Greetings from the International Makeup Trade Show in Pasadena, CA! This was an exciting show with a great lineup of speakers and demonstrators. Yours truly demonstrated for Temptu Makeup Airbrush System and Temporary Tattoos.
During a lively conversation about movies—both big budget and low/no budget—a question came up about how to portray characters with respect to makeup. Does the character look historically correct, or “real,” for the sake of the character, or just look “good’ for the sake of the actor? Is some special-effects makeup done to the point of “overkill” just to get a reaction from the audience?
I knew what my opinion was both as a makeup artist and as a viewer. As a viewer I wanted to know that a character portrayed in the 1930’s era has the look in hair, makeup and costume that is evidenced by the trends and history of the time. However, as a makeup artist, past experience has shown that a Director that liked the long curly 70’s era hair of a particular actress was not going to bend to the hairdresser’s objections to being historically correct with finger waves.
Makeup Artist Kevin Haney—whose credits include Artificial Intelligence: AI, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (TV ), Kissinger and Nixon (TV)—having just finished an astonishing prosthetic and airbrush demonstration, was willing to take a few minutes to answer my questions…
Davida Simon: So Kevin, what does good vs. real makeup in film mean to you?
Kevin Haney: A director can use artistic, creative choice to make a woman in a period picture look prettier by using a more modern approach. For example Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) or Madonna in Dick Tracy (1990). Directors Arthur Penn, and Warren Beatty didn’t want them to have a period look, they just wanted them to look good.
DS: Good as in prettier, but not good as in authentic?
KH: It’s a question of fastidiousness. If the set design is period, to put a modern makeup or hair into that would be wrong, for example the hairstyles in Swing Kids (1993), which looked more 1950’s than 1942.
DS: Here’s another example. Gore Vidal’s Left Handed Gun (1958), directed by Arthur Penn, was filmed just before the period when gritty realism came into motion picture. In the film the characters Pat Garrett (John Dehner) and Billy the Kid (Paul Newman) were perfectly clean and pressed after miles of hard riding by horseback on a dusty trail. Later in 1973, Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid shows just such gritty realism in the film’s characters and set design.
So as an artist, how do you feel when you know the character should look one way, and they (director, actor, producer) say “no”?
KH: That’s what the director’s job is, he presents his idea and the makeup artist, production designer, and even the cinematographer can have their artistic choice, that’s called creative differences and sometimes the artist has to walk away if he or she feels strongly enough.
DS: What about blood and gore?
KH: I’m desensitized by it. I’d like to see a balance. If it’s important to the story and they take it out because it’s offensive, then there is a loss in the story they are trying to tell.
DS : Do you think filmmakers are going overboard?
KH: There are films made specifically (to go overboard). That’s what’s great about DVD. There are the rated and unrated versions.
But historically, for example, in Once Upon A Time in The West (1968) , by Sergio Leone, some of the gore in that is typically Italian Cinema. Or take all the Zombie Films. At the time these films were being shot, that’s what realism was.
DS: And today?
KH: We live in a great time. As the media change, so our techniques change. The tools that we have now are so much better than what they had in the 30’s and 40’s. When I think of the hot lights, and those guys using spirit gum to keep all those mobile appliances on the characters in Wizard of Oz…
I thanked Kevin for his time, and thought some more about the issue of looking good vs. looking real.
When asked if low/no budget filmmakers should skimp on experienced makeup artists and use lesser experienced friends or newcomers, show attendees gave “You get what you pay for” as the resounding answer. This takes on even more importance, in my opinion, with increased shooting in HD. Characters shot with prosthetics, wigs, mustaches and beards have their own specialized reality problems. The edges of appliances and lace must be perfect, or perfectly lit. Otherwise, the clarity of HD will reveal every flaw.
So, I guess looking good and looking real is part of the creative process depending on the film. We are all artists hired on to do what we do best. Hopefully we’ll all be on the same page creatively. And if not, as a cinematographer said to me many years ago, “hey, this isn’t reality. It’s the movies!”
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