Dzhuliia Melnik
- Make-Up Department
I'm Dzhuliia Melnik - Makeup Artist from Ukraine. I started my education as an actress in Theatre and Cinema, but taking lessons in theatrical makeup led me to realize that I wanted to dedicate myself to doing makeup.
I started working as a makeup artist when I was 18 years old. I was already working as a makeup artist when I decided to take a makeup class. While learning, I worked on television projects, where I got the experience of working quickly, and soon I began working on music videos, advertisements with celebrities, and eventually on films. The first film that I worked as a Makeup Department Head was Let's Dance when I was 23 years old. In 2014, having discovered the show Face Off, I decided to dedicate myself to special effects makeup.
At that time in Ukraine, this industry was not very well developed. There were no schools for education, no makeup materials, and to find prosthetic makeup professionals you had to look to other countries. Therefore I began the path of self-study through YouTube videos, watching the show Face Off, and other making-of videos where it was possible to learn some of the secrets to making movie monsters. Materials had to be ordered from the USA, and so I waited, often as long as three months for materials to arrive. I experimented a lot, and there were setbacks. In order to afford materials, I denied myself a lot, but the desire to learn and improve drove me forward.
In two years of self-study, I learned a lot, but still, I had much to learn and few places to find the knowledge that I was seeking.
In Ukraine, when the war began, there was a crisis; suddenly, there were not so many jobs and no money to pay for training abroad. But I still had great desire to study at Cinema Makeup School. Their Next Level of Cosplay Scholarship Competition was an opportunity to study at CMS for free. I took advantage of the opportunity.
My first attempts in 2015 were unsuccessful, but a year later, I tried again, and I won. For the first time in the history of the competition, the viewers' vote coincided with the jury vote. I was the unanimous winner.
In 2017, I became a student at Cinema Makeup School. While I was studying, I became a Leonard Engelman fellow.
After graduation, I returned to Ukraine and began working more on special effects and complex makeup. I started receiving invitations to work even outside the country.
While having a full-time job, I also worked on personal projects. Since prosthetic makeup takes a lot of work, time, and money, I have always wanted to preserve and capture my work in short films or photo shoots.
I created many characters and looks, and my friends - filmmakers - supported my ideas and would take photos and movies of the results.
My slogan is, if I don't get the job I want, I make up my own projects and build my own portfolio.
In Ukraine, when the war began, there was a crisis; suddenly, there were not so many jobs and no money to pay for training abroad. But I still had great desire to study at Cinema Makeup School. Their Next Level of Cosplay Scholarship Competition was an opportunity to study at CMS for free. I took advantage of the opportunity.
My first attempts in 2015 were unsuccessful, but a year later, I tried again, and I won. For the first time in the history of the competition, the viewers' vote coincided with the jury vote. I was the unanimous winner.
In 2017, I became a student at Cinema Makeup School. While I was studying, I became a Leonard Engelman fellow.
After graduation, I returned to Ukraine and began working more on special effects and complex makeup. I started receiving invitations to work even outside the country.
While having a full-time job, I also worked on personal projects. Since prosthetic makeup takes a lot of work, time, and money, I have always wanted to preserve and capture my work in short films or photo shoots.
I created many characters and looks, and my friends - filmmakers - supported my ideas and would take photos and movies of the results.
My slogan is, if I don't get the job I want, I make up my own projects and build my own portfolio.