Miss Havisham First Assessment

 

I was pleased with how my first assessment went, as there were troubles that I faced in the practices such as white supracolour on the eyebrows transferring onto the skin that I worked on to not face during this assessment. I did however find time constraints my downfall at the end as I was rushing to finish the curls at the back of the head. Despite this I thought that the assessment was successful, and took separate photos on my phone in aid of continuity for the next assessment. 

Miss Havisham Hair Practice

 

This was a practice of late victorian hairstyles that I wanted to base my Miss Havisham hairstyle on. I originally wanted to use this exact hairstyle on my partner as she has short hair so I believed that this would be the most feasible, however then created a hair chart and practiced this look on my flatmate who also has short hair to see whether my design would be useable.

Once designed, I wrote down all products I would need and the method of which I would use to create this hairstyle.

These are the photos from the practice of the hairstyle. Hannah has thinner hair than Lucy (my partner) and so I am aware that during the assessment, therefore there will be more hair to curl and I will need to allow time for that. What I found difficult while practicing this was being able to scrape up all the curls at the back and fastening them so that the grips aren't visible, which I hope won't be a problem in the assessment. I was however happy with how it looks and know that I will be able to make the look more scruffy in the assessment. Moreover, in order to age the hair I will use dry shampoo on the roots to create a greying effect. While designing the hair, I was at a loss as to how create a hairstyle with short hair in the style of early Victorians (which is when Great Expectations was set), however I am pleased with this design and believe that it looks quite historical without having to use extra hair. 

Continuity and Its Importance in TV and Film

When you watch a television series or a film, it may not necessarily occur to you that all the scenes were filmed on different days for a long span of time, meaning makeup and hair artists have to place a look on the actors and actresses everyday and make it look the same everyday. If there were disparities, it would be noticeable to the audience, however because continuity is practiced and implemented, we are none the wiser.

I recently watched a short programme on the workings of behind the scenes in the popular television show 'Game of Thrones'. Within this they mentioned the extreme importance of continuity when filming, especially for such a high budget, international programme. Here a link to the preview:

http://www.sky.com/tv/show/game-of-thrones/video/a-day-in-the-life

Because it is filmed in different locations across different countries, makeup and hair artists have to make very detailed notes and take photos so the artists in the other locations are aware of the details of each look so that they can create the exact same looks so there are no disparities on camera when the episodes are edited and scenes are put together.

When mistakes are made, they can be noticeable and pin pointed by audience members and professionals, and this gives a bad impression and lessens the realism of the programme or film. Films such as the Wizard of Oz, Batman and The Lord of the Rings contain continuity disparities. On the website 'www.videomaker.com', it is outlined that in Batman, the Joker (Jack Nicholson) rubs his forehead revealing a white patch, but in subsequent scenes this white patch moves and changes size. Therefore, it is imperative that continuity is in the mind of the artist when creating the look and copying it each time as it could impact the viewing experience of the audience heavily and show a lack of professionalism.

References
http://www.videomaker.com/article/12988-maintaining-continuity

Practices of Early and Late Victorian Hairstyles

 

This is my practice of the Early Victorian hairstyle. I would like to have had more hair to practice with at the back of the hair, but it was helpful to be able to practice directional curling at the front of the hair.

 

 

Here is my practice of the late Victorian hairstyle. I enjoyed doing this a lot more as I enjoyed the challenge of attempting a style that required a lot of steps and it was not something I had attempted before. I believe that it went well and I like the finished look. It is definitely a style that enables the hair to look fuller and longer, as there is a stark difference between this one and the hairstyle above it. I believe that this looks more playful, young and exciting rather than the conservative, plain hairstyles of the early period.

Estella Havisham Designs

I have found that when creating Estella, you can't be as creative as you can when designing Miss Havisham. She is a young woman who's aesthetic only really changes when she suffers abuse at the hands of her husband. However I took this into account and created looks that I thought would be appropriate for Estella.

