makeup around the world: the Netherlands

Wendy van Dijk (Ushi & Dushi)

The following are the two most interesting websites from Dutch makeup artists and FX studios which I’ve found worth bookmarking.

Rob’s Prop Shop: Rob Hillenbrink set up Rob’s Prop Shop in 1986 and has worked on many movies and TV shows, including creating some really neat cosmetic surgery effects for Moordwijven.

Unreal FX: Rogier Samuels and Carola Brockhoff set up Unreal FX in 2001. Amongst other movies and TV shows they have worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and most recently on Zweiohrkueken and Ushi en Dushi.

makeup around the world: Asia (exc Japan)

The following are websites for various Asian makeup artists and FX studios which I’ve found worth bookmarking. Unlike most of this series of posts I haven’t seen many of their movies, so I’m mostly relying on the images in their online portfolios.

Lee Chang Man: (Korea) Lee Chang Man was responsible for the makeup effects on The Wig, Wishing Stairs, and last year’s celebrity-fakeover show Change. His website (in Korean only) contains many high-quality images from these and other movies.

MAGEfx: (Korea) Another interesting site with lots of images, but again in Korean only.

Jin make-up: (Korea) Jin Ho Kang won the student competition at IMATS (London) in 2006 while studying at the London College of Fashion.

Q fx workshop: (Thailand) Q-Vitaya Deerattakul’s FX workshop based in Bangkok. Along with many Thai productions they have worked on Vinjan and Bangkok Dangerous.

If anyone has any suggestions for sites I’ve missed, please add them in the comments.

I’ll be doing a separate round-up of Japanese websites shortly; I’m not sure whether there are more of them or whether they’re just easier to find.

makeup around the world: Germany

These are some of the German makeup websites that I browse through regularly while trawling for interesting new movie makeups. I’m not intending to knock any of the other excellent German makeup artists I’ve come across — a number of them don’t have websites (eg Gregor Eckstein) — it’s just that these are some of my favourite websites. But I will admit a slight bias in that some of these artists have been helpful in providing images and/or information for themakeupgallery — especially useful when the shows or movies are not available in the UK.

Twilight Creations: Tamar Aviv and Jörn Seifert run Twilight Creations which has a really nice, new redesigned website with lots of photos — though sadly without captions — of their work. Currently, they’re working on Harry Potter and their recent work includes Inglourious Basterds (for KNB EFX), Pandorum (for Stan Winston Studio), Schweitzer, The Countess, and Mr. Nobody.

Jeanette Biedermann in 'Experiment Inkognito' (Robert Rebele)

Atelier Rebele: Robert Rebele is based in Munich and has created some great makeups for the ‘fakeover’ show Experiment Inkognito, Post Mortem, Elementarteilchen, Marlene, Suck my Dick (though that one made me wince), and Vera Brühne. He has also created many puppet characters for various shows.

Georg Korpás: Georg Korpás Make-up & Prosthetics is based in Munich and is headed by Georg Korpás. He has worked on The Red Baron, Hui Buh, Die ProSieben Märchenstunde, Goldene Zeiten, Bibi Blocksberg and Tattoo amongst many other German productions.

team-endeffekt: Team-endeffekt handles a wide range of services — visual effects and fake documentation — as well as makeup. Sascha Kolmikow is responsible for makeup and has worked on a range of German productions, notably Polizeiruf 110, Die Comedy-Falle, and Bloodrayne.

StarCrest F/X: Birger Laube of StarCrest has worked on Polizeiruf 110 (Silikon Walli’s breasts were quite unforgettable), Das Sams, Schöne Lügen and Bibi Blocksberg und das Geheimnis der blauen Eulen amongst other productions.

Tommy O Effects: Tommy Opatz has worked on Polizeiruf 110, Bloodrayne and various other productions.

Perfect in Make-up: This Austrian company has quite a slimline website but it does have information on some really neat prosthetic work they’ve done recently for Ein halbes Leben and Falco — Verdammt, wir leben noch!

If anyone thinks I’ve omitted an amazing German — broadly speaking — makeup website please add it in the comments.

makeup around the world: India

Rakhi Sawant (fakeover by Nahush)

Although there is a massive movie industry — maybe it would be more accurate to say that there are massive film industries, eg Tollywood and Kollywood as well as Bollywood — in India, I have found very few movie makeup artists’ websites. This may reflect an absence of such sides or simply that they are invisible to me because of my inability to find them if they do not have an English version (or use English keywords); I’m inclined to the former view because I can find a clutch of bridal and beauty makeup websites and blogs — but I’d be happy to be proved wrong.

These are the most interesting ones I’ve found:

Nahush Pise: Nahush Pise trained as a makeup artist in Los Angeles and is based in Mumbai. He has worked on Chandni Chowk to China, Black, the prosthetics extravaganza Dhoom 2, and most recently the ‘fakeover’ Show Arre Deewano Mujhe Pehchano.

Vidyadhar Bhatte [29/08/2009: link dead]: Vidyadhar Bhatte is a veteran Indian makeup artist who started as an assistant to Pandhari Juker. He has worked on such movies as Parineeta and has recently been in the news for creating Shilpa Shetty’s — as yet unseen — bald look for the Indo-Chinese project Desire. Images of his work can also be seen at the Sheer Cosmetics website.

If anyone can point at other Indian movie makeup artist websites, please use the comments to tell me about them.

Tribute to Dick Smith

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is holding a Special Tribute for Dick Smith to honour his lifetime contribution to the makeup profession.

The ceremony will be held  on 17 June at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles. Rick Baker will serve as Master of Ceremonies and speakers will include: Greg Cannom, Mike Elizalde, Kevin Haney, Hal Holbrook, and Guillermo Del Toro. This once in a lifetime event will be open to the general public.

Wonderful, appropriate and about bloody time!

Diane Chenery-Wickens

David Chenery-Wickens has today been sentenced to life imprisonment (minimum eighteen years) for the murder of makeup artist Diane Chenery-Wickens in January 2008.

David Chenery-Wickens was arrested in May last year, just hours after his wife’s body was discovered in woodlands near their home.

Diane Chenery-Wickens won an Emmy for Arabian Nights and was twice nominated for a BAFTA for Dead Ringers.

RIP: Benoit Lestang

Sadly Benoit Lestang died while I was on holiday.

Benoit was a great French makeup artist. Amongst the recent films he worked on were: Martyrs, Un secret, Le Scaphandre et le papillon, Molière, Ne le dis à personne, Manderlay, Arsène Lupin, Saint Ange, Tiresia, and Le Pacte des loups. He was also a friend to themakeupgallery.

DVDrama has an obituary (in French) with images of some of his recent work.