London Instead Decided to Move Quite Literally out of Their Comfort Zone
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fter establishing itself over the A past six years as Europe’s pre- eminent industry event, the International Make-up Artist Trade Show could easily have rested on its well-deserved laurels, but for show number seven, organizers London instead decided to move quite literally out of their comfort zone. IMATS 2008, held Jan. 26- 27, was housed in London’s Alexandra Palace, one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks, from which the BBC made its first public TV transmissions back in 1936. And as palaces go, the venue felt oddly appropriate, thanks to the presence of make- 2008 up royalty—namely, six-time Oscar winner Rick Baker, who made his first-ever appearance at the London show. One of the biggest programming changes from previous U.K. events was to forgo the appearance of a keynote speaker on Saturday morning. With so many people making their way to a new venue for the first time, it made sense to start the day Students and off at a slightly slower pace, allowing attendees from around the world to spend a few hours finding their way around, as professionals from opposed to racing into the main hall to avoid missing a major presentation. That said, Saturday’s education component around the world kicked off at 10:30 a.m. with Neill Gorton’s silicone aging make-up application, at which he was assisted by Millennium converge on FX right-hand man Rob Mayer. Gorton has demonstrated to a packed house every year since 2002, and this time was no Alexandra Palace exception, with the main hall filling up nearly an hour before the scheduled start time. for Make-Up Artist’s Meanwhile, upstairs in the two Panorama rooms, the day’s first speakers took a decidedly back-to-basics approach. seventh annual Roque Cozette from Kett Cosmetics used the single word “beauty” as his starting point, while Belgian make-up artist London trade show Jos Brands, sponsored by Charles Fox, billed his talk as “HD Products and Techniques,” but took his listeners all the way By Joe Nazzaro back to the basics of color choice and light before moving Photography by Deverill Weekes into contemporary techniques. Kim Borio, presented by Royal Clockwise from Brush, offered a fundamental reassessment of the basic make- top left: Flavien up artist’s brush, using the face as a canvas. Odorin (second By this time, entrants in the Beauty/Fantasy competition from right) won first place in the were hard at work on their respective models. This year’s Character/Pros- theme was Greek Mythology, and judging from the crowds of thetic half of the student competi- onlookers that surrounded the competitors’ stage, that theme tion; Rick Baker provoked a great deal of creativity. attracted a crowd Saturday afternoon’s educators kept attendees busy; the at the Make-up Artist magazine only dilemma for most people was that they could only be booth; vendors in one place at a time. M.A.C.’s Terry Barber used his nearly offered a broad two decade’s worth of expertise in editorial, runway and range of cosmet- ics, tools and advertising to demonstrate the techniques of “super beauty,” demonstrations. while Temptu’s Michael Benjamin used his company’s newest line of products to spotlight a range of looks “from beauty to special FX.” Tony Valdes, presented by Elegance International, initially raised a few eyebrows with his presentation “The Art of Sex-Transformational Make-Up,” but his carefully researched look at the topic throughout Hollywood history 56 Make-Up Artist Number 71 Palace photo by Russell Moore www.makeupmag.com 57 Several models showed off IMATS vendors’ artistry and products. turned out to be one of the most thought-provoking talks of the day. Charles Porlier, returning to the show courtesy of Vancouver Film School, demystified the subject of high-definition image capture versus make-up art, while Eve Pearl, sponsored by Crown Brush, provided another angle on that subject by showing how to make hi-def beauty look easy (hint: it probably doesn’t hurt to have five Emmy Awards in the business!) Toward the end of the day, Fuse FX’s Guy Louis XVI tackled the subject of painting silicone appliances, a skill that will doubtless become more important as prosthetic make-up artists continue to make the leap from foam to silicone. y 3 p.m., the main hall was filled to capacity for the Beauty/Fantasy competition Bawards, sponsored again by Charles Fox. Tascia Guerrini from West Thames College won first place; Marion Clauss from Metamorphoses took second and Anu Pesonen from West Thames ranked third. Competition judges included Pearl, Cozette, Make-up For Ever’s Makka Elonheimo and David