The pug was already finished, hundreds of hours of work went into the dog mask.
But for Marianne Meinl, 33, she wasn't perfect.
Her eyes seemed too small.
So she took the saw and cut it back out.
»My colleague always says: I made it, I can destroy it.
Unfortunately, that's the way it is.
But after that it gets even cooler.
You have to go through it «, says Meinl.
Marianne Meinl is responsible for the costumes for the TV show "The Masked Singer", together with dressmaker Alexandra Brander.
During the "escapist singing nonsense", as SPIEGEL columnist Anja Rützel affectionately calls the show, celebrities in crazy disguises compete with each other.
The celebrities compete as chilli, skunk or dinosaur, as meerkats in dungarees, hippos in pink tutu or alpaca with selfie stick.
Your identities will be kept top secret until just before you are kicked out.
Even she doesn't know which celebrity is in which costume, says Marianne Meinl.
Your team will only be given the head circumference and approximate height.
400 to 1000 working hours per mask
Meinl and her staff test how the mask sits on your head and whether you can still sing well with it: inside on themselves. "It's a constant on, on, on, on," she says.
"Because if we can't wear the masks wisely, if we can't see wisely, how can others be able to do it?"
A total of 15 people work on the costumes, seven days a week, ten hours a day in the peak phase before the start of the season.
400 to 1000 working hours go into the fantasy creatures.
The most elaborate so far can be seen in the current season: the phoenix.
“Each feather is not just cut out, but sewn twice.
Sometimes we even pour our stones ourselves, ”says Meinl.
She herself likes the fantasy characters best: the kudu, anubis, the skeleton, the heroine.
She braided their hair on the sofa in the evening.
Meinl is a trained makeup artist.
But she no longer wants to call herself such a person.
»Classical make-up artists apply make-up, do the hair, and tie wigs.
I hardly do anything like that now. ”Her job: she builds masks, dolls, armor, all sorts of props that are needed in theaters or during filming.
There is no classic training for this.
"We are self-taught," says Meinl.
In the podcast, Marianne Meinl tells how she got the job at "The Masked Singer", how she succeeded in entering the industry - and what role glitter plays in her life.
