Very little make-up is required here as discussed. Kerns skin seems perfect for the role of Spencer in my mind, so the less we can add into it the better, as well lit shots should be translucent and paper like skin quality, and its nicer not to see make-up on the skin for this.
If Matt is keen to further enhance the wrinkles, go for a little grey/beige from the derma palette, smudge this into the bags under his eyes, run a little in the crows feet, the jowels and to enhance the cheekbones and neck lines. Making sure to blend the colours in so that they are subtle, and remembering that this process has to be repeated in exactly the same way ever time Kern is on set to keep the continuity.
For his hair, check how slick style Matt wants to see. If he wants it to look like someone has recently been called in to style Spencers hair, side part it, use the little hairspray bottle and then comb it out to the sides keeping the comb lines in.
If matt wants it to look like it was done in the recent past, eg a few days previously, just ruffle your hand through the above style, breaking up the parting a bit, making it almost look like he tried to do it himself but greatly struggled so gave up in frustration.
If he is to look like his hair hasn’t been done in a while, take some grooming creme by bumble and bumble in your hand and run it through his hair giging it a flatter messy look, like he has bed hair.
If his head hair or facial hair needs lightening at all, take the ‘skin illustrator’ palette and use a little I.P.A liquid to activate it, just add a few drops onto each colour and run a mascara brush through it to mix it a little, then its ready to use. Run it lightly through any hair needing lightened, being careful around the eyes, always advise the model to keep their eyes closed at this point as the fumes do sting a little if they go in your eyes. Make sure not to touch this for a few minutes until dry to avoid smudging it, to remove the colours just take more I.P.A on a baby wipe or cotton pad and wipe it off. Skin illustrators are both activated and removed with I.P.A(Isoprpyll Alcohol) and they are non water soluble so they dont wash off and are more resistant to sweat and rubbing on clothing etc.
Ideally Kern wont shave for the morning so there’s the tiniest trace of white stubble coming through, in the same way I noted on Tony’s character breakdown, you can enhance this image of stubble by lightly stippling on colour in the beardline, for Spencers light hair tones, you can use skin illustrator white and grey colours stippled on with the black stipple sponge if you’d like, this will stay on longer and be impervious to smudging. If you’re more comfortable using the grease palette though, that’s absolutely fine to use instead.
Hannah has three make-up states:
1. Withdrawn: How she appears in scenes going to work- She’s tired, probably woke up late and just pulled on clothes before racing into work so as not to be late. Her hair suits a low rough pony tail, maybe throw a clip in each side if it suits the look. If she comes in the morning with quit straight perfect hair, add some waves in with straightners perhaps, give it some movement. Pull it back into a hair bobble, but let it be messy, pull sections out and tuck them behind her ear for example.
Give her a base foundation, but if she has a warm skintone maybe lighten it slightly to make her look a bit more pale and unwell. She has to look pretty and likeable but withdrawn, so go for brown tones in the blusher for cheekbones. Add a little grey/beige in under her eyes and possibly into her cheekbones, being very sparing with the colour in the same way you would do with aging make-up, it has to look like shadow rather than a tone that has been added to the skin. Try adding a little red around the eyeline and the nostrils with either the red grease palette, a red lip liner or even the red gosh eye shadow pot. This will make her look like she’s been up late, her eyes and nose are sore and have possibly been running, if Matt would like to make this even more of an unwell look, add a little vaseline into this to make the skin look raw and tender. Try a little bit and see what he thinks.
Go for the brown mascara in these scenes and brush it through so it doesn’t look like she’s wearing any. If her eyebrows are really fair you can add a slight darker eye shadow tone to them to bring them out a little, but not by much.
2. Day looks: She’s tried to look a bit nicer to go out- Go for the black mascara now, a little lip gloss, still the traces of withdrawal and drug use visible under her eyes, in the sockets, cheekbones etc, it cant look like a different person altogether. Check with Matt what he’d like to see, but for me it would be nice to see her hair down and a very loose attempt at a style, whether thats slightly straighter or a little wave definition, Use your own judgment for what you think would work best here.Perhaps a little eyeshadow, nothing obvious or garish. This is jut something she’d put together in five minutes before heading out the door because she doesn’t want people to see how much of a mess she is. Possibly even a little lipstick, a dusky pink/purple colour perhaps, thinly applied and blotted off so as only to give the tiniest hint of colour.
