48 Film Project

I'm sooo far behind in posting things here.
Better late than never, right?

My lovely model/actress friend Caitlyn asked me this summer if I would join her team on their entry for the 48 Hour Film Project. I am always looking for more film experience so I jumped on the opportunity.

Here's how the 48 Hour Film Project works.
All films have to be completed in their entirety in 48 hours or less--casting, script, filming, editing, everything. In order to level the playing field the following is set in place:
Your genre is drawn out of a hat at the beginning of the 48 hour time line.
Each film had to include a specific prop (a picture frame), character (a lab technician named Brian or Briana Merryweather), and line of dialog ("For crying out loud!").

As luck would have it, my team who specializes in comedy drew the thriller/suspense category. However, they didn't allow that to get them down. They stayed up all night working on the script and we started filming the following day. Everything went very smoothly and our entry made it into the competition on time. I don't think we won anything but it was a fun project nonetheless.

My job was fairly easy here--natural makeup, keep everyone shine free, add some dark undereye circles, mix up lots of blood, etc. I did get to create a very realistic gunshot wound out of makeup, fake blood, and oatmeal but the final cut didn't show a close up. Oh well, it was good practice, right?

Enough of my jabbering; on to the film!




Many thanks to the awesome team!

Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, film, commercial, editorial, fashion, Portland, Oregon, Pacific NW

Not as pretty as a test but it pays the bills

Usually I post my fun, pretty test shoot images up here since they are what I get the most pleasure out of doing. I do get other jobs too! They just aren't always near as exciting to look at and I don't always get images out of them either.

I've been working with Chad Brown from Chado Advertising & Design here in Portland. He is a really great guy, super talented and driven unlike anyone else I have ever seen. His firm is basically a one man show and he does it all, literally and figuratively; I don't know where he finds the time. Every time I talk to him he has a new client or project to work on. In an economy where most are spinning their wheels Chad keeps going stronger and stronger! I'm so pleased that he is a client of mine!

Here are some shots for a few of the companies we have worked with.

Honey Mobile Salon
Portland, OR

photos: Chad Brown
lighting and photo assist: Sanders Anderson
makeup, hair, & grooming: Amy Gillespie
makeup assistant: Megan Root




Cascade Village Shopping Center
Bend, OR
photos: Chad Brown
lighting and photo assist: Sanders Anderson
makeup & grooming: Amy Gillespie





Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, commercial, editorial, fashion, Portland, Oregon, Pacific NW

Persistence can pay off

Sometimes when I contact photographers or agencies I feel like my emails and phone calls are swallowed by a black hole out there in cyberspace. I hit the send button and my email is never made mention of, never to be heard of again almost as though it never existed. Then there are times when I am lucky enough to score a meeting usually consisting of them leafing through my portfolio in under 30 seconds and thanking me for my time as they show me the door. I usually send a follow-up thank you email or phone call never to hear from them again; must be that pesky black hole again. However, every now and then, someone comes along who I absolutely have to work with and I won't let it end with a "don't call us we'll call you" meeting. Such was the case with Brian Stevenson, underwater photographer extraordinaire. I felt his work was too special and uniquely beautiful for me to let my meeting with him last winter go to waste. Thus, I mercilessly emailed the poor man until at last, this summer, success! In this case though, I don't think he was putting me off. We just don't have enough swimming pools and nice weather in Oregon to be able to do work like this year round therefore we couldn't really put anything together until the stars were aligned--we both needed time in our schedules and needed to have the sunshine on our side.

Our first shoot was with Kirsten from Q6. This was my first time doing makeup for underwater purposes so I was a little more conservative in colors since I wasn't sure what to expect. Kirsten's skin is flawless so I didn't do much in the way of foundation other than a little concealer and brightener under her eyes. I used a supposedly waterproof liner on her eyes and that turned out to be the biggest mistake of the day since it was anything but waterproof. I ended up doing more touchups than were probably necessary but better safe than sorry. In hindsight I wish I had used a little more color on her lips and cheeks since the water tends to wash everything out (no pun intended). Ah, the learning curve. Here are a few of my favorites from this shoot.







Onto day two...
Brian asked if I knew any models who might be good for this sort of shoot so I recommended Lindsay, signed with Ryan Artists here in Portland and Heffner in Seattle. She is super pretty and very athletic so I thought she might be a good fit for this type of shoot since stamina is very important in this case. She did amazingly well and I am so in love with these pictures. I feel like I did a stronger job as well since I figured out a few underwater tricks (ditch the "waterproof" eyeliner!) Her skin wasn't quite as clear as Kirsten's so doing a heavier foundation was a little more of a concern for me. However, my Cinema Secrets foundation with a primer held up amazingly well; I couldn't be happier with how her skin looks. I'm wading through these pictures trying to pick out my favorites and so far I can't so here a lot for your viewing pleasure.










Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, fashion, beauty, style, editorial, Portland, Oregon, west coast

Kyle Goldie is golden

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of working with the talented Kyle Goldie. I have long admired his beauty work and was excited to add some of his images to my body of work.

We knew pretty much from the start that we wanted to do a campaign style series using bulky sweaters, blankets, scarves, etc. I was on board to do styling in addition to my usual duties of hair and makeup so it was up to me to find these articles in the middle of summer. Our first thought was to do neutral makeup with bright colored clothing. However, it was too early in the season to find a great variety of anything along the lines of outerwear. After much frantic shopping I finally struck gold with a few clearance racks and some yardage at a fabric store; the shoot was still on track! I will say, though, this was probably the cheapest shoot I have ever styled. I was able to purchase everything for under $30 and I have some great knit pieces to boot. Stay tuned; I'm sure they will be making an entrance in my wardrobe once our wonderful, crisp fall days arrive.

Since we were working with a much more neutral palette in terms of styling Kyle wanted bright, bold, editorial style makeup. We ended up working with 4 basic color schemes and color placement, some more bold than others but all equally beautiful and artfully blended.

All hair and makeup by Amy Gillespie, Photos by Kyle Goldie, styling by Amy and Kyle, Model Kelby from Heffner.






Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, beauty, editorial, fashion, commericial

Some new favorites

I'm slowly starting to get some pictures back from a week in May when I worked with the ever fabulous Peter Van Beever again. Check out his work at www.petervanbeever.com at your first possible chance. Do it. I promise you won't regret it.

We went for a flower child feel with Kirsten from Q6. A lot of work actually goes into making it look this minimal! Enjoy.












We also spent a few days at the beach and were joined by Anna and Sam of Option Model Management for one of the days. Since these shots were for their portfolios the styling was a little more basic but the pictures are still awesome. This married duo is as sweet as sweet can be and one day will be parents to the world's most gorgeous children.







All makeup, hair, and grooming - Amy Gillespie, photos - Peter Van Beever


Amy Gillespie | makeup artistry, Portland, Oregon, makeup artist, beauty, fashion, editorial, commercial

Mark Owens is rad

About a month and a half ago a photographer named Mark Owens contacted me via the internet. He is publishing a book of influential people, mostly musicians, and was traveling to Portland to photograph Bibi McGill who is currently on tour with Beyonce. Bibi is one of the hottest guitarists on the music circuit so I jumped at the chance to be able to work with her, not to mention Mark who is pretty talented and has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry.

The weather was pretty spotty that day and we spent a lot of time setting up the shot, covering all the equipment from the rain, waiting in the car for the rain to pass, and starting all over again. We eventually gave up on the open air shots and headed for location number two -- underneath I-405 in north Portland. Mark had a vision of lighting one of his old guitars on fire and having Bibi channel her inner Jimi Hendrix.









I originally was only going to work one day with Mark but things went so well that he invited me back the next day to work with Jennifer, a local model. Mark wanted her hair in rollers (a first for me) with vintage inspired makeup and bubbles. A lot of the shots had a little too much bubble action but the end result is still pretty fun.





All in all, the two days of shooting were a ton of fun. It was a great honor to work with someone of Mark's caliber -- something I hope to do again in the future!

Amy Gillespie | makeup artistry, Portland makeup artist, beauty, fashion

It pays to wear high heels

This shoot starts with a story from last summer. I had gone to the mall to get some prints for my portfolio and headed over to Barnes and Noble while waiting for them to be processed. I was standing in the magazines looking at Vogue when a man approached me asking if I was a model. I was a little leery at first and said no but remarked that I was a makeup artist. He told me he was a photographer and that I looked like I could be a model and he would test with me. I'm now thinking that this guy is off his rocker and has no clue what a real model looks like. I just laughed and said thank you (of course I was flattered; it also doesn't hurt that I'm close to 5'10" when I wear high heels!) We exchanged cards and I recognized his name and he recognized mine and we talked about doing a test shoot together at some point in time. Ever since then I have been pestering poor Doug with so many emails begging for a test shoot, sometimes getting a response, others not hearing anything in return. I thought for sure I was annoying him. I found a model I really liked named Lia and decided to give it one more shot with Doug and emailed him again. This time he responded positively and we organized the following shoot.

The first photos are an editorial set we did. We were trying to go for a darker, more mysterious feel with the beautiful Lia looking like she is up to no good. I tried a few new techniques and products as I wanted to make her skin look absolutely flawless like a mannequin and to dramatically lighten her eyebrows. The following shot was for her portfolio and her agency to use. All makeup and hair by me, photos by Doug Hoeschler, styling by Sarah Moskovitz, model - Lia Richardson.









Amy Gillespie makeup artistry, Portland OR