Background actors and extras used generic vampire teeth. These had an acrylic lining which was removed and replaced after use. These generic fangs were so bulky that extras generally could not speak when using them.
The contact lenses for the vampires were provided by Dr. Jonathon Gording, a doctor of optometry. He is a leader in designing and fitting contact lenses for the film industry, and has won Emmys for his work. The lenses were applied on the set by lens technician Sean Kenny.
KDI supplied the fake blood products used on the show. (I don't think the brand is around any more, as internet searches turn up zilch.)
Buffy's writers envisioned vampirism as a kind of disease. The longer a vampire lived, the more pronounced the demonic look. Vulich and the designers at Optic Nerve developed a series of seven drawings that showed the differing degrees of vampirism, becoming more bat-like and pronounced the longer the vampire lived. The Master was intended to be the most vampiric of all vampires. McIntosh says he struggled with how to paint The Master's prosthetic. He wanted to avoid the typical "white and veiny" look. He was inspired by a photo of his own cat, a very old animal which was losing hair around its ears, nose, and mouth so that the pink of the skin showed through. He painted The Master to indicate that parts of his white skin had worn through and were revealing the pinkish flesh beneath.
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How does a vampire die? In most myths, when a vampire is killed, they return to a state like a fresh corpse. Bram Stoker, however, had his vampire get a look of peace on his face and then turn to dust.
Joss Whedon wanted his vampires to turn to dust, too. He reasoned that there was no way Buffy could leave hundreds of corpses lying around Sunnydale without the police getting involved.
Whedon had a very specific idea regarding "dusting". He felt that when a vampire was staked in the heart, all the moisture in its body disappeared. However, he also wanted each dusting to be different. He absolutely did not want the same effect in every killing, or the dusting would become cheesy and lose its effect.
Visual Effects Supervisor Loni Peristere used 3D animation and compositing to achieve the dusting effect. Buffy would stab in and out with the stake, and then everyone but he actor portraying the vampire would freeze. This actor would continue to act out the vampire's death-throes, then walk out of the frame. The camera would film the remaining actors and set another seven to ten seconds before the director called "cut".
Initially, the actor would be dissolved off and the CGI particle explosion would be dissolved in. (Clothing, too, dissolved. This was a budgtary necessity, as it would have been too expensive to rig or animate falling clothing.)
In the second season, the dusting effect was changed so that the actor's body turned into dust, which hung in the air for eight to 12 frames before before exploding.
The effect was upgraded again in the third season. A single dusting took $5,000 and five to six days to complete. A computer-generated wireframe skeleton was created, and posed to match the actor's near-final movement. It was overlayed with texture and shading, and CGI dust matched to the last few frames of the actor's death-movements. Light reflected off a piece of tinfoil was composited into the shot.
In the final three seasons of Buffy, flesh would "erode" to dust first, then the skeleton would erode to dust, and finally the dust would explode.
Each dusting was accompanied by high-pitched scream. This sound effect was also used to indicate that a vampire had died off-screen. This enabled a vampire to be killed without the cost of CGI and animation. Viewers who pay close attention will often see a vampire bent forward before Buffy or pushed by Buffy, taking the actor off-screen. Buffy then stakes the vampire, and only a small amount of CGI exploding dust is seen.
