Professional makeup artist hosts class for film union members

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M – Doing makeup on a movie set can be a daunting task. What can make it even more of a challenge for everyone involved is not knowing how to work with different skin tones who come into work. 

That’s why local makeup artist Danielle Bridges led a weekend class for Local IATSE 480 Film Union members with some good tips and tricks for doing makeup on a film set, and some specific training on how to work with anyone who steps onto a movie set. 

“We’re going to teach people to not think out of the box,” Bridges said. “When you approach someone, don’t just look at their skin, think about how we all fit together more. Maybe there’s more blue in their skin maybe more red – see it that way.” 

Thinking differently even comes with changing the language used to describe skin types. 

“So, we’re going to go from saying things like light and dark to really rich words like toffee and auburn and really rich language,” Bridges said. 

“The diversity in film is way more important than it ever has been,” Jiji Hise, a makeup artist in the class said. 

Models of all different ethnicities volunteered for the two-day class. They also left with a different perspective at the end of the day.   

“I think there should be a lot more classes like this because I feel like it will make the actors and everything a lot more comfortable with what they’re doing,” Jenniefer Eison, a model at the class said. 

“With this class and everything, I feel like Danielle’s helping people expand to see that it’s not just one tone we have multiple tones,” Ariadna Quinones, a model at the class said. 

Bridges’ hope after this class is to make sure actors, models, and makeup artists all feel comfortable showing up for their jobs on set. 

“We are all from the same palette and that’s what makeup’s about, confidence,” Bridges said.