Text|Mad Rabbit
Some time ago, the character makeup of "Anecdote of Flower Liuli" starring Xu Zhengxi and Meng Ziyi received a lot of praise, including "serious hairstyle design + multi-purpose hair bag" and "finally a drama is combing hair well" and so on. More and more works with simple hairstyles have appeared, making the audience's favorability for ancient costume hairstyle elements such as coiled hair and hair bags continue to increase, and at the same time, whether the hairstyle is complicated, whether there are many headwear, and whether the style restores the style of a certain dynasty has also become the standard for the audience to judge whether a drama makeup is intentional.
On the other hand, some Hanfu UP masters or the makeup on the Chinese style show are often compared with the makeup in film and television dramas, and some Chinese style makeup will naturally receive a lot of praise. This year, we have also seen some costume UP masters or national style makeup girls participate in film and television works, such as the makeup work of "Anecdotes of Flower Liuli" with the participation of ancient style makeup girls, the heroine of the online drama "Wind Dancing Yanhua" completed in March is played by the costume UP master April Chenchen, and in the short drama "Weaving Clouds and Brocades" launched in March, the costume UP main participant participates in it as the heroine's actor and art consultant at the same time.
Although there is no major trend at present, there are already costume UP owners who have begun to explore the way for entering film and television works. Can the costume UP master become a new force in the short drama makeup work in the future? What is the difference between short drama makeup and long drama? With a series of questions, Bone Duo found Zeng Minghui, a well-known makeup artist in dramas such as "Long Moon Ember Ming" and "Agarwood Crumbs", and the costume UP main participant who is responsible for controlling the makeup work of "Weaving Clouds and Brocade", to talk about the things behind the makeup work of short dramas.
Lowering the stream, where does the skit makeup artist come from?
In addition to his own participation in the makeup work of long dramas and short dramas, Tsang Minghui's Yifeng Pictures is a makeup artist training school, from students to apprentices, it has become the norm for big makeup artists to lead young makeup artists to work together.
There are also students who have studied at well-known makeup artist training institutions and will flow into the short drama industry. For example, Zeng Minghui usually only can bring two students after receiving a big project, and the remaining students will have someone to participate in the short drama project.
Because the makeup budget of short dramas is generally lower than that of long dramas, Yifeng Pictures will send makeup artists of the first assistant, second assistant, third assistant and other levels to participate in different projects according to the budget of each work. Zeng Minghui himself generally rarely takes on the makeup work of short dramas, but he will do the overall control for his apprentices.
Probably since the beginning of last year, the participants have received a lot of short drama invitations, and after simple contact, most of the short dramas choose the UP master to cooperate because they tend to the traffic blessing of the UP master. Short dramas are different from long dramas or large-scale star dramas, and the requirements for production and acting polishing can be relaxed. In the end, she chose to star in "Weaving Clouds" because the crew agreed to her requirements for maximum control over makeup, and could put forward some opinions from pre-script to post-production. Therefore, she has a greater say in the makeup work of this project, including the makeup artist who has also worked with her for many years.
Participation
It is normal for actors to bring their own makeup artists to join the group, and this situation has been encountered many times. Whenever he encounters this situation, Zeng Minghui needs to first tell the actor the personal makeup artist makeup process, if the makeup artist can't learn, he will send a team to help the UP master improve his professional standards. "But if the actor is used to working with a certain makeup artist, and the makeup artist's technique has not changed, it is difficult for the actor's appearance image to break through and surprise."
Zeng Minghui's team has also cooperated with UP owners who do makeup work, "Stage makeup is different from film and television makeup, stage makeup can be thicker, but film and television makeup needs to be thin. "So in general, the form of cooperation between them and the UP master is that a professional makeup artist leads the UP master to form a team to complete the makeup work.
Limited funds to generate electricity for love
Zeng Minghui said that the makeup budget of short dramas generally ranges from 100,000 to 2 or 3 million, and it also includes the cost of costumes. In terms of time consumption, the time required by the makeup artist to set aside for makeup can vary from 3 days to 2 months. Some skits use cosmetic props used by makeup artists or crew members for another work with cost-saving needs in mind, while others choose to rent costumes online and then simply transform the costumes according to their personal needs.
From the perspective of makeup requirements, short dramas pursue savings, while long dramas are more from the perspective of artistic creation, choosing customization. For example, Zeng Minghui's makeup is basically customized, because the image of a character from head to toe needs a complete and integrated concept, rather than patchwork and stitching. But makeup artists sometimes help out of favor and occasionally lower their requirements.
