CMS Shines at L.A. Fashion Week

The CMS team (L-R): Mo Meinhart, Golden Shyne, KC Mussman,
Mirelle Bertrand, Tara Daniels, Curtis Foreman, and Sherita Garcia

L.A Fashion Week Fall kicked off March 8th, with the LAFC (Los Angeles Fashion Council) presentations, hosted by founder Kelsi Smith.

Cinema Makeup School beauty makeup instructor (and resident fashionista) Mireille Bertrand brought a team of CMS graduates backstage last Thursday and Friday to provide hair and makeup looks for LA’s hottestup-and-coming designers.

Two days of runway, six designers, a couple dozen models and seven makeup artists all set up on one over-taxed table. The pace was fast and demanding but the CMS team of artists was ready for the heat. Collaboration and flexibility were key as the makeup artists had to work together in an array of different styles tailored to each designer’s line.

In the heart of the Fashion District, bloggers, buyers and press crowded in to see the first day’s showcases:

“ISM Mode” was all about organic flow and shapes. The makeup requested by designer Inka Sherman was elegant with sultry eye shadows and dark pulp lips.

“Sarine Marie” by Sarine Berberian featured ladylike silhouettes, combining elegant looks with edgy, feminine elements. Hot red lips and soft natural shadows really brought out the chic sophistication in every ensemble.

Day two brought a trio of brilliant designers that inspired and challenged the CMS artists.

Camilla Wright from “SOLDAT” designed an impressive pattern storm of edgy eco suits and separates. The collection required makeup that put the “fun” in corporate—a tough task, indeed!

 “Be daring, be free, be true to you” was the motto driving “8000 Nerves,” a line designed by four fun-loving girls. They asked for a modern, joyous look that incorporated a sense of contemporary sophistication. The makeup team found that sophistication in dark dramatic smoky eyes and a nude lip that complimented the fresh designs.

Finally, “ODYLYN” challenged our makeup artists to think future to create a glowing, celestial look to equal the collection’s galactic gowns.  Shimmering dewy skin and pearly lips turned this show’s models into alien princesses.

At the end of the day, the teams packed up and headed home, exhausted, but very content .

CMS grad Curtis Foreman summed up the experience neatly: “It was a great day, great vibes and a great team to work with.”

CMS Hosts Theater Students from Arizona

Students touring the CMS campus

There was high drama at Cinema Makeup School on Thursday as a group of theater students from Scottsdale, Arizona descended on the campus for an introduction to special effects makeup.

After touring the school and seeing  CMS classes in action, the students settled into a large classroom to watch a live make up demo by CMS’s CAO and lead instructor Mike Spatola (Iron Man 3, Terminator 2: Judgment Day).

“The students were very enthusiastic,” said Mike. “They were very into it. They knew about [SyFy network’s makeup reality show] Faceoff, asked many questions and were eager to volunteer.” 

Mike applied his demonstration on intern Nestor Castaneda, using generic silicone zombie wound pieces. “[The pieces] looked to me like they would be perfect for a ‘Joker’ makeup. The way the wounds curled up, they looked like the scars.”

The makeup was done with grease paints to give the Joker a gritty look and then completed with alcohol colors to bring out the fleshy scars. Throughout the application, the students were encouraged to ask questions.

Said Mike, “They had many good questions to ask. Some were interested in my experiences with actors and some very curious to the materials of the trade, like what products where used and if the appliances were heavy or comfortable. It was a fun group demo. I got to disappear and get caught up in it.”

Afterwards, the students got a chance to take photos with Mike and the new CMS Joker before they called it a day.

"Eve'ning comisssshioner!"
Nestor Castaneda in Joker makeup
with CAO/Chief Instructor Mike Spatola

"Why so serious?"

CMS Hangs With Hollywood at the Oscar Makeup and Hair Symposium

CMS Director Emeritus Leonard Engelman hosts a panel
of the 2013 Oscar nominees for Hair and Makeup.

