Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1256324
50 • THE ARTISAN SPRING 2020 communication between four trailers. Silvi is someone I have worked with in the past and really respect not only as an artist, but as a person. I love working with artists like Silvi, Richard Redlefsen and Alexei Dmitiew, who are solid artists in both prosthetics and beauty, so the communication and transition from one department to the other or the ability to jump in where needed made them necessities on a daily basis. I know I couldn't have run the show without the amazing teamwork of everyone, including Mike Ornelaz as prosthetic 3rd and the more than 237 artists to come play with us and so many Star Trek alumni like Brad Look, Ron Pipes, Scott Wheeler and Suzy Diaz. When creating new characters, I not only looked to older episodes, I also looked into works my friends have done in the past to draw inspiration from. As fun as creating new characters is, the real fun for me was recreating iconic make-ups like Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan, Hugh Borg, played by Johnathan Del Arco, and of course, Data, played by Brent Spiner. Data was a nostalgic make-up for me because I remember applying an arm piece on him alongside the incomparable Michael Westmore on First Contact, and watching the 90-minute make-up being applied in awe of the skill and amount of product being used. The first thing I did before tackling that make-up was get in touch with Michael and ask him how he did the make-up. Since a lot has changed in make-up over the past 23 years, I had to come up with a new formula that was easy to apply and take off, but still held up for 18 hours and to HD cameras. I ended up using Kryolan Aqua Color 322, which Michael used on Data's hands, as his base mixed with Kryolan Sealer instead of water to lock that in for the day. Then I hit it with my secret mix of some metallics from Skin Illustrator PPI colors. With this, I was able to knock Brent's chair time down to 50 minutes for application and under 30 minutes for cleanup. Silvi Knight, Assistant Department Head Beauty Make-Up I first heard about Picard in January 2019, when James called and asked if I'd be interested in being assistant department head for him on a new Star Trek project. James and I have been good friends for some time now and over the years we have developed a lot of trust and respect for one another. Early in the conversa- tion, James told me he would be department head of prosthetics and designer to beauty, but due to the demanding prosthetic requirements of the show, he would need me to oversee and run the beauty department. We immediately started to create our teams. I had the phenomenally talented Robin Beauchesne as my key. We were thrilled for the chance to work together again. Peter De Oliveria was Sir Patrick Stewart's make-up artist, and a true team player. David Williams was our 3rd, helping cover main cast and managing BG on big days. Working with people you trust, respect and whose work you admire, is a blessing and can be a lot of fun, but clear commu- nication is paramount on a show like Picard. Our teams worked in separate trailers (often many), and we all needed to be on the same page. Timing became a dance. Working on Picard was slightly different than other shows for me because the series was divided into five, two-episode "blocks." We would break down and prep two episodes, then a few weeks later, begin prep on the next two episodes. It really felt like you were prepping a feature film in the midst of principal photography of another feature. With Picard being my foray into the Star Trek franchise, my research consisted of delving deep into the Star Trek canon, to familiarize myself with the various interplanetary species and understand the Prime and Kelvin timelines. As for the "Stardust City Rag," the Freecloud club-goer looks were inspired by gen- der neutral avant-garde editorial make-up and the gold Synths of Coppelius were inspired by the Data make-up. In order to create a complete character look, collaboration with the hair and costume departments was essential. The characters of Dahj/Soji/Sutra were at times, the most challenging because I would often have to switch their charac- ter look within the shooting day (and sometimes, within the scene). While Dahj/Soji was not a big issue, since they were identical twins, the make-up change was subtle, using a differ- ent color palette for each character. But when she played Sutra, a synthetic life form much like Data, she had to be painted gold, head to toe. We shot those scenes at a remote Malibu loca- tion, 30 minutes away from our base camp with zero cellphone reception. For the change-over, we would shuttle Isa Briones to a mini-trailer, 10 minutes away, where we were given about 1½