Brushwork is an art and sometimes, especially for those with no prior experience, it takes a some instruction and practice to get the hang of managing the combination of product and the brush most effectively. 


This is where, despite Covid, I can be of help.  All my career I've been asked to share tips and give lessons or teach, so I'm used to helping people improve at make-up application and have devised simple, quick techniques that I have taught in private lessons for over 20 years.  So, for me, it's pretty straight forward to coach actors.


 I am confident that I am able to offer remotely my own version of crunched-down practical design, guidance and know-how


With experience of working with artists of all ethnicities and colour I can coach anyone to achieve good camera ready results in which they can have confidence, including men's grooming, concealment of spots, blemishes and tiredness and for women all the above plus period and beauty make-up and some hair techniques. I am also ableto teach some effective casualty techniques and continuity if needed.  I could even design the look for character arcs and map the journey supplying a breakdown and reference document for instant review by the actor during the day. 


In fact, I see no reason why this shouldn't be achieved across international borders, as long as the actors/artists have the products they need and bandwidth permitting. 



BASIC HAIRDRESSING  FOR MEN AND WOMEN

Finding the right hair products to achieve the work is not to be underestimated.  The wrong products can ruin a carefully worked hair style.  Planning is even MORE essential for successful hair styling.  Doing your own hair for screen is possible, but it is going to require coaching and practice if it's not a style the artist is used to.  Managing hair for the day's work is another aspect that will be key for setting the hair to ensure the artists eyes are not obscured and for reasonable continuity.  I know continuity is not appreciated by some, and that's up to them, but I caution against not taking it somewhat seriously because a big continuity mistake is distracting - the trick is knowing when it does matter and when it can be let go.


THE PREP

Early initial communication with cast to finalize product requirements which Production would supply direct to the artist is key.  Then it's a case of lining up  Zoom/FaceTime calls to work through the requirements and practice, taking pictures in the round for Production approval.


Nearly all of the prep work a Hair and Make-up Designer does is by it's nature socially distanced, research, design and preparation of supplies has always been done in more or less isolation, it's only when needing to put it into practice that it has ever been "hands on".


STANDING BY

Supervising from a distance via an online feed, from a virtual gallery is the same as how  just like the Head of Make-up and Hair used to manage checks in TV studios - only for now, we'd be asking the artist to check themselves with guidance.


MY OWN LINE OF PROFESSIONAL MAKE-UP BRUSHES FOR ACTORS AND ACTRESSES.

I am the owner of The Make-up Brush Company which has supplied my own BESPOKE line of make-up brushes to actresses, opera singers and performers on screen and in the West End since 2005.  With them I have devised simple, quick techniques that I have taught in private lessons for over 20 years.  So it's pretty straight forward to teach actors how to make themselves up.


If I can plan, purchase on budget, pack, carnet and ship 13 trunks of make-up, hair and wig kit over to the Ukraine for 18 weeks of filming for a period production set in 1795, with 50+ actors and 250-300 crowd, this new situation is doable, it just has to be organised in a timely manner.

CV Page 1 - Features, Netflix, TV films and Series

PAGE 1 OF MY CV - CLICK THIS LINK TO OPEN IT IN A NEW WINDOW

If you're wondering about the gap in Designing or main team work from 2018 until now - it's because I was doing core dailies on:

"Christopher Robin" (2017), "Succession" (2018). "Hobbs & Shaw" (2018), "1917" and "Vengeance".

CV Page 2 - Features dailies, TV dailies, commercials and a short.

PAGE 2 OF MY CV - CLICK THIS LINK TO OPEN IT IN A NEW WINDOW


Christine 

has 80+ Feature Film and TV credits on IMDB


"The Woman in Black"

In 1989 I was nominated for Best Make-up for this film produced by Chris Burt.  

I'd like to mention Vera Mitchell was the Chief Hairdresser on the production - her hair work was exquisite and after this production she moved to the States and enjoyed a fabulously distinguished career.



