The popularity of Media-based education continues to grow, with Media Makeup and hair as new buzz-word titles for courses being offered by Schools who have previously trained students for salon work only. The difference between Beauty Therapy salon work and the skills necessary for film, television, video and theatre is rarely appreciated by career advisers in secondary schools.

Thus, school children who express an interest in Media Makeup and Hair are often advised to take a course offering waxing, facials, massage or hair-dressing. The makeup and hair artist on a film might have to cut men's hair short for an army movie, but they would never have to cut an actress's hair. They will never wax an actor or give him a manicure. What they will do is dress and set the actor's hair more quickly than is possible in a salon, and improving his face with makeup in such a way that the makeup itself is invisible, even when magnified a hundred times for the wide screen.

These skills cannot be acquired by teachers who have not been on a film set. The subtleties of approach that vocational experiences give are learned by understanding the differences between different lighting setups, different colour film stock, and an understanding of design that comes from years of reading and analysing scripts with the director's point of view firmly in mind.

Penny Delamar, of the Delamar Academy of Makeup, says: "Take Kate Winslett in 'Titanic'. In the film, the makeup was not right for the period - no high class women wore lipstick, eyeliner or anything; that was only for prostitutes and actresses! It was only worn on the stage, or if you were plying your trade, so that was not correct. But if you hadn't seen Kate Winslett with a fairly modern makeup, she wouldn't have been so good to look at. Look at 'Gone with the Wind' or Dr. Zhivago' - you can tell what period they were made."

"You are definitely under pressure to give a fashion look to a film, even if it is a period piece. No American director would like it - if you were doing a peasant, they wouldn't let you do bad teeth!" Another aspect that has to be taught more by osmosis than formally is that indefinable quality of 'attitude'. In the media, most of the workers are freelance - every job is finite, for a limited period only. After every new job, a new employer must be found. Penny says: "If you were given the choice of two makeup artists, both of them technically very good, but one of them a delightful person who made you feel comfortable, you would go for them, because that is so much part of the job."

"From a simple point of view, in film makeup you see the face magnified on the big screen… you see every pore of the skin, so the makeup must look realistic - it mustn't look painted.

When you do a makeup for the stage, you are doing it from a different point of view, you're trying to make the blob in the distance have features, so makeup has to be heavier. It doesn't have to be thicker, that's the mistake a lot of people make; it just means stronger definition with the colours that you use."

It is immensely satisfying for a makeup artist to look at an actor on stage or screen and know that they have played a vital part in the actor's appearance. This satisfaction is a life-long pleasure on every job. Training to this standard is available in very few institutions - so make sure you choose the right one!

Author
David Shawyer
Delamar Academy of Makeup
The Makeup Centre