Some students have dreams of playing in the NFL, having a successful music career, or following in the medical field, but not junior Sarah Swain. Swain has a love and passion in the art of makeup.
Makeup art may be thought of as a simple job or career, but there is actually many varieties of makeup art to the job and much hard work needed to become successful. Swain’s makeup skill ranges from everyday makeup, to Halloween makeup, and to crazy and exotic makeup looks. This past summer, she got some first hand experience from assisting makeup on two different movie sets.
“I assisted on the sets of the movies Valley Inn and Greater, which are both independent films,” Swain said. “My dad took me to Little Rock to audition for Greater. I was too young for any parts, but my dad was casted as a body double for the main character’s brother. When he was sent to the makeup artist, he told her about my love for makeup. She invited me to be her intern for the rest of that shoot, liked me, and invited me to assist on the next movie she did.”
Her internship started off like any other, like learning the basics, watching the professionals from the sidelines, and helping out with what ever might be needed. When she got up in the morning, she headed straight to the movie set.
“My shifts for working on the set of Greater was during the night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. I learned why adults are so dependent on coffee,” Swain jokingly said. “I would clean all of the makeup brushes when I first got there. Once the actors and actresses started showing up, we began doing their makeup. We worked on people until the cameras, lighting, set, and sound were all set up.”
After the filming started, her main job was to watch from behind the cameras and make sure the actors looked the same from beginning to end. Once this movie was completed, Swain started assisting on the set of Valley Inn and was gone on and off for another couple of weeks.
While being exhausted and functioning off of coffee every day and night might have been her least favorite part about everything, she definitely got more good out of the whole experience.
“My favorite part was having the experience all together,” Swain said. “I had a blast; I figured out what I want my future career to be, and I met a ton of important and potentially famous people. I learned a lot about the filming business and had the best first job ever.”
Participating with a few independent movie productions was not the first time she’s had experience with doing makeup. Swain is also a part of the Searcy High School theatre program and is in charge of the makeup department. On the side of that, she’s been asked to do people’s makeup for halloween, senior pictures, and enters competitions after creating a look on herself.
Becoming a makeup artist isn’t something someone easily acquires over night. Although, Swain learned all by herself by continual practice and watching experienced people first hand or from the television show, “Face Off.” Like any other dream, determination and practice is what will help in the long run. Swain has had a pretty great start to chasing after her dream career and has high hopes for herself when it comes to makeup art and plans to keep fighting after it.
