“ An experienced makeup artist will have a conversation with the director in advance to determine a timeline for a reset.”
Today we’re talking about resets, resetting talent that is!
Anytime an actor or actress needs a transformation, makeup artist or special makeup effects artist are brought in, wether its a prothetic chin or nose piece or a full on aging, or character makeup to help that transformation. Usually shots are filmed out of sequence. That being said it’s possible that an actor or actress may need to film in the prosthetic first then remove it and be “reset” back to their original state. This is also the case when there is a blood or other type of effect that needs to be redone for a second, third, or forth take. For continuity reasons the actor or actress needs to look they same way as they did in the scene prior or what they would look like before the effect or prosthetic application. Makeup artist are often asked to reset talent in order to start the scene over. This maybe because the director didn’t get what he wanted or was looking for, they are shooting an earlier or later scene, or because they didn’t get it, on the first take.. Regardless of the reason, it is my job as a makeup artist to get the talent back to that original state. An experienced makeup artist will have a conversation with the director in advance to determine a timeline for a reset. if its a blood effect it could be as simple as clean up and a wardrobe change, unless its in hair - then there is washing it out, drying and restyling back to the way it was which can take an hour or more! If it’s a prosthetic application, well that may take even more time, NEVER just rip or peel a prosthetic off an actor or actress, the glue used for these are medical grade and you can really damage someones skin. With prosthetics remember that removing an adhesive can also cause redness. which could cause a problem during a reset. Sadly I don’t know a makeup artist who can waive a magic wand to reset the talent. Having a conversation with your makeup artist can help develop a timeline for the day, it could be moving a scene around to accommodate the removal process, I realize that sometimes we shoot what we can based on location availability or the actor’s and actress’ schedules but remember that removal process could take an hour or more that means you loose that actor or actress for that time. Here are some tips on making the reset process as smooth as possible: Making sure that wardrobe has at least 3 backup options allows us to have to have multiple takes. Having rehearsal is important to get everyones marks, lighting, and actions down. Communication, opening up the lines of communication with your artist so they can tell you what the best way to execute and what the day would look like. If the director is happy with the money shot the first time amazing! But in my experience the director always wants to do it at least 3 times. A makeup artist may suggest bringing along an assistant to help speed up removal and reset, or they can have the assistant remove while you move on to a separate scene and your key makeup artist can stay on monitor.
I mentioned in a different post that there was no such thing as TMI in pre-production the more you tell your makeup artist the more we can ask to better prepare for the day. This is also why the makeup artist should be provided a shooting schedule, if something comes up like an aging prosthetic in the middle of the day and then a reset to younger version within an hour, the artist can catch that and set a realistic expectation on what to expect removal and reset time to be.
I hope that this gives an idea of all the moving parts that come with resetting the talent!