How did you get involved with The Pitt?
Word of mouth really. I had just wrapped two consecutive shows with an amazing first AD who happens to be married to an exceptional producer who was in prep for a new medical show. I was called in for an interview and started prep soon thereafter.
Was there a specific direction or concept you were given for the makeup designs?
I had never worked on a medical show, so reading the scripts initially was very confusing and I found myself looking up every other word. I needed to very quickly familiarize myself with the medical lingo. Our main medical advisor gave me access to a medical teaching site, where every procedure was available to watch. I spent hours watching videos and looking through thousands of medical pages. I would watch real-life procedures and go back to my most amazing FX team, Thom Floutz, and Chris Burgoyne, and say we need to replicate this exactly! The show being on MAX, our producers really wanted to bring a visual realism that hadn’t been seen before on television. Our FX houses, Autonomous FX, Fracture FX, and Tinsley Studios came through and made us flawless pieces. A very important guideline I received early in prep was that they wanted the people to feel real. No one was to be overly done up, it all needed to feel and look genuine.
Being that it is a medical show, were there any key visual themes that you had to consider while designing the looks of the hospital staff or patients?
This was a huge challenge. Maintaining continuity on a show that takes place over 15 hours meant there was absolutely no room for mistakes; every day for six months, the makeup had to match. The show was filmed mostly in sequence, which helped. On day one of episode one, we filmed the first six scenes of the episode, and on day two, we filmed the next six, and so on. Whatever happened during the scene and that day, we allowed it to happen. For example, if an actor started to get a little sweaty during a procedure, we let that occur and then picked up exactly where we left off at the end of the day. We devised a plan that after a certain number of episodes, we would start breaking down the makeup, slowly removing the concealer and fading the eye shadows, blush, and lipsticks. As the shift got more hectic, it was important for the makeup to reflect that change.
Since each episode is the equivalent of an hour during one shift in a hospital’s ER, how did you approach creating makeup for a series that portrays episodes in real-time?|
My main and most important direction for the show was, to make it look and feel as real as possible. We want to believe these are real nurses, staff workers, doctors, and patients.
Were there particular influences from the script or the characters that guided your makeup or prosthetic choices for some of the patients?
All the procedures presented a challenge, as most of what we did was practical. Working very closely with the incredible props department, led by Rick Ladomade, and the phenomenal SPFX department, led by Rob Nary, we worked as a team to devise the best way to achieve all the gags.
Were there any specific products you couldn’t have worked on this series without?
Blood! We went through a LOT of blood! Tinsley Glisten was used in almost every scene for fake sweat and shine. One application at the top of the day lasts for hours, so we didn’t have to touch up every minute. Skin Illustrator FX and Grunge palettes were crucial to our daily makeups.
Were there any specific makeup challenges you faced in this series?
I think the biggest challenges were the continuity and the level of realism that was required.
Looking back at your work on The Pitt, is there a particular makeup or design that you’re especially proud of?
This was the most exciting show I have had the opportunity to work on! So many incredible and difficult makeups week after week. As I read each script, a new and challenging procedure was thrown at us, and we, as a team, including Merry Lee Traum, who has been my key for the past 13 years, Chris Burgoyne, Thom Floutz, Marie-Flore Beaubien, Martina Sykes, and Leesa Simone, who flawlessly ran our background team, had to come up with the best way to get it done. But after 15 episodes and many procedures, my favorite one is the Thoracotomy from episode 3. First, it took me forever to even be able to say the word! But the challenge was great, a nail in the heart that’s beating on camera to the rhythm of the actor’s heart, cut open the chest, see the nail in the beating heart next to the breathing lungs. Remove the nail, stitch the hole in the heart…I’m out of breath just typing that out! I love this show and the entire cast and crew!
Words: Shannon Levy
Photos: Courtesy of Max
