Rates and How to Charge Them

I keep encountering this problem where I see our lovely newbie aspiring MUA's not really knowing (and even being totally misinformed) how to charge rates.  I very well know that it depends on what sort of medium you are giving a rate for.  Giving a rate for Bridal and giving a rate for Commercial are two completely different things.

Bridal/Personal Client Rates:
Bridal rates are usually done by the number of people or looks (ie: Bride $XXX, Brides Maids $XXX) or you might even offer a package deal (ie: 5 people for $XXXX).

TV, Film, Print, Advertising, Commercial etc.:
A professional working Makeup Artist who does this for a living (pays rent, feeds family) charges rates by Half Day Rates and Full Day Rates.  Half day hours are 1 - 4.5 hours and Full day hours are 5 - 9 hours.  This means that you stay for the whole shoot doing touch up's and changing looks as needed or as per discussed with the client.

Charging per look, per face or hourly will make you look unprofessional and green.  Think of it like this, if you leave your home, charge $75 and you only do one look/face....then all you made was $75?  Now that's not right is it?  How are you to make a living off that?

Another thing I wanted to touch on really quickly is KIT FEE's.  Please understand that a kit fee is something that is used ONLY in the world of Film.  There is no such thing as charging a "kit fee" for a test.  If it's a test, then its a test and no one gets any money.  If you want to charge for a test then call it a TESTING RATE.  Usually testing rates are half of what you would normally charge for a half/full day.

Please charge and set your rates accordingly and don't undercut your peers.

I hope to have cleared this up for some people.  Any questions, fire away.  I'm always happy to pay it forward.

Mixing it up

New Work!!

All colors mixed by yours truly.

Halloween

I'm not much of a special effects artist but when Halloween comes around I can't help but get super creative.  Many who know me personally know that I'm obsessed with Zombies (and those who don't, well now you know haha), so when my husband told me that he wanted to be a Zombie for Halloween, I thought I had died and gone to Zombie heaven.

I didn't take any pictures of the process due to the time crunch (we were heading to a get together and haunted houses) but here is a picture of the final product.  Enjoy!

Makeup Artist Resumes

Lately I've been seeing that most newbie makeup artist are a bit confused on how their resume's should look.  I understand the confusion and trust me, I was once in that position.  So, for all the lovely aspiring makeup artists out there who want to know where to start but don't quite have all the super clients, here are some examples of what a pro resume should look like and what to do if you don't quite have enough material to put and make a resume.


Resume Examples:
Alexis Vogel
Liza Zomer
Jamie Weiss
And mine: Yisell Santos


Beefy Bio:
If you feel that you don't have enough to put on your resume, then wait it out till you get more clients.  As an alternative, you can always put some of the work you've done in your bio section.  Play with wording to make it sound really good but DO NOT, I repeat, do not lie.  It WILL come back to bite you in the bottom and it's not pretty.  


And the BEST awesome example of how to put "resume content" into your bio goes to:  Deanna Bell.  This has it all!  Experience, resume content and telling them how awesome you are without boasting.  Mine is pretty cool too so feel free to take a look my Bio section as well.


I hope I've helped to clarify some things and if you have any questions...feel free to ask away!

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Check out the new Batman DVD/Blue Ray called "Batman: Under the Red Hood".  Not only is it a great Batman "anime" style movie, but I did some of the makeup for the writers/artists on the Special Features section.

Makeup I did was for: Dan DiDio, Paul Levitz and Dennis O'Neil.

New "Product" Work

I love skin so much I just had to do a "product" shoot.  There really isn't anything better than gorgeous glowing skin so when we got Analisa to work with us (who already has wonderful skin) I was totally psyched!  Here's the lovely results...Enjoy!

HHR

July Episode of HHR (Heath & Home Report) up for your viewing!
http://www.westglen.com/hhrtv/

Did makeup for the lovely and gorgeous host Laura DeAngelis and guest Peter Greenberg.