Company case studies

        MFX Warehouse case study

Established in 2018, MFX Warehouse is a company that produces prosthetics for makeup, film, and other miscellaneous uses. They also make DVD’s that give buyers tutorials on how to create SFX prosthetics.

A product that they made as a collaboration with a slightly infamous drag queen, Alexis Stone, is a key product featured on their website. This year, he tricked the public into thinking that he had gotten extreme cheek implants – however – the ‘cheek implants’ he’d gotten were actually cheek prosthetics which he revealed in a YouTube video as he tore them off his face. This event had a large amount of Alexis’ Instagram following of 900 thousand purchasing the prosthetics for makeup looks and/or drag performances of their own or interacting with the MFX Warehouse company.

The whole scandal was a commercial stunt, in which Alexis Stone is not a stranger to. It was a trending topic in the drag world and the makeup community on multiple platforms and benefitted MFX immensely. On the website, the main banner is a promotion for the cheek prosthetics. The work that the creative and marketing teams did on this promotional stunt was aimed towards audiences who were interested in the drag world both in real life and on social medias – the whole journey had been documented on platforms like YouTube and Alexis Stone’s Instagram account, secretly.

MFX’s website is a professional looking portal in which they sell all their products. They have separate tabs for each type of product, including tutorial DVD’s and merchandise. Their merchandise coincides with their brand and what the company is, they offer two pieces of merchandise – an apron that makeup artists can wear to keep their clothes clean, and a makeup cape for the model.

The company evolved to offer DVD’s that were created by an award-winning prosthetics designer with detailed commentary and demonstrations for the average person who is wanting to delve into the world of prosthetics. This product of theirs shows that they are preventing a sense of gatekeeping on their website and broadens their target demographic to those who are experienced and those who are wanting to experiment.


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        Real SFX

Real SFX, an award-winning establishment that provides atmospheric effects, models, prosthetics, custom built effects, and a gimbal for specific scenes, have worked on many also award-winning shows. Their portfolio includes the likes of Peaky Blinders, Doctor Who, Good Omens, His Dark Materials, Dracula, Free Fire, Sherlock, Hanna, Victoria, Final Score, Tolkien, Luther, and Coronation Street.

In 2012, Real SFX began to take on apprentices as they noticed an outstanding shortage of people who were qualified SFX technicians. Currently, Real SFX recruit at least one apprentice annually, and an approximate 95% of the apprentices who work for Real SFX then go onto have jobs – either full-time or freelance.

Quoted from Carmela Carrubba, Real SFX Company Director;

“For us, apprenticeships are the most effective way to train our staff as the industry moves so quickly. Our apprentices pick up valuable skills in the workshop and on set, learning techniques that can’t be taught in the classroom.”

Real SFX won their first award in April 2014, it being a BAFTA Craft Award for their outstanding special and visual effects on the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor. This award was in the category of Special, Visual & Graphic Effects – 2014 was the first year in which the BAFTAs recognised physical special effects in this category.


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        3D Creations Ltd.

Ian Westbrook, an experienced Scenic Designer with a 1st Class degree in Theatre Design, established 3D Creations in 1985. From its first opening to when it was unfortunately forced to close its doors due to Covid-19, 3D Creations has supplied props for operas, musicals, plays, pantomimes, films, TV and corporate productions all over Europe. 3D Creations has done prop commissions for artists on world tours, such as Iron Maiden, Robbie Williams, The Spice Girls, West Life, Blue, and Peter Waterman. The company had also completed five Royal Commissions for the Queen.

3D Creations has had multiple awards and nominations, such as;

  • The Hy Kurzner Entrepreneur Award for the Norfolk Arts
  • Best Staging and Set for Cinderella at the London Palladium - The Great British Pantomime Awards
  • Pantomime of the Year - Cinderella at the London Palladium
  • Two nominations for the Olivier Awards 

After the closure of 3D Creations, multiple auctions were created for the sale of all of the company’s assets that were in their main workspace – however, the company has carried on operating except on a much smaller scale.

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