Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [27]
Once you have left the house, carry a compact-type of powder with you, preferably a brand labeled “translucent, oil-control.” Many regular powders that are colored and come in compacts have the ability to correct color problems on your face but are very poor at cutting down on the shine.
TELEVISION MAKEUP FOR MEN AND WOMEN
If you are about to go on television for the first time, you are, naturally, very concerned about how you will look. Or maybe you have been on TV before, such as when a reporter unexpectedly stuck a microphone in your face as you were walking out of a building. You may not have been so concerned about how you looked in such a situation, since you had no control over whether your hair was messy or your nose was shiny.
But now you are going to be on camera under more controlled circumstances. Maybe you will be giving a speech that will be televised; maybe you are going on a local or nationally televised talk show; or maybe you are running for public office and the cameras have begun following you around. Perhaps you’ve been on TV many times before but have finally become concerned about your aging or balding or have noticed that the camera is recording a few extra pounds under the chin.
Not to worry—this section is for you.
The following subsections explain what TV cameras and lights do to your appearance; how to put on your own makeup if there is no makeup artist on-site; and what to expect from a makeup artist if you are fortunate enough to have one.
Why You Need to Wear Makeup on TV
It is important that you wear makeup whenever you are going to appear on television. This is true for both men and women and whether you apply your own makeup or you are going to be made up by a TV makeup artist.
In the mid-1950s when I was just starting out in the TV industry as the host of several local, live shows, I used to apply makeup to my guests, male and female. Even though TV was in black-and-white in those days, my guests just seemed to look better with makeup than without.
Three or four years after I had been doing this, a producer from CBS asked if I would come and put makeup on one of his guests on a show that was a forerunner of “Face the Nation.” (His show shared a studio with mine, and he said that he had seen how good my guests looked compared to his.) He told me that the guest was to be Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and that they would be using four cameras ranging all around him—shooting even from the back—instead of the usual two. The problem was that Mr. Rayburn was bald, and the producer was worried that his head would shine too much, especially when he was shot from behind. So I did Mr. Rayburn’s makeup that day. (By the way, it was then that I became a TV makeup artist for CBS—which I still am.)
Mr. Rayburn saw himself on the monitor before and after the makeup was applied, and he and the producers were pleased with the result. The next time he appeared on that show, he couldn’t wait to be made up. As he put it, “I want to please all of those old maids and widows out there!”
Those days are long gone, but they were truly the dawn of the use of TV makeup, particularly for men. You, too, should wear makeup when you go on TV. You’ll understand the reasons for this even better as you read on in this section.
What TV Lights and Cameras Do to Your Appearance. Makeup for television is designed to compensate for two things—bright overhead lights and enhanced cameras. Between them, these can add ten years and ten pounds to your appearance.
The overhead lights found in TV studios are mounted high in the ceiling. One problem with these lights is that they cast shadows on the face, and the sensitive camera lenses take pictures of the shadows. The shadows fall under the eyes and into the natural lines and wrinkles in your face. Television makeup can minimize this process and make you look more as if you were being seen in person.
TV cameras have x-ray eyes. Today’s lenses are greatly enhanced, and they see more than the eye can see. As they move into closeup,