Zeng Minghui
For UP owners, taking care of the makeup work can be a thankless task. For example, the cost incurred by the merchant in the costume and styling in "Weaving Clouds and Brocade" is out of her own pocket, although she is doing two jobs at the same time and receives one salary, mainly because the work of the makeup part is voluntarily undertaken by her, so that her main makeup production demands can be 100% implemented. However, after all, acting is only out of love and wanting to produce their favorite works, the main work of the business is still self-media, and even out of a responsible attitude towards the work, the business will not develop into the entertainment industry.
Unlike large projects, for short dramas that need to be carefully calculated to control costs, the credo of work is "save money". If it were not out of pocket, the participants felt that it would be difficult for the crew to accept spending money to ask the UP master to be responsible for the makeup work. Therefore, although it seems that choosing the UP star and making it at their own expense is a cost-saving approach for the crew, but this is actually an individual case under the premise of the UP owner's voluntary transfer of rights and interests, and it is not universal.
"Cost reduction" is a major premise for the crew to choose to invite costume makeup girls or UP owners to participate in makeup, such as the costume makeup lady who participated in the makeup work of "Anecdote of Flower Liuli", once mentioned in comments on social platforms that the budget of the show is limited. Even for short dramas, it is the norm for production companies to choose teams that have established studios or companies to be responsible for makeup work, such as Da Mang short dramas have a fixed makeup team. Another person in charge of the short drama publicity work early (pseudonym) also told Bone Duo that their company and the makeup team are generally in the form of project-based cooperation, but they basically choose the teamwork of the established company.
In terms of income, short drama makeup work is not actually very profitable. The participant admitted that the salary for participating in small-scale short dramas cannot be compared with the income from receiving brand advertising as the main UP player, and the choice to participate in the project is out of love and sincere exchange.
Is "revert" really hard to achieve?
Nowadays, costume dramas often face the public opinion that "the degree of restoration of character makeup to history is not as high as that of the UP master". But when they really entered the process of film and television creation, the participants found that the makeup of the UP master and the hairstyle production methods of film and television dramas are really completely different.
Whether to restore the dynasty hairstyle and how to do it requires a lot of consideration from stylists. For example, in order to reduce the burden on actors, "when doing hairstyles, considering that zoning + hair bags will pull the scalp, and the actor has a long standby time for a day of filming, so in order to avoid the actor's scalp pain affecting filming, the general costume drama will use a finished hair bag or directly pull the hair bun to the actor's head." ”
It may also be to save costs, so the crew will not do a very fine job in terms of hairstyle. "For a small crew like us, the time to put on makeup and do hair can only be about 1 hour a day, which is very tight."
In addition, the participants felt that there may also be an impact on the trend and change in makeup aesthetic trends. "Some people's aesthetics may be close to modern makeup, such as the ancient adult women's hairstyles implemented in the dynasty are almost completely hairy, but film and television dramas will retain their hair in pursuit of good looks; For example, thick eyebrows may be in line with the current aesthetic, but thin eyebrows are more classical; Another detail is that many people now use fairy hair (a type of false eyelashes), but ancient makeup does not emphasize eyelashes. When there is a difference in these details, the charm of the makeup will naturally be different. ”
In terms of cost, the makeup cost of a video is about 500, which does not cost too much. Of course, the cost problem may also be related to the materials, makeup artist pricing, etc., such as "Anecdote of Flower Glass", although the shape is praised by the audience, there is also a lot of discussion about the jewelry looking cheap.
Regarding the fact that coiled hair and hair bags have become the standard for the audience to judge whether the makeup work of a drama is intentional, Zeng Minghui said that it should depend on the situation. "If the background of the drama is the Tang Dynasty, there will definitely not be too many hair packs used, and if it is a fairy tale drama, it needs to present a light and flowing feeling, and it will not use too many hair bags."
In addition to the type of project, whether or not a hair bag will be used also depends on the amount of hair sent by the actor. "In fact, for some styling, most people's hair volume is relatively small, so they need to use hair bags to assist in styling."
In fact, aside from the "reduction" requirement, from a creative point of view, it is understandable for makeup artists to play freely, after all, the audience watches the drama, "appreciating beauty" is also a purpose, in addition to one-to-one restoration, new looks that integrate certain elements also have the opportunity to shine. But for small-cost short dramas that are "difficult to customize", "restoration" may be the most promising way for low cost. The experience of UP master small-cost makeup is also worth learning.
Of course, the integrity and trend of the makeup artist's aesthetics, the innovation of accessories and clothing matching, and the creativity in aesthetics are the more important factors for the success of film and television makeup.