Useful Tips For Beginner SFX Makeup Artists From Industry Guru Justin Raleigh
Having a goal is always great, but taking action to achieve it is even better. However, what to do when inspiration is running out, and the desire has not yet been achieved? It is very important to allow yourself to be inspired by the victories of other people and their accomplishments — this helps in developing your own motivation necessary to achieve and strive for your own personal goals. In addition, it is important to remember that if someone has managed to achieve something, then you also have that ability to reach your dreams! For those who aspire to become an industry established makeup artist, read ahead for a true source of inspiration!
Meet an amazing makeup artist Justin Raleigh — an Academy Award, Emmy and MUAHS Guild award-winning creative effects artist as well as owner and CEO of Fractured FX Inc. With nearly 30 years in the special effects makeup industry. Justin has managed and art directed the creation of special makeup effects, visual effects hybrid makeup, and specialty costumes for some of the most groundbreaking films and television series of recent years. Among his most famous works: Aquaman, Lisey's Story, Big Little Lies, Annabelle Comes Home, American Horror Story, and more.
Let's start from the very beginning of Justin’s journey: “I grew up in a small town in a very impoverished household, I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to develop this pathway forward,” — Justin shared. He loved Sci Fi and Horror and had been practicing little effects since elementary school on friends and himself, just like many young artists: “I really didn’t have any resources in this industry or to even go to a makeup school.”
Justin got his first job as a makeup artist and photographer in high school through a friend's mother who was a professional photographer. She encouraged young Justin to learn beauty makeup to at least get a paying job. “I started working professionally as a makeup artist from that day forward. I trained myself on beauty makeup and hairstyling, with the help from some of my friends and worked within the photography, fashion side of the industry for about 4 years before getting my first internship at a special effects makeup studio. My whole career was based on word of mouth and trying to cold call artists and special effects makeup studios to get my foot in the door.” — he says.
That was nearly 30 years ago - since then, Justin has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry and has had his own special effects makeup studio for the last 16 years!
You must truly be passionate, active, and motivated to be successful in this field - check out Justin's schedule! “I split my time between my home in Northern California and Los Angeles where my studio, Fractured FX is located.” — he says. Justin travels back and forth every week for work typically, if not traveling to another state or country for filming. His typical Monday involves getting up around 5:00 am to fly down or drive to LA, then go directly into work. Justin usually works an average of 10-12 hours a day when designing and building and between 10-14 hours on average when on set filming. In the “in between” time he tries to run off to the gym 3-4 days a week for an hour to deal with stress and keep his health up, then he has a short dinner and goes to bed to start the day over again. “I usually travel back home on Friday or Thursday evenings when I can. That way I can be at home for the weekends to recharge. It’s not ideal traveling those distances every week, but it allows me a place to relax away from LA, my studio, the industry, and allows us (my wife and I) to be closer to family.”
As in any profession, burnout can easily happen with such a time consuming work schedule. Justin has continued to face this head on: “I have had several moments of burnout in my career and have to be aware of my limits. We work in a really intense and stressful industry with a lot of money on the line, so we all feel that pressure all the time. Owning a business with 40+ employees is also a lot to manage and a lot of additional stress.” How to deal with burnout? Here's what Justin thinks: I would suggest making sure you are taking the projects that benefit you artistically and monetarily the most. When you have time off, try to take a moment to really take care of yourself and recover before jumping into the next big adventure. Also, it's important to be a bit selfish with your personal time, take time to exercise, time for your family, eat healthy, take a vacation (I need to do this more myself), and work on your mental health to deal with the pressure of what we do. It’s really important.”
Working in the industry for all those years taught Justin other useful things. For example, as he himself admits, it is patience. Patience in the industry, his colleagues, his employees and himself. “It's important to remember that what we do is a commercial art, we are creating someone else’s vision in many cases. We must be patient to allow that creative process to happen between many different hands who are all developing the same idea.”
Justin also shared resources that influenced him over the years: “The Dick Smith Course was a big one for me, I learned so much from that course.” Also on his list there is Stage Makeup by Richard Corson, Making Faces Playing God by Thomas Morawetz, Behind The Mask by Mark Salisbury and Alan Hedgcock, and The Professional Makeup Artist book from Vincent Kehoe and the updates that followed in collaboration with Joe Blasco and Kehoe. He also uses a lot of the Stan Winston School videos. “I do not typically use Youtube to learn. I find most of the work is not safe and not presented by actual professional artists in many cases. I would suggest being very careful about the resources you use to learn this craft.”
Justin Raleigh has worked on many iconic films and TV series. We could not help asking which of the projects he found especially memorable and highlights of his career. Justin shared: “One of my favorite projects I was a part of was Steven Soderbergh’s series The Knick. This was an amazing series that had us recreate surgical scenes from the early 1900’s.” Because of the accuracy of their surgical simulations on this series they were contacted by The Boston Children’s Hospital to collaborate on several hyper-realistic surgical trainers for their surgeons and students. “Really an incredibly rewarding project knowing that our work was being used to help save lives.” – Justin says.
Talking about Justin's recent projects, with Sweet Tooth, his role was the lead hybrid designer. This required developing the entire look of the hybrid children for the series with the production team. “From those designs we build the practical characters such as Bobby the little offer kid puppet, all of the animatronic babies, all versions of Gus, Wendy, and many more.”
On Annabelle Comes Home, Justin was asked to come in to redesign their characters and create several new characters like the Ferryman. “I had been the overall character designer on the Conjuring series, which created Annabelle, the Nun and other planned spin offs. So, it made sense for me to be involved to help elevate the look of the characters in the spin off to match what we had established in the Conjuring source materials.”Justin worked a lot with many celebrities and directors. He especially notes Steven Soderbergh, James Wan and Zack Synder. “They are all amazingly talented and tend to hire the same team over and over again, which really creates a short hand language and allows us all to know what to expect. They are also great because they tend to hire people that they trust and allow them to have creative freedom as well.”
As for actors, Justin has worked with Sara Paulson, Clive Owen, and Patrick Wilson many times over the years. “They are all wonderful people to work with and there is a mutual trust and creative process that we all share together. Honestly most of the actors I have worked with over the years have been great people and wonderful artistic collaborators. Two of the coolest were Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Michael Caine, both gentlemen and amazing actors.”
Justin’s goals for the future are: Continue to grow his brand at Fractured FX and his own presence within the industry. “Beyond that, I’m not sure. I have many aspirations, I have already accomplished so much in my 30 years that I can be proud of, so I think I will see where the industry takes me next.”
For those who want to connect their work with makeup in the film industry, Justin gave special advice. “Be ready to present yourself in a professional manner at all times, know your craft to the highest level, and be prepared to work hard, make sacrifices, and self-promote to open the doors to lead you on the best path in this industry. It can take years to really get a solid footing and build a network of repeat customers.”
Justin is convinced that it is important to know your value. This is based on your experience, resume, and portfolio. “You must grow those in order to grow your monetary value and to grow your network. Starting in a school is great and a good foundation.”
He also adds: “Be kind and not only know your job, know the roles of those around you. Also, knowing that there will be tremendous hustle and self promotion on your end is critical. But again, know your value. Don't under charge to get the job, but don’t overshoot your value if your experience just isn’t there. Be patient in yourself, and always push yourself to constantly learn and grow.”
You can see more of Justin Raleigh’s work on his Instagram @fracturedfxinc and website at www.fracturedfx.com