Makeup

[Christoffer]

Now that we move into high resolution cinema and the resolutions consumers have in their home theatre, it becomes more and more difficult to hide skin imperfections in resoultion.

With SD resolution you could shoot an actor without any makeup and still get a descent smooth skintone. In HDV there are so many imperfections and compression artifacts that you sometimes can't see what is what :)

But with the resolution of Red One and Scarlet, you will be able to see every spot and imperfection on the skin.

I've tried to find some good choices in makeup that doesn't look like makeup but just natural. The basic thing is a powder in different skintones to match different colors of skin. It's also good to have because you can push colorgrading even more without loosing a natural skintone.


Do any of you know any good labels that is perfect as film makeup?

[Peter Majtan]

I personally like to see all those little imperfections in the skin - it makes it more "cinematic" for me. But You have razed a very good point - I know few actresses that wouldn't like to see their face "resolved" at 3K/2K...

[Craig Ryan]

the job of the DP and the makeup artists are really to bring out features/textures or hide unwanted imperfections/features.

[Craig Ryan]

One way for indies to go about finding a makeup artist is to check out the cosmetology department at your local community college if you live near one. You're bound to find some eager and enthusiastic makeup artists there to work with.

[Cedric_Akins]

That is a very, very good idea. Luckily my cousin is a student at one and she likes the practice when I have been asked If I know some one who does makeup.

[Bryan Arnold]

You can do some damage control with the 3-way color corrector by selecting the skintone and play with the hue, levels, saturation and softness. Even if the make up is good you can still create nice skintones this way.

It's hard to find good makeup artist for low budget HD productions. I find myself using a lot of layers and blurry effects to make skintones look not to detailed.

[Christoffer]

blurry effects to make skintones look not to detailed

I don't mean to be harsh or hostile but I have never seen such blurtools look good.
There are some things you can't do in post. I colorgrade all my material and the final result usually have a tone of either cold or warm, but I never use vignetting, blurs, soft or glow because those look cheap and always bad. I would suggest you to not use it.

If you do it on location it's going to be good throughout the process. And if I want a makeup artist I have connections for that, but for the really low budget stuff I need something to use myself. I don't mind educating myself in basic skintone makeup.

Does anyone know about what basic skinpowder to use? I just need something to even out imperfections.

[Luke Stewart]

I would shy away from powder based foundations and use a cream based foundation instead. Not sure about film or TV, but in theater a base foundation layer is mandatory to cut the oily sheen the bright stage lights bring out on the actor's faces.

[scigoat]

Kryolan (http://[URL="http://www.kryolan.com/en/Home/http://www.kryolan.com/en/Home/Home.htm[/URL]) has a gang of products that camouflage blemishes. They have an outlet across the street from where I work and it seems thier primary focus is theatre. The only real experience I have with make up is when I shoot reporter stand-ups. Some people spend a considerable amount of time making themselves up. The most basic set up i've seen was that of a TV show host I worked with. He had an entire make up kit, but normally he would use a hard cream foundation that matched his skin, then some powder that was similiar in color, to kill any sheen. One time he had a big pimple on his lip and used what I think is called a concealer in the makeup biz - sort of what the Kryonlan stuff does I think. We never got much closer than a medium CU on this guy though.

[Bryan Arnold]

I don't mean to be harsh or hostile but I have never seen such blurtools look good.
There are some things you can't do in post. I colorgrade all my material and the final result usually have a tone of either cold or warm, but I never use vignetting, blurs, soft or glow because those look cheap and always bad. I would suggest you to not use it.

If you do it on location it's going to be good throughout the process. And if I want a makeup artist I have connections for that, but for the really low budget stuff I need something to use myself. I don't mind educating myself in basic skintone makeup.

Does anyone know about what basic skinpowder to use? I just need something to even out imperfections.

I don't think it would look good if the blur is obvious or if the footage has to look realistic. However, not everybody's makin the same kind of video's. Maybe in your segment of the market it's more about story telling. In that case I would strongly suggest you to keep doing things your own way. With a certain type music video's I can get away with it, as long as it fits.