3. Fantasy scene: Sex scene with Tony, ‘Tarted up’- Here we can go to town and really slap it on with the make-up, this is glamorous tarting up, more emphasis on tart than glamor though, it would be like Tony’s porn style fantasy. Ask Matt what colours he’d like to see, go for bold with possibly green eyes, probably smokey and blended into colour.Big lashes with generous mascara, Strong cheekbones leaning towards pinks are reds more than browns here. Probably more bright pinks with the lipsticks than reds, but maybe that ‘So cheud’ Mac red number would be quite nice here, I put in a selection so that you can play between different shades as you need to and create a colour that works in your mind.
If there’s time it would be nice to have her nails painted, not necessarily red as I put in the kit bag, but it depends on what colours you have. Any colour here that’s quite bright would be good in my mind, just so long as it’s not in any other scenes by accident.
For her hair, we’re going all out, so probably big set curls that are quite heavily sprayed. We want her to look sexy and attractive but a bit slutty here, so it’s like Tony’s ultimate fantasy, a hairstyle with movement to really make the most of them miming out the scenes ‘action’!
I cant stress to the team how important these are…
Take a portrait shot of each actor from both side, the front and the back from the shoulders up with a little height above the head, to see the full make-up and hair of each character.
take close up shots, being careful to make sure the camera adjusts for focus, on any wounds or details which have been added, this includes close ups of eye make-up and lips, bruises and wounds etc so that they can be touched up or re-produced on a different day as required. Remember there is a possibility of pick up shoots in the future so a detailed reference of what the characters need to look like is essential.
Make sure lighting is good when taking the photo, and that for every shot there is a version with the flash on and off in case sections are over exposed or too dark when reviewing the images later.
Too many photos are better than too few, cover all angles and it’ll make your lives easier as the shoot continues.
*i’m going to get someone in the team to send me some photos during/after the shoot so i can see how it’s gone, as I cant wait to see how the looks turn out. I have every confidence that you’ll do brilliantly Sandra, and everyone else on the team :)
No gelatine was used here, Just shading with bruise gels and derma/grease palettes to create light and dark areas to give the impression of a raised swollen area.
Colour matching getaline swelling- no blood on our wound as it was from a previous day.
For use we dont want the eyelids swollen as its too uncomfortable for the actor to wear over long periods without continuous re-application. This is just an idea for colouring and working red over the gelatine and around the cheekbone/eye socket.
*You can use the black stipple sponge to lightly apply reds/maroon shades with the grease pallete and take a little off with a baby wipe. This looks like broken capillaries under the skin from the impact.
You can do this one of two ways.
I’ve popped in a spare bit of gelatine in a slightly raised shape in the little container to have a practice with. If it’s going to be a wound that needs re-application, dont bother with the gelatine, stick to the bruise gels. Try it though, if you don’t feel too confident just use the bruise gels.
Apply a little pros-aide in the same way discribed in the bullet wound application, allow to become tacky, stick down where the cheek bone meets the outer corner of the eye, following the line of the cheekbone, leaving as much space between the wound and the eye as possible.
If the edges need thinned get the actor to shut their eye when adding a very small amount of witch hazel as the fumes will sting their eye. Get them to keep their eye closed while it dries and use a cool hair dryer to remove excess wounds if possible.
Colour match the skintone with derma/grease palette and then powder. Use a little of the bruise powder and smudge around the bottom of the skin below the wound, creeping onto the bottom of the wound itself ever so slighly. Add a little of the same bruise powder in a little blotted area above the eye on the socket bone so that it looks like this i an area of impact too, dont join these two areas up or anything, use the source references on previous tumblr posts here to get an idea how bruises form and what colours they are. You can use tiny sections of bruise gels next to these areas with purples/reds/yellows/browns if required to give a little more depth, fading to yellows and greens towards the edges as these sections heal quicker, then use a baby wipe to get rid of excess colour and powder over to make translucent. on the raised section, use a little of the light beige/pinky colour on top of the gelatine to bring this area forward while the dark tones recede, so that it looks like swelling.
