Tell us which program you took at CMU College..
My name is Kaitlyn O’Neil, I started here in 2016, graduated in January 2017, and I took the Complete Makeup Artist Program. While I was here, that’s when they introduced the ZBrush, so they didn’t even have that program available when I first started. I took the biggest program that I could, which is the full 8 months (the Complete Program). I loved it here, I really really did. I was a bit of a nerd.. Because I’m from Hamilton, I would commute every day, but I was always worried about traffic, so I’d usually show up early. And Kelly (McCallum) was up and he would have the key to the room. I usually would go see him in the morning, grab a key, open up the room, have some time to chill.. I really liked it here. I really did. It was such a big thing to get in here too. Because I was living on my own and I’m wondering “how am I going to do full-time school, and pay for rent, and pay for the school”. There was just an opportunity, essentially with second career. That’s what I ended up applying for. I was able to get money from the government to help me cover my bills while I went here here. It took a lot to make it work, but I did. And that’s why when I was here I went as hard as I did. I put in as much as I could.
I did the full program, I ended up graduating top of my class, which was very exciting. Ryan (Louagie), who was my prosthetics teacher, we just connected well. He partners with this guy, Carlos, and they own this special effect shop in Hamilton called the Butcher Shop. I ended up connecting with him after school and that was my first job. I actually started working at the shop, they would call me for the odd gig. You know, I’m at the beginning, they would call me in to start sculpting something. I would fill molds. I slowly got into it that way. And then the school offers their job board for a year, so I did get a couple jobs from that.
I first did a short film. I worked as the hair and makeup artist on a short film for students at the University of Toronto, that was their final project. They had to put together a short film, so I ended up working with them. Someone from that film then was working on another film with another group, and so I connected with them, I was the makeup artist they knew, so they called me again and then made some other connections there.
Through the shop, I met a couple others which was good because again, it’s all “who you know” and networking. They knew I was a makeup artist, so then other jobs that they had they would hire me on and it kind of just built from there. I didn’t expect to get into effects right away, but special effects here was really fun.
I went crazy with the prosthetics and the creature design. My creature design was a little crazy, and I ended up at one point needing Ryan, Steven (Dawley), Mason (Mummery), and David (Scott) all helping me at once because we were trying to figure out how to do it. I did a split head. It’s my head split open to the skull, and then the skull cut to the brain. But to make the face stay, because I also had to get stuff inside of it, I wanted you to be able to look all around. It was quite a bit of work, and all the hair punching, I did the eyebrows and eyelashes. I still have it to this day, which is really funny, it’s in my closet. I brought it out at Halloween just to freak people out, but it is starting to break down a little bit, but that was a good one.
Kelly actually called me for a job. I had to apply a beard on somebody. It became very random. For the first while I tried to just pick up the jobs that I could. It wasn’t full-time, so I ended up getting a job at a spa. I told them right from the get-go, “I wanna be a make up artist, I wanna be able to still take on jobs if I can”. They were quite flexible with saying “if you need time off, or need a day, just let us know as long as you can give us notice”. Sometimes you can, and sometimes it was very “I’m not going to be there tomorrow” because I wanted to take any job I could. I was juggling the two for a while. It ended up where I did very well at the spa, and they ended up promoting me to supervisor. But then my makeup started picking up.. So I had extra responsibilities at the spa, and then I had extra jobs with my makeup, then COVID happened. There was a lot going on. I stayed at the spa during COVID. They stayed open because massage was essential, so there were still things we could do there. And then when it reopened, it got crazy, it was so busy there. And then makeup started coming out again and being available, and I couldn’t juggle the two.
