article on make up techniques in film

Make-up in films is divided into three categories: basic which is designed to compensate abominable changes in the fundamental television process, corrective which enables enhanced affirmative attributes and deducts flaws and finally character make up which pioneers major changes.
 Basic make-up - I think this should be the make up category that we should conform to as it is the most realistic and we need reality to balance out the surrealsim which we are thinking of entailing in our piece.
Normal skin colour accommodates a certain amount of oil which can be exaggerated by the heat of studio lights and personal tension.

A shade of base or foundation is selected which matches the normal skin tones, unless the goal is to slightly lighten or darken all skin tones. There are about 20 shades available, but if for some reason the proper shade isn't available, shades can be mixed to provide an in-between shade.

A foam rubber sponge, is moistened slightly and used to apply the base or foundation to the face, ears, and neck.

With deeply tanned Caucasian skin tones it may be necessary to even out skin tones around the eyes or bridge of the nose by mixing the base or foundation with a touch of rouge.

Lighting Considerations

Makeup should always be checked, and if possible even applied, under the lighting that will be used in photographing the subject.

Even when video cameras are properly color balanced, sunlight, incandescent, and fluorescent lighting will all affect subject matter in different ways. For this reason, many makeup mirrors have adjustments for each of these types of light.

This consideration is particularly important with standard fluorescent light (if you can't avoid that type of lighting) because these lights tend to be low in red light and high in green.

Because normal skin tones contain a significant amount of green to start with, you may note obvious green skin tones under standard fluorescent light. The problem may be compounded if the makeup, itself, has green elements.

This is just another reason that you should use a high-quality, properly color-balanced video monitor to check the results.

Corrective make- up

through corrective makeup procedures it may be necessary to play down undesirable facial features and emphasize positive attributes through contouring and highlighting.

In corrective makeup we are starting with the base or foundation and then blending in shades or makeup that are either darker or lighter.

In contouring, a darker shade of makeup than the foundation or base is used to downplay features, such as a high forehead or an overly prominent nose.

Contouring can also be used to bring out the classic jaw line that's seen as desirable for women.

In this case, a darker shade of makeup is carefully blended into the foundation or base. To achieve this "classic look," the darker makeup will go from the chin line up to the earlobes and into the hollows of the cheeks.

In highlighting, the object is to reverse this effect — to emphasize or pull the eye toward certain facial features or areas. In this case, use a shade of makeup that is lighter than the foundation or base.

This approach should also be used in shadowy areas under the eyes and under the lower lip to keep them from looking unusually dark on camera. Either use makeup two to three shades lighter than the base, or a translucent white highlighter.

In the case of both men and women, color can be added to the cheeks by mixing a very light trace of rouge with the existing base makeup and then blending it in with a sponge.

After all this is done, it's often necessary to use some transparent powder to dull down some (but not all) of the facial sheen. This is normally applied with a powder puff or soft bristled brush.

sometimes there will be light spots on the skin, due to aging or whatever, that can be covered with a tanning spray, such as Walgreen's Deep Dark Tan Sunless Tanning Spray carefully painted on with a Q-tip. The spray rather than the lotion is best for this.

Since it takes a number of hours — even up to a day — before the effect becomes noticed, this is a technique that definitely requires planning ahead. And, since results aren't immediately apparent and last several days, you need to experiment with this technique well in advance of going on camera.

However, once mastered, this represents a relatively inexpensive and convenient way of keeping this type of skin discoloration hidden. Prescription skin dye is also available, for this purpose, but it's quite expensive.

Character makeup covers great range, from adding or subjecting years, to today's grisly science fiction and horror-film transformations. It would take a good-sized book to cover character makeup; and, in fact, numerous books have been written on the subject.

Since it has limited application in day-to-day production work, we well simply use the following photos to give you an idea of what can be done.