Transcribing the Voice Recodings

Sam Partington

What's your first makeup memory?
 "ummm.. probably starting doing the ageing makeup on this course."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"Getting things wrong and having to remove it all and correct it."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interests in makeup?
"I suppose. It's kind of stereotyped quite badly, yeah."

What was it that drew you to makeup win the first place?
"Um, special effects looked really cool."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Trying to get things right and having the confidence in yourself to do it."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Creating new ideas I suppose. Like it's your own unique thing that you do, that's kind of cool."

Larissa Gibbs

What's your first makeup memory?
"Oooh, um... I dont't know. When  I was like 3 I used to like, raid my granny's makeup. She used to have really expensive stuff and I used to put it on myself at her house hahaha."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"Um... I don't really have a least favourite thing. I don't know, I just like everything about makeup really."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"I don't know I think it's a really mainstream thing now. Everyone's getting into makeup and they might just thing I'm a wannabe. I've always had an interest in it though so I'm not really bothered."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I don't know, I've always been quite creative so I guess when I first got my hands on it I was like 'oh it's like paint isn't it?' Like you can just do whatever with it, so I guess that."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
Probably being good at it. Like, I don't know you have to be good at doing it. I enjoy it but I'm not that amazing that's why I'm doing this course; to improve. So I guess it is really hard, you don't think it would be but it is."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Just being creative.'

Robyn Tyler

What's your first makeup memory?
" I think it was like Christmas when I got some lip balms in a magazine. They were really rubbish glittery ones."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"I hate it when something's not symmetrical, like when you're doing your eyebrows and you've done one and you've gotta try and get the other one the same."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Yeah definitely! I think when I said I was doing this course, a lot of people assumed it was a really easy course that anyone could do and you know, things like that. I think they just assume makeup's a joke."

What was it that drew your to makeup in the first place?
"I was a model before so because I had my makeup done all the time I thought it would be easier if I could do it myself."

Whats the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Hmm... I've got a shaky hand so probably that to be honest; trying to keep everything steady."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Umm.. being able to do your own makeup to a good standard."

Joy Tamsett

What's your first makeup memory?
"Um... in general? Doing Egyptian makeup on my mum when I was little."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"umm... probably doing the face paint stuff."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"It depends what sort of makeup you do. Not everyone's really bothered about it but some people judge depending on what it is.

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I've just always liked it. It's like doing art but on the face."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"You've always got to be on your feet."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"You get to create different look and experiment with different things."

Lottie Crossley

Whats your first makeup memory?
"Probably when I was younger and used to buy magazines. They would come with a little pouch with all the lipsticks and eyeshadows and glitter. I'd put them all over my face and look a bit stupid but that's probably how I started."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"Cleaning all the brushes and everything afterwards and tidying away all the stations."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"I think some people might. Some people might say it's an easy course. If you say you're doing makeup they're like 'oh isn't that quite easy?' but when you get started there's quite a lot more to it than what people assume."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"Probably how it can transform you and how different people can look with vs without makeup."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Um... probably all the different topics and how much there actually is to know and learn. There is more than the basics; foundation and stuff like people think

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Probably learning all different techniques and there's so many different styles!"

Maddie Hurrell

What's your first makeup memory?
"Oh god, I don't really know! Just playing with makeup."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"It's probably having to take it off!"

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"I don't know, it depends on how the person is in general."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"Just how it can change your appearance."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Staying calm when things go wrong!"

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"It's fun to just mess around with makeup as well as getting something out of it."

Shannon Kenney

What's your first makeup memory?
"Probably when I was younger and going through my mum's makeup, trying it on."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"When it goes wrong and you have to redo aaaall of it."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Um... Not as much as I can tell they do about other people but I don't wear as much. I understand when someone wears a lot of makeup AND does makeup they tend to think they're a bit ditzy."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I originally wanted to do costume and then makeup was a part of that course. It became interesting and I loved how you could change someone's face so much with so little."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Perfecting techniques"

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"All the experience you get."