"Casanova"

In 2005 I was nominated for Best Make-up and Hair Design for this version starring Peter O'Toole and David Tennant.  

Bea Archer was the Key Hairdresser on my team, without whom this production would not have looked so amazing. 


"Margaret Thatcher - the long walk to Finchley"

In 2009 I was nominated for Best Make-up and Hair Design for this version of the Thatcher story starring Andrea Riseborough.  I did Andrea's make-up and hair and wig taking her on a journey from a naive 20 something to her early 40's.

BAFTA Television nomination badge reproduced with kind permission of BAFTA.

If you've read this far, I'd like to acknowledge my mother, chief make-up artist, Connie Reeve who is featured in the special BFI article acknowledging the talents of women working in film in the 1950's -

Connie Reeve, makeup artist, The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), photographed by Bert Cann. Reeve was a pioneer makeup artist who worked on several Technicolor films for Powell and Pressburger.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/pictures-women-work-1950s-film-industry

I grew up around films.  My mother, Connie Reeve, was the make-up artist on the 1963 production of "Swallows and Amazons", which starred a very young Susan George, I was cast as "Baby Walker" (in the photo above with my screen mother, Mary Kenton) - here's the link, I'm the little blonde baby 14 seconds in - if anyone knows how I can get a copy of the whole film I'd love to get a copy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb0eb633Cnk


Here are some photos of Connie Reeve, my mother, who was a commercial artist prior to being the first woman to be trained at Shepperton Studios after WW2.  My uncle Harold Fletcher ran the make-up department at the time and suggested she might like to apply, and after a successful interview she began her training.  Connie can be seen here (left to right) - in her role as Chief Make-up Artist in the unit still on probably her first film as Chief called "Britannia Road" (or as it was released in the US - "Forbidden Street"), in the middle - final checks Gina Lollobrigida for "Beat the Devil", and right enjoying a chicken leg or ice cream, I can't tell which, on a french location, either Paris for "Moulin Rouge" or Monte Carlo for "Affair in Monte Carlo".  Mum also went on to Chief the make-up for Michael Powell for "The Tales of Hoffman".  A few years ago, when doing some days for Morag Ross (Martin Scorsese's make-up artist of choice) on "Hyde Park on Hudson", she told me that it was Connie's work on "The Tales of Hoffman" that inspired her to become a make-up artist, she thought "That's what I want to do".  On "TOH" mum's assistant was Tom Smith who went on to do lots of amazing work on "The Illustrated Man", "The Shining" and who was the Make-up Chief on "Gandhi".  He asked for Connie to come out to join him to do the make-up for Geraldine James who played Mirabehn an acolyte of Gandhi and Candice Bergen who played the photographer Margaret Bourke-White, and I gather from Vera Mitchell one of the hairdressers on the picture that Connie also got stuck in with her clippers on the crowd's sideburns when Paula and Vera needed an extra pair of hands.   

Connie Reeve, my mother, (front row third in from the right) in the unit still of "Britannia Mews" (1947).  It was one of her first films as Chief Make-up Artist. Sitting to Connie's right is Joan Carpenter, the Hairdresser on the picture.  The picture was released in the US as "The Forbidden Street". Funnily enough, one of the first day's work I ever did in 1980 was to drive to Hampshire to make-up Maureen O'Hara, who was the star of this picture and whom I was making up for a documentary.  I had no idea of the connection then - I so wish I had known.

This is a picture of my mother, Connie Reeve, doing final checks on Gina Lollobrigida "Beat the Devil" (1953) a picture she chiefed.  It also starred Humphrey Bogart who had already made "Casablanca" (1942), "To Have and Have Not" (1944), "The Big Sleep" (1946) and "The African Queen" (1951).

Connie Reeve in France on either "Affair in Monte Carlo" (1952) or more likely in Paris during her prep of "Moulin Rouge" (1952, the John Huston version).  She treated herself to a Pierre Balmain hat, which I still have. Cool shades! And I love the couture of the dress.  

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