MAKE-UP ARTISTS – SILENT HEROES
Carolina Ljunggren & Emma Karlsson are stylist students at the Swedish “Drottning Blanhas Gymnasie” school. In early October they traveled to Sydney for a make-up internship at the Sydney Film School.
The internship opportunity came out of the visit our international Relations Manager, John Buckmaster, paid to the Swedish school in May this year. Drottning Blanhas students were hence invited to apply and Emma and Carolina were the luckiest two.
Preparations for the internship started prior to their arrival to Sydney through Skype conversations with Adam Grubner, a producer on one of the Sydney Film School Major Drama Productions (Web of Love). “Adam contacted us while we were still in Sweden and that’s when we’ve started planning,” say Carolina and Emma.
“He sent us a film script, info about the project and the picture of how they wanted the make-up to look.”
“We’ve arrived in Sydney 2 weeks before the commencement of the shoot and that’s when we were given more visual references and met with Manuel (director) and Amelie, the art director. We sat with them and planned how they wanted everything. We drew some designs and they looked at it. The best part was that when we were done with the shoot they told us they were so happy.”
Before coming to Sydney both Emma and Carolina had some experience working in a theatre and doing fashion and private make up but this was the first time they’ve had a chance to work on a film production.
“This is our first movie so it was really great to learn how everything is done behind the scenes. Otherwise when you see a movie you don’t think about that stuff. Now we think about every different angle. There are so many things that have to be right for the movie to be good. It is really interesting!”
“I think your students also learned a lot about make up. At the beginning they thought that an actor can be ready in 5 minutes so we had to say ‘No, that’s not gonna happen, it takes time’. I think everyone learned that. We’ve learned from each other and I think that’s the most important thing.”
“We’ve had lots of fun working on this production and the best part was being on the set and seeing all we’ve previously planned and discussed come to life.”
“At the end it seemed that everyone was happy with our work which was the biggest thing for us! Cause we always say to each other ‘Oh that looks really good’ but when someone else who doesn’t really know how make up should look like says that it looks really good on the camera it’s so fun to hear that.”
“There was a funny incident on the set one day. One of the main actors was supposed to look tired and we made him look tired and two camera girls were like ‘he has so dark circles around his eyes, can you fix that because he looks so tired’. We laughed and said ‘yep, that’s make up! He is supposed to look like that in this scene.’ It was so funny!”
“When we now compare theatre and film make-up it is hard to say which one we prefer. Both is fun! But it seems though that you get a closer connection with the people on the movie cause you have to be with them for 5 days and always be where the camera is and do the hair and make up.”
“The great thing is that now we have something to show to other people and we are planning to have a presentation of the movie and give our fellow students some tips about how the make-up needs to work on film when we get back.”
“Which tips will we give? Well definitely this one: ‘Once you finish the make-up ask the director or his assistant to look on the screen to make sure it will really look good on the screen. It might look good in real life but differently on the screen. Always check twice. If you need a touch up jump in after the take and say ‘You know what! I need to do a touch up!”. Be a bit pushy. Lots of people don’t realise how important make up is for the movie so it is your role to push this.”
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