World Film and Television Progress (1938)

— the forehead, the nose, nor the chin — was his own. The substance with which I achieved this result has, in my opinion, enabled character creation in make-up to reach a point of perfection never before attained. Probably unknown to the average filmgoer, a revolution has taken place in screen make-up in comparatively few years. In the silent days the type of film used was called "orthochromatic". This kind of film demanded weird colour combinations. Blue photographed as white, and red as black. These were the days when a film player ready for work was an extraordinary sight, often with bright blue eyelids and brilliant red underchins. The first advance came with the introduction of the "panchromatic" film, which permitted the use of natural colours. . . . When the present supersensitive filmknown as the "superpan" came in, it revolutionised the lighting used for photography, and once again the whole field of make-up was changed. In the old days, for instance, we used painted lines a great deal for wrinkles. With the film of to-day these would look, not like wrinkles at all, but like painted lines. The old technique has completely vanished. One of the pioneers of the new method, long before its use became general, was Lon Chaney, who developed the trick of applying plastic materials to his face. When ha wanted wrinkles he cut them in. Nowadays age is indicated almost entirely by what are called "contour inlays". These achieve the illusion of age convincingly by following nature itself in portraying the shape of the face rather than merely contributing lines to the existing shape. In The Good Earth there is a perfect example of this kind of work on an important character, Soo Yong, the old Chinese woman. The same film afforded some major problems of make-up, although Oriental make-up as a whole is nowadays comparatively simple, whereas it was once the most difficult, and came to be regarded by make-up men as a kind of bogey. To achieve an Oriental effect, we used to draw the eyes upward by the use of gum and fine membranes painted over. Now, by drawing a shadow downward from the inside of the eye and upward from the outside, we can achieve the correct illusion. We also use facial inlays with great effect. In The Good Earth, the problem was not merely to make-up Luise Rainer as a Chinese, but to find the perfect make-up for her. In this case modern methods of the make-up studio came to Miss Rainer's rescue. In the old days all the experiments would have been done on her long-suffering face. Both she and I would have been nervous wrecks, before the task was over. Instead, I made seven clay heads before I struck the one I wanted. This had more than one advantage. It cut down the length of time I had to spend working on Miss Rainer's own face, and, as character make-up is always a laborious process, it certainly saved us both from frayed nerves and fatigue. An interesting psychological point arises too. The human face must be to some extent a "canvas" £or the make-up artist, but he must never forget that it is a human face. The mood of the subject is important. It is a character make-up and should blend with the character that is going to be created in the finished performance. If the subject is tired or without enthusiasm, the finest make-up will give a wrong impression and be rendered worthless. Clay models and paintings in colour enable me to visualise make-ups before putting a finger to the human face, and I believe that whatever success I have attained is due to the fact that I am by early training and inclination an artist. Knowledge of art saves time and worry in experimentation. It is not necessary to be a trained artist to be a make-up technician — but it helps. It is my belief that the basis of screen makeup is artistic rather than scientific or technical. For example, when I recently wished to add six members to my staff, I interviewed more than 500 applicants, and each one I picked had graduated from an art institute. . . . The importance to me of this group of youngsters I have taken under my wing is that they are being trained from the start on the new lines of screen make-up. It is being impressed on them that their knowledge of facial contour, anatomy, sculpture, and painting is of vital importance. Ihope I have not given the impression that my department is a kind of artistic research and experimental studio, because it must be remembered that we also deal with the daily demands of routine make-up for all the people who go before the studio cameras. Some idea of the volume of work done may be obtained from the quantities of material we use. In a year we require more than 1,000 large cans of face powder, 3,000 lb. of grease paint, 500 lb. of false hair for beards and wigs, 20 gallons of spirit gum, and 50 lb. of assorted waxes and plastics. . . . Many men wear no "straight" make-up at all, and women much less than they used to. Apart from the photographic development involved, the introduction of talking pictures has influenced make-up. Effects that used to be achieved with false teeth, scars, and stretched skin have disappeared, because nothing must be done which will impede speech, or even make an actor feel unnatural, for the effect will be to make his work unnatural. The "shadows" we paint on human faces, the inlays with which we build up new faces, the oils with which we can transfigure a face, the new basic colours devised to suit the newsensitive film, are the angles of our work which will matter more and more in the future. . . . The Month's Newsreel This article is extracted from Jack Dawn's contribution to the book" Behind the Screen", edited by Stephen Watts (Barker, 8 6). See Review on pages 18 and 19. The picture heading the artit '*■ y" PiJack Dawn at work on Eliza en. With his brush he is creating ows, without which the glaring -<MEN1 PH the set would cause the caiOXJ MEAN \Jse tfu, subtleties of light and shacSG CAN Bfraphing the actress's face. .QUENCE By Vr* "** .•:. fl r W* r ■HB-*?i^9^Bb^*' ^^^^^z . Air Raids in Barcelona. Pictures taken by Richard Butler, Pathe Cameraman 13