Last month Local 706, the makeup union, held a meeting called High Definition Is Here to Stay at the Burbank Hilton. President Karen Westerfield opened the session by telling attendees that “high definition is more revealing than video… and heavy makeups won’t fly anymore.”The meeting was also attended by some members of Local 600, Rudy Pahoyo from Paramount Pictures’ camera department, and cinematographer Robert F. Smith (2nd unit on Bordertown). “By 2010, most everything would be shot in HD,” said Smith.Phillip Schneider, executive director of the Sun Safety Alliance in conjunction with Entertainment Industries Council, spoke of the importance of educating both crew and above-the-line talent on the often ignored advice about skin cancer and on adequate protection strategies.Vendors presented their own take on prepping actors for their unforgiving close-ups in front of HD cameras. Demos from Actifirm (skin prep) and Dinair (color applications) were followed by a Q&A on the issues of saturation of red pigments, tonal and textural problems, new application processes and differently formulated base foundations for all hi-def makeups versus traditionally taught applications and old school products.
Written by April MacIntyre
