Interview with a MUA: Olivia McCormack on the creating the looks behind Ties that Bind

Olivia McCormack is a West Yorkshire based makeup artist. She’s studied Media Makeup with Special Effects under the Northern School of Creative Industries. Over the past couple of years she’s been building her online portfolio and has worked hard to create many innovative and unique looks. Whilst we were hunting for the crew members that would help out on ‘Ties that Bind’, Olivia instantly struck us as the perfect match for our team.

Our process on character themes began right back in summer 2019. Exec Producer Morgen Hand worked alongside director Matthew James Taylor and DoP Will Velvick to create the colour scheme for the film, with three bright neons (red, blue and pink) being the forefront of our scheme. Each colour worked to represent a particular character from the main trio. Corinne’s colour was bright red, Tessa’s was a pink and James was blue. Tessa’s colour being central to the others helped to correlate with the narrative of the story, and through lighting we were able to show the influences of her two friends throughout. We came to Olivia with this brief in early 2020, and she worked hard to create two contrasting looks for Tessa and Corinne that suited the characters and their colour schemes perfectly. The following interview is about Olivia’s inspiration and work process throughout the film and in general as an MUA.

How did you go about creating the looks for Tessa and Corinne and how do they differ?

To create the looks for Tessa and Corinne, I received a brief from the production team. I had a description of colour and meaning and a moodboard showing what kind of personalities the characters have. From there I made my own moodboards adding to the ones already given to me to find more makeup looks and hairstyles that link to these characters and would be suitable and I started to build a look from there. The girls' looks differ in terms of colours, finishes and shades used. Tessa’s makeup is kept quite pretty, natural, sparkly and glossy whereas Corinne’s look is bold, matte and I used more darker and warm toned shades such as the subtle smokey eye and the red lip.

How different is doing makeup for screen compared to everyday? Do you have any tips for screen makeup?

Makeup for screen is very different to everyday makeup because of techniques, products, placement and lighting. When doing makeup for screen whether that be for Film, TV or Photography, you need to take into consideration how lighting and shade will change the makeup and how it will appear on camera because it is very different to how it looks in person. Also continuity is a huge factor for screen makeup. You need to remember or note down the products you used and where and even take pictures from different angles of the actors face to replicate the makeup on different days. Everyday makeup is based off of personal preference. You can switch it up, use different colours and play around with it. Which you can’t really do in screen makeup, it all has to look somewhat the same all the time. Some tips for screen makeup are that you need to research the time period, the setting, the storyline and genre to cater the makeup to the project so always research, speak to the production team and discuss what they are looking for and follow the brief given. You can never go wrong if you follow the brief set and do some of your own research.

What do you love most about your job and what aspects of Tessa and Corinne’s looks did you find the most fun to do?

I love that no day is the same in my job and that there’s always a new challenge. I work with so many different people in different areas of the industry which is brilliant because I’m not stuck to doing one thing all the time and I always have contacts for different projects. The aspect I enjoyed from Tessa’s makeup was the fresh skin. I love natural, healthy looking skin so this look was up my street! The aspect I enjoyed from Corinne’s makeup was the red lip. I really liked how it stands out and is really striking.

How do you go about showing the themes of the character through their makeup?

You have to think about the audience perspective on each character and what they will think when they look at the clothes, hair, makeup and props. Does the character look approachable, clean, upper class, lower class, young or old? The use of colours is really important to put themes across, this is why I used pinks for Tessa and reds for Corinne as discussed in the first question about the meaning of colour. It’s not always about how the character speaks or presents themselves that shows you everything you need to know about them, it’s all the subtle things like facial expressions, colour in their clothes and makeup, if the hair is up or down because these can show things like how confident a character is and a deeper insight to them. I used the colours subtly but so that the theme could still be put across.

What inspired you to become a makeup artist?

I was always creative as a child and I love anything to do with entertainment. I used to dance when I was younger but I had an accident which meant I couldn’t perform anymore, but I still wanted to be involved with the arts. I stumbled across theatre makeup in year 10 drama class. Because of my accident I couldn’t walk so I had to be given another role which was to do hair and makeup for the other students. I really enjoyed exploring other ways to do makeup and I saw how it was so different from everyday makeup and I’ve never looked back, my passion just grew from there!

What advice would you give to others starting out in the industry? And how do they go about starting their careers in makeup artistry?

I would say just to be prepared for everything. There’s so much I know and have learnt now that wouldn’t have even crossed my mind when I first started out. Follow your favourite artists on social media and try and make contact with them if you can and ask for advice. Also work experience is a massive help if you struggle with confidence. You meet loads of amazing people through work experience that can guide you and you’ve always got a contact for possible projects in the future too. One of my biggest pieces of advice would be that you need to explore every aspect of the industry from TV/Film, Theatre, Editorial, Special Effects, Postiche/Wigs and you will naturally fall into one of those. When I started I was set on Wigs and Theatre makeup but now I do Editorial makeup so it’s at completely the other end of the industry! If you have a go at everything, you’ll always have the skills and techniques to do other jobs if you get the opportunity.

And finally, what are the top five products that would have to be in your makeup kit on set?

I have a top 5 but it’s a mixture of products and tools. Always a powder for touch ups, lip products for each actor, Q-tips and tissues to clean up if the actors eyes start watering or anything like that, spare mascara wands to separate the lashes and hair pins incase the hair falls out or comes out of place.

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To contact Olivia for MUA related work or simply to follow her journey and see her amazing art follow her on Instagram at - @oliviamccormackmua

For a more in depth behind the scenes look into ‘Ties that Bind’ and our upcoming projects be sure to follow M6 productions socials @m6productions