ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603250065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
THE MAN BEHIND THE MASKS on "Deep Space 9'' and the woman responsible for the glamour on "Married ... With Children" offered students some cosmetic dos and don'ts.
- If you ever doubted that Hollywood is a brutal place, you should have seen what happened when a couple of California show-biz types visited Franklin County High School on Saturday.
Students walked around with scars, bruises and skin diseases that would have made emergency room doctors call for reinforcements. And, strangely enough, the kids loved it.
Dean Gates, who won an Emmy last year for his makeup work on the "Star Trek" spin-off "Deep Space 9,'' and Nina Gates, a makeup artist who worked on productions including "Married ... With Children," held a workshop for 50 Franklin County students and taught them the basics of using makeup to create glamorous looks - and frightful creatures.
Sarabeth Shorter was, without a doubt, one of the latter. By the time Dean Gates had finished with the 14-year-old student, her nose was bulbous and crooked, her teeth mottled and brown. And her skin - her blotchy, purple, diseased-looking skin - was a dermatologist's nightmare.
"This," said Nina Gates with a laugh, "is Dean's version of the classic beauty."
Although he has spent the last 16 years working on films and television shows in places including Miami and Hollywood, Dean Gates is a Southwest Virginia native. He was born in Roanoke and lived here until he was five, when his family moved to Northern Virginia. He graduated from Ferrum College before going off to film school in Florida.
"I had always wanted to return back here with what I learned and make my own films," he said. "If I had stayed and worked in L.A., it probably would have been easier. But I've always felt like a Virginian."
He and Nina left California for Southwest Virginia - Russell County - almost nine months ago. They've started a production company, Cedar Valley Film Corp., and they plan to start shooting their first film, a suspense-thriller called "For Better, For Worse," by summer.
The workshop, sponsored by the Franklin Guild, a community arts organization, was just what the school needed, said drama teacher Drew Gibbons. The drama students produce several plays and musicals every year, she said, and getting the makeup to look right is always tricky.
"That's the truth," said sophomore Jennifer Austin. "We have never had enough people who know how to put it on."
Gates didn't transform any students into the "Star Trek" aliens that made him famous - it takes a good two hours and a whole lot of supplies to create a big-eared Ferengi, he said - but he and Nina Gates did offer plenty of advice.
And, thanks in part to Shorter, laughs.
"Let's just hope my boyfriend doesn't see this," said Shorter, as she stared into a mirror. "Right now, the word 'public' scares me."
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. 1. Dean Gates, theby CNBaward-winning makeup artist known for his work on Ferengis on the
television series "Star Trek: Deep Space 9," transforms Sarabeth
Shorter into a witch. He begins (top photo) by adhering a blend of
wax and cotton to the Franklin County High School student's nose. 2.
Gates then paints an age-old face onto the 14-year-old (middle
photo). 3. Finally, Gates darkens the ninth-grader's teeth (bottom
photo) for an added touch of cosmetic magic. color.