Whether she's transforming an actress into an otherworldly kind of beauty or creating elaborate hairstyles from fantastical concept drawings, Episode III Makeup Supervisor Nikki Gooley understands all too well the magical qualities of makeup and hairpieces.

Working as a makeup artist and hair designer in such films as The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Matrix, Queen of the Damned and Peter Pan, Gooley has a special knack for using makeup and hair to add dimension and personality to a character whether it be an iconic children's character or a terrifying vampire.

For Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Gooley and her team found themselves guiding the look of Hayden Christensen as he made the metamorphosis into Darth Vader, as well as perfecting the intricate hairpieces and headdresses for Natalie Portman, not to mention numerous Senators who needed constant primping and preening.

With all the characters who needed complicated makeup and hairstyles, it's not surprising that Gooley and her team, who arrived on the Sydney set during pre-production eight weeks before filming, would be at the set each day long before most of the cast and crew, and stayed for hours after filming to prepare for the next day's shooting.

"As a makeup artist and running a department, we start very early in the morning," Gooley explains. "If they want to start filming at 7:30 in the morning it might take an actor hours, not just with makeup, but they have to get dressed, and fed, and rehearse and everything. Often we're there from like 5:00 in the morning through until after the filming's finished. We have to clean everybody up and put everything away and then set up for the next day. We work maybe 14, sometimes 16 hours a day, five days a week. And if you're on location, it can be six days a week."

Timing is everything, especially if you only have an actor sitting in the makeup chair for a set amount of time before he or she is asked to be on the set. Because of these stopwatch deadlines, Gooley had to master the art of time management in an extremely busy situation.

"We would tell the Assistant Directors how long we need to do a hairdo or a makeup," Gooley says. "If we say an hour, that's fine, that'll give us an hour. But then after that hour the ADs would schedule something else for the actor, whether it be breakfast or rehearsal. If the actors needed to be on set at 8:30, they have to be there at 8:30. And sometimes if the set is ready earlier then they might try and squeeze them on earlier; which means if the hair and makeup ends up taking an hour and a half, I can't go past the time limit. I have to say, okay that's the hour, ready or not. So we often need to use shortcuts if something's taken a little longer than is anticipated so that we can fix it on set and buy time somewhere else later on."

It's exactly this kind of high pressure atmosphere that keeps Gooley on her toes, making for a rather interesting work environment.

"Nobody realizes how tough the hours and demands are -- it's relentless," Gooley confesses. "Once you're here at work you can't always take the usual lunch or dinner breaks. If something needs to be done then that needs to be done no matter what. And if it's not finished by 6:00 p.m., when you think it's knock-off time, well then that's your tough luck. You need to stay until it's finished which can sometimes be at 11:00 p.m. There are a lot of demands on people. So if it's not really in your blood, then I think a lot of people have a hard time coping with it."