Final Photoshoot

When it came to shooting my Claudia I had a bit of trouble with the hair, I was trying to make it perfect then made it messy. In the end it all came together and the look was really good. I think if I where to have to opportunity to reshoot the look again I would make the eye makeup I bit heavier and make it look like she hadn't slept with bigger bags under her eyes. 

I love the contrast between the dress and her messy makeup and hair, it shows the clear line of perfection and dismay that is going through her mind. 

When shooting Quentin, I was so happy that I got to use a different medium than gelatine, I used Calodian instead and it made a world of difference (as you can see from my test in my other blog post) it made the scarring look so much better, more deep and painful. He came out just as I wanted, a patchwork of Claudia's imagination of what she wants him to look like. 

Overall I did play it safe with the looks, but I think that they both came out the way I planned and wanted. When I read the brief these are the looks I saw in my head and I'm glad it came out to what I had expected. 

Test of Final looks Claudia & Quintin

Made the make-up nice and 1940's then messed it up with my foundation brush, ruffed up the hair and the look is complete!

This was a test shoot of my final look, ripped t-shirt, dirtied up! pair of tights on his head with drawn on eyes and brows, the scars I did with Calodian and used Supra Colour to look realistic.

Location Ideas and Insprations

My thoughts on where the characters would take place is mainly in the basement, where Claudia would take her vengeance on the poor Quentin. 

I was thinking about what other films and books also have this in; I remembered that Psycho has a horrible ending in the basement, where Norman hides his taxidermy mother!

Author: Unknown

Year of publication: Unknown

Title:  The Truth about Mother

Viewed: 24th April 2015

Available from:  https://www.behance.net/gallery/10229231/Cinematic-Narrative-Thesis-Research

Another is in Silence of the Lambs where Clarice Starling has to go through the killer Buffalo Bills maze of a basement in the dark!

Author: Mese-en-scene

Year of publication: 2006

Title:  Slience of the Lambs

Viewed: 24th April 2015

Available from:  http://jmarzofilmstudiesmisensceneactivities.blogspot.co.uk/2006/02/mise-en-scene-activities.html

With these in mind I have created a mood board for this scene and hope to convey the chilling idea that their are evil spirits in the 'Murder House' and how this location can bring chills up you spine!

Mood Boards for Claudia and Quentin

When I started to do my mood boards I wanted to start by making a list of words that I found:

Here are my mood boards below:

Claudia, I highlighted the colours I will be using for her makeup, and costume, the picture of her makeup, mood/character I have based her personality on and hair of the 1940's mixed into the character from American Horror Story and finally the cage to represent the 'Glass Prison'

Quentin, I hve used my main inspiration as the background, with the use of colours, flesh, blood, and in the bottom corner I used the burnt skin look that I applied to the skin to represent the stitches. I then overlayed the words that I feel represent the character best like I did with Claudia.

How to Achieve Scars - Quentin

As I want to have my Quentin to look like a patch work quit, I am needing to look more into how to achieve a scarred look that is realistic and not theatrical like I have done before. My main inspiration has come from Frankenstein, and  other like this.

http://xesixyfe.comoj.com/i-frankenstein-characters.php

https://ttcritic.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/maryshelleysfrankenstein/

http://becuo.com/silence-of-the-lambs-skin-suit

http://becuo.com/silence-of-the-lambs-skin-suit

I have tried this with Gelatine before, and practiced this on my model to see what it would look like... and as you can see from the images below, it looked awful! So I am not going to use this for my final look as it looks so amateur! 

I then remembered that another great medium to use is Calodian, I watched a tutorial on how to create a realistic scaring on the face and they applied a light pink on the skin first, blended it out and then applied the Calodian on top to create the look. You can see below a practice of this. I layered the Calodian on top to make it look even deeper!

Quintin Face Charts & Hair Charts

Face Charts for Quintin, I really wanted to add some sort of patchwork into his face.

Inspiration:

I first started out by doing a simple look for him, dark sullen eyes, contour of the cheek and face, having a creamy white completion, and pale lips with stitching on them, as if Claudia has sewn him mouth shut, as she is paranoid that his is cheating on her. 

I then went on to experiment with the use of Gelatine, making the patch work across his face, and adding in black thread or wire to look like stitches, as that is the word I have chosen to represent Quintin. There will be flashes of colour on his face, as if Claudia cannot decide what his look will be and his in the middle of transforming into what she wants him to look like.

With this look I wanted to use a range of browns, to make him look more dirty; contour on the face and eyes sullen like the first face chart, with a twist, the mouth I would create a cross using Calodian, looking like a fresh scar on his mouth like Claudia has cut him when she has had one of her fits of rage!

My final face chart is a mixture of all of the other, I wanted to go for a little twist, have a cut stocking on his head, with a tuffed of hair poking out on the side, and have his facial features drawn on top like a childs drawing, and on the other side have his eye manly dark. Then continue the sticking all over the face and scribble out his mouth with a mixture of browns and black. 

Claudia Clothing ideas

The look I want to go for with Claudia is either a simple black dress or a colourful. 

The black dress, is only due to the fact it is a dark horror series, and black would go really well, but I am thinking more along the lines of making a harsh contrast from the makeup and hair being really messed up against this bright perfect dress. 

 Here are some sketches and influences that have helped me with my choice. 

Claudia Face Charts & Hair Charts

With my influence from the TV series I am many concentrating on the 1940s look but with a twist; in the series, Elizabeth short is a beautiful, young I aspiring actress, who has an unfortunate demise like the image below, she is killed and given a Chelsea smile, so she doesn't look said. 

If you look below you can see my influencing images, beauty to creepy! 👻

My first face chart is to show the perfect beauty that Claudia loves about this character, she loves the way she can impersonate her.

My second face chart is to represent perfect beauty again but t a twist, slowing creeping up her neck is the cracking of glass, to represent the glass prison she is trapped in. 

My third face chart is half and half, left side is all smudged as if she's always rubbing her face, and the right side is perfect as she wants to look presentable for Quintin. 

My fourth face chart is the one I think I will go with, it shows her emotional state is not right, makeup all over her face, I think I will add the Chelsea smile onto it but will need to experiment with that one! 

Added a Chelsea smile:

For Claudia Her hair will have a pick of two looks, I wanted it simple, just as the hair is in American Horror Story; The first one is to be the classic perfect 1940's hair style as you can see below, and the other is that style but completely messed up and crazy!

• Section the hair, middle parting
• All over the head take medium sized sections of hair and curl upwards
• Pin all of them in place
• Once you get to the fringe take a larger section and curl bottom up and pin. 
• Hairspray all
• Once all cool, unpin and gently pull curls loose
• Let them drop a little, then brush gently out with tangle teaser
• The pin fringe curl at the front of head, like you can see below

• Section the hair, middle parting
• All over the head take medium sized sections of hair and curl upwards
• Pin all of them in place
• Once you get to the fringe take a larger section and curl bottom up and pin. 
• Hairspray all
• Once all cool, unpin and gently pull curls loose
• Let them drop a little, then brush gently out with tangle teaser
• The pin fringe curl at the front of head, like you can see below
• Then mess it all up!