A New View of My Role
BY JENIECE TORANZO, LUSAKA, ZAMBIA -- Ok so I had NO idea on how to do make-up on people other than myself. My first and frightening challenge was to learn how to apply the make-up on African people. I was afraid that I would do it wrong and make them look bad and so I made sure that as soon as I knew that my role was the make-up artist, that I would check out books and online information in order to get a better understanding on how it works. Having to do the hair and make-up has been a new experience for me. I found out that you have to be much more personal and a little more intimate with the actors and actresses. For me, that is a lot more scarier than what people would think. I am not a "touchy feely" kind of person to begin with, expecially when it's with people that I don't know or know very well. It was a huge obstacle for me and I learned that I just had to suck it up and overcome that fear because the crew needed me to do my job. I must admit, at first I was embarrassed, intimidated, and unfomfortable but now I am more relaxed. I was slow at first and now since I got the hang of it, I am learning to be much more efficient. I like having to look for little details and things that would make the complete product better. Now, when I think of putting make-up on someone, I think of a blank canvas and I am getting ready to paint. I think it would be interesting and fun to be able to learn how to do the special effects for fantasy characters and such. You can do so much with make-up. It's a challenge, but a challenge worth overcoming. Even though, at first I doubted myself and the value of my role, now I understand that my role is just as important than any other role because we are all connected and have to work together in order to make the movie a great finished product.