We continue our series of inspiring stories about the most talented and acclaimed makeup artists in the film industry. This time we were lucky to talk to Pamela Goldammer. You can see her work on Border (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). With Göran Lundström she was nominated for a 2019 Academy Award in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category for her work on Border. 

Of course, we were very interested to know how Pamela got her start in Special Effects makeup and how she came into this success as one of the most industry acknowledged SFX artists.

Pamela’s path as a SFX makeup artist began from ‘The Lord Of Darkness’ in the movie Legend. “I was around 10 years old and obsessed with it. I knew then that is what I want to do in my life.” — she says. Later Pamela met Lois Burwell who was one of the main artists in this film and who is one of her biggest idols in this industry. To this day, Pamela still gets so inspired and excited by working on great projects such as Wolfman for Rick Baker, or Ghostbusters: Afterlife for Arjen Tuiten. She also enjoys working on independent films like Border and Clara Sola for Göran Lundström. “With every project I still feel as excited as I did when I first started.”

 As Pamela said, she always felt drawn to faces, characters and makeup; and had a lot of imagination. She was inspired by music videos and movies, as well as fashion — the movie Legend and The Never-Ending Story influenced her a great deal. At 14, even despite it being a time without internet and IPhones, she had begun her research and worked towards putting together a career plan. She started first by classic training in hairdressing, followed by a Master's Degree at the London College of Fashion. After her studies it was ‘drive’, motivation, and 100% commitment.

How did Pamela get into the film industry? She started working for special effects companies in her home town for free. She would go there after school, on weekends and on holidays, even throughout her training in hairdressing and during her master’s degree. This helped build her portfolio for the London College of Fashion, where she was accepted, and ended up in London. During school holidays Pamela worked on a job where she met many of the Harry Potter crew who then wrote her reference letters for Nick Dudman. He took Pamela on as a trainee and she ended up working there for 4 years on four Harry Potter movies!

We asked Pamela to tell more about the work on these movies. She started off as a trainee working in the silicone department under Kristyan Mallet: “He was one of the best teachers I had and taught me all about silicone running and troubleshooting”, — she says. From there I went to ‘Art Finishing’, where one of the best art finishers, Jenny Walker, taught her how to paint. With Pamela’s background she always did hair work also. From there, she finally went into Application, which she enjoys so much. Over the years Pamela has worked on many characters and creatures.

Source of image: IMDb

She applied Voldemort double and Mad-Eye Moody double and in her fourth year Pamela applied the Mad-Eye Moody makeup on Brendan Gleeson. Under supervision and with others, she was involved in flocking the centaurs, made ‘dark mark’ transfer prosthetics, created many Mad-Eye Moody silicone pieces, painted Hagrid hands, punched Greywolf’s chest and pre painted some of his prosthetics, painted and applied goblin makeup, lots of eyebrow punching, worked on Aragog and much more. “My daughter is a massive fan of the movies' ', — Pamela says. Well, we are sure that this not only inspires Pamela, but also inspires her daughter - and that she is so very proud of her mother who has accomplished so much as a Special Effects Artist working on these legendary movies!

Moreover, Pamela created prosthetics makeup for Game of Thrones. She was employed at the beginning of the 4th season and applied the Hound makeup on Rory McCann for the entire 4th season. She also applied one of the Giants makeup, Locke’s, Noah Taylor, neck prosthetic, the hand stab wound on Pedro Pascal and more. She was one of four to apply the White Walker makeup, the Night King makeup and the mountain makeup.

As a professional, Pamela shared her opinion on cosmetics and tools used in her work. She said that products and techniques are ever changing in this industry. Everything is constantly evolving. Very few things she still uses after all these years. Most of her tools have been added to, or have of course needed to be replaced. However Pamela still has her first ever Tiranti’s filler tool and uses it on every makeup application. She has bent the tip in a specific way that helps her to reach every angle. “It’s my ‘lucky charm’ and I am very careful to not lose it. It’s been all over the world with me.”

As it was mentioned above Pamela is a mother — talking about her regular day, she confesses that it depends very much if she is working or not. Having a child and not wanting to give up a career means even more commitment and much sacrifice. It also requires support from the family. In Pamela’s case her husband was not attached to his career and gave up working to be at home full time. One thing she does every day, whether she is working that day or not, is meditation twice a day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes.
Through working in the industry for all those years, Pamela has learned that every job is different and nothing ever is the same. “It’s a constant trial and error and troubleshooting until there are no more problems. It’s kind of fun to see it that way.” — she said. 

Her goals for the future: “Keep learning, keep practicing, keep raising the bar and work with those that inspire me and whom I look up to, such as Mike Marino”.

For other MUA's who want to get started and aspiring SFX makeup artists who also dream of creating for the film industry Pamela gave some great advice: She believes that right now is the best time to enter the industry. As she claims, there are many productions and not enough talents. She also mentions that through Social Media like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter it is easier than ever to be seen and recognised by posting content and gaining followers, and establishing yourself in the industry.

“Now is a great time to shine, my best advice is, do what you really love, practice it, put all your energy into it and then show it to the world. With platforms like Facebook and Instagram it was never easier to get discovered”.

To learn more about Pamela Goldammer follow her Instagram: @pamelagoldammer