Getting Chased By A Helicopter At High Speed Down A Runway!

On the last day of filming ‘The 7 of Daran’ in the Namibian desert, a skeleton crew stayed behind for the last few aerial shots .

The first shot from the air was, Johan the 10 year old Star & his co-Star Ketrice (9) lost in the desert. Ava our AD (assistant director), myself & two guides were asked to take the kids into the Dunes on 3 Quad bikes.
It didn't take long before Ava handed her quad bike over to me, only because I had driven one before- baring in mind that helicopters are very expensive & everybody was waiting for us, so we had to be quick. The last time I was on a quad bike I realized that it’s all about speed, so off I went, Ketrice clinging to my back, hurling over the dunes for a rendezvous with a helicopter in the distance.

On one occasion my nerves failed me half way up a huge dune, I made a U- turn & came back, but I realized there was no other way…I had to go up. We got to the top of the dune and the guide was standing on a precipice signaling for me to ‘go slow’, Johan(10) turned & looked at me, his eyes like saucers as they vanished over the edge.

Three story’s high almost straight down – but down we had to go. It was incredible, the sound of the sand that rushed underneath us, for those few seconds it drained out the rest of the world.
Finally they got the shot & we maid it to our second location (the runway used in Flight of the Phoenix) just in the nick of time. I was still reeling with adrenalin, a big, fat grin fixed on my face.

The next moment the helicopter flagged us down, complete with a wiggle from side to side, just like U see in the movies. The director hung out of the window & signaled for me to follow them.

So of course I chased after the helicopter, it landed so that the DOP (Director of Photography) could jump on the back of my bike. Without hesitation he yelled, “Go, Go, Go! “ – So I went.

It turned out that the truck they were filming got stuck & he was on his way to help. Of course just as we got there, the truck started to move & we were now in shot…”MOVE MOVE MOVE!”
So this is how I was chased at high speed by a helicopter, down a “runway”, with our DOP hanging on for dear life…Only in the MOVIES, ha ha?

By Christa

U B .beautiful. Partner

Ps. Have a look at our gallery! @ http://www.ubbeautiful.co.za/ for some amazing photo’s

Raine In Prison

www.ubbeautiful.co.za

Behind film strip Bars.
Raine in Prison…

Towards the end of 2008 I worked a TV series Called “ The Prisoner”
-a 60’s British TV series, with a huge cult following…
NOW… the Americans have remade it. There are no names just numbers,
& everything that happens is in the mind of a dreamer.
So that’s a really short description, let me tell U what it was like as a make-up artist from MY point of view.

The Shooting started in Namibia a great place to go for a “Short time”
With that in mind, there were of course delays!! This meant staying longer in that sand pit- if u could have seen my face, eyes rolling.
*#!%#%** Great !!! a whole month! (In the movie world that's really long.)
In the Mica (beautiful sparkly stuff u see in the sand) infested sands of Swakopmond, which by the way can give non-local’s chest infections.
Clearly I’m not a sand person?

Don’t get me wrong, the Desert is Mysterious, beautiful, aw inspiring & unforgiving. This was my Prison!
The work day’s are long, from freezing cold to boiling hot & sometimes U are shooting out in the desert.
U miss breakfast, The Base camp toilet is miles away & they have run out of honey, there’s no shade, u get caught in a sand storm & they’re chasing the sun… down a mountain.
Then there’s on set Politics, not something I enjoy, but for some (world wide) reason the Make-up Dept is sometimes targeted. Maybe because we’re all very strong independent woman surrounded by ego driven insecure men.( not all of them)
Everyday there was a new drama!!! ( Boring)
For eg: If the lead Actor ( no names mentioned) decides to have a chat & drag his feet getting to set or have some big issue about something really small… The Make-up Artist is blamed… even though we have arrived on set already??
It was Make-up’s fault they lost the day… It became the running joke
The weather turned its Make-up fault, the bus broke down it’s make-up- having mechanical knowledge they sabotaged the bus & so on…this carried on for most of the movie…
Point they never finished the day!

Hayley Atwell Sir Ian McKellen Lenny James

My Artist’s were all great Lenny James, what an absolute pleasure to work with, Sir Ian McKellen a professional Make-up & Artist relationship,
Hayley Atwell wonderful & funny & our Jamie was very entertaining.

We finally came home to Cape town, YAY!!
Only to be imprisoned in a Studio!!! The last day of shooting we couldn't wait to crack the Champagne & disappear… We got our get out of jail free card..
I do have fond memories & there were definitely times I enjoyed
BUT the drive Home “The BIG sigh” Thank God its over, Out of Prison
Run, Run & don’t look Back…

TIP: for make-up Artist’s who find themselves in Prison… Suck it up,
it’ll END, it always does…

I LOVE MY JOB sometimes…
By Raine Edwards

Working with the LEGENDARY CLINT EASTWOOD

http://www.ubbeautiful.co.za/

It was an honour to work with 1 of the legendary actor/directors of our time, Clint Eastwood on his latest film "Invictus."


In March this year I worked on an inspirational South African tale about Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) & Francois Pienaar (played by Matt Damon) leading up to the Rugby World Cup in 1995. The film is based on the novel "Playing the enemy" written by John Carlin.