Martí and Montse Ribé (last year’s make-up Oscar winners for Pan’s Labyrinth), who reportedly had their work cut out for them in choosing the three finalists. The day’s programming was originally scheduled to end with a dual keynote panel featuring Harry Potter make-up chief Amanda Knight, and Nick Dudman, who has supervised make-up/creature effects on the series since the first film. Unfortunately, Knight had to cancel her appearance at the last minute due to a back injury on set, leaving Dudman (backed up by a large group of his crew members in the audience for moral support and occasional good-natured heckling) to be interviewed solo by show organizer Michael Key. Although Dudman has been a consistent presence at IMATS, this was his first time back in the keynote seat since the inaugural show in 2002. This time, he talked about his seven-year relationship with the Harry Potter franchise, starting with the fact that he turned down the first film at least three times before finally signing on. He also 58 Make-Up Artist Number 71 www.makeupmag.com 59 discussed the recent trend of choosing CGI over make-up (“It’s easier for a producer or director, because they don’t have to make decisions”), the problems with running a big crew Clockwise from left: Baker and Key Counterclockwise (“When you’re running a department that has 125 people, at Sunday’s keynote address; Pan’s from top right: Neill you’re dealing with 125 creative, emotional people”) and the Labyrinth artists David Marti and Gorton’s presenta- Montsi Ribe were student competi- tion and finished part that luck has played in his own career. “When I started tion judges; crowds packed the main age make-up; being approached by people, it was the ‘90s and there was a hall to hear featured speakers; Nick Charles Porlier lot of money about,” he recalled. “There was a lot of stuff Dudman and Francesca Tolot spoke discusses hi-def about their careers. image capture happening and not too many other people around, so I was and make-up; John very lucky. I have never thought of myself as being the best Schoonraad demon- strates life casting. at what I do; in fact, I’ve made a point of surrounding myself with a crew who each in their own capacity are much better at what they do than I am!” The day’s activities adjourned with the traditional Afterglow party, which over the years has become one of the show’s biggest informal networking opportunities. Judging from the number of people crowded into the Phoenix Bar on Saturday night, that tradition appears to have continued in a big way. f the first day began quietly, the second started with a Ibang, thanks to the arrival of Rick Baker, who put aside his hectic pre-production work on The Wolfman at nearby Pinewood Studios to serve as a keynote speaker. Within minutes of the doors opening that morning, the main hall was already filled to capacity, with many attendees flying in from all over the world specifically for that event. Russell Moore For some of the students and future make-up artists, Baker’s keynote chat was inspirational, as he recounted his long and single-minded struggle to become a make-up artist, starting from the day he discovered an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland while accompanying his mother to the supermarket (but was unable to buy it at the time due to a lack of 35 cents), to his early mask-making attempts at age 13, to a discouraging early encounter with the union’s business rep. “It was my first experience with negativity towards that kind of work,” he remembered. “He basically said to me, ‘Kid, first of all, you’re never going to get in, and these jobs are few and far between!’” Undeterred, Baker eventually realized that the make-up artist 60 Make-Up Artist Number 71 www.makeupmag.com 61 Clockwise from top left: Tascia Guerrini’s winning Beauty/Fantasy make-up; student competition mod- els undergo make- Cliff Wallace’s Make-up Museum showcased up application and movie creatures from various decades. judging, then pose whose work he kept seeing in Famous Monsters was a gentleman for photos. named Dick Smith, and the rest was history. espite the fact that he should have been back at Dthe studio getting ready for a big make-up test the following day, Baker did his best to stay at the show as long as he could, first meeting with attendees at the Make-Up Artist magazine booth, which was quickly surrounded by people standing 10 deep to get a quick autograph or photo. And just an hour later, Baker was pressed into service as one of the judges for Sunday’s Prosthetic/Character competition, which in his honor featured the theme “An American Werewolf in London,” the film for which Baker won his first Oscar more than two decades earlier.