Made up

I had lots of fun at work today! I haven't written much about my job here, so maybe I should start with what I do. I teach game programming, which is basically computer science geared toward game development. There are other courses at my job, such as the TV programme production course and the make-up course.

At this point in their education, the make-up students needed to practice their skills on male faces. They were learning how to mask or enhance stubble, as well as doing the make-up as neutral as possible. Around 11 AM, my boss interrupted my lecture to tell us that the make-up students needed test subjects. Considering that all the game programming students are guys, and all the make-up students are girls, it's no surprise that my students and I were happy to volunteer. Especially since it meant getting an afternoon off. Double win!

Ah, the glamour! Seriously, it was fun to be pampered by the make-up artists in training, despite sometimes accidentally getting make-up in the eye.

Those lights make it so much easier to imagine you're a movie star or a supermodel. I bet all my geeky students were doing that, provided that they weren't scared half to death by being closer to a woman than they'd ever been.

It's like an episode of Beauty and The Geek.

Oh look, it's the two nicest people in the world! Karma must have brought them together. She's nice because she's the only girl at my job who's said "hi" to me a few times, and he's both my best student and quite possibly the happiest and nicest guy I've ever met. Look at them, they're both just radiating positive thoughts! Although he does look kind of weird, probably because of the make-up. Look how smooth and silky his skin looks. Lookit!

All done! Time to go to the TV studio for the screen test.

OK, not quite done yet. This girl stayed behind a bit to put some finishing touches on the first guy she worked on. The second guy was me. And look, she's smiling! Actually, spirits were pretty high today. I think my students did rather well in the social department. Everyone seemed to get along. I'm... so proud... *sniff* (Got some make-up in my eye again, sorry.)

Here we are, waiting in line for our screen test, looking better than we're ever going to look. Well, unless the girls decide to practice on us again! One girl is on her way out from the TV studio looking kind of dissatisfied, but my make-up artist has a smug look on her face, so I'm not worried.

She's a stickler for details. Now she's adding a few last-minute touches. You may have noticed that it looks like the guy has shaved off half his beard. That's because she was practicing masking and enhancing his stubble. It's pretty convincing, even off-screen. She must have an eye for colour to find a shade that matches his skin that well.

It's the TV students! See the small square window? That's where the production team sits during broadcasts, and today the make-up teacher sat there and told her students what they had done well and what they needed to work on. The TV monitor shows what's being recorded/broadcast. Hm, I just realized that they may actually have recorded us to review their work later. Yikes.

Here's Mr. Nice Guy, facing the camera squad. If you look closely at the monitor, you can see that the nametag says "Torulf Hårfot". That's certainly not his name; sounds more like the name of a hobbit. Turns out that it was the TV teacher having fun with the equipment, giving us all silly names.

The make-up teacher asked everyone to make some on-stage adjustments. I'm guessing this was both to correct mistakes, and to get their first on-stage make-up experience. I had my nose powdered; it looked like this guy got something done to his neck. There were lots of talk about matching skin tones on neck, hands and face.

Finally, the first real photo of me in the whole blog. It's a crappy photo because I suck at taking self-portraits, but you can kind of tell that my skin is unnaturally smooth. No blemishes or blotches or anything. In broad daylight, it looks almost like I'm a dead person mimicking the living, or an alien pod person made of some organic plastic. In the right lighting conditions, like in the TV studio, it looks perfectly natural.

Lots and lots of pictures today, since it was such a fun day. I hope I can be a test subject again some time. :)