Blogging from the set of John Sayles latest movie

The make-up will be fairly simple - as little as possible, as the RED camera sees everything and none of the characters would be wearing make-up in this situation.  Hair is also fairly straightforward-  we’re trying to choose our female extras with enough hair to pull back, no plucked eyebrows, etc.  Both Joel Torre and Yul Vasquez, who play Rafael and Padre Hidalgo, will start by shooting the scene where they are let out of jail after several weeks, so they’ll start with a growth of beard and then be shaved.  Some of the American actors are growing period moustaches and Chris Cooper, playing Colonel Hardacre, will have a beard, but it is rare to see photos of these soldiers with stubble, so I’ll be asking them and the extras to come to the set shaved whenever possible. The American army hairstyle for enlisted men around 1900 was fairly short on the sides, the beginning of a sideburn, and a bit of forelock hair.  No buzzcuts or shaved heads.  If you could part your hair in the middle you tried to.  Officers sometimes had longer hair, especially the old Civil War veterans (men over 50).