A Day in the Life of Denise Tunnell Co-Owner of Illusions Cosmetics’

By Denise Tunnell







Rashan Ali and Denise Tunnell

Life for celebrity makeup artist Denise Tunnell can be pretty busy when she is working on the set of a feature film. Denise describes her experiences on the set of Rainforest Films/Screen Gem’s 2008 release of “Three Can Play That Game.”

My day on the set of Three Can Play That Game usually started in the morning around 6:30 a.m. for me. I would have breakfast and the actors would come into the hair and makeup trailer by 7:00 a.m. Usually, when the actors come into the hair and makeup trailer, they have a certain amount of time before they are due on set to start shooting the scheduled scenes for the day.

Each actor goes through hair, makeup, and then back to their trailers to put on their wardrobe for the first scene. Once the actors and all departments are on set for shooting, we shoot until its time for lunch (normally exactly 6 hours after crew call). Lunch is for 1/2 an hour. After lunch, there are touchups on hair and makeup, and back to set for more shooting.

There were many stressful times of the day, especially when actors show up late for work or take their time coming into the hair and makeup trailer. This caused the production to get behind on the schedule for the day. If the budget of the film is a low budget, getting behind on the schedule is not a good thing. It causes extra stress for the producers. A more specific stressful moment is when an actress broke out into hives while getting her hair done. We had to call for the set medic to come and check her out. He didn't have anything for her, so he sent someone to get some crème for her hives. She did not calm down until she got the crème. Two hours later, we were ready to shoot.

I normally prepare for each workday professionally by looking at the preliminary call sheet (Prelim) for the next day to see which actors are working and what scenes we are shooting. At that point, I will prepare makeup looks for each actor for each scene by talking to the wardrobe department about the wardrobe for each actor.

To prepare for each day personally, I pray, pray and pray some more. You can't pray enough when you are working with different 'personalities'. Praying helps me to stay calm, cool, and collected throughout the day. Once my workday is over, I try to work out to release some stress. Reading also helps to de-stress and wind down.

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