I have noticed that generally in silent pictures the make-up applied tended in the main to 'paint' the face with a white mask with the eyes lined in back and the mouth darkened. Was there a reason not to try and obtain a more natural make-up? (If you look at actors' hands they always seem never to have been made up and are always much darker than the face). Even some pictures in the early talkie period seem to have continued with this method of making-up. I should appreciate some comments on make-up methods in the days of the silents. Regards Donald Binks

I have noticed that generally in silent pictures the make-up applied tended in the main to 'paint' the face with a white mask with the eyes lined in back and the mouth darkened. Was there a reason not to try and obtain a more natural make-up? (If you look at actors' hands they always seem never to have been made up and are always much darker than the face). Even some pictures in the early talkie period seem to have continued with this method of making-up. I should appreciate some comments on make-up methods in the days of the silents. Different makeup was used depending on the sort of film which was being shot. Blue-sensitive and ortho film tended to darken white actors' complexion and rendered red as black, whereas panchromatic film (after it became available) did not. Pancake (makeup) was originally an abbreviation for panchromatic makeup.

I have noticed that generally in silent pictures the make-up applied tended in the main to 'paint' the face with a white mask with the eyes lined in back and the mouth darkened. Was there a reason not to try and obtain a more natural make-up? (If you look at actors' hands they always seem never to have been made up and are always much darker than the face). Even some pictures in the early talkie period seem to have continued with this method of making-up. I should appreciate some comments on make-up methods in the days of the silents. Different makeup was used depending on the sort of film which was being shot. Blue-sensitive and ortho film tended to darken white actors' complexion and rendered red as black, whereas panchromatic film (after it became available) did not. Pancake (makeup) was originally an abbreviation for panchromatic makeup. Interesting about the source of pancake makeup!  I never knew that!

Pancake (makeup) was originally an abbreviation for panchromatic makeup. And to this day, Max Factor spells it Pan-Cake, with a hyphen.  The name never had anything to do with flapjacks. -Neil Midkiff

Orthochromatic film stock used in those early films (from the 1890s through 1929), caused the actors' skin tone to photograph twice as dark as in reality. Orthochromatic film stock had an extremely slow exposure rate which, although it produced a sharper image, caused the skin tone problems. Today, we look at many of these early makeups and find them garish or overdone. For the most part, the makeup techniques used in the legitimate theatre were carried over to this new form of entertainment.  However, film makeup required a whole new understanding of colors.  What would appear to the eye as acceptable for the stage, was not acceptable to the movie camera. With the Orthochromatic film stock, reds, oranges and browns photographed black or very close to it.  Freckles came off darker, almost black at times.  The colors of blue, pink, yellow and mauve would photograph white.  Therefore, a make-up _base_ that was pink with a bluish tone would come across looking closer to a natural skin tone on film. The use of these different _base_ colors is the reason why actors and actresses of the early silent screen appear to the present-day audience to have stark white faces.  The color used to line or shade the eyes could not be black.  Instead, red, gray-green, blue or violet, which photographed black, had to be used.  In the early years, lips, eyes and eyebrows were made up for both actors and actresses with these colors.  Today, when we see this effect on screen, it is considered to be over done.  However, it was necessary at that time in order to make the facial _expression_s register on screen. Orthochromatic film stock also introduced a new tradition in Hollywood

I've very much enjoyed the discourse on various film stocks and make- ups, but another reason - I believe as yet unstated - is that the reflectivity of the early silver screen did not equal that of the present day. The projected image did not as a result have the high degree of contrast that we take for granted today; so the extremely light face make-up could to a greater degree cut thru these limitations, and facially conveyed - emotions could be more easily read by the silent film viewer.