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| Makeup artists |
By Emily Lai |
Emily
Lai |
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| Tommy Chan says beginners have to acquire basic artistic skills before becoming professional makeup artists. |
| Makeup artists make actors and actresses look like the characters
that directors envision. It is an integral element of stage and movie production. “Sometimes some actors or actresses do not know about the characters they play. They cannot imagine how the characters look like when they just read the scripts,” said Chan Ming Long, a makeup artist with 21 years of experience in stage production. “We help them by putting makeup on them. After seeing the physical appearance of the characters, they become more confident to act.” Chan Ming Long said he ended up getting the job of a makeup artist beacuse he was the only man who applied for it. “The teacher wanted me to get in because I could carry things for him,” he said. Tommy Chan, who has worked as a makeup artist for more than 10 years, said, “We did not have makeup schools in the past. “What we could do was to find teachers ourselves. Once we found a teacher, we had to serve him for several years before he taught us anything. “Actually, teachers were not teaching us. We learned by observing how they worked.” There are different types of makeup artist. For example, there are makeup artists working for live productions, films and television. All of them need particular techniques specific to their jobs. However, they all share some basic knowledge. Doing makeup for movies is different from doing it for other forms of entertainment. A movie makeup artist has to transform actors and actresses into their characters without having readily available references. They have to get an image from the directors’ preliminary ideas. However, a makeup artist for live performances can go to rehearsals and production meetings to observe actors and actresses playing their characters. “We take notes during rehearsals and record the facial expressions of actors and actresses,” said Chan Ming Long. Television makeup artists need not work with the crew every day. “We do the designs and put them in a file with detailed descriptions. After that, several makeup artists take turns to do the makeup,” said Tommy Chan. Chan Ming Long said the satisfaction of creating the exact look that the director wants is unimaginable. He recalled a situation where he needed to paint a man’s body all white for the Hong Kong Arts Festival. “It would have been very painful if we used a strong air-brush to spray the paint on him. However, using a weaker one cannot produce the desired effect,” said he. He and his team tried to use sponges to apply the paint. It made the actor uncomfortable so he could not act naturally. The director finally decided not to use the white paint because it was too difficult to do it well. “I was very sad when I knew that,” said he. “I talked to the director and asked him to give me more time to create the desired effect. Finally, I asked my friend to put paint on my body by using different methods. “After lots of trials, I finally found a way. The mood of the show was much better with the actor’s body in white.” Tommy Chan said doing makeup is not only a technical job, but also creative and artistic. “It is not easy to create new styles of makeup. We therefore read more so that we can brainstorm new ideas,” he added. Makeup artists usually read Japanese, American and European magazines because these countries are leaders in makeup trends. “Besides, they use more advanced techniques to do makeup than we do,” said Tommy Chan. “For example, they scan photos of actors and actresses and try out makeup by using computers, while we are still using hands-on method. “Being a makeup artist, one should also go outside of Hong Kong and learn from foreign professionals. It can broaden your horizons and give you new insights into the profession,” he added.  |