Like I mentioned in previous posts, I started out at Ravenwood Manor as a volunteer makeup artist, and, if you remember what I said, you should recall that I was probably the most unqualified person for the job. That's not to say that Ravenwood just hires any person who walks through the door (though, that could be debatable on those desperate nights where half the cast is sick and dying), but I honestly lucked out that the system was rather lax when I showed up and I had an interesting, chance encounter that validated my presence at the manor (in my mind, at least). Otherwise, there would be no Jaz at Ravenwood.
In every haunt, you have your Head Makeup Artist. At Ravenwood, that's Talia. Most HMUA try to build a little team of makeup artists under them, because, no matter how much we wish it were possible, one person can't do it all. The best way I've seen it divided up was having your HMUA, someone who specialized in prosthetics, someone who specialized in paint/airbrushing, someone who could generally do everything, and one or two people to pop out "five minute zombies." Of course, each are given the tools and products they need to get the job done by the graces of The Powers That Be, for a small fee. Unless you were me my first year and had to create your own makeup kit on the fly with things laying around your house.
In my case...I'm actually not sure if I even knew Talia until the next year or that the role of HMUA even existed. I was brought in during the last year of Ravenwood's "wild west" days, where law and order were not at their fullest potential just yet. I remember getting a text from a friend telling me they needed a makeup artist and "hey, you know what makeup is, right?" (See? Zero background check on my credentials.) Of course, I went as a favor to him and because I had nothing better to do.
When I got to Ravenwood Manor, I'll admit, it looked like a hot mess in the makeup room. There were people running around with half their costumes on. People were passing around pizza boxes and eating pizza in the makeup stations. (I'm pretty sure I saw one person share a pizza plate with a glob of someone's liquid latex while another zombie was getting their makeup done with said pizza grease latex.) I had no idea where my friend was and I also had no idea who the hell was in charge. It took a good ten minutes for me to find someone who appeared in charge: Blake.
I was told to sign in (which I didn't because I couldn't find an IPad to sign in on and once I did, HauntScheduler confused the hell out of me) and to just pick a makeup station and make zombies. Seemed simple enough, right? Haha, no. I lucked out and found a station right next to my friend, but when I got my first zombie...he left me high and dry. I stared at this kid for about five minutes just trying to figure out what kind of zombies Ravenwood housed. Then, once I decided to go for a realistically undead look (rather than the weird, green, radioactive look), I had to use what little, thrown together, shit quality makeup I had to somehow make it appear that I've done this before.
Luckily, when it comes to horror makeup, the best cover up for a shitty job is just adding more blood. (Makes me wonder if that's why a certain artist at Ravenwood was so obsessed with adding more blood than ever needed to an actor. Very suspicious, if you ask me.) Also, lucky for me, one of my favorite tricks when it came to special effects makeup was to make edible, chocolate blood. So, with five bottles of chocolate and three bottles of red food dye, I had enough of my sweet blood to make up for any bad mistakes I made.
After taking entirely too long on each look, having trouble with not adding enough detail, almost blinding an actor with setting spray, and giving someone a mild allergic reaction with my chocolate blood, I managed to pull off my first ever night as a makeup artist (with little to no guidance, I might add). Before I left for the night, nobody said I did a bad job and I was asked about coming back the next day, so I guess they liked what I was doing. It wasn't until the next year that I figured out that there were look books showing you EXACTLY what everyone should've looked like. Let's just say I should've been shot for the shit I let leave my makeup chair (but I'm also a overdramatic perfectionist so I could be wrong).
So, this weird, learn as you go, don't injure an actor, don't mess anything up, what the hell am I doing, somebody take this poor soul out of my chair style of makeup artistry continued for about three more weeks. I began to settle in on my third day of working, feeling less nervous, but still worried I would be found out as a fraud. "This girl is no makeup artist! Burn the imposter!" Even when I started helping with running, I was scared I would be asked to leave because I was clueless. I honestly didn't really know Ravenwood was where I wanted to be until the night I met Eddie. Of course, before that...I had the misfortune and honor of meeting the scariest person at Ravenwood Manor outside of character: Cain.
