Local 706 - The Artisan

60 • THE ARTISAN SUMMER 2021 her. Gina uses IT Cosmetics foundation on Josie and strip lashes. Kati uses Make Up For Ever and Urban Decay on Alycia. Our fi rst season of Saved by the Bell consisted of 10 episodes, and we would shoot one episode a week. We were working on our seventh episode when we heard we'd be shutting down because of something they were calling COVID-19. At the time, we had three shows left, and that's only three weeks. We were hoping we could quietly fi nish. We became diligent about cleaning counters, doorknobs and handrails. Meanwhile, more shows started to go on "hiatus." I will never forget the day that everything changed. We were shooting in the Max, and Franco called me over. He said because of COVID-19, we would be taking a two-week hiatus. That night, we cleaned and covered everything and left Universal for our two-week hiatus. Sometime in the next week, we were informed that our two-week hiatus would become an extended hiatus. We had left a fully loaded trailer, so when the weather started getting warmer, I became concerned about the make-up and skin care that we had left behind. I got permission to go on the lot and into the trailer and remove any products that would go bad in the heat. They would only give permission to department heads. Kimberly had removed items from the trailer earlier that morning. I arrived at a trailer with no power and packed up and removed all the skin care and make-up and anything that would go bad in the heat. This included my kit and my keys' kits. That two-week hiatus turned into almost fi ve months. We returned at the end of July. I believe we were the fi rst scripted show to return. When we left, we had one make-up trailer with six artists and one make-up room. We returned to four make-up trailers and one make-up room. We added Vicky Lee Chan and Erin LeBre to our team. I did the same setup in all trailers so we could follow the same COVID protocol. This time, most of us would not be going to set. The trailers were lined up just outside the stage doors so we could do last looks right before the actors entered the stage. The actors were required to wear KN 95s and shields at all times they were not being fi lmed. If someone needed to be touched up on set, we had small customized bags for them that lived on the stage. Vicky Lee Chan was on set and she would guide the actor to what needed to be touched up. The actor then did the touch up. She would also set up the make-up stations and clean and store the actor bags in a clean zone that she had created. After we did touch ups in the trailer, we would watch the monitors and send texts to Vicky if we saw something that needed to be adjusted. When we moved onto a new shot, the actors would go to their make-up artist trailer to get touched up. Kati, Gina and Erin and I all agree that we have never done so many touch ups on a job. And we all dreamt of some day returning to set. The masks were removing make-up and we would touch up just in case the camera saw a piece of them. During our fi ve-month hiatus, editors and producers edited the show and came up with reshoots and pickups for all episodes that were shot. Kimberly and I enjoy a challenge and joke that continuity is our middle name. With the help of our teams, we did it. We shot seven episodes, took fi ve months off, shot three more episodes, pickups, reshoots and inserts on a show that is streamed (aka binge-watched) in one day. So, everything better match. Happy to say that we did it. I'm really proud of this job, proud of my team and proud of this show. • The make-up team (above, L-R): Make-up artist Vicky Lee Chan, Department Head Make-up Kathleen Karridene, key make-up Gina Ghiglieri, key make-up Kati Urszuly. Right: Urszuly and John Michael Higgins.

• Cover