I was approached for a second time by Jamie Alexander, following our work together on 'Bruises' to do make-up on his next short film production entitled, 'Needles and Pins'. Having had a generally positive experience working with him on the previous film, I was keen to take up the job.
This time the film would be set in the 1960s and depict a family; father, mother and son in their home at Christmas. The actor playing the father would be Paul Alexander; Jamie's dad! This was a little intimidating at first as, not only would I be working on an experienced actor, but he would also be likely to give very honest feedback on my skills to the director. The actor playing the little boy would be Shay Cahill, which I was very pleased about as I had worked with Shay previously on a film last year and he was a pleasure to work with and very co-operative when it came to having his hair and make-up done. There was a little bit of a panic on the first day of shooting as the actress that had initially been arranged to play the mother dropped out the afternoon before she was due to shoot, so there was a last minute search to find a replacement. Thankfully the producer, James Kirby, was able to find a suitable replacement very quickly, however, this did have its implications for make-up. The actress that had originally been chosen had had mid length hair, and their art designer, Marlow, had requested that she have traditional 60s style hair with a lot of volume at the top and the hair flicked up at the ends. I had ordered some plastic inserts to add to the hair to give the necessary volume prior to the shoot. The actress that was eventually chosen to be her replacement, had short cropped hair, so this hairstyle would no longer be suitable. I tried speaking with Jamie and Marlow about this issue but they were, by this point, too involved with filming to give it much consideration and told me to simply do whatever I felt would suit. I therefore decided to go with a very simple hair style inspired by Twiggy in her early modelling days; a short, sleek style, combed forward in a side parting. In terms of the make-up Marlow had requested that I incorporate the iconic style of the 60s by doing some sort of cat-eye make-up. However, as the actress was in her late 30s and was playing a house wife and mother, this needed to be a much less dramatic version of the make-up. This was very easy to achieve on the day and I was happy with the final result. Paul (the father) required very little make-up as his face was very rarely on screen so I agreed with Jamie that I would simply powder him down to reduce any shine. Shay's make-up was also very minimal as I did not want to cover any of his freckles, which I felt added to his character. He was, unfortunately, quite tired by the second day of filming, so a little concealer was necessary to hide the shadows under his eyes. His hair style, as requested by Marlow, was a simple neat side parting for when he was properly dressed, and tussled for the scenes where he was wearing his pyjamas and had just climbed out of bed.
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| Shay on set |
Shooting ran fairly smoothly, and although there was a lot of waiting around, as to be expected on a film set, I found myself fairly busy as Jamie was keen to keep continuity spot on as the shooting ran over 2 days. It was a pleasant experience to have a director who understood the importance of continuity and final checks to call me in when needed, rather than constantly having to hover and request final checks.
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| Cast and Crew |
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