Last week I had the opportunity to photograph Catwoman. Here
is how it happened:
The shoot involved 4 people, me, the model, a makeup artist,
and an assistant. As I chatted with Charly back and forth about ideas, I
interviewed her about things she liked to do and discovered that she owned a
cat suit and that she liked to hula hoop. I envisioned a catwoman on a train
platform with a hula hoop, among other things. I had already scouted the area
we used and so I new it would work for us.
We used 3 locations in the space of a 10 minute walk in
downtown Salt Lake City. I also knew a couple of makeup artists that could do
this well and made my calls. Then I asked around in some of the photography
groups in the area to see if anyone would come and assist me with lighting and
carrying stuff, etc. With everything
lined up we met at a Carl’s Jr hamburger shop, ordered drinks and fries and
Jillian went to work turning Charly into Catwoman. One of the things I need to
do better is estimate the amount of time it takes to create specialized makeup.
I figured an hour, but it was a bit over an hour and a half.
Steve and I chatted and talked to my model. I like to use
time like this to get to know models better. It helps create a better working
relationship for the shoot. I have to admit that we did get a number of curious
onlookers and a few questions as we got ready. About 10 minutes before Jillian
was done working on the makeup, my assistant, Steve, and I went out to my van
to finish getting the lighting gear ready.
For my lighting gear, I was using a pair of hotshoe strobes.
Just a simple, but powerful pair. Each strobe was on a stand with a bowens
mount and a 36” softbox on one and a silver reflector bowl on the other.
Once the makeup was done and Charly was converted into a
full fledged catwoman, we walked a half a block to a covered alley with a
mixture of textures and colors (along with yummy restaurant smells and rotten
food odors). I had Charly go down into a descending basement stairwell and
measured for light. I had Steve hold the strobe with the silver reflector over
her head. There was a metal grate overhead that functioned as a cuculoris.
I did not backlight the stairwell for part of this series to keep it darker and more mysterious.
On Friday I will post the rest of this shoot along with an interview with our model Charly.
This is Jillian. I'd just like to make a comment about the makeup and the time involved. The hour and a half was time for hair and makeup. When you're working with a model you've never met before, even if you've seen a picture, you always have to take a few minutes to map things out. You have to take time to color match them for foundation and decide what tones and shades of color will look best on them. Sometimes you do something and find out you don't like it or that it doesn't look good on the model and so you backtrack. And character makeup is always something that takes longer, because you are helping to create that character as opposed to just applying eye shadow.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm doing makeup with the show I work at during the Halloween season I have to whip out 5 or 6 characters in just a few hours. It gets to a point where you can get each performer done in about 25-30 minutes, but this is after you've had a chance to meet your performers, design a look and practice it several times. It's always different when you're working with a model you've never met before. I'm lucky that Tom has the patience to let me do my thing. I've been on film sets before when ten minutes after everyone arrives they're literally going "okay, lets go! Are they ready yet?" when this is simply an unrealistic expectation, especially on new faces. So, yes, this design took a while to complete, but through working with patient people and being allowed the time to really do the hair and makeup I think the look turned out well.