Pengelly Society welcomed Charlie Bluett to its second meeting of the academic year.

​​​​​​​Charlie Bluett joined Bethany Sixth Formers for dinner yesterday evening before speaking about his work in the FX industry.

Charlie is no stranger to Bethany as he was once a pupil at the school. He spoke with passion about how he struggled with learning due to dyslexia, yet it was at Bethany that Charlie began to realise his love for the creative subjects and spent much of his time in the DT and Art departments. He also learnt to be independent, resilient, and to apply himself. It was perhaps these skills that saw Charlie, who left school with no firm plans for his future, hold on to his dreams and pursue a career in FX by making contact with, and showcasing his work to some big names in the industry.

During his talk Charlie showcased many examples of his work – some of which were a little gory (he has worked on shows and films such as Silent Witness, Slaughterhouse Rulez, Krypton, The Dark Crystal…). It was fascinating to see the amount of work that goes into creating models and prosthetics, and to hear about the processes involved, including building, painting, animating and testing.

Many thanks to Charlie for sharing his story with us; we have our fingers crossed that he will be back at Bethany soon to run a workshop or two!