An Embarrassing Moment I'll Never Forget!

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In the film industry “time is money” and this means every second counts, so when you are doing final checks you have seconds to decide whether to re-do, fix or leave it for the next take.

Ultimately it would be great to have 2 sets of hands as you never seem to have enough when it comes to checking groups of people…or teams of rugby players.
My story is a short one, one that gave me such a numbing fright that I actually blushed! For the tabloids, this would have been Heat magazine material. Ok so you are wondering what I am on about?

Can U spot Matt Damon?

At the beginning of this year we worked on "The Rugby Movie".
Yes the one with Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon,
I’m sure you have heard of it and seen many stories in our local magazines and newspapers. OK, so it wasn’t that technical, just a lot of running around after a bunch of boys. With no final checks allowed we had to do our work on the sly or at least where Mr.E couldn’t see us. This meant we had to do “award winning” make-up in less than two seconds, on 30 men while trying to balance all your goods in your two hands.

The only time that a scheduled final check was allowed was when the director and DOP felt the need for specific make-up like sweat, blood, bruising, dirt & scratches, all to be done in minutes on 30 rugby players, signifying the end of a grueling rugby match.
It was during one of these checks that we had to run in & spritz the boys down so that they were dripping with sweat.
I was armed with a 1Lt spritz bottle, running through the boys doing my best to get them all. As my fingers were furiously pumping water onto their faces, I caught myself 2 seconds too late, as I looked into these piercing blue eyes in front of me and realized I had just spritzed Matt Damon! I froze with embarrassment for a few seconds (remember seconds count),
then quickly made my apologies...a friendly smile from Matt assured me that it was ‘all good’ and that it was ok to continue. I totally forgot what I was supposed to do after that, as I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I had just embarrassed myself in front of, one of HOLLYWOODS best looking men. This was yet another fine memory to add to the list.

Top Tip for Make-up Artists:

Always look before you Spritz...and give thanks for working with down to earth "Human" actors.

Enjoy every moment good or bad, it's what makes this job worth while!

By Natasha du Toit

U B.beautiful. Artist

HORROR HORROR HORROR!!

http://www.ubbeautiful.co.za/

HORROR HORROR HORROR!!!

If U don’t have the stomach for gore & blood then I suggest U don’t go & see the latest thriller I just worked on...

“THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT”

In March last year I had the awesome challenge of doing an outrageous Horror film produced by the horror icon himself, Wes Craven (with Universal’s Rogue Pictures). This was a remake of the original 1972 horror that was banned from the UK for 35yrs because of its gruesome content.

For a team of Make-up artists/friends it was a dream job. We had so much FUN that we called it 'Our Joy Movie!'

The Team: Simone, Meg, Kerry & Chiara

We each designed the looks for our actors from their beauty make-up & hair to the special effects & blood. I designed the make-up for Emma Collingwood (played by Monica Potter) & Paige (played by Martha MacIsaac) both of whom had countless cuts/ scratches/wounds & dirt, as well as being wet for most of the movie. All of these effects ‘of course’ are created by the make-up artists, not only once, but again & again back & forth throughout the filming process, it’s called ‘Continuity’.

My prep began with making THE BLOOD needed for the movie ( litres & litres) , not only for the make-up department, but the props, set dressing, special effects & prosthetics departments too.
As the blood featured so much in the movie (a lead character all on its own) I had to make the perfect colour, depth & consistency needed for the specific lighting & technical camera work being used. If that wasn’t difficult enough I had to get the blood to look realistic moving in the water, as well as adhere to the actor’s skin… in the rain. Needless to say I was kept very busy & quite enjoyed the passing comments from the crew, all of whom thought I looked like a witch brewing her cauldron! ‘Boil, boil… toil & trouble’ What FUN!

Despite the content we were filming the crew & actors had huge amounts of fun, laughing in between takes & playing pranks during the most horrific of scenes.

This is just one example of how the audience never knows what actually goes on behind the scenes. After working on movies like this I have just one thing to say…

‘I love my job’

by Simone Stubbs

U B.beautiful. partner