I had been working again, I would get called, it was all “who you know”. Someone I knew recommended me to this photographer in Hamilton and they didn’t have a makeup artist for a photoshoot. They kind of went through the list, called me, I was available. Met Marta and her husband Gerald, who have this fashion studio in Hamilton. Made good connections, so then they called me once in a while for a photoshoot. That was probably for a year to two years of just being called if they needed. And then when COVID was settling down, I was really not liking the spa and I was getting busier with makeup. They offered me an opportunity, we ended up sitting down and talking, and they said “would you consider working part time in our studio, we need help with emails, all the administrative work, social media, quoting, all that”. And said “could you do three days a week, we’re flexible, you can move which days where you need to”. And I said “that’s ideal because my gigs are all over the place, I don’t always know what’s going to come up or how many days”, so that was just a great opportunity that opened up. I left the spa and that’s what I currently do. I work part time, it’s three days a week. It could be whatever three days as long, as we don’t have a shoot or anything that I need to be there, but essentially they’re flexible, and I can take whatever gig.
I was teaching at Mohawk College. I did get to teach a night course, part of their continuing education program, which was Special Effects 2. I was teaching them how to make a facial prosthetic. We were learning life casting, molding, sculpting, use silicone and apply it. So I did that for three classes. Again, COVID hit, didn’t go back. But they did ask me to come back, I said no. The program they had was three hours a night and it could be structured a bit better. In one night, we had to do life casting, but after you life cast, you have to get the cement in, so we were cramming it in. I ideally would like to do less days, but longer days, that would be better. Just the structure of it, I thought “I don’t think I want to do it this time” and I thought of teaching on my own.
I haven’t got into prosthetics, none of the special effects teaching, but I have done makeup workshops. I’ve just put together makeup workshops for people to come learn specific things about makeup. And then I did do a Halloween class where I showed them how to do a skull. I’ve done random things like that, but I am officially self-employed. Even the photographer that I work for, I invoice. I’m a contractor. I am running my own business, I am freelancing, I have clients that I built up. I have photoshoots. I have a production company in Hamilton that I work for.
The other thing when I got out of school is I shadowed a makeup artist. I got connected with a Hamilton makeup artist and I shadowed her. I just connected with her, “hey I’m really interested in becoming a makeup artist”. She was actually the one that pushed me to go to school. I met her before i started school, stay connected, and when I was done, I ended up shadowing her. Went onset with her, because I was very “I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know how to talk to these people”. She brought me onset, I was able to watch her do her thing, know how to go in and do touchups, come out. She helped so much, still to this day, we stay in touch. She lives really close to me and she’s been a huge help. So I do recommend that to a lot of students.
Did you reach out to her the first time?
I did. Essentially, one of my clients at the spa, who became a regular, liked me, and her daughter knew the makeup artist which was this woman. She said “why don’t you reach out to this makeup artist and maybe you can get hooked up with a TV show”. She gave me the contact information, and thats how I contacted her. It was really like she had no idea who I was.
She works for a production company in Brantford, that fills a lot of her time. If she’s not available, I’m the next up. She’s made me her runner-up, which has helped a lot too. She’s also said “keep my rates, I’d rather you not get lowballed”, and she’s been doing makeup for 25 years or so. I was making so much more than I originally was charging!
Another production company I work for, we do commercials, worked on films. I worked on a CBC kids show here. I’ve kind of been all over. I will take any job, I will do anything makeup related. I love doing special effects, beauty, fashion. I do have a few weddings this year. It’s kind of a range, I do commercials. Anything makeup.
It’s your relationship with your instructors, those are your biggest assets, and your fellow classmates.
That’s the thing I wish I built up a little bit better, but I don’t have a roster. I have probably two makeup artist, I want a bigger list. If I’m not available, I want them to be able to call this person because I know they’re good, they can replace me, no problem. So I am wanting to do that. I’ve lost touch with a lot of the students. I follow them on social media, but I don’t keep up with them. I became best friends with George, who was a classmate, but he lives in the states. As soon as he went back home, life happens, and we don’t keep in contact.
People might have a clear path of “oh this is what I want to do”, and mine changed. I didn’t think I would be that interested in special effects. I didn’t think I would be good at special effects. And when we did it, I was decent at it. I did not expect that. And it was like “oh this is kind of fun”! My journey took a curve that I wouldn’t have expected, but let’s go with it.
You never know!