Tyler Sweeney

What's your first makeup memory?
"Probably just putting eyeliner on really thick which looked ridiculous."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"The fear of it going wrong and having to restart it."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Ummm... Yeah, they probably think I'm really girly!"

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I don't know, I kind of saw tutorials on youtube and photos on instagram and tumblr. I just aspired to be like them."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"You get worried about what people think; whether they'll judge you based on the makeup."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"It's your own creation so you can make it what you want it to be."

Esme Smith

What's your first makeup memory?
"Just having makeup on for Halloween and stuff."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"People's perception of it and how it can make you dependant on it. You can't go without it sometimes,  you can wear it so much it's kind of like a drug and you can't be without it."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Yeah! I think people think I'm quite dumb or fake or I don't value people."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I like that you can just do anything you want with it. Say, if you wake up and you want fake freckles you can have fake freckles!"

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Probably time constraints. Or not having full creativity with something if you wanna do a certain thing but it's for someone who has a completely different idea."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Seeing people's faces change when they see themselves with makeup for the first time and they feel a lot more confident."

Emma Vinton

What's your first makeup memory?
"Doing it properly at prom with all the eyeshadow and stuff."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"When you're doing eyes and stuff, if you go wrong sometimes you've gotta take it all off and start right from the very beginning."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"No not really."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I've always enjoyed doing my own makeup and doing it for my sisters. Then I found this course and thought it would be really good!"

What's the hardest part about being a makeup artist?
"I think in some things like pantomime it's quite chaotic to do and get round to everyone."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
 "Probably the fact you're always doing something and then you get to do a wide range of things; different makeup for different productions."

Jazmin Stafford

What's your first makeup memory?
"My mum's makeup kit- blue eyeshadow, red lipstick. I just went through it and slapped it on."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"Nothing."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"I think people think differently about people that do makeup. People that do 'higher courses' think 'people that do beauty, they're not going to get far' but this course is really going to help me."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I don't know. It was somewhere between year 8 and year 9 that I first started wearing makeup properly and got better at it. OH... yeah.. my eyebrows. They used to be h o r  r i b l e! Now they're beautiful.

What's the hardest part about being a makeup artist?
"Trying to talk to people who don't want to converse with you."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Everything!"

Beth McGovern

What's your first makeup memory?
"The first one... probably when I was a kid just playing around with it, but properly was just doing it for parties and stuff."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"When you've done your makeup really well and you have to take it off at the end of the day."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Hmm... Kind of. I guess they judge you in a way but if it's what you wanna do...."

What was it that drew you to makeup int the first place?
"You can create new looks for people and make them look completely different."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Trying to judge what's the best thing to do for the best outcome."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Just using new products and giving people new looks."

Lucy Nilsson

What's your first makeup memory?
"When my sister used to do my makeup as a child."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"If something doesn't go right you have to redo it, that's annoying."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Um, not really. Some people might think 'oh you don't do much because you're only doing makeup' but there's a lot more to it than that."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"Kind of the fashion side of it. I wanted to be a fashion designer and I thought makeup would help me get into that career."

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?
"Having an understanding of other people's faces and hair and stuff."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Just meeting new people and getting to learn different techniques that I can use and practise on myself."

Chloe Reed

What's your first makeup memory?
"In my life generally? My mum used to buy me those little kids' makeup you can get with sparkly lipgloss and everything, I was probably about 7 then."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"Probably washing brushes!"

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Yeah. I think people can assume that you're not confident in the way you look if you wear a lot of makeup."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I've always liked art and I like beauty so I guess it just tied the 2 together."

What's the hardest thing about being  a makeup artist?
"Trying to thing of new ideas I guess, trying to keep it fresh."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"Doing what you love!"

Charlotte Green

What's your first makeup memory?
"Probably doing skulls here, I don't know."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"Probably old age makeup."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"No, I don't think so."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"My dance teacher's a makeup artist so I think that got me interested from a young age."