Clint Eastwood has an amazingly friendly & calm nature, surprisingly unlike the characters we knew him for (from the Wild West or the Dirty Harry days).
His calming, professional energy is most definitely felt on his sets by the crew & actors alike. He knows exactly how he wants a scene to be filmed, every angle & camera move necessary. There's no messing or fussing around, & due to this the shooting day starts at 10am & is done by 6pm (unheard of in our industry.)

On an Eastwood set there's absolutely no shouting allowed, even by the AD's (assistant directors) who normally call out "Rolling" & "Cut" so that the crew know when a "take" his over.
Instead this was replaced by a 'circling hand in the air' & whispers into the radio.

Most directors call "ACTION" & "CUT" for the actors, but not Clint Eastwood, he has this amazing way of telling the actors to start when they are ready & simply says "stop" when he's happy. These changes are due to his many years on Western movies where the horses knew the word "ACTION" & the moment it was said, "off they went" leaving no-one in frame to be filmed.
Funny but True!

It was an absolute pleasure to work in the presence of such greatness & I left feeling the utmost respect for such an amazing man/director & film maker, Clint Eastwood.

By Simone Stubbs
U B .beautiful. Partner

An Embarrassing Moment I'll Never Forget!

http://www.ubbeautiful.co.za/

In the film industry “time is money” and this means every second counts, so when you are doing final checks you have seconds to decide whether to re-do, fix or leave it for the next take.

Ultimately it would be great to have 2 sets of hands as you never seem to have enough when it comes to checking groups of people…or teams of rugby players.
My story is a short one, one that gave me such a numbing fright that I actually blushed! For the tabloids, this would have been Heat magazine material. Ok so you are wondering what I am on about?

Can U spot Matt Damon?

At the beginning of this year we worked on "The Rugby Movie".
Yes the one with Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon,
I’m sure you have heard of it and seen many stories in our local magazines and newspapers. OK, so it wasn’t that technical, just a lot of running around after a bunch of boys. With no final checks allowed we had to do our work on the sly or at least where Mr.E couldn’t see us. This meant we had to do “award winning” make-up in less than two seconds, on 30 men while trying to balance all your goods in your two hands.

The only time that a scheduled final check was allowed was when the director and DOP felt the need for specific make-up like sweat, blood, bruising, dirt & scratches, all to be done in minutes on 30 rugby players, signifying the end of a grueling rugby match.
It was during one of these checks that we had to run in & spritz the boys down so that they were dripping with sweat.
I was armed with a 1Lt spritz bottle, running through the boys doing my best to get them all. As my fingers were furiously pumping water onto their faces, I caught myself 2 seconds too late, as I looked into these piercing blue eyes in front of me and realized I had just spritzed Matt Damon! I froze with embarrassment for a few seconds (remember seconds count),
then quickly made my apologies...a friendly smile from Matt assured me that it was ‘all good’ and that it was ok to continue. I totally forgot what I was supposed to do after that, as I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I had just embarrassed myself in front of, one of HOLLYWOODS best looking men. This was yet another fine memory to add to the list.

Top Tip for Make-up Artists:

Always look before you Spritz...and give thanks for working with down to earth "Human" actors.

Enjoy every moment good or bad, it's what makes this job worth while!

By Natasha du Toit

U B.beautiful. Artist

HORROR HORROR HORROR!!

http://www.ubbeautiful.co.za/

HORROR HORROR HORROR!!!

If U don’t have the stomach for gore & blood then I suggest U don’t go & see the latest thriller I just worked on...

“THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT”

In March last year I had the awesome challenge of doing an outrageous Horror film produced by the horror icon himself, Wes Craven (with Universal’s Rogue Pictures). This was a remake of the original 1972 horror that was banned from the UK for 35yrs because of its gruesome content.

For a team of Make-up artists/friends it was a dream job. We had so much FUN that we called it 'Our Joy Movie!'

The Team: Simone, Meg, Kerry & Chiara

We each designed the looks for our actors from their beauty make-up & hair to the special effects & blood. I designed the make-up for Emma Collingwood (played by Monica Potter) & Paige (played by Martha MacIsaac) both of whom had countless cuts/ scratches/wounds & dirt, as well as being wet for most of the movie. All of these effects ‘of course’ are created by the make-up artists, not only once, but again & again back & forth throughout the filming process, it’s called ‘Continuity’.

My prep began with making THE BLOOD needed for the movie ( litres & litres) , not only for the make-up department, but the props, set dressing, special effects & prosthetics departments too.
As the blood featured so much in the movie (a lead character all on its own) I had to make the perfect colour, depth & consistency needed for the specific lighting & technical camera work being used. If that wasn’t difficult enough I had to get the blood to look realistic moving in the water, as well as adhere to the actor’s skin… in the rain. Needless to say I was kept very busy & quite enjoyed the passing comments from the crew, all of whom thought I looked like a witch brewing her cauldron! ‘Boil, boil… toil & trouble’ What FUN!

Despite the content we were filming the crew & actors had huge amounts of fun, laughing in between takes & playing pranks during the most horrific of scenes.

This is just one example of how the audience never knows what actually goes on behind the scenes. After working on movies like this I have just one thing to say…

‘I love my job’

by Simone Stubbs

U B.beautiful. partner