I would also suggest to use powder with care cause it's clearly visible in HD close-ups and will definitly show in 3K.

[Christoffer]

cause it's clearly visible in HD close-ups and will definitly show in 3K.
Which is why I ask for film makeup-brands because. I have already said that I need makeup because high resolution film makes it possible to see too many imperfections in the skin of the actors. If I realize that I can't do it myself I will bring someone in but I already know the stuff your talking about, I have been a photographer for six years and the thing is that my models have all been female and used their own makeup. So now i need my own that I can apply to situations where the person clearly doesn't have it.

I would shy away from powder based foundations and use a cream based foundation instead. Not sure about film or TV, but in theater a base foundation layer is mandatory to cut the oily sheen the bright stage lights bring out on the actor's faces.


I think that won't work very good in high resolution, but I'm not sure... got to look into that.

kryolan


Thanks for the tip!

[harmonica]

With the advent of HD cameras what seems to be lacking imo, is the understanding around how make-up needs to change in order to compliment the increase in resolution on the HD cams. I think most make-up artists will have to learn airbrushing and invest in airbrushing equipment if they want to work on films that employ HD cams, certainly a Scarlet cam.

Merely getting the latest beauty school student to bring a tackle box full of pancake make-up isn't going to translate. You will see the make-up. Airbrushing is the way to go.

[Christoffer]

Airbrushing is the way to go

That sounds like a realistic approach. How does airbrush makeup work? Is it a gasdriven brush with almost the same substance as in usual makeup?

As for makeup it should work with the same as what they use when shooting 35mm right? Haven't seen any airbrushers on those sets though...

[Eddy Robinson]

I've worked with a very, very experienced makeup artist - don't want to name-drop, but he's got one of the longest resumes around and has made up more starts than I'm ever likely to meet. He just uses regular tools and has a 'less is more' approach - the big mistake of most makeup artists is to overdo it and pancake the stuff. His main thing is organization - every actor has their own ziploc bag with their foundation etc. etc. and their own sponges and brushes, which he keeps at the makeup station/trailer.

[crimson238]

Hey all, I'm new here and have been lurking 'round as I'm probably going to upgrade to a Scarlet when it comes out. Just noticed the Make-up thread and figured I'd give my 2 cents.

For makeup, I find that in conjunction with power for sheens, and creamer cover up for a base, that a slight diffusion filter can really help on the close-ups. of course, you don't want to over-do it, and make it noticeable; but a 1/4 blackpromist, or 1/2 classic soft goes really easy on a good deal of the actresses I've shot @HD resolutions.
Just a little more to think 'bout.

[Christoffer]

I don't like soft images, think they look like bad american TVshop images.
I like clean, good looking images and if the actor has a mole then let him have it. Better that then having unrealistic or weird looking images.
I'm more for the David Fincher looks then anything else.

[Chris Newman]

I don't like soft images, think they look like bad american TVshop images.
This seems like a reason to do it in post with a secondary CC, so it only softens the skintones, but don't do so much that it's weird.

[Chris Newman]

I would shy away from powder based foundations and use a cream based foundation instead. Not sure about film or TV, but in theater a base foundation layer is mandatory to cut the oily sheen the bright stage lights bring out on the actor's faces.
One time I had an actor, who normally does theater, show up with his cream foundation already on, and it was horribly cakey and unnatural, so go very easy on the cream foundation, if at all.

[Craig Bowman]

Actually just a touch of make-up is what usually looks better. After shooting 4k for a number of months having too much is the worst.

[Christoffer]

This seems like a reason to do it in post with a secondary CC, so it only softens the skintones, but don't do so much that it's weird.

You can't get rid of softfocus if it's already on the original image.

[Stefan Christou]

Do any of you know any good labels that is perfect as film makeup?

The makeup artists I work with tend to use Mac (http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk/).