It was day four of working at Ravenwood. At this point, I had seen the same familiar faces and grew accustom to the blur of spooks and ghouls running about the makeup room. Suddenly, I heard a disturbance in the force. Everyone rushed to the door to greet this person who I'd never seen before. I didn't think much of it and continued working on my zombie. After a few minutes, this new mystery person passed the makeup station. He looked pretty professional and well put together, (at this time, I STILL didn't know Blake was the owner despite having interacted with her for a few days now) and my instant thought was, "Oh, look. That must be the owner." So, I continued working, not wanting to draw any attention to the fact that I had no idea of what I was doing. A few minutes later, I saw one of my usual actors rush up to the mystery person, excited and happy, "Hi, Mr. Cain! How ar-"
"Amber, stop. Are you dying or bleeding?" this tall, towering, mystery man snapped at her with such venom despite his cool, calm, and collective face. As poor little Amber began to internally shrivel into a scared, little pile of goo, I stared on in horror. "Oh no," I thought, "run, little Amber. Run from the mean, scary man." All the poor kid could do was shake her head 'no' and without skipping a beat, the cold and intimidating mystery man replied, "Then talk to someone else," and rushed off to do some mystery job to add to his mysterious presence.
Mentally scared shitless, I looked over to my friend. "W-who was that?"
My friend looked at the mystery man, then back at me, and simply said, "That's Cain. Don't talk to him." That's it. No title. No position. No anything to go off of. Simply, 'that's Cain.' But, I was shook. I was terrified. If THAT is what Cain was like with one, young actor, imagine how he would be if he found out I was inexperienced and probably wasting their time.
For the rest of the night, my hands shook a little as I added a little paint here and a little latex there. I kept an eye out for Cain, horrified at the thought of him creeping up behind me and exposing me for the waste of space I felt like I was. To my horror, Cain did return...and he was heading straight for the makeup stations.
I was starting to work on my second to last zombie when he walked through the makeup station. Once I noticed him coming, I glanced over to my friend for some reassurance, but was met with none. He continued working, refusing to look up. My stomach dropped as I tried to do the same. I swear, I could feel the tension as Cain made his way behind me and stopped for a moment. I glanced up for a half of a second, noticing the "who is this?" look on his face, before quickly looking back to my zombie. After a second or two I heard, "Good job," and he moved on. Never in my life have I been so relieved. I was spared the same fate as Amber. I could breath easily.
As my last and final zombie of the day hopped into my seat, I noticed Cain sit in my friend's chair. Of course, I was confused because A) He was sitting in the makeup chair as if he were any other actor, B) He lost his well maintained posture and simply slouched and lounged like a regular human being as opposed to the god-like creature everyone seemed to treat him as, and C) He was in costume. I continued working on my zombie, but I kept glancing at my friend and Cain...and ever so slowly, I could see what was happening. Cain, this big, scary, intimidating, professional, powerful mystery man was getting into character.
As my friend worked on his makeup, Cain began to giggle and laugh. He started fidgeting with everything around him. His voice and posture began to change...sending the weirdest chills up my spine. I didn't have to always watch to feel what was happening. The air around him filled with glee and carefree bliss as he would hum singsong tunes and ramble about everything under the sun. By the time I finished my zombie...someone new and strange was beginning to arrive in the makeup station next to me. I remained silent as I cleaned my station, unable to look away. Once my friend put down his makeup brush and gave this strange new character a good dose of setting spray, this massive being sprung out of the chair with a wild, chilling laugh. "Eddie's back!!!" and bolted out the door into the manor, laughing and screaming the entire way. My friend could see the confusion and awe on my face, and with a smirk as he cleaned his brushes, he said, "That's Eddie. You can talk to him."