If not using the gelatine appliances, use the bruise gels in this way to make the bruises. Make it darker in the centre points, fading out to the sides. Dont use all the colours, blue is probably the most difficult to use, so probably focus on the purples and browns for the areas with the deepest colour. Black eyes are not symmetrical, they are blotchy. Once you’ve removed the top layer of colour with a baby wipe and allowed this to dry so that it looks like the colour sits under the skin, then you can add a little of the bruise powder on top of the skin bringing the hole wound together.
*Talk to Matt about How big he wants the bruise and positioning.
Tony’s character is grimy, but not covered in dirt.
Don’t bother colour correcting blemishes or dark shadows, use the derma palette to add in a little darker shading(using grey tones, not the VERY dark tones on the bottom line) to enhance any circles under his eyes so he looks a little rough, like he’s slightly hungover or just doesn’t eat well and look after himself.
Skin: Take a little of the ‘dirty down’ mix on the end of a baby wipe, rub slightly into the wipe do not a big chunk. Rub the dirt over the actors hands pushing it into the creases and covering around and under the fingernails, being sure to get in between the fingers too.
Take a fresh baby wipe and remove 98% of the dirt, leaving only the remnants in the creases and under the nails, so that you can just see the dirt in the skin and no-more, so that it’s not sitting on top of the skin like he’s been at Glastonbury.
Repeat this process on his face, pulling thin sections of dirt diagonally. Have slightly more around his mouth but very lightly, smudges over the nose and through the eybrows etc. Do the same by removing the majority if the dirt so that it’s virtually all gone, just a slight indication of his poor hygiene to show he’s a bit of a grubby slob.
In the scene his character is introduces he is topless, if there a stark contrast to his face and hands, dirty his arms and chest/shoulders up a little(any skin that’s in shot) make it even less visible than his hands and face though as these two areas will be where he touches and gets dirty the most. We don’t want to make him look homeless or like something from an war/apocalypse film.
Don’t worry about powdering this character, if he gets a little shiny on set that’s ok, it will add to his look. If it’s way too hot on set under the lights and he’s dripping with sweat, just use tissues to get the worst of it off, checking the continuity photos as you go in case he sweats off the dirt make-up and needs slight re-application.
Hair: His hair is like his body, unwashed and a bit greasy.
Use the ‘Hair grease’ pot, use your fingers to run through is hole hair, a little goes a long way, from root to tip so that it looks like he’s neglected to wash his hair for some time.
Depending on his haircut length and style, i’ll let you judge the best way to style his hair. Ideally it’s shorter at the back and sides and slightly longer on top. If so, it’s simple, use the grooming creme, run through your fingers again and through his hair so that it’s all pulled forwards into the fringe. Then spray with the little hairspray bottle and pull the comb through his hair leaving the comb marks to set in the hair. you can use the ends of your fingers to twist the fringe ends slightly to remove any excess product and define the ends of the hairs into little downwards points if possible. Once dry, ruffle the hair a bit so that it looks like he styled it yesterday and then slept in it.
In the scene where he is meeting Hannah, dont ruffle the hair(or only ruffle it very slightly by comparison) so that he looks like he did it before going out.
If he has a longer fringe you can spike it up into that ‘duck bum’ shape at the front keeping it flatter and smoothing forwards at the sides and back, up towards the front.
If it’s really quite long and doesn’t suit this neddish style, either opt for the 90’s curtains look by parting it in the centre and pushing the fringe towards the sides of the face, so sending him for a cheap barbers haircut of a short back and sides if you can find this out the day before shooting that is.
*Ask John and Matt to advise the actor not to shave for 2 days or at lease a day to make it look like he’d neglected to keep up a grooming routine when we meet him. If his hair grows in quite quickly, get him to shave the night before shooting so that he’s stubbly in the mornings. If it grows slowly or he has light hair, get him to keep growing it for the shoot so that you can see a little growth.
If he shaves and it looks less than the shooting day before, use the black stipple sponge and the grease paint and match the colour of his beard, lightly stippling on a little colour in his beard to make it look like there’s more hair, keeping an eye on the continuity shots for reference as to how it looked before and how dark your aiming to match it too. If you add too much, blot it with a baby wipe or make-up remover on a cotton bud, being careful not to smear the greasepaint as we don’t want it to look like smudges or streaks of colour.
Adding in the blood,(smearing it and giving it texture with the orange and black stipple sponge where needed to cover the wound and the surrounding area).