Oscar® season came to an end last weekend with Les Miserables taking home the award for best makeup, but for the movie makeup fanatics at Cinema Makeup School, the excitement has yet to die down.

On Saturday, before the Oscar ceremony, nominees for “outstanding achievement in makeup and hairstyling” for the 85^th academy awards gathered at the Samuel Goldwyn theatre for the Academy’s Hair and Makeup Symposium. Tickets for the event sold out quickly, but many CMS-ers were in attendance alongside top industry professionals like Bill Corso, Steve LaPorte, Michele Burke, Yolanda Toussieng, Michael Westmore, Greg Cannom, Deborah LaMia Denaver and Trefor Proud.

After a slideshow of the nominated films, Leonard Engelman, Director Emeritus at CMS and Governor of the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists branch of the Academy, hosted a panel discussion with the nominated artists.

Said Leonard, ‘This is a wonderful time for these eight nominees to bask in their accomplishments and recognition.…Today is a celebration of winners. Every nominee who steps onstage is a winner.”

Nominees Hitchcock, Les Miserables and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey set a high bar for outstanding makeup transformations this year. At the symposium, the artists behind those transformations got the chance to share the stories behind their acclaimed work.

Howard Berger, Peter Montagna, and Martin Samuel of Hitchcock
at the panel discussion.

Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel of KNB Effects wowed viewers by transforming the familiar face of actor Anthony Hopkins into the spitting image of legendary auteur Alfred Hitchcock. Using silicone appliances for the translucency and weight quality of the material, they went through six versions before they found the perfect look.

For Hitchcock, finding the right look was not as simple as creating a perfect likeness; the crew recalled an early version of the makeup that looked exactly like Hitchcock, but made Anthony Hopkins completely unrecognizable. To make the film work, the artists needed to find a middle ground between the face of a well-known character and the face of a well-known actor.

Hitchcock director Sacha Gevrasi explained, “We weren't really doing an impersonation; we were trying to do Tony's version of Hitch."

Leonard Engelman with a likeness of the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.
Leonard worked with the real Hitchcock on 1969's Topaz.

For The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, makeup artists Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane had their work cut out for them: turning 6-foot-tall, slim actors into convincing dwarves.

"We had to squash them and widen them," said Swords King "What we tried to do with the make-up was lose their necks. We tried to widen them with hair."

"We had to accentuate some of the features to create this illusion," continued Lane. "We enlarged their heads and widened their ear spans, broadened their foreheads and enlarged their noses to create this squat-ish look."

To achieve the look, the Hobbit team used silicone and foam prosthetic pieces and applied hair and lace pieces to the actors’ faces, hands and feet.

Leonard Engelmen with the soon-to-be-Oscar-winning artists behind
Les Miserables, Julie Dartnell and Lisa Westcott.

Lisa Westcott, who has been nominated twice before, and Julie Dartnell took home the Oscar on Sunday for their phenomenal work on Les Miserables. In the film, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) undergoes many transformations, all cleverly designed; from a weathered prisoner to the clean respectable mayor and finally an old man on his deathbed.

To make the normally strapping Jackman look the part of a ragged convict, Wescott and Darnel created special dentures and contact lenses that gave the appearance of rotted teeth and bloodshot eyes and gave the actor’s a roughly sheared haircut and simulated scarring on the scalp.

Anne Hathaway went through her own transformation for the blockbuster musical, having her beautiful hair chopped off as she becomes a shadow of herself. The seamless hair and makeup work certainly paid off for Hathaway, who won the Oscar for Best Actress. During her celebrated performance of “I Dreamed a Dream,” viewers with a keen eye for makeup will notice that her skin has been spattered to look sickly and the tooth palette treatment on her teeth where some were to appear yanked out.

The event concluded with a reception featuring a display of items from each movie, where the nominees signed programs for fans and supporters.

"It's just great seeing all these people that are really into the art of make-up," said Peter Montagna. "You don't realize that there are so many fans out there who love it. I know when I was starting out. I'd give anything to be at an event like this. To be on the other end of it is really exciting.”

-CMS