Theater major from Indiana wanting to pursue career in makeup (Santa Monica: apartment, for rent) - Los Angeles - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

theatregirl12 · 11-02-2009, 07:47 PM

Hey guys, i'm planning on focusing my theatre degree in Stage Makup and I was wondering what the job prospects are in LA for a makeup artist/designer. I would love to work for a theatre company or a TV/ Flim studio while also doing free-lance work such as weddings and events. Let me know any and all advice.

Also, I haven't really looked a lot into moving to LA although I know it is in my top 3 along with NYC and Chicago. Any advice on affordable and safe neighborhoods would be great as well. Thanks!

Melissa R. · 11-02-2009, 08:49 PM

Before we can give you any information on affordable places to live, we need to know what your budget will be for rent. For some people $5,000 a month is affordable, for others anything over $800 is too much.

theatregirl12 · 11-02-2009, 09:05 PM

I would be willing to share an apartment and pay a share of about $600-900 with my own bedroom.

capitalist09 · 11-02-2009, 11:16 PM

LA is very divided. You are ether rich or poor. So as a rule of thumb the safe neighborhoods are generally where the rich live.

Another rule of thumb, from the ocean to La Brea stay north of Wilshire for the safest areas, north of Santa Monica is ok, but less desirable.

Valley rule of thumb, south of Ventura Blvd is the safest. Unless you want to venture out further from your career to places like Porter Ranch.

Last rule of thumb, there will be traffic no matter what neighborhood you live in. This is LA.

jc76 · 11-03-2009, 06:41 AM

Chicago is becoming more and more expensive. It is close to LA in cost of living and even higher if your in downtown area of Chicago. NY is also more expensive than LA for the most part.
If those are your 3 choices I would bet on L.A. for many reasons including much better weather, more film and TV studios than NY and Chi combined, and LA you can network year round with no restraints from weather.
I been to LA several times and the traffic is bad but it seems to move and there's not usually road construction constantly like Chicago. LA has less inconveniences than Chi, at least in my experience.

nmnita · 11-03-2009, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theatregirl12

Hey guys, i'm planning on focusing my theatre degree in Stage Makup and I was wondering what the job prospects are in LA for a makeup artist/designer. I would love to work for a theatre company or a TV/ Flim studio while also doing free-lance work such as weddings and events. Let me know any and all advice.

Also, I haven't really looked a lot into moving to LA although I know it is in my top 3 along with NYC and Chicago. Any advice on affordable and safe neighborhoods would be great as well. Thanks!

If you can handle closer to the $900 you should be ok with sharing a 2 bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood.

As for the job market, be prepared to stand in line. Makeup artists are a dime a dozen and their are many of them out there. When are you planning on making the move? The situation today, may be different 3 years from now.

L.A. has the best weather but you will have as many opportunities in NYC. They are 2 very different enviorments. Some people would prefer the hussle, bussle of NYC, others the more laid back enviorment of So Ca. Of course either way you are attempting to break into a field with lots of back stabbing and lots of very plastic people.

Nita

theatregirl12 · 11-03-2009, 08:33 AM

thanks, I have never been to LA so I really don't know a lot about it. I absolutely love NYC though so I'm sort of leaning towards trying to make a career for myself there. I won't be moving for at least 2 years but I'm trying to just think about my options and plan ahead.

BeenAroundTheBlock · 11-03-2009, 09:02 AM

On the makeup side of things, my daughter moved to LA 8/08 to attend the Studio Makeup Academy to become a professional makeup artist. She has had to work a real job while persuing makeup jobs because of the high cost of living. It appears that unless you have some real contacts in the industry, most of the makeup jobs out there are "work for free, we'll give you the prints" type of jobs. Either that or we'll pay you $50 bucks for your time (which could entail driving all over creation, in traffic and always using up your makeup).

For many it's a vicious cycle trying to break into LA. So many young people come out to "make it", but find themselves leaving after a year or so because it's too expensive to live, they can't find the work they want, and they get discouraged. You have to work a real job to pay your bills which doesn't leave that much time to work at what you came there for. The powers that be out there know that once you leave, there's another batch of wannabe's coming in. It's the nature of the beast. At least she's leaving with a lot of prints this January!

Bring a lot of money and try to make some contacts before you get there. I've also heard it's very hard to find a "real" job with the economy being the way it is. Nothing is impossible though, everyone's situations are different. Best of luck!

osuzana · 11-03-2009, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeenAroundTheBlock

On the makeup side of things, my daughter moved to LA 8/08 to attend the Studio Makeup Academy to become a professional makeup artist. She has had to work a real job while persuing makeup jobs because of the high cost of living. It appears that unless you have some real contacts in the industry, most of the makeup jobs out there are "work for free, we'll give you the prints" type of jobs. Either that or we'll pay you $50 bucks for your time (which could entail driving all over creation, in traffic and always using up your makeup).

For many it's a vicious cycle trying to break into LA. So many young people come out to "make it", but find themselves leaving after a year or so because it's too expensive to live, they can't find the work they want, and they get discouraged. You have to work a real job to pay your bills which doesn't leave that much time to work at what you came there for. The powers that be out there know that once you leave, there's another batch of wannabe's coming in. It's the nature of the beast. At least she's leaving with a lot of prints this January!

Bring a lot of money and try to make some contacts before you get there. I've also heard it's very hard to find a "real" job with the economy being the way it is. Nothing is impossible though, everyone's situations are different. Best of luck!

Very good post and very realistic. To be a make-up artist on a union movie which is 99% of the time, you too have to be in the union and usually in order to do that you have to be on a waiting list for people to either quit or die. It is a very close knit community of who do you know more than what can you do. For stage work I would go straight to NYC and don't pass go. Get a portfolio together of glamor, fantasy, ghoulish and regular print work for fashion before you step foot into any office. You can work freelance for a large cosmetics company working in department stores making anywhere from $20-$25 an hour where you work for yourself while trying to break into the business. Go talk to the salespeople at Sephora....guess what they want to be when they grow up? Contacts is the name of the game out here and just about anywhere with any type of job in the Arts. Don't give up.

theatregirl12 · 11-03-2009, 12:12 PM

Thanks so much for the great advice! I hope to have a decent start to a portfolio by the time I graduate since I should have the opportunity to work on shows here at school. After I get some more training I will probably offer my services to people I know for a very low rate or even free if they will let me take pictures for my portfolio as well and I will probably try to work at a makeup store and free lance while trying to break into the biz.