What's the hardest thing about being  a makeup artist?
"Precision and timing."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?
"The outcome; seeing someone's face when it's all done up."

Ebbe England

What's your first makeup memory?
"When I was about 4 and getting my first eyeshadow kit, making it go way over the top."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?
"Probably the way it can come off quickly."

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?
"Sometimes. I think people are quite stereotypical in that way."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?
"I've always really liked doing it, I've always been really interested!"

What's the hardest thing about being  a makeup artist?
"The time that you have to do stuff in!"

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?

"Being able to change someone completely into someone else!"

Laura King

What's your first makeup memory?

"I don't know. I guess just taking makeup out of my mum's bag and putting it on."

What's your least favourite thing about makeup?

"The price of some of it!"

Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?

"I don't know. Maybe, but I guess I have a lot of different interests, not just makeup."

What was it that drew you to makeup in the first place?

"I like the different styles of it, the different variations and how much of it there is!"

What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?

"Having to work under time pressure."

What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?

"Getting new makeup and getting to learn new skills."

Documentary shooting

So today I visited a group of trainee makeup artists who I would be following for a few days for my documentary. I started off by taking photos of their workspaces, then took pictures at regular intervals throughout the makeup process. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take the after pictures of the workspaces because they packed up at the time I was interviewing people. Luckily, I have tomorrow as well to get some more pictures.

On the second day, I decided to just take the 'after' workspace photographs and pair the before and afters of two artists and add both of their answers as text. I thought this would work better because a lot of them gave very short answers to most of the questions, so I would have more to work with pairing both.

I'm not over the moon about my photos, but I feel like I'm still getting used to photography and cameras, and it still takes me a lot of thought to set up a photo. I'm hoping with a bit of a photoshop workshop I could edit them to look a bit better.

My biggest concern right now is deciding on a layout for this series of photos and adding the text in a way that looks good and conveys the thoughts of the artists.

Documentary Contact Sheets

 Here are my contact sheets for my two shoots with media makeup students.
Key:
X: Don't like/won't use
This could be various reasons like over/under exposed, something in frame I don't like, blurred etc.
/: There's something I don't like but have not completely decided against the photo, could fix.
- : Used only for name reference.

I'll look through the ones I've narrowed down and see if I can discard any more. If not, I'll see which ones fit best and look best once I've had chance to edit them a bit.

Photographic Documentaries

Brandon Stanton - Humans Of New York

Humans of New York is one of my favourite blogs to follow. He takes pictures of various people in New York City and asks them questions, documenting the answers in the form of a caption for the pictures. I love the idea of taking the static pictures and adding emotions and depth to them with words instead of music an such like you would find in films. I'd like to take this element into my project; using the thoughts of people to bring life and emotion my photos. 

HONY blog

The element of emotion in the pictures is what I love, how with asking questions you learn so much about one person that he happened to come across by chance.

Lalage Snow - We Are The Not Dead, Returning By The Road We Came

The main thing that drew me to this was the layout. I like the captions mirroring what the subject is thinking and that there is a series of pictures, all with their answers to various questions.

This has inspired my own layout; I would like a page per makeup artist, showing their name, pictures of them/their model and their workspace, with captions of what their answers were.

 The sequential nature of these photos is really what draws you in, in my opinion. It makes you think about the changes over time and how things deteriorate. This has definitely inspired me in my idea to do the before and after of the makeup work spaces. 

Final Idea & Layout Options

I've decided to go with a series of photos with text relating back interview responses.

For the photos, I'd like a photo of the artist themselves, though I know some of them may not want their picture taken so this is not set in stone. This could be a straight up portrait or an action shot of them doing makeup. I would also like a picture of the model at the end with their makeup done, as well as a before and after of the workspaces. I'm going to give each makeup artist a page.

Layout Option 1

This is simple but I think it could be a bit boring. 

I like having the artists name at the top, I think they should be an important aspect of the page. 

