I Made A (Film Star!) Weave

I wrapped filming for the student film project I was working on today. Overall I was responsible for the hair, makeup and wardrobe of a cast of five characters: four of whom are members of a goth/emo rock band. For the most part, the actors were cast pretty close to part, which made my life a hell of a lot easier, since I was a one-man department responsible for the looks of 5 people. However, the lead character (a particularly emo 20-something who probably spent his entire teenage years moping around the Hot Topic at the mall while trying to get a band together), was to be played by your quintessential Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing *normal* guy. Fun!

I realized right off the bat that it was with that character that I was going to make my involvement with this project worthwhile for me. As I mentioned, I did this job pro-bono, which meant that if I wasn't getting paid monetarily, then I better damn make sure I get something beneficial out of it! (No offense, Phil, I realize you spent a shit ton of $$ on this project, and I am really grateful that you thought of me and allowed me to be a part of it!) Anyway, I immediately started thinking about how I could transform this guy into a pseudo-rockstar...

Here is what I had to work with:

note the American Eagle hoodie...

Obviously, the first thing to tackle was his hair. I could go one of two ways: cut it or add some. I decided I wanted to give him hair... Nothing says "emo/goth band" like some seriously asymmetrical hair. So, a hairpiece it was! The problem, of course, being that -- I've never done one before!

I guess that's not entirely true. I experimented with fake hair in the early '00s when dreaded hair extensions were in style in the goth-club circuit... and I've owned little (pre-made) clip-in extension pieces that I got at Ricky's, or whatever. But I'd never bought hair on a track before and made my own. Luckily, I'd had friends who'd done this before, so I knew how it worked, and I'd also asked one of my instructors to explain it to me a few weeks ago, as he wears a clip-in extension every day while he grows out a short haircut... Making clip-in extension pieces was way easier than I thought; the hard part was blending it in with his real hair. I ended up making two pieces: one for length, and one for blending/style. Added to this was some smudgy eyeliner and a few key wardrobe pieces (borrowed from another actor), and voila! An emo rocker dude was born.

The result:

his shirt (underneath the scarf and pleather jacket) reads "Fuck My Life" -- if that's not "emo", I don't know what is.

For one scene, I had to make the character look like he'd just been in a fight (with the guitarist from his band, who'd transformed into a drug-addicted zombie... yes!). Here's what I did with that:

he had fake blood dripping down the corner of his mouth that smudged off before I took this pic. 

I'll also add that this film was shot in black and white, so the difference in tone of his hair piece and his natural were not noticeable. (I checked. Many times).  Also, subtle makeup applications go a looong way on black and white film.

I'm super excited by the results, considering it was the first time I'd done this. I can't wait to see the film when it's edited and complete. It was a really fun experience, and it confirmed for me that I do indeed enjoy working on film shoots. Can't wait to get more experience like this under my belt!

Here's some more looks from the film shoot that I put together:

before and after of female drummer character. 

post-gig look

this is the token naive bass-player character.

strung out heroin-addicted soon-to-be zombie character.