{"id":1638,"date":"2020-05-18T21:53:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T21:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/?p=1638"},"modified":"2020-05-18T22:26:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T22:26:02","slug":"staying-creative-in-a-fast-paced-film-industry-with-academy-award-winning-makeup-artist-barney-burman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/staying-creative-in-a-fast-paced-film-industry-with-academy-award-winning-makeup-artist-barney-burman\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying Creative in a Fast-Paced Film Industry with Academy Award-Winning Makeup Artist, Barney Burman"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Colleen Monroe<\/h6>\n

For anyone who\u2019s \u201cmade it\u201d in Hollywood, that childhood dream of making movies for a career can sometimes be forgotten when you\u2019re in production hustling for 12-18 hours a day.<\/p>\n

With the fast-paced schedule of filmmaking, it\u2019s easy to get burnt out and lose your creative spark.<\/p>\n

Barney Burman, a veteran special effects makeup artist, known for projects like Star Trek and Grimm, is far too familiar with the long hours and unpredictable career curveballs of working in the movies, but has continued to stay creative through it all.<\/p>\n

How does he keep his creative edge? He shared with us a few thoughts that just may re-ignite that kid inside you who grew up with dreams of making movies in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do a lot of different things…not just makeup.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Diversify your skills<\/h3>\n

\u201cI do a lot of different things…not just makeup.\u201d<\/p>\n

While special effects makeup is Barney\u2019s forte, he is clear about diversifying his skills to stay creative.<\/p>\n

For one, he\u2019s a writer and director and believes in creating his own content so he has opportunities to do work that he\u2019s passionate about outside of his jobs for the studios.<\/p>\n

\"Barney<\/p>\n

He recently finished his first feature film, Wild Boar<\/em>, which played at nearly a dozen festivals and won a variety of awards, including Best Horr Film at FilmQuest<\/a>. He says, \u201cI have an opinion about things all the time.\u201d When he creates his own original work, it allows him to keep his brain active and try out new things that he might not be able to do on a TV series with a network.<\/p>\n

Know your WHY<\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a creative person and want to make things ultimately…it\u2019s fun to watch people\u2019s reaction and observe them looking at the thing that you\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barney grew up in a family of makeup artists. His Grandfather came to Hollywood from the Midwest in the 1940\u2019s and worked on the first Wolfman<\/em>, Twilight Zone<\/em>, and Frankenstein<\/em>, and then his father and uncle went into the trade as well, opening up one of the first special effects makeup studios in Hollywood with John Chambers — one of the most prolific makeup artists in cinema history.<\/p>\n

While the industry was accessible to Barney from a young age, he thrived because he \u201clearned early on that doing it was fun and rewarding because it keeps my brain active and creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

What keeps him coming back to special effects makeup? Barney says, \u201cWhen the actor walks out of the trailer and people say, ‘wow!’ That\u2019s exciting to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing this WHY keeps Barney motivated to continually show up on set, project after project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned recently that I have to give up control…and let things come to me that are supposed to come to me and let the things go that are not\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Simplify<\/h3>\n

\u201cI try to minimize what I bring to set…I\u2019ve gotten to a point where I like to carry less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barney believes in doing lots of prep ahead of time and bringing only what you need to set. By simplifying your kit, it saves you time to focus on building the look instead of sifting through tons of product.<\/p>\n

Going in with a plan for production allows you to be more creative under pressure, which is inevitable in filmmaking.<\/p>\n

What is Barney\u2019s GO-TO for a simple kit?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I\u2019ve relied on heavily in my kit is Fard Creams. It\u2019s the most wonderful concoction of colors…they are my \u2018go-to\u2019 whenever I want to bring in the subtle tones that blend a look together.\u201d<\/p>\n

And finally, last thoughts on staying creative according to Barney?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned recently that I have to give up control…and let things come to me that are supposed to come to me and let the things go that are not\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed when you\u2019re working long days. Learning to let things go and improvise or move on, keeps stress levels down and creative levels up!<\/p>\n

How else do you stay creative in your film career?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Colleen Monroe For anyone who\u2019s \u201cmade it\u201d in Hollywood, that childhood dream of making movies for a career can sometimes be forgotten when you\u2019re in production hustling for 12-18 hours a day. With the fast-paced schedule of filmmaking, it\u2019s easy to get burnt out and lose your creative spark. Barney Burman, a veteran special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[46,70],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1638"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1662,"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions\/1662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synconset.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}