Douglas Owens
THEN: The Cavaliers, 1989-1991
NOW: Key makeup artist for “Santa Girl”
Douglas Owens
The timing worked out perfectly, really.
A friend approached Douglas Owens in the fall of 2017 with a unique opportunity.
Owens’ friend was involved with the production of “Santa Girl” — a Capital Arts Entertainment holiday movie which recently premiered on Netflix — and at the time, filming was just around the corner from him in northern Virginia.
She wanted Owens — knowing his extensive retail experience in the industry — to serve as the key makeup artist for the film.
And under normal circumstances, Owens’ reply would have been easy.
“I probably would have had to say, ‘Oh, I appreciate it, but I’ll have to say no,’” he said. “Because I’m usually busy Monday through Friday and just wouldn’t be able to schedule around it.”
But it just so happened that Owens was in the middle of a career transition after having his full-time position cut from his company’s budget.
“I took three and a half weeks of vacation off from my job,” he said. “Every time we were on set and filming, I was there.”
Now, Owens did have a background in makeup, but never in film or theatre. He’d long worked as an artist at retail department stores and also handled makeup for weddings and other special events, but this was uncharted territory.
So, briefly, YouTube became Owens’ best friend.
“I had to educate myself a little bit,” he said. “I just wanted to know how much different it would be, so thank God for YouTube because I watched a lot of tutorials on how to do movie makeup, and it really isn’t all too different.”
Owens with The Cavaliers in 1991
The timing worked out perfectly, really.
Videos, ironically, were also Owens’ introduction into drum corps.
They weren’t YouTube videos, though. This was back in the mid-1980s when avid drum corps enthusiasts turned to collecting VHS tapes often recorded at home from Drum Corps International’s World Championship broadcasts on PBS stations across the country.
But that’s not all too uncommon. Often, all it takes to get hooked on this unique activity is to see it before your eyes — if not live, at least on screen.
For Owens, that introduction came from his band director in 1987; it was The Cavaliers’ fifth-place production from two years prior, which featured music from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.” Owens was “floored.”
“‘85 Cavaliers was the first video I saw and I was hooked,” he said. “So I watched every video I could get my hands on, and just was infatuated with the uniform, the style, all of it.”
The next summer, Owens and his band director and a handful of other students had their first opportunity to experience live drum corps, and that pushed him over the edge.
By the time the 1989 DCI season rolled around, Owens was ready to audition — for The Cavaliers, of course.
“I got to see the Cavaliers live, and, I mean, it sealed the deal,” he said.
The three years that followed in the Green Machine’s color guard changed Owens’ life. On the field, he was able to experience three medalist seasons with a corps on its way to the top, but off the field, he made lifelong friendships.
“Social media is so big now, but you know, back then, you’d exchange phone numbers and exchange addresses, but you might not see some of these guys again.
“But the friendships lasted,” he said. “Nowadays, it’s so quick to be like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in your town or driving through, let’s meet up for coffee or drinks or dinner, or whatever. It’s hard to believe that many years go by and I’m still connecting with the guys.”
Owens works with actor Jennifer Stone on the set of “Santa Girl”
Now, fast forward 30 years, and Owens has had the chance to rub shoulders with a brand new cast of characters — quite literally — by way of his unique opportunity in the film industry.
Owens works with actor Jennifer Stone on the set of “Santa Girl”
Douglas Owens
“Santa Girl” features a number of recognizable names in its cast, including Jennifer Stone who held a main role on the Disney Channel series “Wizards of Waverly Place.” She provided one of Owens’ more memorable highlights from the film set.
According to Owens, one of his role’s more challenging tasks was to work to cover Stone’s tattoos at the start of each day of shooting.
“I wasn’t really versed on covering tattoos,” he said. “She has one on her back and also on her wrists. So anytime she was wearing something short sleeved, we were covering her wrists as much as we could.”
Obviously, this wasn’t a new experience for Stone who’s been acting since the age of six. But with Owens, she did note a slight difference.
“It’s funny,” Owens added. “She gave me a compliment one day that it was the fastest any makeup artist has ever been able to cover her tattoos.”
For Owens, though, a key highlight of his first opportunity to work in film makeup was right along those lines; simply put, he loved being able to rub shoulders with other members of the cast and crew.
He noted that watching the filming take place was an incredibly “educational and rewarding” experience, but the way he described it, it was the memories made when the cameras were off that particularly stuck out.
“That was a lot of fun being there with the actors and them chit-chatting with us and talking; I think all the fun on that set happened in hair and makeup,” he said. “There’s a lot of giggling and having fun with the actors.”
All in all, much like his three years with The Cavaliers, Owens’ work on the set of “Santa Girl” was a learning experience — one that fell into his lap at the right time.
In some ways, the two experiences are very different, but the carryover from drum corps to life after drum corps is plentifully apparent, both in opportunities like these and in an overall sense.
“It’s the hard work ethic and not giving up on something,” Owens said of what sticks with him from his drum corps years. “You know, pushing yourself beyond your comfort level. I had such a good experience during those years.”
