I patched them up a bit and started painting.

Mixing face colors.

I wanted a variety of face colors, but I wanted to keep the heads cartoonish. This was mostly to save time.

A box of paparazzi heads, similar to the one in Russell Crowe's storage unit.

For eyes, I couldn't find doll eyes of the correct size, so I tried making some.

I painted the surface of a plastic soda bottle.

The plastic helped keeped the eyes looking shiny.

Next I added lips, pupils and an occasional mustache.

They looked crude, but I think these homemade jobs were better than a rack of identical styrofoam heads from a hat display.

With a long lens. I think this one was from an Ethos water bottle.

The blonde.

I was worried about mounting them with a wire through the head in full view, but it was fairly well camoflagued in practice.

Three guys, straight out of the Uncanny Valley Photograpy Club.

The heads went on in less than an hour, and it was time to get the flashes going.

I used 4-strand telephone wire. Actually just the red and green, to extend the connection which activated the flash.

Hazard: The high-voltage capacitor on these boards can shock you. It is painful and it might be very dangerous.

I had twelve cameras to make, so I tried to set up a little assembly line.