Post by Lucy on Apr 25, 2011 19:17:55 GMT
Deb Drennan has one of the coolest jobs in television. The veteran freelance key makeup artist has made the stars of Dragons’ Den, Due South, This is Wonderland, Nikita, Murdoch Mysteries and even The Littlest Hobo look better.
She won a Primetime Emmy in 2001 for her work on Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, and nabbed a Gemini nomination for her work on Murdoch Mysteries.
With Murdoch returning in June, TV Guide Canada got Drennan on the line to reveal her secrets behind the Victorian drama’s gory victims, where we can buy the best blood (Hiscott’s in Toronto offers flowing, mouth and pumping) and how HD has made her job more intense.
TVGuide.ca: I understand you’re working on Dragons’ Den this week.
Deb Drennan: Yes, I am.
TVG: How much makeup does it take to make Kevin O’Leary look good for TV?
DD: A lot! (Laughs)
TVG: What’s that like, jumping from TV show to TV show?
DD: That’s my whole career. I’m doing the elections at CTV, I do Canada AM for CTV … I’m freelance. I go from reality, to news programming, to special effects, to TV movies … whoever is hiring me.
TVG: A lot of driving.
DD: A lot of driving, especially for a show like Murdoch. Because of the period, we’re in Hamilton, Guelph, Cayuga, Port Hope … we’re all over the place.
TVG: Let’s talk about Murdoch Mysteries. What are your responsibilities as the key makeup artist?
DD: With Murdoch, it’s more than a regular series because of the period. I’m in charge of having all the facial hair made, cleaning it, disinfecting it, keeping it all clean, deciding which actors are going to wear which sideburns or a moustache. I do a lot of research for the casualties. They will name what happened to the victim in the script, and I have to figure out what it should look like.
And then I get in there and do the blood and gore.
TVG: You make up the corpses, then?
DD: Yes, I do all of the key cast, any principal guest players, and all the effects. We do have a prosthetic guy who will do an arm lying there, but when it is actually on a person, it’s me.
TVG: What knowledge do you have to have to make up these bodies?
DD: The most knowledge I have is product knowledge. What do certain products do and how do they look on-camera? As far as researching, the Internet is an amazing thing. I didn’t have that in the beginning of my career. I had to spend time at the library. With the Internet, I can Google just about anything. Not necessarily do I want to look at it, but it is there.
TVG: Once you do the research online, are you printing off photos and bringing them to the set?
DD: Yes. I will print out a bunch of different photos and then make up my own. I’m an artist, so I don’t like to copy. I will get an idea of what the reality is and then create it the way I want to see it so the reality is still there. So, if it says he has a bone sticking through the flesh, I will get pictures of it and then make my own.
TVG: Do you take your work home with you? Is Halloween cool at your house?
DD: I get that question I lot. I always seem to have to work on Halloween. I very rarely get to do anyone’s Halloween makeup unless it’s one of the actors going to a party. When my children were growing up, I would leave some things for my husband, who is very good at application.
TVG: Where do you get your supplies from?
DD: A lot of places. It depends on what it is. My main suppliers are New York and Los Angeles. There is some stuff I can get in Toronto, but not all of it, though. They have more products to choose from down there. All my blood is American because they have the most real-looking blood.
TVG: What’s in the blood?
DD: Oh, gosh. The blood we put in the mouth is edible oil products. There are some we can’t put anywhere near the mouth or eyes, the ones that coagulate, because they have rubber compounds in them.
TVG: Can I just walk in off the street and buy blood?
DD: Oh, yeah. That’s no problem. You can go into a place in Toronto like Hiscott’s and buy a bottle or jar of blood.
TVG: I’m sure you’ve seen incredible changes in the industry in the last five years.
DD: I’ve been doing this for 37 years.
TVG: You started on The Littlest Hobo, right?
DD: The Littlest Hobo came in my fourth or fifth year in my career. I started doing this in 1972. My first shows were old variety shows. Kenny Rogers had a show called Rollin’ on the River, before he was in First Edition. I was on that. We did the pilot for The Sonny & Cher Show that was eventually shot in L.A. There were so many.
TVG: How has the industry changed for you just in the last five years?
DD: The products that are available to us. We don’t have to create like we used to. The products can do it for us. Cameras; we’ve gone from two-inch tape to HD. We can’t hide anything anymore. Now, if I can see it with my eye, the camera is going to see it, whereas that wasn’t the case for many years. We could get away with a lot more.
TVG: How has HD affected how you do your job? You’re under more scrutiny than ever before.
DD: I personally like the medium. I like that I can see, through the equipment, exactly what the viewer will see. It is a little difficult if you have a director of photography who isn’t overly good at lighting HD. We can still do a lot with lights and shadows, even more so with HD. If someone has a blemish, there is nothing I can do about that. We need to be able to light that, and HD just makes it stick out like anything.
TVG: You can literally see the flakes of makeup on someone’s face now.
DD: Exactly. I’ve always been someone who never leaves any edging on the makeup, but you have to really be aware of it in HD. You can see where a blush starts and stops. You’ll see the lipstick if the line’s not perfect. You have to be extremely accurate and a true artist. You can’t be slapping it on.
TVG: What are some tips people who want to get into this industry can keep in mind?
DD: It’s really difficult. As years have gone by, schools have opened everywhere. I hate that they are turning out this many people because there just [isn’t] the work. So, when I have kids who say they want to do this, I tell them to make sure this is what they want to do because it’s going to be a difficult run.
Always get your hairdressing licence as well, because if you are multi-functional, you stand a better chance of getting work. Don’t look at just film and television. Look at the print world and the commercial world because there is a lot more work there. Now, that is a completely different type of makeup and hairstyling, but you need to be versatile and you need to have good training.
