Saturday 20 March 2010

Looking to the future.....

I'm in a very comfortable bubble down here in Southampton, flat, friends, and plenty of (uni) work. But soon this is all going to come to an end, and I have to face the fact that I'll have to find paid work.

So far, I have done a great deal of work experience of all kinds, and had a great deal of professional work experience (i.e. they've paid me) in some cases really well. My first professional job was doing the make up for an up and coming singer Stacey Jackson, who wanted me to do her make up initially for her son's barmitzvah. I did a practice first for free, and she loved it, and for the actual day of the ceremony and party after I did hers and her mothers make up. After that she asked me regularly for parties and her gigs. She then went on to record an album and I did the make up for the cover. Since then I've done quite a few music videos, some paid, some not - all good work experience - such as Ozzie B feat JME and Leathal Bizzle - Maybe ting and Maydaz - Afro Funky. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of working on a music video, its not an area I want to pursue when I've finished as I am dedicated to work in TV and Film. As a freelance make up artist, I will take as much work experience to start up in the industry and any paid work, but my aim is to specialize in TV & Film. I would like to learn more prosthetic make up, and will write to SFX make up artists in hope to assist someone to learn. I admire Rick Baker my favourite SFX make up artist, who made all the amazing prosthetic pieces on Planet of the Apes, Nutty Professor, The Grinch and many more. It will be be extremely hard and competitive to get chosen to work as part of his team I will certainly write and ask.

Recently I did all the make up for a company called Working Voices. They are a corporate training company who were renewing their website. They have a total of 22 consultants, all had to be made up to look professional yet glamorous for the photograph. The shoot took three days and they paid me really well, although I earned every penny of it!!! It was very hard work.
They were very pleased with the results, and emailed me a very nice thank you. Have a look yourself its www.workingvoices.com

A valuable and useful work experience I did was at QVC, shopping channel based in Battersea. Everything there is live, and it was so useful to be able to do someone's make up, then ten minutes later see how it looked live on TV. I worked there for a week. I had to be there at 7.30 am and finished at various times during the afternoon. I found that almost everyone whose make up I did was very happy, and quite a few people took my card for future reference. It took me quite a long time to set this work experience up, and I was cancelled and postponed a few times, but the opportunity of doing TV make up which I learnt a great deal doing as it is less heavy than photographic but heavier than normal day to day make up, and seeing the results each time was really useful.

As well as that, I have a regular job here in Southampton working at Double Take Studios. I've learnt about photographic make up and what comes out well under such strong lights, applying make up to a diverse range of people of all ages and ethnicity and has also greatly improved my time efficiency for doing a make up.

I will consider doing a hair course after I finish Uni as production companies often employ make up artists who can do hair as well as make up. I'll work for free to get to where I want to be, and will aim to work on major movies, or TV productions. I'll write to make up artists to see if I can assist, and also make up artist agencies. I'll also carry on doing more work experience if its going to gain me valuable contacts or new experiences. My ambition has no limits!!



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