1 week Ago By [email protected] (Helen Kelly)
You're sat in front of the telly, deciding what to watch - perhaps Baby Reindeer on Netflix or a historical drama like Mary and George? Maybe you fancy the latest series of Industry or a tear-jerker like One Day? Whatever your choice, it's the result of a team of creatives working tirelessly to create visually engaging content. As we approach the BAFTA Craft Awards this weekend, we've had a chat with the creative minds behind some of this year's most gripping and thrilling shows. Fake pox, tattooed bruises and wigs Paul Gooch, who contributed to Sky's popular series Mary and George, gave us an insight into the intricate hair and makeup designs for the period drama.
"We needed to create a form of Pox for our lead actor," he revealed. "It could have been syphilis, a skin disease of a form of small pox. In the script it was non specific.
"And for another character a full blown case of syphilis which are away at the soft bone tissue of the face. To do these effects we used a combination of tattoo transfers and pro bondo sculpted prosthetics. It took five of us an hour to achieve, along with a red rash, as it had to cover the actor's whole body.
"Fun to do but very time consuming and man power heavy, for speed. Death, disease and ageing were a large part of this shows remit." For continuity purposes, Paul mentioned that bruising would be created as tattoo transfers so they're "fast to apply and always identical", reports the Mirror .
Unfortunately, when it comes to continuity, the weather can be a real challenge for the hair and makeup team, as Paul explained: "Maintaining elaborate hair styles in these conditions is a major part of our work alongside continuity, making sure things stay the same, so we don't give problems to the editors. "When using wigs and facial hair these require gluing to the skin. Damp weather will affect this too.
Long working hours are also a factor. An average filming day for the makeup/hair department is around 16 to 18 hours long so maintaining these highly stylised looks is a long game. We use heavy duty hair products to help keep these sculptural styles.
" 'Electric' performances and 'tricky' scenes The task of depicting Sagar Radia's character Rishi Ramdani's battle with gambling fell to industry writers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay. They reflected on why the episode focusing on Rishi's downfall was so impactful, sharing: "Because of its relentless pace and the fact the script turned the screws on the character at every available opportunity, married to Sagar's electric performance. Very hard to take your eyes off him.
Very volatile. Very unpredictable." Meanwhile, Nicole Taylor, the writer behind the Netflix hit One Day, spoke about the difficulties she faced while crafting the script.
"The greatest challenge was probably figuring out what the 'motor' of each episode would be," she explained. "In a story like this about people and a relationship over time, without any particular 'plot' as such, without traditional TV 'hooks', how could I lock viewers into this story? How could I make sure they never looked away?". "The hardest scenes to write were those in episode 14 and the opening scenes were tricky too.
It was all quite tricky! Trickier than I expected – ha. With material that brilliant, one might have hoped it was a cut and paste job but alas no!" Cutting key scenes Editor Benjamin Gerstein disclosed that several pivotal scenes were removed from Baby Reindeer, a show that captivated Netflix viewers in early 2024. He stated: "I think scenes that end up on the cutting room floor mostly end up there for a reason.
Sometimes you have to lose moments you love in order for the whole episode or series to work best. Having said that, there was a bar-fight I really liked that we ended up losing. "It was tragic and funny but didn't fit the overall thrust of the episode as we accelerated towards the end.
" Reflecting on the challenges he faced during editing, Benjamin shared: "There were some pretty traumatic sequences in the show, and cutting them was challenging on an emotional as well as technical level. "I found it meant making yourself both emotionally available and objectively distant at the same time so that you could feel what the audience might feel in watching and also have the capacity to make creative decisions that were more measured." The BAFTA TV Craft Awards are on 27th April.
