WandaVision Hair and Makeup Team Explains Challenges of Past Sitcom Styles

The team that handled WandaVision‘s hair and makeup decided to explain how the past sitcom styles presented challenges. Tricia Sawyer is the head of the makeup department and Karen Bartek is the head of the hair department. Elle talked to these ladies and discovered it really comes down to hair and visual effects. Black and White color palettes make shooting a bit difficult, you really have to game the cameras into seeing what you want to see. Also, when you have to shoot multiple eras in the same day, how do you handle those funky hairstyles from scene to scene. Both women describe their tips and tricks for handling different time periods. It’s fascinating to hear professionals talk about how sitcoms shaped their approaches to the material.

“I used to watch a lot of these shows with my mom after school so I felt like I knew them; they were a comfort to me,” Sawyer told the site.

Bartek added, “I think every principal actor had wigs from the ’50s to the ’80s. We really couldn’t use anybody’s hair because shot a lot out of order. If we needed to do two eras in one day, that wouldn’t work time-wise. We could just pop a wig on and off.”

“Her styles were so different from era to era, but we kept the color the same,” the hair department head added. “We wanted it to stay the MCU original color.”

Jack Schaeffer talked to THR’s TV’s Top 5 podcast about sitcom-inspiration.

“I think there’s a lot that we have not spoken about that are enormous influences on the show because it would give too much away,” Schaeffer said. “So I think that all of the sort of the golden age of sitcom — I mean there kind of is no golden era of sitcom, it’s just every wonderful, delicious era of sitcom — all of those pieces are very obvious and will become more obvious as more of the episodes drop. But there’s a lot that I’m looking forward to discussing in the future because the influences would a little bit give up the game.”

Did you enjoy the early WandaVision episodes? Let us know down in the comments!

Watch WandaVision on Disney+.

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