I think the line up of the pictures is very neat which I like but it may be too neat for such an artsy topic? Though on the other hand the contrast might compliment it. 

I feel like the captions could easily become messy looking as they have a lot of space and as they will most likely be different lengths. 

I like the fact that the text is arranged in a way that doesn't link it directly to the photos, so it's less like a caption and stands alone more.

The four pictures in the corners works for me, though the text really doesn't fit in with it.

This was just a little variation I made on the layout above. The bigger photos work well as there is more emphasis on the photos than the text, without being really overbearing. 

I'm still not 100% happy with the placement though, it just doesn't look right.

This is my favourite one so far. I like the symmetry of the layout and I think the text fits in well. 

I'm concerned that I won't be able to fit as much text in as other ones, though I'm not expecting to get lots of good answers so this might actually be beneficial. 

Also, I'll have to get the pictures the exact size and shape to be symmetrical which could prove to be quite tricky.

I'd maybe like it a little bit simpler, so I may downscale to 2 images, the workspace before and after. 

I think I'll wait to see what pictures I have to see how I can lay them out to decide on what's the best.


If I decided to use just the two photos, I'd probably go for a layout like this:

It's more simple and doesn't look as cluttered. I feel like this layout limits the amount of text I can use, though like I said before there's probably not going to be many worthy answers.

Interview Questions

I really want to get around the assumption that girls who like makeup are all airheads and have the IQ of a root vegetable. I also want to find out what it is about makeup that captivates us and has done for over 4,000 years. I plan on asking a range of questions with different tones, with some funny answers and some quite deep and meaningful.

'What's your first makeup memory?'

'What's your least favourite thing about makeup?'

'Do you think people assume things about you based on your interest in makeup?'

'What is it that drew you to makeup/ why do you like it so much?'

'What's the hardest thing about being a makeup artist?'

'What's the best thing about being a makeup artist?'


These questions, in my opinion, have the potential to draw up lots of different emotions which I think will be beneficial when matching them to photos.

Interactive/ Participatory Documentaries

Jonny Madderson

I really love Madderson's style. I like how he gives a face to the voice, but then has just a voiceover while visually showing imagery related to what they're saying. I want to give quite a personal feel to my project, like you're really understanding the topic from the interviewee's point of view; I feel he really captures this. Some of his work borders on being quite poetic because of the way the shots are shown with the music in the background.

'Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow'

'Five Stone of Lead'

Angie Bird

Angie Bird's style is somewhat similar to Madderson's as they are the same genre of documentary. The main difference between them is that Bird is a lot more interview based. She usually keeps the visuals to the faces of the people talking when they're talking, though not always. I think this works for the type of storytelling work she does, though wouldn't fit with what I'm planning.

'You Won't Regret That Tattoo'

Genéa Gaudet

Her short documentary ' Elder' really grabbed my heart, mostly because I'm a sucker for period gay romance. I can't link it here as it's not a youtube link but I'd definitely recommend giving it a watch! It's an interview of a middle aged man remembering his years as a Mormon missionary and his first love- a young Italian boy in the 1970's. It uses both shots of him now, talking about his memories, and original film footage that he took back then. I really love the contrast between the old footage and the new voice, giving his take on it after all these years.

Documentary: Initial Ideas

My initial idea:

A behind the scenes/backstage look at performing arts focusing on makeup. 

I've contacted my old tutor to arrange a times to film there. We decided initially I'll go for half days on Wednesday and Thursday, then we can arrange more dates later if necessary. 

In college, we were looking at different types of documentary. I'd assumed that they had to be in film format so I'd planned on filming mine, but after looking into some photography based documentaries I'm a bit less sure on what I want to do now. 

I have 2 different ideas on how I'll do my documentary; the first is an interactive style one, the second would be in book style with the narrative written as a caption instead of spoken.

I'm going to do a bit more research into both styles and then make a decision, I don't want to incorporate both into one project.