Graduation and A New Career

After an exhausting week of exams we all sat down and worked through some of the business and presentation side of the industry. We designed letterheads, C.V layouts, business cards and chose photos for portfolios.

The students had to dress the part for the Job Interview Session. They brought in their hair and make-up kits and experienced their first taste of applying for a job.

We next had an accountant come and talk about tax, superannuation and setting up a business. A great deal to think about, but very important to start this next part of the journey the correct way.

The students have been involved in short films with the AFTRS and have commenced the beginnings of a solid portfolio that reflects the great work they have done throughout the course.

Graduation was attended by family, friends and the Master Class Tutors. An exhibition of the students work was displayed at the studio. To see how much solid work they had completed in these 6 months was astounding and we all feel very proud.

GOOD LUCK to everyone…

Revision and Body Art

In revision mode for the upcoming exams - discussing schedule and requirements, pre-setting wigs for selected make-ups and focusing each of the students for the busy couple of weeks ahead.

Moving onto Body Art - our models arrived not quite sure what was about to happen to them. Fiona our tutor was very helpful and made the models feel at ease by telling them about the body art process. Fiona then worked with each student, talking about the body art designs they had selected, plus any costume, wigs or hair-styles, they were going to incorporate into their final looks.
The students did free hand drawing instead of stencils or stamps, feeling the need to create the design from start to finish as they tried all the different products to produce their fantastic work. The day was long but the results were very rewarding for everyone. Thanks to Christina, Sam, Ryan and Fiona, it was a creative and inspiring day.

A great way to finish before the exams!

Continuity and Art Work Assignments

We moved into completing our Continuity exercise with our models becoming the characters from each of our scripts. The technical task of documenting all the make-ups began by taking photo reference of each of the models and creating make-up charts. The photo reference and make-up charts linked together to ‘tell the story’ of how the make-ups and hair-styles changed through-out the script. The students realized how important this exercise was and an invaluable part of the process for any make-up artist to keep on top of, during the hectic process of a film production.

Major Art Work assignments were handed in. Each of the students created some amazing pieces and each of their distinct styles were evident. Congratulations all.

With the mould-making process now complete, all of the techniques used in preparing the sculptures for mould-making were clearly understood when the students could see the final results in front of them. Ready for the Foam Latex runs and the generation of the Foam Latex Prosthetics.

We are now in revision mode as we start exams next week.

Script Continuity. Hair Class. Mould-Making

This week the students were given their film scripts to read and break down. This is a creative and logistical process to understand the story and how to go about executing the Director’s vision. In our particular area, this is where the make-up artist is able to bring to the table all their skills in discussing character and design, and working out what is the best way to bring the most to the story, within all the budgetary and time constraints surrounding the particular project. The make-up artists notes and ideas are crucial in trying to keep everything on-track, and in balance with all the other departments. As you map out all your make-up requirements in the script, you have to start to keep a detailed ‘Continuity’ of all these requirements as the story evolves.

We would also like to thank Tanya for all the wonderful Hair classes she conducted and all the important skills and confidence she instilled in the students.

Back in the workshop and the students prepped their sculptures for mould-making - learning intricate techniques and understanding the materials they were using to prepare their sculptures for a fibre-glass mould. Well done to everyone – they tackled the lesson very well, as none of them had ever done anything like this before.

Dead Bodies and Prosthetic Sculptures

Learning to keep our make-up stations clean while completing accident assimilation for our “Dead Body” look was very difficult. Lots of blood and gore make-up products can make things messy but the students managed to keep some control. We used “Ben Nye Death Bases” to recreate our looks from the research material that was collected. It took the students 3-4 hours to complete their make-ups as they experimented with all the different products. Some of their favourites were the “Illustrator Palette” and “3rd Degree” silicones for creating wounds.

We would like to thank our models for their help and patience as it was a long and difficult day for them.

The students moved to the workshop for the next few days to complete their sculptures. They were in the final stages of adding detail and bringing their creations to life. Long hours were put in with fine 'tooling techniques' and use of 'rubber stamps' to help layer all the detail work into the plastercine. When complete all the sculptures were prepared for the next step of fibreglass moulding.

Pam Meager Visits from London

How exciting to have Pam Meager come in and spend time with us, explaining about On Set Protocols and Script Breakdown.

Pam has had an amazing career in the make-up industry and worked on so many important films and TV productions. She won a BAFTA Film Award for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and was nominated for another BAFTA for Crime and Punishment.

The students were given a short course in applying bald-caps and introduced to some clever techniques for old age make-ups.

Pam was so impressed with our Master Classes Hand Book and all the reference material compiled in the course, that she wants to take it back to England and introduce it into there teaching system.

