Before you can begin creating makeup appliances from your ingenious designs, you need somewhere to do it. My little indie workshop is called Back Porch
F/X because that’s literally where it started way back when: on my back porch.
Actual square footage isn’t important as long as you have sufficient room to work on whatever projects you work on and can afford. It will probably never be big enough! I have a way of filling up space rather quickly. However, whether you take up residence in your basement, garage, barn, or back porch or whether you rent or buy a studio, workshop, or warehouse somewhere convenient,
make sure you have adequate storage room for your materials, molds, and tools, ample electrical service to run them, and proper ventilation. And mellow neighbors who don’t freak at the sight of various body parts being shuttled to and fro. My present office and workshop space total roughly 800 square feet, which is quite cozy; I occasionally work with my friend and fellow sculptor Dave Parvin at his studio in Denver, which is significantly larger than mine. Dave regularly conducts large workshops in his space, so there is room to move freely.
Workspace that can be dedicated to the tasks necessary for creating special makeup effects is vastly preferable to space that must be shared and used for other purposes. The very nature of the work and the materials and tools involved often all but preclude any other use. The amount of dust and potentially toxic fumes generated by a variety of fabrication processes should be reason enough to allocate a dedicated space.
Makeup rooms in many theaters or film and video studios are usually custom built with the necessary power, lighting, work surfaces, and storage areas to provide a comfortable working environment. This is often not the case when working on location. Our makeup room on location in the jungle of Belize in 2007 was a thatch-roofed, mud-walled, dirt-floored hut we shared with geckos, scorpions, doctor flies, and the occasional tarantula. Frequently when we arrived early in the morning, there would be fresh jaguar paw prints in the mud by the door. We had bare bulbs overhead for our lighting.
We may not have had air conditioning or glass in our windows, but at least we had generators for electricity and a roof over our heads. The wardrobe hut flooded every time it rained, which was daily. The point is to make the space you have functional, hygienic, and as comfortable as possible for your cast and fellow makeup artists.
Ideally, your working space will be well ventilated, including a mirror and counter space with lights for each working artist. There should also be plumbing with running water, both hot and cold. These conditions will be present in most situations, but when they’re not or can’t be, you must be ready to adapt to the situation at hand and make it work. You are a professional, after all, right? Or you want to be. The Boy Scouts were onto something when they came up with the motto Be prepared.