AMUA Special Effects Makeup Headlines Tennessee Performing Arts Center Event

AMUA Special Effects Makeup Headlines Tennessee Performing Arts Center Event

AMUA Special Effects Makeup Program Director, Ben Rittenhouse and program alumni Colter Wilson and Faith McLane, were featured at the Art of Special Effects Makeup event held at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center alongside other area Makeup artists. The AMUA team transformed Nashville Ballet dancer, Nicolas Scheuer, into an Underworld-inspired vampire in front of a packed theater audience of local and regional professionals. Attendees were inspired by the creative process and the metamorphic end result.  The team also gave event goers a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes effort of such character transformations, as they described the work they did in the…
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Alumni Spotlight: McKenzie Gregg

Alumni Spotlight: McKenzie Gregg

As a spotlight on AMUA’s graduate network, we’ve sat down with alum McKenzie Gregg to talk shop, finding success, and doing what you love so you can love what you do.  A Nashville native, Kenzie graduated from AMUA in 2012 in the Professional Makeup Artist Program.  She forged her own career as a professional makeup artist working for such notable clients as Jack White, Timbaland, Devon Bostick, Dean Norris, and Mara Marini. Then, in 2015 she came back to AMUA to earn a diploma in the AMUA Special Effects Makeup Program.  A skilled craftsperson and talented artist, Kenzie is now focusing…
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AMUA works on The Dead Weather’s latest music video ‘Impossible Winner’

AMUA works on The Dead Weather’s latest music video ‘Impossible Winner’

A couple of months back, I received a message from my receptionist from a gentleman who was producing a music video for rock band The Dead Weather with Jack White. He was looking for a special effects makeup artist who could create elongated fingers and extra appendages for a music video for the song 'Impossible Winner'.  Soon after, none other than Jack White himself, along with bandmate, waltzed into our humble special effects studio to get a cast made of their hands in order to create the desired effects for the freak-show style video. Today, that music video was released, and…
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Recent AMUA Grad Competes at IMATS in Toronto!

Recent Academy of Makeup Arts graduate Faith McLane is competing at the IMATS Battle of the Brushes in Toronto on Saturday September 26th. McLane graduated from the Special Effects program at AMUA in 2015 where she was trained by Emmy Award-winning artist Ben Rittenhouse. The theme of this particular competition is "old age" makeup. Faith will compete with 7 other finalists that were chosen from makeup schools world-wide. They are allotted 3 hours time to complete their work before it is judged by a panel of professional makeup artists. "I never really wanted anything as bad as I wanted to…
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