You never do! We did a week of wig knotting, we got in there and we’re making mustaches, that was our first project. And then that I remember was the click of “oh there’s a lot of jobs within the industry”. It didn’t really click until we were making moustaches. You can just get into that. You can get into hair plugs and wigs. It just kind of opened it up where it was like, “oh, there are different avenues that I can take with this”.
And the ability to make it all from scratch, I’m sure you know!
You have to think on the spot. I was working on something for YouTube Red, a TV series, and essentially this guy was getting his head pushed back against a nail. So the nail, he wanted to come through the mouth, and he wanted us to have a nail sticking through his mouth with his mouth open. But I understand when you think of it you’re just like “can you somehow make something up”. But it has to be solid. If that is a solid nail, that’s pierced through someone’s head, that’s sitting straight, it is not moving. So essentially, I need something that’s going to grip on their teeth, like some sort of contraption to really hunker into the teeth, or get a mouthguard, and then attach it. We were already thinking “how are we going to do this”, and they think “can you just like put together”. But for it to look like what you want, and to make it look real..
The other thing I noticed too is, I watch movies differently. I pick out so many different things. But I also have so much more understanding. I would usually say “Oh my gosh, look at that makeup, look at this, they missed that”, and now I get it. They probably took the model/actor before they were ready. Now I understand it’s not always the makeup artists fault, there’s so many elements to it. But it was really just learning from here, and getting that experience out there.
The same TV series, we had to make a mouthpiece, teeth, sculpt them and make them look ragged and sharp. And then we had to make it look like the mouth was ripped open, so that’s a prosthetic plus teeth. And it took a lot of prep work. I told him how much time we would need on the day, and we got to it as fast as we could. Then I watched the final, and you just see the side of it. I thought, that was so much work, which that’s fine, they paid for it, but that was so much work.. That killed.. You work so much on a scene, and it’s cut or it’s a second long. Once you get in on the ins and outs, it’s entertaining.
Do you feel like you have enough preparation while you were here to network?
The only thing I would say to future students is you really have to pay attention and listen because the information is here. We had somebody come in and talk about taxes, I wish I paid more attention to that, not going to lie. Certain people come in, really listen to them. Really listen to them, and what did they do. If you’re not paying attention, you’re going to miss those opportunities where they’re telling you how to network. Listen when they say, make business cards, get photos. That’s the only thing, do what they’re saying. You really have to put it into action because otherwise, if you don’t do it while it’s fresh and while you’re in it, it’s going to be so overwhelming at the end of like, “I’ve got to get all of this together”. I found as long as you keep up with it, start a portfolio. It really is what they put into it. I did find that the job board really helped. I did get a couple of jobs from that, that was helpful that I was able to grab those. The kit for sure.. the kit was great. I felt confident to be like “I could go travel and do someone’s makeup right now”. I felt like I had enough. I did buy quite a bit from the store, but that discounted really helped as well. So, yes, my answer is yes, I did find it was quite helpful, but it takes work. You have got to be prepared to put the work in.
And the only thing I’m going to say now is, I kind of feel like I need a refresher, and I don’t know necessarily where you do that. Unless I take another course.. or something like that. But I was talking to Ryan, and I haven’t sculpted in a while. I just thought that if there’s an opportunity where I had to fill-in or help out here, I feel I would need a refresher. I don’t know how to do that without paying for an entire course. I don’t know if that’s something that can be offered here. I’ve been more into fashion lately, and I feel a little out of it with special effects.
If you could say something to anyone starting a career in it, what would you say?
Be prepared to put in the work. Stay inspired, that’s a big thing. Look at other people, who inspires you? Other makeup artists, is it fashion designers? Who is doing the job that you think is amazing? Just think about your “why”, why you’re doing this. What does inspire you, and stick to that. Keep that inspiration and just know that you do have to put in the work.
But to me the goal is essentially, you are getting to be creative, you are an artist. You could potentially make your own hours, take the jobs you want. There is a lot of creative freedom. You have to keep growing, you have to keep learning. Think about trends. Be prepared to do the work and keep up with it. And stay connected! Fake it ‘till you make it, stay confident, act confident, and doors will open up.