Now, this encounter isn't over just yet. Of course, I was now intrigued and deeply confused at this point, but what better way to keep someone coming back than a good cliffhanging mystery. There is more to the tale of Eddie, but you'll have to wait for the rest of the story.
Until then, stay spooky and happy hauntings!
-Jaz
In every haunt, you have your Head Makeup Artist. At Ravenwood, that's Talia. Most HMUA try to build a little team of makeup artists under them, because, no matter how much we wish it were possible, one person can't do it all. The best way I've seen it divided up was having your HMUA, someone who specialized in prosthetics, someone who specialized in paint/airbrushing, someone who could generally do everything, and one or two people to pop out "five minute zombies." Of course, each are given the tools and products they need to get the job done by the graces of The Powers That Be, for a small fee. Unless you were me my first year and had to create your own makeup kit on the fly with things laying around your house.
In my case...I'm actually not sure if I even knew Talia until the next year or that the role of HMUA even existed. I was brought in during the last year of Ravenwood's "wild west" days, where law and order were not at their fullest potential just yet. I remember getting a text from a friend telling me they needed a makeup artist and "hey, you know what makeup is, right?" (See? Zero background check on my credentials.) Of course, I went as a favor to him and because I had nothing better to do.
When I got to Ravenwood Manor, I'll admit, it looked like a hot mess in the makeup room. There were people running around with half their costumes on. People were passing around pizza boxes and eating pizza in the makeup stations. (I'm pretty sure I saw one person share a pizza plate with a glob of someone's liquid latex while another zombie was getting their makeup done with said pizza grease latex.) I had no idea where my friend was and I also had no idea who the hell was in charge. It took a good ten minutes for me to find someone who appeared in charge: Blake.
I was told to sign in (which I didn't because I couldn't find an IPad to sign in on and once I did, HauntScheduler confused the hell out of me) and to just pick a makeup station and make zombies. Seemed simple enough, right? Haha, no. I lucked out and found a station right next to my friend, but when I got my first zombie...he left me high and dry. I stared at this kid for about five minutes just trying to figure out what kind of zombies Ravenwood housed. Then, once I decided to go for a realistically undead look (rather than the weird, green, radioactive look), I had to use what little, thrown together, shit quality makeup I had to somehow make it appear that I've done this before.
Luckily, when it comes to horror makeup, the best cover up for a shitty job is just adding more blood. (Makes me wonder if that's why a certain artist at Ravenwood was so obsessed with adding more blood than ever needed to an actor. Very suspicious, if you ask me.) Also, lucky for me, one of my favorite tricks when it came to special effects makeup was to make edible, chocolate blood. So, with five bottles of chocolate and three bottles of red food dye, I had enough of my sweet blood to make up for any bad mistakes I made.
After taking entirely too long on each look, having trouble with not adding enough detail, almost blinding an actor with setting spray, and giving someone a mild allergic reaction with my chocolate blood, I managed to pull off my first ever night as a makeup artist (with little to no guidance, I might add). Before I left for the night, nobody said I did a bad job and I was asked about coming back the next day, so I guess they liked what I was doing. It wasn't until the next year that I figured out that there were look books showing you EXACTLY what everyone should've looked like. Let's just say I should've been shot for the shit I let leave my makeup chair (but I'm also a overdramatic perfectionist so I could be wrong).
So, this weird, learn as you go, don't injure an actor, don't mess anything up, what the hell am I doing, somebody take this poor soul out of my chair style of makeup artistry continued for about three more weeks. I began to settle in on my third day of working, feeling less nervous, but still worried I would be found out as a fraud. "This girl is no makeup artist! Burn the imposter!" Even when I started helping with running, I was scared I would be asked to leave because I was clueless. I honestly didn't really know Ravenwood was where I wanted to be until the night I met Eddie. Of course, before that...I had the misfortune and honor of meeting the scariest person at Ravenwood Manor outside of character: Cain.