Pam has inspired us all with her quiet manner and wonderful stories of 40 years in the make-up and hair industry. Thank you kindly for spending time with us.

Blood, Blood and more Blood …

This week was dedicated to playing around with various special effects make-up products. There was latex, grease palettes, powder palettes, sweat, dirt, 3rd Degree, gel effects, blood and more blood.

Also moving on to the final stages of the sculpture process. The students have come a long way and developed their skills in sculpting their prosthetic make-up. Soon they will be prepping their sculptures for the fibreglass moulding process.

Fashion Week Comes Alive

High Fashion with Gary. He showed us clever and different ways to mix our foundation before it’s applied. He has his own make-up range which we used with excellent results.
Meeting our models for the Photo Shoot and prepping all our looks before hand. Having Tanya there to help us with our hair-styles brought some wonderful looks together.








































Gavin our photographer arrived when we were on the final stages of our make-up and hair; there was a real buzz in the air as our creations came alive with costume and jewellery.

It was a tough schedule to complete “2 Make-up Looks” but Gavin guided the models and the make-up artists through the shooting process and everyone finished within the time allowed. The students realized how important all their preparation was and they handled the day like consummate professionals.

IMATS SYDNEY - Makeup Trade Show Comes to OZ

After weeks of preparation we moved to the Sydney Convention Centre for the International Make-up Artists Trade Show (IMATS).

All past and present students were on hand to help with our stand, with great audio-visual and photos of the students work on display. It was a busy weekend and we were very well received by everyone that visited our stand and complimented on the high standard of work we were producing within our Master Classes.

The seminars throughout the weekend were inspiring and it was great to see so many artists under one roof talking about what they love most in their make-up worlds.

Congratulations to Michael Key, Cheryl Morrill and everyone at Make-up Artist magazine for putting on a wonderful and successful show. See you next year.






www.makeupmag.com

www.imatsshow.com

End of Term… Production Break

It’s a countdown to our 2 week production break. The down side is that this week we have exams, our Term 1 Assignment and Paper Mache masks all due.

Starting off the week we learnt how to make a Bald Cap. We followed the process Penny showed us of pin curling the hair as tight to the head as possible, wrapping the head with glad wrap, marking the front, back and ears, and transferring our custom head wraps onto our Red Head (a special type of head is required so you can make bald caps).

Our final hair lesson for the term was all about, Up Styles and French Rolls. A good roller set was the foundation on which we were to work. The end result was fantastic, with our teasing expertise coming into practice, as our hairstyles were so tall.

The students will also be working on a short film and a theatre production during their production break. A great experience for them all and to put into practice what they have learnt this term.

Our History Ends! On to High Fashion!

We have now completed our journey through periods in history, comparing the 1950’s to 1980’s. Where the 1950’s was, sweet pretty with curls, our sparkling 1980’s was, frost and more frost, with big cheeks and hair.





















We have really enjoyed the research section of the course, as this is getting the students ready for the world of film and television, where it is so important to recreate the correct looks when working on a ”Period Piece”.

Moving forward to ”High Fashion” and our “Photo Shoot”.

Starting in art class with the ”Grey Scale“, which included a painting exercise in black and white emphasising tone through highlighting and shading. Then finishing the day with make-up for ”Black and White Photography”.

Doe Eye to Smokey

We are still on our journey through periods in history. What has made an impression on the students is that in most decades, we repeat many make-ups with a slight twist.

This is very evident when working with our 1920’s and 40’s Make-up and Hair; the 1920’s ”Doe Eye”, a term used to explain the shape of the matt eye shadow placement on the eye, has now been replaced by the ”Smokey Eye“, which is the same shape, now using frosted eye shadows and liquid eyeliner for high fashion. The best way to apply this look is to do the dark eyes first and then finish up with your make-up as normal.

This way you will have a good clean make-up with strong eyes.

Our hair work for 1940’s is the foundation for today’s hair styles, so in our hair class this week we were perfecting hot roller sets, curling irons and blow drying, completing the exercise with a classic hair style.

White, White and more White Base

As we continued through our periods in history, we were challenged by the fact that all 3 make-ups this week require a white base, each different and interesting.

18th Century, Queen Elizabeth 1 and Cirque Du Soleil, all have a different approach to their application and completed look.

White bases are difficult to work with and if you are not careful your base will be ruined with a term called “Fall Out”. When applying eye shadow the colour falls to under the eyes and this is very hard to remove, so great care is needed.

Penny gave us our first wig knotting class and showed us the importance of measuring a head for a wig or bald cap. We also learnt another way to pre-set the hair for a wig using pin curls.