Make-up Artist, Howard Berger live demonstration at Cinema Make-up School

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to Cinema Make-up School to see Oscar-winning special effects make-up artist and co-founder of KNB EFX, Howard Berger, apply the beat-up make-up done for Jesse Pinkman from AMC’s “Breaking Bad”.

Before getting started with the make-up Berger introduced himself and his model Joe Giles, who is also a mold maker for KNB and gave a brief description of the kind of make-up he would be doing on Giles. He then reveled KNB’s new video reel for just about all the new and old movies and TV shows they have worked on for the past few years.(Sorry no video of that lol). This was something that no one has seen before yet, so it was an opportunity to get a sneak peak at what KNB has been working on.

Right after that Berger got started with applying the make-up to Giles. The make-up itself was all silicone and was five pieces, which included; a nose piece, a cheek-forehead piece, a swollen eye piece, a cut lip piece and a small forehead cut piece. The pieces were all applied and painted using products from one of the top leading make-up suppliers in the world, PPI Premiere Products Inc.

The process of transforming Giles took between a hour and a half to two hours. During that time Berger took time to answer questions from those in attendance.  He talked about his past experiences, both good and bad with movies, actors and other make-up artists. There were also a few items give away in a raffle during the presentation.   The things that were given away included, KNB books, KNB T-shirts, The Amazing Spider-man 2 crew T-shirts, and Howard’s very own signature series on-set make-up palette by PPI.

If you are really into make-up effects or just a big fan I would recommend going to these presentations at CMS.  There is a lot to learn just by watching and listening. They are usually opened to the public and all you have to do is RSVP if you can make it and if you can don’t pass it up as you never know who will be there.

If you wish to know more about CMS and the opportunities there you can visit the website at  http://www.cinemamakeup.com/. They also offer tours of the school so you can get up close and personal with everything. Here is a brief description from their Facebook page:

Founded in 1993, Cinema Makeup School is Hollywood’s professional makeup school. “CMS” (as the students call it) provides education, career and technical training for a variety of fields from the film and television industry to high fashion to cutting-edge special effects.

With the school’s proximity to Hollywood studios and unequaled teaching pool of talented working professional artists, it’s no surprise that CMS has produced a stream of notable makeup artists ranging from multiple Emmy winners to Face Off stars to award-winning bodypainters and everything in between.

KNB EFX has worked TV shows such as “The Walking Dead”, “Breaking Bad” and “From Dusk Till Dawn the series.” They also have worked on movies such as “Oz the Great and Powerful”, “Lone Survivor”, “Hitchcock”, and “The Amazing Spider-man 2”. You can find out more about them on their website. You can also call to schedule a tour of their shop!