Recent graduate of CMU College, Sadé Tuitt, has since moved on to doing part-time makeup at Sephora Canada, as well as doing part-time work at a hair, makeup, and facial studio. Outside of that, she has been doing freelance work on music videos, bridal, and some TV and film, including the upcoming blockbuster, Kipkemboi. CMU College sat down with Tuitt to ask a few questions.
CMU College: What program did you take?
Sadé Tuitt: I took the Comprehensive. I wanted to focus a little bit more on the Fashion. I assumed Fashion was going to be the 100% thing that I would be super fond of. I think I would’ve had a lot more fun doing Creature Design, which I didn’t really think when first jumping into CMU College.
CMU: Was there any particular course that you were inspired by?
ST: It was definitely TV and Film. Fashion was obviously amazing because that’s what I was most looking forward to doing, but learning a little bit more of TV and Film and even Theatre intrigued me a little bit more than I thought. You learn a lot of different techniques that you wouldn’t really use in terms of everyday makeup for either a fashion shoot or editorial. Even though there is a specific look in theatre that you have to achieve, there’s still a lot of creative stuff that you have to keep in mind, which I think I was a bit surprised, and I thought it was going to be a little more rigid.
CMU: How do you feel CMU College helped prepare you to build rapport?
ST: Outside of CMU College, I had some friends who were already in the industry doing other things, fashion related. So making those connections in school was important, but also knowing how to take it out of school, and being easy to work with in whatever scenario you are in because you don’t know who that next job could be coming from. I did have a lot of help from the faculty, and the postings they would send through email about different jobs coming down the pipelines. And gaining connections from there because the industry was so small.
Bring your best self because it’s not just the makeup you have to do well, it’s also being a good person that someone else wants to work with. It’s an energy that you have to bring to set.
You don’t have to box yourself in one thing as a makeup artist, you can do so many things. I’ve seen that in a lot of other graduates, working on music videos to head shots. They’re doing a lot, which makes me feel good as an artist, that there’s room for us to grow.
CMU: Favourite job since graduating?
ST: The very first music video that I worked on will probably be a highlight for a while.
There was a lot of moving parts, and getting to see how wardrobe was getting together, and how we had to do a dance like “Okay, this person’s getting changed, we’re going to do makeup here”. Seeing amazing special effects and actual stunts on set was really cool. It was long days, probably 12-to-13-hour days, but it was a lot of fun. I think this was also the first ignite in my brain to be like “Oh I can actually do this!”. I was very nervous at first. I knew I could do it, but I was quite nervous. But knowing onset that I could make a lot of great friends, I felt like I belonged as a makeup artist. It kept the fire going in me too, branching out as an artist and to do a lot of different things that I may not have thought I could do when stepping out of CMU College.
CMU: Now because you had the skillset, you jumped on this film, Kipkemboi. Tell us a little bit about that!
ST: Kipkemboi, it’s about a boy in Africa who’s extremely intelligent, and he figures out an amazing mathematical discovery, and a lot of people are not too sure of how he came up with it, so there’s people coming after him. It was set in Africa, then in Toronto, so I did the Toronto side.
It was amazing to be onset and seeing everything come into play, because I had done a few music videos, and I had done a little bit of film, but not to this scale. Seeing sets being built specifically modelled after what was already done in Africa was amazing to see.
I was able to really see what a makeup artist has to have in their kit to do something to that extent. Definitely dipping into the kit of the head makeup artist as well, it was a shared thing. And really working alongside of the entire department, not just makeup, but hair and costume are all entwined. I was surprised to find myself really intrigued in that as well, because it is all one part of this big puzzle. You really do have to work as a team, which I liked, because those are all things that fascinate me; fashion, hair, make up, all of that. Seeing that all come into one, how we have to work together in tandem to really make sure the machine is running fast, as well as knowing that you have to be on the fly with things. There might be things that you already see on your side that may need to be done, but the Director might say that they want to switch something up, so really being able to work very quickly, pivot, and knowing your timing.
And making sure that our actors were okay. Checking in on them consistently. It’s not just the work that you do, via just putting a brush to face, it’s also making sure that you’re working with the people very closely and you’re trying to see what their needs are and making sure that you’re also doing a dance with them. They are also an artist. And you’re touching their face, it’s very intimate.
CMU: What is one piece of advice you’d give to a prospective student or a current student?
ST: I’d say for any CMU students that are currently in CMU College, that whatever you think you’re going to achieve, think bigger, because I still find myself thinking that I’m a new artist even though it’s been a couple years since I graduated. Looking back at the things that I’ve done in terms of my work, there’s been a lot that I didn’t think I would be able to. It’s really based on your work ethic, how you present yourself as an artist and as a person, if you’re easy to work with, all those things really do matter. They open a lot of doors that you might not have thought you would have been able to enter. Sometimes you’re your own worst critic and you don’t think that there’s certain jobs that you’re either meant to have or meant to be on, or people that you’re meant to even work with. If you’re in that room, then know that you belong.
I don’t want to be confined to one thing as an artist, because I think it’s more fun just to do different things. It opens you up to more challenges, and I think as an artist you have to be challenged in order to get better. And I’m noticing that a lot, especially now, you don’t know where the industry is going to take you, but saying yes to all those opportunities, even if you’re afraid to do it because you never know what’s going to come out of it.
