Recommendations for coloring lavalier mics in hair

[Kyle Robinson]

Hi, I am currently doing a production of Heathers, and all mics are to go through the hair and come out the forehead. The problem is, all mic wires are skin colored, and they tend to show through most actors' brunette hair because the wire is so light. Last time I ran a show, I put tape on these wires and colored them the color of the actor's hair, but it took me an entire day after the show to get it off of the mics and it was a general mess. So, I'm looking for a better way to do this without that being the case. I would rather methods that are temporary, as actors vary from show to show, but don't have to be reapplied often. Any suggestions of how to achieve this would be extremely helpful!

 

[macsound]

I've usually used a solvent based paint pen.
Most difficult issue you'll encounter is how the paint pen chemistry interacts with the product in the actors hair.
Sometimes you can get away with masking tape over the element itself and using temporary hair color spray, but then you still need a way to get the element covered, which is why I usually use the pen.

 

[jkowtko]

I think the best color overall for hiding the mic against both skin and hair is a dark brown. In general the darker the better ... dark color will look like a stray piece of hair, whereas light color will look like they have something on their head. But not black -- black is too contrasty against any skin tone.

Unless there is a critical need to return the mics back to their natural color, I'd suggest coloring them with a pen and leaving them that way. Aga IMHO the darker the better, just not black.

 

[themuzicman]

The best temporary methods I've found are to cover the tape in micropore cloth tape, and color it up with copic marker. After the production take all the micropore off. A lot of tape and a light touch go a long way so the marker doesn't soak through the tape and get on the mic.

 

[cekren]

+1 for Copic markers - they have worked great for coloring down our B3 and MKE2's.