When a video production calls for a professional actor, we often turn to Todd Reichart, Princeton NJ resident and talented writer, director and actor. He recently shared with us a few makeup tips for ‘real people’, specifically men, who may be unfamiliar with hair and makeup products. Its a video we shot mostly for the fun it, but Todd does demonstrate some useful tips we share with participants in many of our business video shoots to help them find their ‘video mojo’.
I’ve just arrived here at HG Media. We’ve got a little video production shoot here that we hope to do in the next hour. I’m just off the street, still in street clothes, and I have to get ready to be shot, so I need to do a bit of tidying. Follow me.
So… Welcome to my office. The stuff that of course needs to be squared away is my hair. I didn’t shave today, which is an oversight, but it’s only one day and so I think we’re going to be able to get away with it because of costume.
Some points for men as we get ready to be shot, it’s handy to have with your kit a brush and a comb, the kind of comb that you like to use. I like this kind of comb and some hairspray. If you use a product in your hair, that might actually be something that you want to use in the moments just before. If it’s the thing you use after a shower it’s too much to put on, so just a bit of hairspray will help to stabilize things. I’ll get to that in a minute.
The other thing that I always keep with me is a lint roller. My wife and I have a cat, so this is a way of getting things off if necessary. Also it’s handy to have maybe some towelettes or these wet cleaning towelettes. They come in big packs. These are some left over from airplane rides. The other thing that I use is some powder. Let me get started with what needs to get done.
Just a bit of tidying of the hair. I’m using a brush. In the morning I use a comb, but at this point of the day this is looking pretty good, simple, sufficient, and some hairspray. I don’t normally wear hairspray, but for a shoot it just reduces the variables. What’s nice about hairspray is that once it’s in, then it can help you keep things orderly. Right now you can see it looks a little bit hairsprayed. Well, it’ll dry and then we can do it again. Okay, so that’s that.
I also should note these are my street clothes, so I’ll change into my costume after this in case I get powder on them. I think the only other thing that I care about right now is just putting a little bit of powder on. The powder makes my face so that it’s not reflective, so it doesn’t look like I’ve got shiny spots. I use Neutrogena Shine Control Powder. It says it’s a rice protein complex, so it’s basically like some sort of food starch with a bit of pigment, so its hypoallergenic and all that.
I just give it a pat and then just tap it and you’ll see that it looks a little bit light. I’ll just put the powder over my whole face, especially the shiny bits. My nose is shiny, my forehead is shiny. The reason I put it on the rest of my face is so that things are mostly uniform. Whatever color difference there might be, that doesn’t show up.
One peculiarity of my face is that my eyebrows are very light, so I might hit them with a bit of eyebrow color. I forget what they call it. Whatever it is. I hit it with a bit of that, because this sort of makes me a bit pale. It’s not necessary certainly for everybody, but in my case I think I just lost my eyebrows entirely because of the powder, so I will just add a little bit of brown to them so that that brings them back. I’m ready.
You may now see that I did doctor my eyebrows. By the way, the pen I like to use has sort of this brown goo, whatever the pigment is, but then on the other end of it is a little brush which lets me sort of mix it and mingle it nicely with my hair and sort of get off any excess. If you get one of these things, get one that’s got a brush on the end or just use another brush to finish up the thing. Otherwise, powder, the hair is good, I’m ready to go.
“It can pay to be proactive.” Let me do that again. I’m getting my … I’m finding my mojo. ~ Todd Reichart, Video Spokesperson
