"How the-- What did-- Why..." "This is why you never let directors do anything."
Over the weekend, we started makeup testing for the horror film rip-off homage. In addition to being in it, I'm doing principal make-up. The FX make-up guy and I were working on an actor and the director was being really antsy and all like, "I wanna do something! Let me do something!" So we let him do something.
The easiest appliance to put on is the one that was hardest to make. Girl gets hit on the head, blood squirts up onto bat, wig falls off, reveals bits of skull coming through her hair. It was difficult to make, but it's really simply to actually apply. It was designed so that it could be done using bobby pins.
The FX guy told director he could put it on the actress. His directions were "Everything you need is sitting on my table." Director proceeded to grab actress and sit her at the table. Then, he moved the packet of bobby pins off the appliance, picked up the appliance, and grabbed the bottle of Spirit Gum from the FX guy's box. For those of you who do not know, spirit gum is glue.
Then, he proceeded to use the spirit gum to affix the appliance to her hair. That's right: he *GLUED* the thing to her *HAIR*. And then he put the wig on and brought actress back to us.
We did the screen test for the actor we were working on and director liked it. So then we did the test for the actress. It looked magnificent and I doff my cap to FX guy 'cause he's good. Then we went to get appliances off people.
FX GUY: "Wow. You did a good job. I can't even see the bobby pins." DIRECTOR: "What bobby pins?" FX GUY: "The ones you used to put the appliance on." DIRECTOR: *shifty eyes* ME: "Please, tell me you used bobby pins to apply this." DIRECTOR: "I don't want to lie to you." ME: *tries to not panic* FX GUY: *too calmly* "What did you use?" DIRECTOR: "The stuff in the yellow bottle. Um...Spirit stuff?" FX GUY: *starts to freak out*
We tried not to let the actress figure out that something was wrong, but I think she knew that it shouldn't take two too-calm make-up heads to take off an appliance. Especially when we started praying under our breath. It was like something from a horror film. We squirted as much gum remover as we could under the appliance and then we'd slowly peel back a bit, and then squirt more remover and repeat until finished.
Fortunately, she still has most of her hair. A few strands were pulled out in places, but there were no giant clumps. And as far as I can tell it didn't discolour her hair. But I have learned a valuable lesson: NEVER let a director do anything.
Unrelated: Next week is Midway AKA the Return of Kav! I was wondering what my flist thought. Should I A) get someone in the comm who watches the ep on Friday to post a recap or should I B) just make a reaction post where people can talk about how excited they are before it airs and then talk about what they think after? WHat do you guys think?
The easiest appliance to put on is the one that was hardest to make. Girl gets hit on the head, blood squirts up onto bat, wig falls off, reveals bits of skull coming through her hair. It was difficult to make, but it's really simply to actually apply. It was designed so that it could be done using bobby pins.
The FX guy told director he could put it on the actress. His directions were "Everything you need is sitting on my table." Director proceeded to grab actress and sit her at the table. Then, he moved the packet of bobby pins off the appliance, picked up the appliance, and grabbed the bottle of Spirit Gum from the FX guy's box. For those of you who do not know, spirit gum is glue.
Then, he proceeded to use the spirit gum to affix the appliance to her hair. That's right: he *GLUED* the thing to her *HAIR*. And then he put the wig on and brought actress back to us.
We did the screen test for the actor we were working on and director liked it. So then we did the test for the actress. It looked magnificent and I doff my cap to FX guy 'cause he's good. Then we went to get appliances off people.
FX GUY: "Wow. You did a good job. I can't even see the bobby pins." DIRECTOR: "What bobby pins?" FX GUY: "The ones you used to put the appliance on." DIRECTOR: *shifty eyes* ME: "Please, tell me you used bobby pins to apply this." DIRECTOR: "I don't want to lie to you." ME: *tries to not panic* FX GUY: *too calmly* "What did you use?" DIRECTOR: "The stuff in the yellow bottle. Um...Spirit stuff?" FX GUY: *starts to freak out*
We tried not to let the actress figure out that something was wrong, but I think she knew that it shouldn't take two too-calm make-up heads to take off an appliance. Especially when we started praying under our breath. It was like something from a horror film. We squirted as much gum remover as we could under the appliance and then we'd slowly peel back a bit, and then squirt more remover and repeat until finished.
Fortunately, she still has most of her hair. A few strands were pulled out in places, but there were no giant clumps. And as far as I can tell it didn't discolour her hair. But I have learned a valuable lesson: NEVER let a director do anything.
Unrelated: Next week is Midway AKA the Return of Kav! I was wondering what my flist thought. Should I A) get someone in the comm who watches the ep on Friday to post a recap or should I B) just make a reaction post where people can talk about how excited they are before it airs and then talk about what they think after? WHat do you guys think?