This look is after she was abused by her husband. This look could be achieved without prosthetics and rather with supracolour, collodion and some fake blood. I believe that this look would be more appropriate for television as this look is a realistic makeup that would require detail which would be detected by a camera, not an audience that are seated far away from the actors. I'm not sure that this is the look I will choose for Estella as it is only a small portion of the story, whereas her most seen look is a simplistic, plain look. Moreover, I don't feel as if I am skilled enough to create a believable black eye yet or two in a row that would look the same. However if I was to, my practice of a black eye is what I would base this black eye on:

 

This is my most favoured look for Estella; she is plain and simple and her fierce personality is hidden within. I would aim for her to look fresh faced and natural, with hints of bush and colour on the lips and brushed brows with a clear complexion. There isn't much to the makeup with this look as I would intend to make the hair more elaborate for this look.

This is my design for her hair. I wanted the hair to be up not only because my partner's hair is short but because Great Expectations was set in the early Victorian era. Therefore what I plan to do is curl all the hair at the back of the head and scrape it up and grip it all so that it sits on top of the head. Moreover, the hair at the front will have a middle parting that will be plaited and then fastened underneath all the curls. I believe that this will be more time consuming than the makeup, given that I decide to go forward with the latter makeup design.

Miss Havisham Designs

 These are my Miss Havisham designs, which are all at either different times of her life or represent different sides of her. I wrote down products if I knew exactly how to create the look, however the last one would be down to interpretation and experimentation.

This first face chart is Miss Havisham, post-heartbreak. She has been informed that she will not be getting married and her fiancé has absconded, and so her black mascara will be running down her face after crying hysterically and her eyelids and under her eyes will be relatively red. She still has a bit of rouge on her cheeks from when she was getting ready, however her lips are pale now from distress, and this would have the same effect on the skin. For this face chart I have thought about the real life effects of crying and heartbreak not the skin and the makeup, and so this would be appropriate for TV audiences because of its realism. None of the television or film renditions seem to include a long scene of Miss Havisham at the wedding, and so I thought that this would be a good way of conveying what she would look like as it has not been done before. However, I myself might find this look unchallenging and so would like to try something that I haven't necessarily done before.

This is the most viable Miss Havisham design for me. I have practiced ageing makeup and would like to put it into practice for my assessment, and so I created this face chart for Miss Havisham that is haggard and deteriorated. I intended to make her face pale by highlighting areas under the eyes and on the nose to be lighter than skin colour, as I didn't want to leave the face chart white as this would be unrealistic. I placed lines on the face, however these may need to be amended as I will be placing the lines on my partner where they actually are on their face, rather than where they are on the face chart. However the smile lines, under the chin and the cheekbones will remain the same. I wanted to darken all shadowy areas of the face and where ageing will occur. Namely the frown lines on the head, frown lines next to the eyebrows, eye bags, cheekbones, smile lines and chin, nose, and crows feet. Her lips will be chapped, and her eyes will be red because of constant crying and distress that she faces, for example when relatives come to visit. This look would again be appropriate for television as it is realistic and special effects makeup would enhance the realism of this look.

This is the exaggerated version of Miss Havisham.  I wanted to create a 'living dead' look, which includes a browny grey face and a skeletal facial structure. I shadowed the top of the forehead to signify malnutrition and the appearance of bones. Moreover, the cheekbones are accentuated and shadowed heavily underneath to convey the lack of flesh. I didn't include many age lines as I believe that some interpretations of Miss Havisham, such as the BBC one, use a young actress because it shows that it is only time that has changed the appearance of Miss Havisham; she is still young underneath but years of neglect have collected a dusty, dead layer on her. In this look, she has a corpse aesthetic but I'm not sure which media form this would be appropriate for. I think that theatre would be most appropriate for this look, as it is very exaggerated and may make more sense on stage rather than on television or in a movie as it is rather unrealistic. I haven't listed notes underneath as I am not sure which colours and products would be most useful to create this look as the whole face colour would be drastically changed.

