Steven Murphy: Makeup
In your own words, briefly describe your job.
''I work in make-up effects. Make-up FX is called upon when a role requires an actor's appearance to be altered (sometimes completely transformed) beyond the realms of normal make-up and hair. Often employing 3D latex prosthetics, a make-up FX artist may be asked to change the shape of a nose, the whole face or even the entire body.''
How did you get into the industry?
''I'd played about with make-up since I was a kid! After studying Film and TV at Edinburgh College of Art, I got a few jobs doing make-up and hair, sometimes 'effects' on short films. Through the college, I heard of a scheme called 'BBC Design Awards', which encourages newcomers in all aspects of film, TV and theatre design. I sent in a portfolio of make-up photos and was awarded 2 weeks work experience with Nick Dudman on The Mummy. Through that first contact one thing led to another.''
What are your career plans for the future?
''To keep working! Having learned many new techniques working as a small cog in a big machine, I now hope to start getting jobs that I head myself, on smaller projects, and start climbing the horribly big ladder from the bottom, and see how far I get.''
Are there any other points / reality checks you'd like to make?
''Assuming you are in (or getting in) a chosen area of the industry, the industry can either fulfil all your ambitions (or indeed fantasies) or it can be the shallowest swamp imaginable. If you have the right attitude and believe in yourself and your personal goals, you can cut right through the latter.''
How do you make sure that you keep up with current developments in your field?
''Keep up with the industry. Watch films and check out decent publications like Make-up Artist Magazine. Play about with anything (material wise) you come across, you might discover a new technique yourself.''
How do you go about finding the next job?
''I usually found that having got a kick-start from one person or one contact tends to lead to another one. It’s often balancing people work and talent because you strive to get along with people and to do your best in one job. Depending on the skills of your job, you’re often surrounded by a whole host of people that are leading onto other projects and if you keep with them and prove your worth it often does lead to an offer of other work. Beyond that it is very important to have a CV and a portfolio. Particularly portfolios of solid up-to-date work.''
How do you decide how much to charge?
''The amount you charge is worked out by the cost of materials spent on the job, any overheads, the number of man hours and your daily fee based on current daily rates. It depends on the budget.''
What advice would you give to someone whose career needed a kick-start?
''There are no rules or set way of getting into the industry, so it’s not possible to say this is how it’s done. The most important thing is to have complete passion for what you want to do. It sounds romantic but if you want to do something so badly, it will happen eventually. More realistically, contacts. Get hold of The Knowledge from the reference section of the library, look up make-up effects, take down all the numbers, and phone ‘em! Keep phoning.''
What has been the best piece of luck for you?
''The best piece of luck was the BBC Design Award scheme. If I didn’t enter, it would’ve taken me a lot longer to get to England where it’s all happening. If I’d done that on my own I would’ve sluggishly gone around all the workshops and asked make-up artists for work. Through the BBC Design Award, I got good work experience with Nick, it gave me a chance to see what other people are doing and I kept in touch with him. He was my first contact and he offered me work.''
Is there a skill you need or want to learn?
''Sculpturing more than anything because it’s one of the key elements in this area.''
What type of films/programmes/projects do you work on?
''I started off in college work and that followed on to shorts. My past 3 projects have been feature films.''
''I work in make-up effects. Make-up FX is called upon when a role requires an actor's appearance to be altered (sometimes completely transformed) beyond the realms of normal make-up and hair. Often employing 3D latex prosthetics, a make-up FX artist may be asked to change the shape of a nose, the whole face or even the entire body.''
How did you get into the industry?
''I'd played about with make-up since I was a kid! After studying Film and TV at Edinburgh College of Art, I got a few jobs doing make-up and hair, sometimes 'effects' on short films. Through the college, I heard of a scheme called 'BBC Design Awards', which encourages newcomers in all aspects of film, TV and theatre design. I sent in a portfolio of make-up photos and was awarded 2 weeks work experience with Nick Dudman on The Mummy. Through that first contact one thing led to another.''
What are your career plans for the future?
''To keep working! Having learned many new techniques working as a small cog in a big machine, I now hope to start getting jobs that I head myself, on smaller projects, and start climbing the horribly big ladder from the bottom, and see how far I get.''
Are there any other points / reality checks you'd like to make?
''Assuming you are in (or getting in) a chosen area of the industry, the industry can either fulfil all your ambitions (or indeed fantasies) or it can be the shallowest swamp imaginable. If you have the right attitude and believe in yourself and your personal goals, you can cut right through the latter.''
How do you make sure that you keep up with current developments in your field?
''Keep up with the industry. Watch films and check out decent publications like Make-up Artist Magazine. Play about with anything (material wise) you come across, you might discover a new technique yourself.''
How do you go about finding the next job?
''I usually found that having got a kick-start from one person or one contact tends to lead to another one. It’s often balancing people work and talent because you strive to get along with people and to do your best in one job. Depending on the skills of your job, you’re often surrounded by a whole host of people that are leading onto other projects and if you keep with them and prove your worth it often does lead to an offer of other work. Beyond that it is very important to have a CV and a portfolio. Particularly portfolios of solid up-to-date work.''
How do you decide how much to charge?
''The amount you charge is worked out by the cost of materials spent on the job, any overheads, the number of man hours and your daily fee based on current daily rates. It depends on the budget.''
What advice would you give to someone whose career needed a kick-start?
''There are no rules or set way of getting into the industry, so it’s not possible to say this is how it’s done. The most important thing is to have complete passion for what you want to do. It sounds romantic but if you want to do something so badly, it will happen eventually. More realistically, contacts. Get hold of The Knowledge from the reference section of the library, look up make-up effects, take down all the numbers, and phone ‘em! Keep phoning.''
What has been the best piece of luck for you?
''The best piece of luck was the BBC Design Award scheme. If I didn’t enter, it would’ve taken me a lot longer to get to England where it’s all happening. If I’d done that on my own I would’ve sluggishly gone around all the workshops and asked make-up artists for work. Through the BBC Design Award, I got good work experience with Nick, it gave me a chance to see what other people are doing and I kept in touch with him. He was my first contact and he offered me work.''
Is there a skill you need or want to learn?
''Sculpturing more than anything because it’s one of the key elements in this area.''
What type of films/programmes/projects do you work on?
''I started off in college work and that followed on to shorts. My past 3 projects have been feature films.''
