SO You Want TO BE A Union MAKEUP Creative person FOR FILM & TV: Part 1 by Margina Dennis

Margina Dennis

Margina Dennis

Strategic Creative Consultant and Trainer, Multimedia Makeup Creative person

Published Dec nineteen, 2016

I've been super fortunate in my 20+ year career to see my piece of work on the big and small screen and see my name curlicue beyond those credits. What a corking feeling it is to come across the finished product from all the blood sweat and tears of long days, sometimes working in extreme oestrus or common cold. The end results can expect so glamorous merely the procedure to brand information technology can exist far from it! Then for those of you who aspire to piece of work in Film and Television receiver hither are some basic requirements and and then I'll break down what some of the more than prominent makeup unions are looking for.

SKILLS: Baby y'all gotta take them! Even if you aren't going to run a special effects department, yous should have working fx noesis. I recently worked on a movie every bit part of the makeup department and I had to do and maintain blood, bruising, tattoo cover, scars and much more. Here'south a detailed list of things you should expect to larn:

  1. Make-Upwards for Film, and High Definition feature and television (with both men's and women's cosmetic make-up).
  2. Contemporary and Period Glamour (this means y'all demand to know your decades and the dissimilar between a 1960 makeup and 1969 makeup for case)
  3. Brand Up for B & W Moving-picture show and Photography (yes people are nevertheless shooting on pic!)
  4. Age with paint
  5. Age with latex
  6. Human hair beard awarding/grooming & styling and application of ventilated pieces (nosotros are responsible for whatsoever part of the skin on the body as makeup)
  7. Baldheaded caps
  8. Out-of-Kit Make-Upwardly Effects: including scrapes & scratches, wound (cut) structure, bullet-pigsty construction, burned skin, stitches, black (bruised) center, fresh and aged blood dressing, diseases and skin weather and varied dirt applications.
  9. Prosaid (also known as Tinsley) 3DTransfer Application (these are pre-fabricated FX pieces)
  10. Special Prosthetic Effects
  11. Skilled in both freehand and airbrush makeup awarding
  12. An agreement of lighting and how makeup looks in different lighting scenarios
  13. The ability to replicate/match a previous makeup application for continuity

I didn't have the traditional school approach just did invest a lot of time and money into taking courses from WORKING MAKEUP ARTISTS. I learned to make teeth, do confront casts, and make molds among many many other things. And the list to a higher place is so that you are competent on gear up. To run a department, you demand to know much more about the business (paperwork) function of the job! ( And I'll talk most that in office two).

LEARNING & GETTING EXPERIENCE: Even though I didn't take the traditional route, going to a REPUTABLE school tin aid to give you a foundation to kickoff with. From at that place, it's about perfecting the skills, making the connections, and getting eligible hours to qualify. I was doing makeup about 9-ten years earlier I was able to join. Schools like MUD (50.A .& NYC) , Complections (Toronto), Movie theater Makeup (L.A.), Tom Savini FX (PA) are a few places to check out. But please do some request around and so you'll be need to put yourself out in that location and put them to use! Start to build a makeup morgue (portfolio of your work) along with a reel showing what your work looks like in motion. You lot will need to show evidence that you know how to create wounds, furnishings, period makeup etc as office of the requirements for the union and anyone who is looking to rent yous. A good initial way to get experience is to reach out to motion-picture show students. They take assignments equally students that they have to complete so the chances are greater that you will receive a copy and that it will be completed. Then from at that place you'll take something to bear witness to piece of work to perchance assisting on smaller projects or working on them yourself. Brand good use of google to notice film schools. And here'due south a link to some things you lot should have in your kit if you didn't receive these things as part of the initial kit from school. Yes this makeup game ain't easy! More in Part Ii!

Love and Lipstick,

Margina Dennis