MOST jobs I do are not straight forward - my life would be relatively simple if I could just pitch up, throw some makeup onto someone and waltz of but no, as a makeup artist and designer there’s a huge amount of behind the scenes planning and that has to be done before a shoot or event can take place.
Back in August I took on a job for KRAKEN RUM with COW PR based in Bermondsey. http://www.thisiscow.com/ COW isn’t your typical creative PR agency – they really like to push the boundaries, taking top brands out of their comfort zone whilst achieving big results. In this instance, they nailed it and I hope it was part due to my creativity working closely with the agency and the brand that achieved an unbelievably HORRORible night.
To start with, COW PR wanted to run a campaign that was very different to the usual Halloween theme that so many brands across the world tap into. With Friday 13th in mind they came up with a Kraken of an idea - screening the scariest movie as voted by the UK public and to screen it in conjunction with the scariest form of horror in one place - I’m talking clowns – not just one clown but many, many, many clowns!
So the job began – I designed a clown including makeup and costume using the Kraken branding colours and backstory of the The Kraken (a mythological squid-like creature found deep beneath the sea off the Norwegian coast). There would be five Hero clowns with a further THIRTY FIVE clowns for the main publicity shoot and then seven more hero clowns for the big event.
My amazing blood suppliers PIGS MIGHT FLY SOUTH http://www.pigsmightfly.co.uk/ produced a BLACK BLOOD and BLACK INK and that, along with bald caps, hair pieces, lenses, teeth, shirts, braces, buttons, bowties, ripped trousers right down to the socks were all ordered and the HERO CLOWN came to life along with customised and hand painted masks for the remaining 35 clowns. It was a mammoth task to pull together (whilst also working on other shoots) but along with my trusted team of MUAs, Bianca, Lydia, Alisha and Beth, we did it!
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Over 250 people along with journalists, bloggers and social influencers attended the event at the classic retro Rio Cinema in Dalston https://riocinema.org.uk/RioCinema.dll/Home – check out these links and pages for more amazing photos!
https://www.instagram.com/krakenrumuk/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/thecybilwar/?hl=en
https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/the-kraken-screamfest
Happy Halloween - loads more blog posts coming soon!