Ageing

 

In our technical lesson we practiced ageing, and I found this really helpful when it comes to technical practices for Miss Havisham. Knowing that I would like to create an old look for her, I particularly found using a black sponge with a bit of supracolour on it and dabbing on the nose and T-zone to look as if there are broken blood vessels extremely useful for creating an aged texture and aesthetic for the face.

Following our technical lesson on ageing, I practiced ageing lines at home (as I did not have the special effects equipment) to see decipher the technicality needed to make a young person look old. I believe that this kind of look would be more theatrical as TV would need special effects makeup in order to look more realistic for the audience, however theatrical makeup needs to be garish and exaggerated so the audience can see it. 

 

 

This was before I added white and was experimenting with lines. For this look I used:

• Kryolan Supracolour palette (Red, Brown, Green mixed together, and White)
• Thin Brush
• Disposable Mascara wand

I decided not to add foundation underneath as I wanted a realistic base, however I found that I should have used a matte primer before adding the lines as my face began to shine and became oily which made drawing on the face hard. 

Reference pictures I used to create this look:

http://loramichael.com/portfolio/IMG_2880.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/3/20/1332258653362/100-years-001.jpg

And also my own knowledge of old faces. Afterwards I added white to the eyelashes and eyebrows, however I should have been more careful with the eyebrows as the supracolour extended beyond the eyebrows and also went onto the skin.

This was a helpful practice as I gained knowledge as to what products to use and how they behaved on the skin when creating lines on the face. It will also be helpful when creating Miss Havisham if I decide to create an old look as I will know what works and what doesn't, and where to put appropriate lines. Moreover, gothic television and movies tend to include a scary or old character, and so I am more familiar with the creation of these characters now.

Miss Havisham Makeup Practice

After choosing this design for Miss Havisham, I added more dramatic lines and colours onto the face as I know from practice that lines on the face won't show up on camera unless the lines and colours are quite harsh. I also included the names of all the products that I will be using for the assessment, this was also after the practice I had.

 


 

This was a practice of my Miss Havisham makeup. I found this process useful in deciphering how much time I would need to create this, and cutting down the time as much as I can for the hair because that is what will need the most attention. I also discovered how the products work with each other and how they behave, for example the fact that supracolour on top of the foundation without powder isn't helpful as the supracolour slides off (which I also discovered with my practice of ageing makeup).

Late Victorian Hairstyles in Television

Ripper Street

Ripper street is a BBC show set in 1889, meaning that the hairstyles are that of the late fashions. In the first photo, the woman has a tightly curled fringe around the front of her face, which we would not see if the show was in the early period of the era. In the second photo, you can see the elongated hair at the back and hints of a fringe, which again is characteristic of late victorian hair. Lastly, the bottom photo shows the hairstyle that has been brought up to the top of the head, which is different to hairstyles of the early victorian period where hairstyles were relatively low. Curls are also very prominent in these hairstyles, behind the hair and at the front. 

The Paradise

 




'The Paradise' is again a BBC television programme that is set in 1875. The hairstyle on the left here does not consist of too many curls but has the hair reaching her shoulder. Moreover, the photo above shows the woman on the left of this photo with a long section of hair, with the whole of the style consisting of curled hair pulled into the middle going down the back of the head. The women next to her has a bun that also consists of curls, and is pulled up rather high on the crown of her head. The woman in the photo at the top clearly has a bun at the top of her head that consists of thick braids, and she has a side parting rather than a middle parting. You would not have seen this in the early victorian period.

Lark Rise to Candleford

Lark Rise to Candleford is a show set in the late 1800's. A lot of the hairstyles in the programme consist of tightly curled fringes. Some either combine this with long hair and elongated sections at the back like the top two photos, or have the hair drawn up on the crown of the head like the photo on the left. It is also apparent that floral decorations for the hair were popular, and incorporated into the hairstyle with either an obvious effect or subtle effect.