Voldemort Research - Human/Snake Hybrid

Ralph Fiennes has personified the evil Dark Lord since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when he regained a human body. The Oscar-nominated actor embraced playing the ultimate villain in the Harry Potter films and says the hours in the makeup chair helped him to get into character. Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort sports a snake-like “nose,” heavy brow sans eyebrows and a pale bald dome.

How long does this sinister makeover take? At least two-and-a-half hours for Fiennes, who viewed the time as essential to his portraying the full evilness of Voldemort. “A certain look that you have helps you locate who you’re being. You look at yourself in the mirror, you see this face, and you say, ‘I know who I am,’” Fiennes told MTV News.

• In the book the character had red eyes, however they decided this would not work in the film because you wouldn't be able to see the emotion in the eyes.
• The costume designer made the materials worn very light so it would move almost like a spirit, they used lots of thin, silk layers to achieve this. 
• The nose is the main/obvious snake feature they have used in the hybrid
• The designers said that they looked at using prosthetic pieces, however this would mean that they would have to bring other features of his face forwards to make it look like the nose was sunken in. They decided that the best way to achieve this look would be to digitally drop back the nose in post production because it would look very out of this world as it is not possible with makeup. They also removed his human nostrils and gave him slits, to look more snake-like; they did this by using tracking dots on his face.
• The makeup artists covered Voldemort in tattoo transfers to make it look like he had veins all over his head and hands etc. This would achieve continuity, as spraying them on every time would have been very time consuming and extremely difficult to get them in the same place. 
• They wanted to make sure that they didn't use too much makeup as they wanted him to be able to move freely and for his expressions to be very realistic. 
• He shaved his hair completely off on his head so that a bald cap didn't have to be used and so it looked very realistic. 
• The makeup artists used gelatine to cover his eyebrows, as Fiennes did not want to shave his off, but this also created deeper eye sockets, giving a very sunken in and shadowed look. 
• No other prosthetics were used around the rest of his face so he could move freely and also so the rest of his face looked as human-like as possible. 
• He also had very long, spindly fingers with long pointed nails
• Finally, they gave him fake teeth.

Web references: http://www.harrypotterfans.com/2011/04/ralph-fiennes-chilling-voldemort-transformation/
http://prostheticmakeupfx.com/tag/lord-voldemort/