It was day four of working at Ravenwood. At this point, I had seen the same familiar faces and grew accustom to the blur of spooks and ghouls running about the makeup room. Suddenly, I heard a disturbance in the force. Everyone rushed to the door to greet this person who I'd never seen before. I didn't think much of it and continued working on my zombie. After a few minutes, this new mystery person passed the makeup station. He looked pretty professional and well put together, (at this time, I STILL didn't know Blake was the owner despite having interacted with her for a few days now) and my instant thought was, "Oh, look. That must be the owner." So, I continued working, not wanting to draw any attention to the fact that I had no idea of what I was doing. A few minutes later, I saw one of my usual actors rush up to the mystery person, excited and happy, "Hi, Mr. Cain! How ar-"
"Amber, stop. Are you dying or bleeding?" this tall, towering, mystery man snapped at her with such venom despite his cool, calm, and collective face. As poor little Amber began to internally shrivel into a scared, little pile of goo, I stared on in horror. "Oh no," I thought, "run, little Amber. Run from the mean, scary man." All the poor kid could do was shake her head 'no' and without skipping a beat, the cold and intimidating mystery man replied, "Then talk to someone else," and rushed off to do some mystery job to add to his mysterious presence.
Mentally scared shitless, I looked over to my friend. "W-who was that?"
My friend looked at the mystery man, then back at me, and simply said, "That's Cain. Don't talk to him." That's it. No title. No position. No anything to go off of. Simply, 'that's Cain.' But, I was shook. I was terrified. If THAT is what Cain was like with one, young actor, imagine how he would be if he found out I was inexperienced and probably wasting their time.
For the rest of the night, my hands shook a little as I added a little paint here and a little latex there. I kept an eye out for Cain, horrified at the thought of him creeping up behind me and exposing me for the waste of space I felt like I was. To my horror, Cain did return...and he was heading straight for the makeup stations.
I was starting to work on my second to last zombie when he walked through the makeup station. Once I noticed him coming, I glanced over to my friend for some reassurance, but was met with none. He continued working, refusing to look up. My stomach dropped as I tried to do the same. I swear, I could feel the tension as Cain made his way behind me and stopped for a moment. I glanced up for a half of a second, noticing the "who is this?" look on his face, before quickly looking back to my zombie. After a second or two I heard, "Good job," and he moved on. Never in my life have I been so relieved. I was spared the same fate as Amber. I could breath easily.
As my last and final zombie of the day hopped into my seat, I noticed Cain sit in my friend's chair. Of course, I was confused because A) He was sitting in the makeup chair as if he were any other actor, B) He lost his well maintained posture and simply slouched and lounged like a regular human being as opposed to the god-like creature everyone seemed to treat him as, and C) He was in costume. I continued working on my zombie, but I kept glancing at my friend and Cain...and ever so slowly, I could see what was happening. Cain, this big, scary, intimidating, professional, powerful mystery man was getting into character.
As my friend worked on his makeup, Cain began to giggle and laugh. He started fidgeting with everything around him. His voice and posture began to change...sending the weirdest chills up my spine. I didn't have to always watch to feel what was happening. The air around him filled with glee and carefree bliss as he would hum singsong tunes and ramble about everything under the sun. By the time I finished my zombie...someone new and strange was beginning to arrive in the makeup station next to me. I remained silent as I cleaned my station, unable to look away. Once my friend put down his makeup brush and gave this strange new character a good dose of setting spray, this massive being sprung out of the chair with a wild, chilling laugh. "Eddie's back!!!" and bolted out the door into the manor, laughing and screaming the entire way. My friend could see the confusion and awe on my face, and with a smirk as he cleaned his brushes, he said, "That's Eddie. You can talk to him."
Now, this encounter isn't over just yet. Of course, I was now intrigued and deeply confused at this point, but what better way to keep someone coming back than a good cliffhanging mystery. There is more to the tale of Eddie, but you'll have to wait for the rest of the story.
Until then, stay spooky and happy hauntings!
-Jaz
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