Local 706 - The Artisan

Fall 2018

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THE ARTISAN FALL 2018 • 67 Top: Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill with Oldman as Winston Churchill. Above: The real Churchills in 1941. Photo courtesy of Popper Photo/Getty Images. the style, the layout … all clear evidence that we were back in the 1960s. The whole motel was built on stage, including the parking lot and neon signs. Our actors, one-by-one, started to arrive for rehearsals, cos- tume fittings and make-up and hair tests. I was the only Local 706 member on the show coming from Los Angeles but every- one else of course, was a Canadian IATSE member. I was happy to work with Connie Parker again as my key (we had met in 2012) and Megan Harkness was first assistant. Anne Carroll ran the hair department. We had also worked together before and I was happy to reconnect. Dana Rutherford was Anne's key whose primary focus was on Dakota Johnson. Linnea Board was her first assistant. We were a great group of people working together. We kept our work embodiment professional and fun. Anne came down to Los Angeles for a fitting with Cynthia Erivo who was playing Darlene Sweet a few weeks back in order to get the wigs going. It helped a lot that Anne, who is a fantastic hairdresser, is also very much interested in make- up and the same goes with me vice versa with hair. One of the first make-up/hair tests we did was with Lewis Pullman's character, Miles, with the buck shots in his face. It was a thin line as we were going to see those buck shots throughout half of the movie and wanted to be sure that they were not obstructing or taking away from the action and Lewis' acting. I created little wax buck shots, made a siliancone mold and used Third Degree for the positive. Pros-Aide served as the adhesive. As for his hair, Anne gave Lewis a slightly grown-out military haircut so he could still showcase his beautiful wavy hair. He had to look "put together" without effort in order to support the nature of his character. Both Anne and I have a similar way of looking at things. This was really great as we could just be honest with one another when it came down to decision making. It saved a lot of time as well on set. Jon Hamm's character Laramie was very clean cut, clean- shaven with a presentable haircut. We wanted to make him appear very trustworthy, so any housewife would let him into their house. His make-up was a mix of camouflage with Visiora. The camouflage helped the make-up to stay in dur- ing scenes with all the rain. Jon spent a lot of time under those rain towers. We hosed him down, sprayed his face and glasses, put him under portable showers at the top of a take all day long. Cailee Spaeny's character Rose's make-up was pale and nat- ural looking with a fringe to give her this youthful innocent look. Anne was able to use Cailee's natural hair with move- ment to show off the younger carefree generation. Her hair was changed to a richer color due to the lighting on set. The new color just played better and had more depth on screen. This was in contrast to Dakota's character Emily's hair style. Dana gave her darker top/roots faded into a lighter color at the bottom of her mane, along with feathered bangs to finish the style but still to keep a resemblance to her sister. We did our research with books from the '60s and old magazines from back in the day. The 1960s were such a great period, all the new fabrics, textures, style, lashes, hair- dos, etc. This time, period seemed contagious and everyone was excited about it and had a great time preparing and get- ting ready for the first day of shooting. We wanted our characters to look the period, but natu- ralistic without making them look "cartoony" as they were just people showing up at a motel. Each of them with their own lives and backstories. Oftentimes, we believe that more is more but then again … once you take it all back a notch, it all becomes so much more real and identifiable. For us, it meant to create accurate silhouettes and looks for the period. A lot of love and subtlety went into that. I am not going to write about gluing lashes here on Cynthia Erivo's character Darlene, we all know how that works, but I want to reveal it is rather the style of lashes we picked and the shape, thickness and so on in order to tell a story and period. A movie is always a collaborative team effort. Between the director, costume designer, production designer, set decorator, hair and make-up, camera (Seamus McGarvey) and actors, we all have to pull on that same string in order to come up with the best choices possible to finally deliver the ultimate result. From left: Cailee Spaeny as Rose Summerspring; Jon Hamm as Laramie Seymour Sullivan/Dwight Broadbeck

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