Re: Applying make-up to corporate interviewee

Gingrich and Nixon, hmmm....

Anyway, while we're trading makeup stories, we had a guy come in to do some stand-ups, he worked at a local TV station that had recently changed to all-flo lighting. To overcome a green spike in the lighting, the air staff all had their makeup chamged. This guy came in and did his own make-up, and when he showed up under our tungsten lighting, he looked like a desert sunburn victim, boiled-lobster red. We had to have him wash it all off because it just didn't work with our lighting, whatever that stuff he was using was, it made him look like he was about to have a heart attack.

A bigger problem, often, than makeup, is dealing with facial hair. I have taken to keeping a kit at the office with small traveler's style disposable shaving supplies, tiny shaving foam cans and disposable bic razors, and even a battery-powered electric razor (very cheap ones from Harbor Freight you can afford to use once and give away) and a nose/ear hair groomer, also of the "give-away" type. Some men get five o' clock shadow by 10 AM, some are showing up late afternoon on short notice and have no chance to touch-up.. and some have no idea how unforgiving HD close-ups can get. I have not yet had to suggest a customer use the nose gadget, but you know, you preface the sentence with a confidential: "Hey, our job is to make you look your best, it would be wrong NOT to warn you, if we can do something about it before the shoot... only a friend will tell you these things, etc". And hold out the bag with the grooming supplies. Then it's up to them, but you've at least offered.

You don't really WANT men shaving just prior to the shoot, if you can help it, because the irritated skin can stand out for a good 30 minutes or more, and if they cut themselves, well... I keep a styptic pencil handy in the kit as well. But neither do you want them looking like a hobo. Makeup can hide stubble, to a point, but why not solve the problem instead of cover it up.

We also had a thing happen a winter or two ago, where the live talent slipped on ice just outside the building, and drenched his only shirt with coffee as he fell. We rinsed off the shirt and used the engineer's heat gun (normally reserved for sealing electrical heat-shrink tubing), to speed-dry the shirt, but we had to be careful it didn't burn a hole thru the shirt.... and all the while I'm counting down to air... we made it with 5 minutes to spare. I bought a studio-use blow dryer the next day from the dollar store. I't's also handy for defogging camera optics and dew-jammed tape transports in the winter.