Designing Places & Faces: Meet the Production Designer & HMUA for Night Voices
Narrative filmmaking may very well be the most creatively collaborative of all art forms. Once the screenplay is written, every creator on a narrative film production - the director, actor, costumer, lighting designer (Gaffer), costume, set, and the hair and make up artist need to be coordinating their ideas with each other in order cohesively create the time and place the cinematic story is being told .
The screenplay for Night Voicesdescribes actor Gorman Ruggiero's character "Jude Wilcox" as a weary man who once had dreams. If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting Gorman Ruggiero (or perhaps have seen his headshot), you would know he's a fun-loving man continuing to chase his cinematic dreams. While a strong acting performance from Ruggiero under careful direction from Bradley Hawkins brought Jude Wilcox to life, two other key members of Team Night Voices helped transform the appearance of his face and the places he lived in to ground more aspects of the acting performance and writing in a realistic world.
Neither Avery Kellington nor Shelly Lynn Koch were strangers to Bradley Hawkins when they joined Team Night Voices respectively as the Production Designer and Hair and Make-Up Artist (HMUA). Both women had worked as part of the team on the previous Dadley Productions short, Calf Rope , in varying capacities. Despite having a brief appearance in a Cub Scout Den Meeting scene as the Asst. Den Mother, Shelly's primary role was off-camera as the Hair and Make Up Artist (HMUA) for Calf Rope. Director Bradley Hawkins was so impressed with Shelly's hair and make-up work on thatfilm that he knew he wanted to call upon her talent again for Night Voices, three years later.
Avery Kellington was on-camera in Calf Rope, co-starring as grandmother CORAH, the wife of Gorman's leading role MAC, but prior to joining Team Night Voices, she had yet to work as a Production Designer. It was Kellington's ability to fully get inside the head of a character as an actor, coupled with her prior work experience in interior design that secured her job as the Production Designer on Night Voices.
Avery Kellington is an Atlanta-based actor, VO artist, and writer with roots in Lebanon County, PA. In addition to serving as the Production Designer for Night Voices, her voice and knack for accent work can be heard in her cameo role as "OLGA FROM EPHRATA"in the finished film. Avery is grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Dadley Productions once again and to work with the talented, hard working group of predominantly central PA-based filmmakers who brought Night Voices to the screen! Upcoming projects include lead roles in two films being shot in Georgia, and a lead role in Abandon All Hope, a dramedy Avery is co-producing with Night Voices producer and co-writer, Peter Fenton.
Shelly Lynn Koch is a freelance HMUA, costume designer ,and wardrobe supervisor working primarily in the mid-Atlantic region. Shelly has an extensive resume working in film and also in commercial video and photography. Shelly has worked as Makeup Department Head on four films, as well as the HMUA on dozens of others. Most recently her makeup work can be seen in I Heard the Bells, a Civil War period feature that ran in major theaters nationwide and internationally and in A Wonderful Time of the Year, starring Tom Arnold, currently available on Showtime. Shelly is the owner of Camera Ready Solutions. CRS provides high-quality professional HMUA and wardrobe stylist staffing solutions to photography studios and video production companies specializing in film, television, and commercial content.
When you watch Night Voices, pay special attention to the faces and the places - our HMUA and Production Design leads crafted them with tremendous care and thought to serve the story being brought to life. Night Voices is expected to enter the film festival circuit in Spring 2023.
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