Cosmeceutical and haircare titans Olay and Pantene, along with the Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical Employees Local 706, partnered to host the second annual Emmy Symposium.
The industry event was held Aug. 11 at the Paramount Theater on the Paramount lot and honored Local 706’s Emmy-nominated makeup artists and hair stylists.
The theater held a catered cocktail reception followed by a symposium, hosted by Sue Cabral-Ebert, president of the Local 706 and Local 706 guest speakers Bruce Grayson and Sean Flanigan.
Grayson, the 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards makeup department head, and Flanigan, the department head hair stylist for Grey’s Anatomy, shared their insights and the latest product news from Olay and Pantene before 150 attendees.
The evening’s festivities also included a video montage of Emmy-nominated work and a Q&A session with the Emmy nominated department heads for makeup and hair styling.
Nomination for outstanding makeup for a series (non –prosthetic)
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, episode “Fannysmackin,’” featured department head Melanie Leavitt, key artist Tom Hoerber, special effects guru Matthew Mungle and Clinton Wayne.
Leavitt noted the team’s use of stay colors, cream colors, Kleenex and duo buildups, collodion cuts, scar’em cuts and wax for eye swelling. Art Anthony wax, pig masks tied on with string, stitches, bandages, dried blood, regular blood, sponges in the mouth, and sponges on the face and cut-up latex sponges.
* Dancing with the Stars featured nominees Melanie Mills, Zena Shteysel, Patty Ramsay and Nadege Shoenfeld. They described the challenges of keeping hair and makeup in place during the day long shoots and strenuous rehearsals. “Everything was live, the work began at 9 a.m. for makeup and hair,” says Mills. The body makeup used was spray California tan in an amber hued stain made for the artists.
* Deadwood, for the episode “I Am Not the Man,” featured artists John Rizzo, Rob Snyder, Bob Scribner and Jim Scribner. The crew talked about the look they needed to emulate for their principals and extras, since there was no plumbing, and water and bathing were at a premium, dirty was the norm, and the use of makeup subtle given the constraints of the time period. The Adams House Museum was cited as a place of research.
“We worked with 175 extras and principals, and depending on your station in life, miners were dirtier than the townsperson,” shared Rizzo.
* Mad TV featured nominees Jennifer Aspinall, Heather Mages, James Rohland and David Williams, who revealed the breakneck pace they have to create characters, comparing it to theater work. The artists work mostly out of their kit, with some prosthetics used in recreating the essential look of the star being copied.
“When you are doing sketch, you go for a caricature of the person you use broad strokes,” Aspinall said.
Nomination for outstanding prosthetic makeup for a series, miniseries, movie or special
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, episode “Living Legend.” Nominees are Leavitt, Hoerber, Mungle and Wayne. Special effects master Mungle broke down the best of the episode that featured Roger Daltry as mobster Mickey Dunn, wearing disguises.
As the Mexican fisherman, Daltry had an application of a silicone nose, cheeks, forehead and gelatin ears. Beard, eyebrows, and brown contact lenses were also applied.
For the character of Johnny D’Angelo, he also had silicone cheeks, nose, gelatin ears, lace van dyke and contact lenses, and as Pamela Voorhees, a black woman, Daltry had a full foam forehead and lower face appliance to reshape his face and added contact lenses.
Mungle noted that all of the prosthetics were applied so that Roger could wear them throughout each day’s shooting and remove them on camera to show he was wearing a disguise.
A full open-chest autopsy was recreated by Mungle and company and was applied to one of Mickey Dunn’s victims. Mungle also noted that all of the flashback sequences required 1970s-period facial hair and makeup applications.
* Grey’s Anatomy, episode “My Favorite Mistake.” Nominees are Norman Leavitt, Brigitte Bugayong, Tom Burman and Bari Burman. Their work noted was a transitional makeup over several episodes where a woman, Jane Doe, was severely injured in a ferry boat disaster. At the time of the episode the disfigurement and swelling had gone down enough so that the doctors were able to do the surgery to reconstruct her face.
* House, episode “Que Sera Sera.” The nominees are Dalia Dokter, Jamie Kelman, and Ed French. Dalia described the challenge of working with an actor wearing such a massive prosthetic fat suit that took two weeks to make. The character is a 600-pound man who is bedridden.
They had a nurse on call for the actor and used a combination of foam for the bulk of the fat suit. She noted the help of the art department who devised a clever slant board to take the weight off the actor for the seven days the scenes took, sometimes starting at 2:45 a.m.
* Mad TV , episode “1203.” The nominees are Jennifer Aspinall, Heather Mages, James Rohland, Randy Westgate and Scott Wheeler. The episode featured a movie parody called Madea’s Next Movie, where two black men in drag and fat suits are portraying two old women; one woman portrays a man who is in drag as an old woman, and two guys portraying the Wayans brothers as “white chicks” all in one segment.
Aspinall noted that she “duplicated other people’s famous makeups.”
* Nip/Tuck , episode “Conor McNamara.” Nominees are Eryn Krueger, Stephanie Fowler, Oscar winner (Lemony Snicket) Bill Corso and Oscar nominee (Passion of the Christ) Christien Tinsley. The ensemble cast of Nip/Tuck ages 20 years in this episode, one of the more difficult processes to do subtly.
Tinsley discussed his technique for aging, using a transfer prosaid base, lots of stipple, silicone neck appliances with Corso doing the makeup on Julian McMahon.
“We were going for a combination look of Cesar Romero, George Hamilton and Burt Reynolds,” said Corso, who also worked on the film Click! with Adam Sandler with Kazuhiro Tsuji. They were both nominated for an Oscar for that film.
Outstanding Hair Styling for a series
* Dancing with the Stars , episode 303. Nominees are Mary Guerrero, Lucia Mace, and Cynthia Romo, who use sheer will, wizardry and tons of product to keep the hair in place for the ballroom moves.
* Deadwood, episode “A Constant Throb.” Nominees are Peter Tothpal, Carol Pershing, and DeAnn Power. They use wigs along with styles to recreate the old west look.
* Desperate Housewives, episode “It Takes Two.” Nominees are Gabor Heilingenberg, Dena Green, James Dunham, and Maria Fernandez. They discussed the trials and tribulations of Bree’s wedding scenes.
* Ugly Betty, episode “I’m Coming Out.” Nominees are Mary Ann Valdez, Lynda K. Walker, and Norma Lee.
Outstanding Hair Styling for a miniseries, movie or special
* The 79th Annual Academy Awards. Nominees are Maria Valdivia, Anthony Wilson, and Cynthia Romo. Notable scene was the tribute to the costume designers work, and the Marie Antoinette models whose hair was styled and powdered for the stage without wigs or pieces, and The Queen and the use of period hair pieces and loads of powder, too.
Written by April MacIntyre
