Abi Sievers MUA

  Michael Mekash: Michael Mekash is mostly well-known for his work on American Horror Story. He has also worked on many other popular films such as: Mad Max: Fury Road, Avengers: Infinity War and Prison Break. Mike started out as an artist and graphic artist who did tattoo work on sets. Not too long after, he began working as a makeup or special effects artist on some of the biggest films and TV shows.  He started his career back when he lived in Seattle, working a day job and a freelance graphic artist in his spare time. He then moved on to taking a job in LA in 2000, drawing tattoos for TV and film, pushing him forward into pursuing a career as an MUA. He has been fortunate to receive 15 Emmy nominations and 5 Emmy wins including: Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Limited Series, Movie Or Special - 2020 (nominee) Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie, or Special - 2017 (winner) Outstanding Makeup For A Limited Series Or Movie (Non-Pros...

  Hung Vanngo: Hung Vanngo is a New York-based makeup artist. Born in Vietnam, he moved to Canada as a child and spent his youth and early adulthood in Calgary. Once Vanngo moved to NYC, he began collaborating with some well-known fashion photographers, such as Carter Smith, Craig McDean and Emma Summerton. His work has appeared in the pages of popular magazines, such as Allure, ELLE, Glamour and Vogue. Hung Vanngo has also worked with many different A-list celebrities, such as Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry and Kate Bosworth. However, he is mainly well-known for being a long time makeup artist for Selena Gomez.  His hard work and dedication to his work has resulted in the praise of many others within the industry and has achieved many awards. His collection had most recently included the 2005 Canadian Network of Makeup Artists in the Best Editorial makeup artist of the year category and in 2004, Vanngo became the first winner of Lancome's Canadian...

  Missing limbs research: In ‘older’ versions of film and TV shows, missing limb effects were usually created via green screens. For example: in 1994’s film Forrest Gump, the actor wore green stockings and filmed most of his scenes in front of a green screen . In post production, the background was added and the end of the leg was "neatened up" by digital artists, frame by frame.   An example from Forrest Gump: when Lt. Dan is in the hospital after losing his legs, he's lying in a bed with the stumps covered with bandages. This effect was created by simply cutting holes in the mattress and adding fake stumps onto his knees. Similarly, in The Deer Hunter , John Savage hid his legs in the base of his wheelchair so that he appeared to have had them amputated. However, this wasn’t always the case as Lon Chaney worked on films where he would play a role with missing arms or legs and he would do it by hiding the limbs by physical means. If the arms or legs were supposed to be...

  Daily MUA’s: Daily makeup artists are brought in for crowd scenes or days with a tight schedule. They usually bring their own kit and will either be allocated a workstation in the makeup room or be working out in the holding area. A typical working day will include long, and unsocial hours throughout the week, especially if they are working on a big budget set as there will be a lot to get through, not only doing the makeup itself, but also checking the makeup in between shots. Juliette Tomes, a crowd room supervisor on an ITV show, states how daily makeup artists help to “make a production more powerful and exciting but also more believable”. It is also mentioned how the job is exhilarating for those involved, however, it does take a lot of planning beforehand in order to have everything organised by the time they begin filming as those working on set will need to be told about what they are doing and the kind of things they will need with them weeks before shooting starts in or...

Ageing makeup for screen is done in a slightly different way in comparison to ageing makeup for theatre. This is because for theatre, the makeup is mainly composed of grease paints and cream contour, whereas ageing makeup for screen consists of latex, grease paints and cream contour. Ageing makeup for screen: To complete this look, it is important to have two people on hand that can help (whether they are another makeup artist or the model themselves). This is because to be able to get the wrinkled effect on the latex, it will take one person to stretch out the models skin and one person to apply the latex, dry it and apply the powder to keep it secured in place all whilst the other person is still keeping the skin stretched as much as possible as this is what causes the wrinkled effect in latex. Then, use grease paints and cream contour to add a deeper effect to the wrinkles  and change the shape of the face. Ageing makeup for theatre: Ageing makeup for theatre is much more simple...