Murdoch Mysteries returns Tuesday, May 10 on Citytv.
Source: TV Guide
She won a Primetime Emmy in 2001 for her work on Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, and nabbed a Gemini nomination for her work on Murdoch Mysteries.
With Murdoch returning in June, TV Guide Canada got Drennan on the line to reveal her secrets behind the Victorian drama’s gory victims, where we can buy the best blood (Hiscott’s in Toronto offers flowing, mouth and pumping) and how HD has made her job more intense.
TVGuide.ca: I understand you’re working on Dragons’ Den this week.
Deb Drennan: Yes, I am.
TVG: How much makeup does it take to make Kevin O’Leary look good for TV?
DD: A lot! (Laughs)
TVG: What’s that like, jumping from TV show to TV show?
DD: That’s my whole career. I’m doing the elections at CTV, I do Canada AM for CTV … I’m freelance. I go from reality, to news programming, to special effects, to TV movies … whoever is hiring me.
TVG: A lot of driving.
DD: A lot of driving, especially for a show like Murdoch. Because of the period, we’re in Hamilton, Guelph, Cayuga, Port Hope … we’re all over the place.
TVG: Let’s talk about Murdoch Mysteries. What are your responsibilities as the key makeup artist?
DD: With Murdoch, it’s more than a regular series because of the period. I’m in charge of having all the facial hair made, cleaning it, disinfecting it, keeping it all clean, deciding which actors are going to wear which sideburns or a moustache. I do a lot of research for the casualties. They will name what happened to the victim in the script, and I have to figure out what it should look like.
And then I get in there and do the blood and gore.
TVG: You make up the corpses, then?
DD: Yes, I do all of the key cast, any principal guest players, and all the effects. We do have a prosthetic guy who will do an arm lying there, but when it is actually on a person, it’s me.
TVG: What knowledge do you have to have to make up these bodies?
DD: The most knowledge I have is product knowledge. What do certain products do and how do they look on-camera? As far as researching, the Internet is an amazing thing. I didn’t have that in the beginning of my career. I had to spend time at the library. With the Internet, I can Google just about anything. Not necessarily do I want to look at it, but it is there.
TVG: Once you do the research online, are you printing off photos and bringing them to the set?
DD: Yes. I will print out a bunch of different photos and then make up my own. I’m an artist, so I don’t like to copy. I will get an idea of what the reality is and then create it the way I want to see it so the reality is still there. So, if it says he has a bone sticking through the flesh, I will get pictures of it and then make my own.
TVG: Do you take your work home with you? Is Halloween cool at your house?
DD: I get that question I lot. I always seem to have to work on Halloween. I very rarely get to do anyone’s Halloween makeup unless it’s one of the actors going to a party. When my children were growing up, I would leave some things for my husband, who is very good at application.
TVG: Where do you get your supplies from?
DD: A lot of places. It depends on what it is. My main suppliers are New York and Los Angeles. There is some stuff I can get in Toronto, but not all of it, though. They have more products to choose from down there. All my blood is American because they have the most real-looking blood.
TVG: What’s in the blood?
DD: Oh, gosh. The blood we put in the mouth is edible oil products. There are some we can’t put anywhere near the mouth or eyes, the ones that coagulate, because they have rubber compounds in them.
TVG: Can I just walk in off the street and buy blood?
DD: Oh, yeah. That’s no problem. You can go into a place in Toronto like Hiscott’s and buy a bottle or jar of blood.
TVG: I’m sure you’ve seen incredible changes in the industry in the last five years.
DD: I’ve been doing this for 37 years.
TVG: You started on The Littlest Hobo, right?
DD: The Littlest Hobo came in my fourth or fifth year in my career. I started doing this in 1972. My first shows were old variety shows. Kenny Rogers had a show called Rollin’ on the River, before he was in First Edition. I was on that. We did the pilot for The Sonny & Cher Show that was eventually shot in L.A. There were so many.
TVG: How has the industry changed for you just in the last five years?
DD: The products that are available to us. We don’t have to create like we used to. The products can do it for us. Cameras; we’ve gone from two-inch tape to HD. We can’t hide anything anymore. Now, if I can see it with my eye, the camera is going to see it, whereas that wasn’t the case for many years. We could get away with a lot more.
TVG: How has HD affected how you do your job? You’re under more scrutiny than ever before.
DD: I personally like the medium. I like that I can see, through the equipment, exactly what the viewer will see. It is a little difficult if you have a director of photography who isn’t overly good at lighting HD. We can still do a lot with lights and shadows, even more so with HD. If someone has a blemish, there is nothing I can do about that. We need to be able to light that, and HD just makes it stick out like anything.
TVG: You can literally see the flakes of makeup on someone’s face now.
DD: Exactly. I’ve always been someone who never leaves any edging on the makeup, but you have to really be aware of it in HD. You can see where a blush starts and stops. You’ll see the lipstick if the line’s not perfect. You have to be extremely accurate and a true artist. You can’t be slapping it on.
TVG: What are some tips people who want to get into this industry can keep in mind?
DD: It’s really difficult. As years have gone by, schools have opened everywhere. I hate that they are turning out this many people because there just [isn’t] the work. So, when I have kids who say they want to do this, I tell them to make sure this is what they want to do because it’s going to be a difficult run.
Always get your hairdressing licence as well, because if you are multi-functional, you stand a better chance of getting work. Don’t look at just film and television. Look at the print world and the commercial world because there is a lot more work there. Now, that is a completely different type of makeup and hairstyling, but you need to be versatile and you need to have good training.
Murdoch Mysteries returns Tuesday, May 10 on Citytv.
Source: TV Guide
