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Arts & Entertainment

Makeup Artist from Napa Nominated for Emmy

Artist Mindy Hall, a Vintage High graduate, not only earned a 2010 Academy Award for "best makeup" (Star Trek) -- she just received a 2011 Emmy nomination.

The odds of working in film and television as a makeup artist are slim to none – on a good day.

But Hall, whose extended family lives in Napa, decided at age 17 that her career of choice would be as a professional makeup artist -- much to the chagrin of her “artistic, crafty” mother.

“I wasn’t one of those theater kids,” she reminisced, “but I went to the drama teacher at , Bruce Payne, who said, ‘here, take these books,’ and one was Stage Makeup by Richard Corson (fifth edition).

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“I also liked drawing and ceramics and was very close to my art teacher, Pearl Bell, who was instrumental in my wanting to be an artist.”

At San Diego State University, Hall ended up working in the theater’s shop, getting to know the costume designer. While Hall’s art background and experience proved helpful, she couldn’t find training in her chosen field and knew she needed mentoring.

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Dropping out of college proved serendipitous when she was accepted as one of 12 students into the exclusive makeup apprenticeship program at San Francisco Opera

Here, Hall learned to “think on my feet and shift gears.” 

Right out of that program, at age 22, she was hired to work with a variety of U.S. regional opera companies doing makeup, styling hair and building wigs all the while acquiring what she calls “global training.”

Hall went interplanetary with the Star Trek, film for which she won the 2010 Academy Award for best makeup.

At the (non-televised) Emmy Awards ceremony on September 10 in Los Angeles, Hall may again be accepting a coveted industry award for her talents, this time as Department Head Makeup Artist for Cinema Verite

The HBO drama tells a behind-the-scenes story of the groundbreaking documentary, An American Family, which chronicled the lives of the Santa Barbara-based Loud family in the early 1970s, catapulting them to notoriety while creating a new television genre --reality TV.

Hall is up for the Emmy for for “outstanding makeup, mini-series or movies."

Cinema Verite,” she explained, “is an example of ‘portrait makeup,’ where you’re making an actor look like a real person” – in this instance, Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini to name a few in the cast.  

Hall’s first step in this project began with the script, looking for written physical cues. 

“The next step is research,” she said.  Who are the real people?  What time of year is being portrayed?  How old were they at the time? What are the environmental factors?  What part of the world did they live in?   What is their social stature?

“You are building a research and knowledge base because the next step is to meet with the director, actors and costume designers.

“Film is one, big collaborative art.  At that level, you are needing to work together as one.  You have to work closely with the hairstylist and costume designer and especially with the actors.

“For Cinema Verite, we knew they (the creative team) wanted the actors to look like the (Loud) family because there would be intercutting real photos with actor families. That’s what we were working for. 

“You could do a double-take.  We got really close, really able to get in there and pull it out, and we were recognized for this in the field.”

Thirty years and over 30 feature movies later -- many as department head -- Hall’s credits include films such as Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps, P.S. I Love You, World Trade Center, The Nanny Diaries, Wicker Park and Stuart Little, among others.

As well as working in television and live theatre, Hall co-authored “The Makeup Artist Handbook:  Techniques for Film, Television, Photography and Theatre.”   

Hall generously offers some valuable advice to want-to-be makeup artists.

“Go to beauty school, get a full license.  It’s really helpful and exposes you to science.  Plus, it gets you in the habit of touching people because you must learn how to ‘touch with intent.’

“Get in the environment.  If you want to work in film, it’s helpful to have an art background.  You have to understand color, proportions, contrast and highlights.

I honestly think the hardest part is getting trained and getting started.  Then, it just sort of snowballs.  The people that you come up with start getting better and better; the community grows together. 

“I was in the right place at the right time.”

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