How to Become a Make-up Artist for Movies In Nigeria

How to Become a Make-up Artist for Movies In Nigeria

The make-up artist can work with television stations or movie producers. To become a make-up artist, there are things you need to know. The role of the make-up artist is similar to that of the actors and actresses. He’s directly involved in the creation of the movie script through make-up.

Before now television stations and movie producers hire freelancers on a permanent basis but all those have changed now because of the need to cut cost as it’s less costly to hire the make-up artists on a freelance basis. So freelance make-up artists have taken over the visuals production market.

To become a make-up artist with visual producers (movie and television) is totally different from the act of daily or regular make-up. In television production, it’s the duty of the make-up artist to make the TV presenters look attractive to the viewer.

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In movie production, the make-up artist has the responsibility to create surreal situations that best creates the manuscript before the movie director.

There are movie cases where a young person has to grow old in the course of the movie; it behooves on the make-up artist to make him look so. There are still cases where a character is hurt to the extent of letting out blood. The bloodletting aspect is not real but it has to be created by the make-up artist.

They are also experts at accentuating features such that a slim person could be made to look fatter and vice versa. Suffice it here to say that the make-up artist is totally indispensable to the producer; in other words, he makes the producer successful.

If you want to become a make-up artist, here are the major skills that you must possess-:

4 Skills You Need to Become a Make-up Artist

• Ability to work long and undefined hours-:

To become a make-up artist entails a lot of work. When working with a movie producer you have to repeat some of your works sometimes to suit his taste. Most times, this means you don’t work with time frame. You only work to satisfy the producer and this can eat into unscheduled time. So to succeed in the trade, you need to learn to put in long hours of work which most times is undefined.

• Administrative Skills-:

This is a business and you would be self-employed, so you must know how to employ your resources effectively and use them to achieve desired results. Administrative skills are necessary if you want to become Make-up artist.

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• Effective Listening and Communication Skills-:

In the course of this work, you would be working with different types of people that you must understand to be a success. To understand the people you work with, you must be able to communicate with them effectively. Effective communication means you have to be an excellent listener to listen to instructions and interpret them properly into your work while at the same time being able to pass information to others in a comprehensive manner.

You must also be able to read, understand, and interpret information correctly because you would be required to read movie scripts and understand them well in order to become a good make-up artist.

• Creative and Imaginative skills-:

You need to be a creative thinker to succeed in this trade. You must be very creative and able to use your sense of imagination and visualization to create desired looks.

Having discussed the various skills you need to succeed in the make-up trade, it’s time to discuss the various viable and practical steps you need to take in other to guarantee yourself a success in this trade.

How to Become a Make-up Artist for Movies

1. Choose a niche-:

There are various types of make-up artists and you only have to belong where you feel comfortable. There are beauty make-up artists who specialize in beautifying characters to look good on screen. There are special effects artists who create special effects like blood, aging, and the rest in movies.

There are also hairbrush artists. It’s always advised that you identify where you feel comfortable belonging among the above and create a brand for yourself. That is the best way to become a make-up artist for movies.

2. Get Trained-:

All over the world, there are specialized makeup schools where aspiring movie makeup artists could get trained. From New York to London, to Abuja, to Lagos, to Accra, to Johannesburg, these schools are readily available.

You can attend these schools to get certification which will boost your business’ professional outlook. However, if you can’t afford such schools, you can still attach yourself to a practicing make-up artist where you can acquire some practical training and become one.

3. Create a portfolio-:

For you to become a make-up artist, you have to create a portfolio. Your portfolio is what clients examine to ascertain your level of expertise before hiring you. When you are done with training, get yourself a very good camera and some friends who would be willing to act as a model for you then you can now start applying different types of makeups synonymous with different movie genres. Put the pictures together in a digital file that you can send along with your applications.

4. Start scouting for jobs-:

The movie industry is very competitive all round including the various sectors like make-up and you have to work very hard to get jobs especially if you are a newcomer in the industry. As a newcomer, potential clients will find it difficult to trust you with their projects because they cannot assess you through past works.

On this ground, it’s advised that you consider starting out as an assistant to an established make-up artist and then rise through the ranks to a point where people can now start trusting you to handle projects alone. Also, you can work with management agencies that help make-up artists get jobs.

5. Consider doing some free jobs-:

You can actually get people to notice you faster by doing some free jobs. You could look for a low budget movie and ask the directors for the opportunity to work with them for free; that can help you add more practical experience to your portfolio and get more people to notice you especially if you do a very good job.

6. Network with people in the industry-:

You need to make friends with participants in the movie industry: Cameramen, actors, movie directors, producers. All these people could help you get jobs in the industry. This way, you become a make-up artist that is known.

7. Learn new skills-: 

Due to the highly competitive nature of the industry, you need to always maintain an edge above others by improving your skills and learning new things regularly. The truth is that in the movie industry, there are more make-up artists than there are jobs, and your ability to adapt to changes and learn new skills is what would help you keep your job. So, stay ahead of your competitors by always improving your skills and keeping up with trends in the industry.

 

 

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