Canada’s film and TV industry had one of its biggest and busiest years in 2016 and Vancouver, AKA Hollywood North, was at its epicentre. The city played host to superheroes and villains, monsters, romantic leads and sci-fi fighters, along with some of the world’s biggest stars playing them. And none of them were coming for the weather.
There’s a long list of reasons why Vancouver has become the ideal location for some of North America’s most popular and best-regarded productions. Hollywood studios and networks love our architecture, our close-knit TV and film community, and the laid back atmosphere in a city that understands that even movie megastars are here to do their jobs.
They also love that Vancouver is blessed with some of the world’s best TV and Film Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists, a once-select group growing exponentially as demand for their skills continues to boom. Our beautiful city’s Movie Makeup family was beyond busy in 2016, with more than a few Blanche Macdonald graduates and instructors taking starring roles.
As our students all understand, in this industry excellence comes as standard. Which means that only a select elite receives major Award nominations. Huge congratulations are due to the Emmy Award-winning Makeup Team behind the teenage creature feature, R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls: a team that starred Blanche Macdonald alumni Debbie Lelievre (Head Makeup Artist), Holland Miller and Felix Fox (Key Makeup Artists), Julia Bors-Dollinger (First Assistant Makeup Artist) and Sarah Pickersgill (Makeup Artist).
We're sending another big "bravo" further east to Calgary, Alberta, where grad gunther Schetterer worked his magic and was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Non-Prosthetic Makeup as Key Makeup Artist on the superb second season of Fargo.
The Leo Awards recognize films and TV shows made in beautiful British Columbia. Which, if you check, involves a vast number of productions. That tells you that to actually win a Leo Award in the category of Best Makeup in a Dramatic Series, which the team featuring Amber Trudeau and Cory Roberts did for iZombie, is a remarkable achievement. Amber was particularly busy in 2016, receiving a second Leo nomination for Best Makeup in a Television Movie for On The Farm, an award that was won by the team behind R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls. Leo congratulations also go to Darci Jackson and Lindsay Pilkey, who were rightfully nominated for Best Makeup in a Motion Picture for Numb.
The Gemini Awards are Canada’s Oscars and Emmys combined. The team behind Afghan war film Hyena Road included Blanche grad Doug Morrow and greatly deserved their nomination for Achievement in Makeup.
Arguably the biggest production to hit Vancouver in 2016 was summer sci-fi blockbuster Star Trek Beyond, where Blanche Macdonald grads and instructors boldly went to bring the voyages of the Enterprise to life. Ably manning that crew were Makeup Effects Artists Felix Fox, Holland Miller, Shelagh McIvor, Toby Lindala, and Patricia Murray, Painter Daemon Cadman and Assistant Makeup Artists Rebecca Delchambre, Megan Harkness, Ashley Forshaw, Colleen Conroy, Cory Roberts and Darah Wyant.
Meanwhile, Vancouver’s biggest TV series continued to go from strength to strength. Danielle Fowler was named Head of Department on Supergirl, Tina Teoli and Cory Roberts continued their roles as Heads of Department on The Flash and The 100 respectively, while the Makeup teams on Arrow and Supernatural were positively overflowing with Blanche Macdonald grads and instructors. Oliver Queen’s adventures in archery looked wonderful thanks to Tanya Howard (Department Head), Cayley Giene (Lab Technician and Assistant Makeup Artist), Fay von Schroeder and Amber Trudeau (Makeup Artists), and Kathryn Jarymy (Assistant Makeup Artist). While the Winchester brother’s fight against darkness in 2016 wouldn’t have been the same without the contributions of Toby Lindala and Celine Godeau (Key Makeup Effects), Cayley Giene, Leanne Podavin and Rachel Griffin (Makeup Effects Artists).
This was just the tip of the creative iceberg. There isn’t room here to list all the Blanche Macdonald graduates and instructors who shared their talent on screen with the world this year. Congratulations to all of them. You’ll be hearing more from them and the next wave of brilliant new grads in 2017!
Photos via IMDB