[Commlist] Call For Papers: Screen Star Makeup CFP

Screen Star Makeup: beauty, stardom, masquerade

Saturday 14 March 2020 – 10am-5pm
Queen Mary University of London

Confirmed Keynote: Deborah Jermyn
Reader in Film & TV at the University of Roehampton


Makeup is a vital technical material in the construction of the 
on-screen image. In both film and photography makeup is used to correct 
skin-tones for different film stocks and make features visible under 
bright lights. Beyond this, makeup is also a medium of transformation 
and beautification and because of this it can be regarded with 
suspicion. Makeup’s connections with masquerade and theatricality evoke 
frivolity, artifice and deception; leading to the implication that 
makeup is worn to conceal inadequacies. James Naremore notes that 
although film studios have ‘always maintained huge makeup departments’ 
many actors disingenuously express a preference for appearing ‘natural’ 
on screen. This embarrassment about the wearing of makeup means that 
other than in the form of special effects, makeup has ‘become the most 
truly invisible of movie crafts’ (1988: 95-6).
This repudiation of makeup by actors belies the fact that makeup is 
often a visible and important component of the star image. In the early 
20th century moral consternation about the provocative implications of 
wearing makeup was overridden by the mass popularity of screen stars and 
their strikingly made-up faces. These star makeup looks created a demand 
for products that led to the creation of still-familiar brands such as 
Max Factor. Stars were then recruited to endorse makeup lines and appear 
in advertisements, a convention that continues in the 21st century.
This symposium at QMUL will bring together academics and practitioners 
from a range of fields. Papers and video essays are sought on the role 
and effects of makeup in the creation, maintenance and dissemination of 
the star image with interdisciplinary approaches particularly welcome. 
Specific topics for papers and video essay proposals might include, but 
are not limited to:

- The role makeup plays in forming and consolidating particular star images
- Examinations of the work of particular makeup artists
- The makeup styles of different film studios
- Analysis of the makeup of individual stars
- Analysis of makeup in particular films
- Makeup and skin colour
- Star makeup versus historical accuracy
- The continuing influence of classical star makeups
- National makeup styles
- The no makeup movement - Makeup, stars and ageing
- Makeup for colour and/or black and white films and images
- The influence of changing fashions on star makeups
- Perceptions of beauty
- Theoretical approaches to makeup and the star image
- Imitation of star looks
- The dissemination of professional makeup products on the high street
- Stars and makeup advertising campaigns
- Makeup and fan magazines

Proposals of 250-words for 20-minute papers or video essay presentations 
should be sent with a 100-word biographical note to Lucy Bolton and 
Cathy Lomax at (screenstarmakeup /at/ gmail.com)
Deadline for submissions is 3 December 2019. Accepted papers will be 
notified by 18 December 2019.

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