The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Makeup, The Costumes And The Wardrobe.

So my group and I chose to evaluate The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe for our Mise-en-Scène assignment.  My job is to "break the scene down in terms of 'makeup design'." What's-his-face is doing locations and special effects. The other guy is doing the key grip, key gaffer and DP thing. And that dude with the hair is doing production design and art director. Cool.

Here's our single frame we selected from the battle scene.

And here's the battle scene in action.

Well so I was doing some research and guess what? Yeah, there's 139 people in the makeup department for this movie! Well I ain't gonna sit here and type up everything that every person did. So Imma just do a couple peeps, a'ight? I'll analyze the costume design near the bottom of this post. But first I just gotta tell you a little bit about these two dudes named Howard Berger and Gregory Nicotero.

Howard and Greg are the main makeup design artists for this movie. They met in 1985 while working on "Day Of The Dead" they've been working together since then throughout several studios in Hollywood until they created a group called KNB EFX in 1988.

While Howard was being interviewed by Brain Gallagher he mentioned that the mechanical area is a dying art. CGI and SAG are starting to take over and makeup artists like Greg and Howard are fighting for a position being a SAG puppeteers. More and more directors are moving toward computer animation but Howard says they spend $10-$20 million fixing the movie in CGI and it all could've been circumvented by a long pre-production period. "We needed like a six-month pre-production period to really figure out this world that this movie takes place in" said Howard. 

 
"I'd say the most complex is probably, well, for the first movie, believe it or not, Mr. Tumnus was extremely complex. Even though it seems simple, it's not because there's a real specific look that took us a long time to find. That makeup went through a lot of variations. Ear sizes, nose sizes, hair color. He was originally all chestnut then he went to blonde. He just looked better" said Howard.
Howard also mentions that he was given six months in pre-production and the first three months were just designing.

Basically amazing. 

But wait. There's more. 

From the book "So You Want To Work In Set Design, Costuming, Or Makeup?" I've learned that every character in a movie wears makeup. Makeup artists construct fake noses and boobs and things to try and make the actor look like someone who they're not. They are responsible for attaching scars, bullet wounds and fake blood.

Now let's discuss them fashion designers.

Also from the book mentioned above I've learned that pointy collars and crisp clothes give the look of armor. Stretchy, knit clothes come off as vulnerable. Once the actors and actresses have been cast, the designer has to consider their body shapes and how to play down their flaws and play up their best features. Designers also consider the camera angles that the script calls for. A close-up shot means the costume needs to help draw in attention to the face.

I like this image because you can see the brilliance of several departments at work here. The makeup on the little girl is very smooth and soft, like a child's face should be. Whereas the faun's makeup makes him look kinda scraggly. The costume design is rather fitting here because she looks really young and innocent with her little collared dress and knitted flower jacket. His scarf looks good on him because it tells the audience that this is his natural habitat and he doesn't need much to stay comfortable.

I like the texture in her soft jacket and her soft looking hair. The faun seems rather "rough"... maybe it's because of his packages and messy hair. Also his one horn on his head. It looks well.

Isis Mussenden is the one and only costume designer credited on IMDb. Though I believe she had a team under her. Isis tells an interviewer "A costume begins with the script. As mentioned above, the research into the character needs to be explored. Who are they? What state of mind are they in...and on and on. Once the actor is cast, a discussion with the director and the actor take place to collaborate as to how this character is going to be played. From there I come up with ideas of how this particular person would dress and either start to sketch or to pull already made clothing together for a fitting. It is here in the fitting room that the character appears and the actor leaves us."

And that's about it. ...I think. I don't really have anything else to say... 

~ Le fin.