PROFILE
CONTENTS
Gerlia Muller was in the Wanda ladies’ residence. Some of the best memories from her student years are her involvement in the dance and drama group Skakainah. And then it seems that the visits to the Impala Hotel were also quite important, as she asked: “Is the Impala still there?”
Some hiccups here and there
Gerlia says every film set has new challenges. Some productions demand more intricate character development than others, depending on the story.
“Sometimes the type of make-up that we have to do on a film set takes a lot of time and research. It can vary from bullet wounds and black eyes to blood, sweat and tears. But it is very exciting to create a challenging appearance.”
She says the make-up artists keep to the shooting schedule that has been planned for a specific day.
“The type of character determines how much time I spend with an actor to create the appearance.
"My assistant then touches up the make-up on the set and takes pictures of every character in every scene to make sure that no continuity errors are made. For example, this is when the story of the day starts in a shop and the scene where the person leaves the shop is only filmed two weeks later.”
Gerlia works her magic for famous actors
Gerlia and Jaco were married a year ago and they are currently living in Johannesburg. “Jaco was an actor and musician for 11 years before he started working as a writer and director at a through the line (TTL) media and design agency in Randburg. He currently makes a lot of inserts for DStv.”
These are not just any old homemade film productions, either. No, we are talking about a number of the best South African films and even international films such as Marvel’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Tremors.
Gerlia, who obtained a degree in Communication Studies at the campus in Potchefstroom in 2007, said it all started while she was helping a friend at a hair show one day. When she saw how creative people worked together to transform a person’s appearance, there was no turning back for her – make-up would be her thing.
After studying make-up art at Face2Face in Centurion, she worked on a film set for the first time in 2010. The movie being made was PS Ek lief jou.
Productions under her belt
Since then Gerlia has done make-up for approximately 20 films, not to mention numerous advertisements, short films, magazine covers, documentary programmes, TV series and corporate DVDs. After eight years in the film industry, she has no fewer than 58 professional productions under her belt.
Some of the famous films in which she has been involved over the past few years are Modder en Bloed/Blood and Glory, Pretville, Free State, Leading Lady and Die ballade van Robbie de Wee. TV series include Getroud met Rugby and 7de Laan.
One of the highlights of her career was working for Marvel on the set for The Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2014.“I worked for 10 days with the department responsible for the stunt people and the extras. It was wonderful to be part of a big team of exceptionally talented people from around the world. Marvel is big. VERY big.”
Her dream for the future is to have her own business with her own products on the market.
It would also be a dream come true for her to work on the set of well-known productions such as Face Off and Blindspot, where make-up took centre stage.
And in the meantime, Gerlia continues to work her magic with all her wonderful brushes, helping to create marvellous moments for movie audiences everywhere.
If you are interested, you can follow Gerlia’s career on Instagram at @gerliamakemeup.
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Comfortable behind the cameras
As a student she had done some acting and had also had a role in the TV series Villa Rosa, so the world of acting was not totally unfamiliar to her. “From the beginning I loved the film industry, but I felt that working ‘in front of the camera’ would not work for me.”