Below you will find ‘The Case of the Gilded Lily’, a short made by Shipwrecked Comedy that I got to work on earlier this year. I can easily say it was hands down the most unique project I’ve been on and one that I am absolutely ecstatic to have been apart of! If you want to skip my thoughts on it/me being sentimental, now is the time to scroll down and press play. If not, then continue reading.

When I was studying film at UT Austin, one of the areas I focused in on was was old movies and film history. I loved the topic so much, that for a while I planned on leaving makeup behind me and was going to go all the way for my Phd in media studies to become a film historian. (If you had questions on how nerdy I was, I think they were just answered) So a black and white, period, film noir, set in 1939 Hollywood was an dream project to do! The trailer they put together for the film I think sums it up better then I ever could:

When I was first contacted about working on the production, I was sent a link to the Kickstarter page, and I was in love with the project within minutes. This was something that was right up my alley, and yet completely out of my usual realm and challenging in the best possible way. The makeup designs I got to create on this were so fun. Working in black and white is such a different medium then color. If you go too subtle it won’t show, but at the same time you can’t go too heavy or else it looks like a stage play. All the guys had to have their lips darkened in order for them to be defined, everyone was contoured to make such their face still had dimensions and wasn’t too flat. And then there was also that we were doing period hair and makeup, plus multiple shoot days involved the majority of the cast. (Huge thanks to Cortney Heiser for coming in and assisting me on the crazy days!) Even on the most simple of shoot days, there was still a tremendous amount of work that went into it. But my goodness it was worth it! 

(Here’s some production posters that they have been releasing on the @ShipWreckedComedy Instagram)

Everyday I was exhausted by the time I got home, however everyday was such a creative joy. All the members of the production put so much heart into it, it was magical. On top of that too, everyone was so humble, and kind, and friendly. The Shipwrecked family are all so funny and talented. They created these great characters in this very defined world that all just mesh together perfectly. Beyond the work I got to do on this, I’m so grateful to have met all these people who I have now gotten to work with again since, and also now consider to be my friends.

I could go on for longer and get more sappy, but instead I gonna cut it short (as i look back over this post I see I may have missed my chance for that). I leave you you the funny and brilliant ‘Case of the Gilded Lily’.