The right cows and

invisible makeup

To most of us city folk, a cow is just a cow, but for a true western fan, it better be the right cow. Ensuring that those cows grazing in the background of a shot are Texas longhorns and not Herefords or sissy jerseys is just one of the hundreds of details head wrangler Tom Bews has to consider on Lonesome Dove: The Series.

Bews grew up on a ranch in Longview, Alta. and was a cowboy on the rodeo circuit before retiring in 1984 to devote himself entirely to wrangling for the film industry.

He says with a period western like Lonesome Dove, which is set in the late 1800s, using the right animals is essential in accurately reflecting the period.

‘Most breeds of cattle that are more common on ranches today, like Herefords, shorthorns or Black Angus, weren’t introduced to North America until later in the 20th century,’ says Bews. Luckily, he was able to bring in 12 head of longhorns from his own ranch.

When it came to the steeds, Bews went for halter horses rather than show horses because he wanted to achieve more of a ranch-bred look.

‘We’ve tried to keep that trend pretty well throughout all the horses used on the show, even for the ‘hell bitch’ (the horse owned by one of the central characters, Newt), we needed a cowboy look. We didn’t want anything that looked like Trigger.’

Controlling the animals on set is another story, says Bews, who was responsible for handling 750 horses and 110 wranglers on the Japanese historical epic, Heaven and Earth, filmed in Calgary several years ago. This year on Lonesome Dove, it was a thundering herd of buffalo that put his department through its paces.

Buffalo are not herding animals at heart, they prefer to roam, says Bews. But when they are reluctantly packed into a herd and forced to hoof it, they tend to get bunched up and fall over each other. So for the Lonesome Dove scene, he snaked the herd to keep it moving forward and towards the cameras, turning it away again at the last minute to avoid trampling the crew. Safety, he says, is always the paramount concern.

Stan Edmonds, head makeup artist on the series, says if his department has done its job, you won’t even notice it. ‘Our goal is for everything to be invisible. My challenge is to be true to the time. When I watch a period piece on television or film and I see contemporary makeup I go crazy.’

Edmonds says he was very relieved the producers were not interested in doing a sort of cosmetic soap western. They wanted realism; when the characters are out having adventures they really do get dirty, bruised and disheveled.

Because people didn’t bathe as often in the 1870s, ‘we wanted a rougher, more realistic look,’ says Edmonds. ‘Our actors look a little grimy, they don’t shave as often, and their sideburns are longer. Men’s facial hair in general was totally different, and beards were in fashion and grown to very specific styles in the military, which we researched.’

As for the women, Edmonds says, ‘Naturally during the 1870s women didn’t wear makeup, so in essence we’re doing the no-makeup makeup look on the actresses. What we are trying to do most of the time is create the period on their faces.’ Hairstyles, he adds, have a great deal to do with that.

Edmonds, who counts Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and Twentieth Century Fox’s Yellow Dog – two other major location shoots – among his 15 years of credits, says doing a series the magnitude of Lonesome Dove is proving to be far more ambitious than he originally thought.

Edmonds, a full-time assistant and two occasional staff handle the makeup and hair for three principal actors, six regulars, guest stars and 15 to 55 extras on each show. ‘It took us a few weeks to get our routine down to handle the numbers and choose the palette of colors to work with.’

He says a western is different from a contemporary show because 99% of it is shot outdoors.

‘When you’re dealing with hair and makeup you have to contend with the elements – rain, humidity, wind, dust and cold. Everything affects the look of the picture, to say nothing of the logistics of achieving what you want with the makeup and hair and then trying to keep it that way for continuity.

‘The southern Alberta area is very windy, dusty and buggy. It’s very authentic for a western. So luckily for this kind of series, it doesn’t matter if someone has mosquito bites up and down their arms.’

Aside from getting requests to sing Wichita Lineman almost every other day, head costumer Glenne Campbell says her greatest challenge on Lonesome Dove is working within the grueling schedule to ensure all the costumes are always ready to go before the camera.

‘As a rule we are creating costumes for between five and 10 new characters per episode, and because the show is so action-oriented, these costumes must be doubled and sometimes tripled to allow duplicate costumes for the stuntperson or double as well as for retakes.

‘When there is a delay in casting,’ she says, ‘our department is held up because we need the person’s measurements in order to start building the costumes. And since the producers naturally want to keep the costs down, the actor is usually not flown into town until just the day before shooting.

‘We try to design the costumes one episode ahead, but the script is always subject to the director’s revisions and we have to wait. So now instead of being a week ahead while they are shooting, we’re still creating some costumes for the current episode and planning for the next.’

The costumes for a western are more elaborate to construct than for the average contemporary drama, says Campbell. Dresses in the 1870s were more fitted than the formless clothes of today. There were boned bodices, hook-and-eye taped backs – no zippers of course – with volumes of fabric gathered into layers, and petticoats and corsets cinched up underneath.

During a recent heat wave, when temperatures soared above 40 C, these corsets became a real bone of contention with the actresses.

‘We’ve reached a compromise,’ says Campbell, ‘where I make half-corsets that achieve the right postural look but that aren’t quite as constricting as a full-length corset would be.’

Campbell began her costuming career dressing up the neighborhood kids. After completing a seamstress course she went directly to work in theater, gleaning as much as she could from professional stage costumers before moving into film and television.

‘I love working on westerns,’ says Campbell, who spent three years on Bordertown. ‘It sounds funny, but I just like the smell of it – all the natural fibers, horses and human aromas. And the costumes don’t constantly have to be washed and flouncy. Having grown up in Calgary, I guess I’ve absorbed more of the local history than I realized before.’

Campbell and her two assistants construct 99% of the costumes used on the series. A tailor and boot maker are brought in as needed. Finding the goods to construct the elaborate clothing, she says, is a matter of constant shopping and hunting through every wholesaler, retailer and antique dealer.

While Campbell and her assistants are busy designing and constructing costumes in Lonesome Dove’s Calgary workshop, two assistants from the department supervise the costumes on set. One records notes for continuity in case they have to go back and do pickup shots while the other, a prep costumer, ensures the costumes are ready in the morning as well as maintaining them through laundering and repairs.

Characterization is the primary goal in creating any costume, says Campbell. ‘That’s what is so wonderful about period costumingÉ you are so much a part of helping an actor find their character. When an actor puts on one of these costumes, all of a sudden he comes to life with the voice, mannerisms and walk. It’s so much more interesting than just handing an actor a pair of jeans where we’re little more than a shopping service. On a show like this, where historical accuracy is paramount, we feel much more a part of the storytelling.’