I think the biggest irony is that in the end, this was paid for and promoted by a beauty company who does have a commercial interest in the subject matter... nothing is pure, is it? :)

I'm actually notorious for having actors wear less make up. I actually think make up's use has been totally distorted and misunderstood. Make up is one of three things. 1) coverup. 2) fashion accentuation 3) design. Most people sort of do this mimic-ing type of make up which basically means they are trying to do fashion accentuation with someone else's features... so they're mimicking someone else's style of make-up which was designed for that person and so it ends up being this odd distortion and generification of face. But if you look at the least likely thing I shot with Kelly Hu, Ming Na etc... you'll n otice that there is basicaly no make up at all except for the designs we put under their eyes... but I felt like it was the most beautiful all of them had looked.

The only reason people are still hired for photo shoots is because they haven't yet developed software to randomly generate lifelike human faces / forms under every condition. Yet. The make-up is one thing (and quite acceptable?), but the gross deformation in Photoshop is where the media industry should hold more responsibility. Incidentally, same with the commercial film industry -- not sure if you have seen the "toy" film maker application available online & for download at http://www.xtranormal.com -- but it's only a matter of years before technology such as this will replace an entire film crew / actors / Pixar! Design your perfect cast and off you go.

Dan F. Note that when Toy Story came out I was doing 3D and every time I had a chance to talk to a 3D developer, I kept saying.... "You need to make this app" - basically xtranormal. Then when garageband came out I knew that apple someday (considering Jobs own pixar) would have an iAnimate or something - but then I wondered if maybe he wouldn't because his movies would seem less special. there definitely is an art in the detail... to make things that good - there is so much subtlety and that takes a long, long time. The machinama trend has been intersting though and I suspect the real version of this type of "iAnimate" app when it happenswill end up being more like a live game play thing. I actually almost had an animated movie funded which would develop that technology - but it didn't happen... ah well. As the toosl become cheaper more and more mediocre work fills the marketplace.... and the truly unique becomes harder to find but more valuable.

I always love watching this video. Besides the obvious fact that it helps prove to people that models aren't always or hardly ever as perfect looking in real life. It's a great kinda "look at what you can do" if you're a photoshop person heh.