Quentin

Quentin is my second character. I've decided to make Quentin a new Police Officer in town, fresh out of high school and Claudia's only real friend/ ally. I thought that Quentin and Claudia could be a pair of monster hunters trying to get rid of the bad guys. However Quentin doesn't know Claudia is a monster herself. Quentin likes to stick to the rules unlike Claudia who is a bit of a wild child and is a bit of a bad influence on Quentin. I would like Quentin to be the opposite of Claudia so tanned, dark hair and eyes. I would either have Quentin with a scar or cut on his face from a fight with a mystical being. Claudia maybe? I haven't fully decided yet.

The word that I have chosen for quentin is The Woods. I chose this word as part of the series is set within some woods. A lot of the murders that go on occur within the woods so I felt that it would be fitting with my character as he is part of the police and trying to find the killer. I would probably add a few cuts and scrapes and possibly some mud stains as if he had a fight with some creature in the woods. I think my word fits Quentin quite well as I want him to be mysterious and slightly scary. 

Claudia

So my first character that I chose was Claudia. I am thinking of making Claudia, Roman Godfrey's long lost cousin on his mother's side as Roman hasn't met any of her side of the family. Roman's mother originates from Russia, however left and moved to England where the rest of her family are. Claudia comes from a wealthy family and I want her to be a little rebellious and to be completely different to the rest of her family. I want her to be a little edgy as she hasn't grown up with her parents affection and want to try and gain some sort of attention from them, even if it means getting trouble. Roman is a Vampire and has an ability to make people so whatever he wants them to do. I want Claudia to share that power however the consequence is that it can cause bleeding from the eyes and nose. I would like Claudia to be blonde with pale skin and big eyes. I want her to look 'doe' like. Cute but with a firey personality. 

The word that I have picked for Claudia is Fork. I chose fork because it is seen in the series that Olivia Godfrey uses a knife and fork to cut up the flesh of her victims to eat. I thought that I could link in Claudia with this way of eating.The thought using a knife and fork on a person is quite disturbing which is where I am hoping to portray Claudia as. 

Character Overviews

We were given the task to fit in two characters into the series of our choice. We were given 3 character overviews and we have to choose 2 of them to include in our series.

The first character that we we given was Claudia. The brief that we were given on her is:

Claudia is a girl in her twenties. As a child she was left alone to develop with very little parental guidance and through her relationship with T.V and movies developed an unhealthy relationship with Horror Films, believing this to be the way life really is. 
All the scenes take place in various parts of Claudia's apartment, which is European in style with a great deal of Kitsch decor. She is Agoraphobic and is kept in touch with the outside world through her neighbours who provide her with every day requirements. She models herself on a variety of girls often twisting her look to suit whichever film she is watching at the time and there is often a nod to the main character in the current film in her appearance.
The script portrays her as psychotic and there is always a feeling that her character is scripted/ can be seen as humorous, danger is just round the corner. However all this is normal to Claudia and she is of cheerful disposition in this mad world of hers.

The second character that we got was Quentin and the brief that we were given is:

Claudia has an imaginary boyfriend, Quentin who is long suffering and a constant disappointment to her. They don't listen to her but he visits regularly and they talk on the telephone if he can't get in to see her. As he is part of her imagination his appearance changes to suit her mood. Sometimes he will be a David Beckham look guy, while in another scene he will appear as a Pete Docherty, Daniel Craig or a Hollyoaks babe. If she is having a bad day he will morph into an uncouth couch potato cha with all that brings with it.
He is as into horror film genre as she is  and into role-playing to suit her whims and moods.
Claudia has a paranoid suspicion that he is constantly having an affair behind her back and keeps her firmly under her thumb, sometimes restraining him or keeping him locked up in one of the rooms. 

The last character that we were given was Mrs. Laderman and her brief was:

Claudia's neighbour in her 40's. She alternatively changes into a variety alter egos and is Claudia's friend and confidant. Living in the appartment opposite, she was Claudia's only link to the outside world. Although the are friends there is suspicion Mrs. Laderman has designs on Quentin. In fact she has designs on Claudia. 

Along with choosing two characters we have to pick a word that fits with our character. We were given a list of words from which we had to pick one:

Special Delivery, Blue Coat, Hydro Bath, White Rose, Ascend, Glass Prison, Red Rave, White Rave, Taste, Bandages, Fork, Stitches, Save us, Hellevator, Slipping, Veiled, Spinning, Exam, The Woods, Spiral, Awakening, Face, Door.

Hemlock Grove

Like the first half of the assessment we were given a list of tv shows and we had to choose one to create characters that fit in with it. The list that we were given was:

The walking Dead, American Horror Story, Dexter, True Blood, Bates Motel, The Strain, Supernatural, Penney Dreadful, In the Flesh, Being Human, Hemlock Grove, Hannibal and Grimm.

The two that I was deciding between was Hemlock Grove and Supernatural which is one of my favourite tv series.
I chose to do Hemlock grove because I wanted to do a series that I had never seen before. From the list that we were given I had heard of most of the series and none of them really appealed to me. So when I did a little digging into the others I found that Hemlock Grove intrigued me which has led me to watching the first season to get a better idea. This series is set in a fictional town called Hemlock Grove in Pennsylvania. It’s got werewolves, Vargolves, gypsies and things I can’t even pronounce!!

Hemlock Grove has an audience demographic of 16-30 year olds, mainly the male population due to the fact that there is a lot of gore and can be linked to types of video games. I think what might draw in the female population is the fact that there are a lot of young fit males in the cast which may catch the female eye!! I would say it mainly target the younger population due to the fact of the young cast and also because the amount of mythical creatures and gore that is included. It is also a Netflix Original series which may help with the younger audience. Hemlock Grove is rated an 18 however I am sure there are those younger than that watching this series.

What I like so much about this series is the fact that there are so many twists and turns and there are so many different story lines to follow that you can never get bored! What I will say is that towards the end of the first series things start to get a little weird in the way that the storyline is all over the place and I don't think it was that well done. I did enjoy the first series however I don't think that I will be watching the rest.

Using Moulds

Now this lesson came a little to late for my liking as I could've used it for my continuity assessment, however the outcome of my practice is horrific so I am kind of glad that I didn't use this technique. We were using pre made gelatine moulds and learning how to apply them.

If you want to make your own moulds obviously you are going to need the mould of your choice and then gelatine to fill. Spray a thin layer of Petrolease which is a release spray to help get the gelatine out of the mould once it is dry. Using moulds is really good for continuity as you will constantly get the same shape cut it will all depend on the colouring. If you have made a batch of moulds and want to use only a few at one time, cover the rest in talcum powder and the place them in a sealed tub, this way they won't stick together. 

To stick the mould onto your skin you will need to pros-aide (which is a form of glue) on back of the mould and the area of the skin where the mould will go. The good thing about pros-aide is that it is pliable and can be moved around on the skin until positioned in the correct place. Pros-aide is a contact glue so will only stick if there is glue on both sides of the surfaces. You need to wait till the glue goes a clear colour on your skin and on the mould before you place the two surfaces in contact. This way the mould will definitely stay in place. Depending on how you have made the mould some edges may need to be blended away so that it looks slightly more realistic. You can use witch hazel to do this. Now this sounds pretty easy to do, however I think i nearly cried trying to do this as it was an incredibly frustrating step as I wasn't able to get the edges blended out. I thought that it would be a quick and simple step however it made me realise that a lot of time would have to go into it to make sure that it turns out well. The last step is to add colour. Using my Supracolour pallet I started to build up the colour however I did have to use either some moisturiser or brush cleaner to thin out the colour. I then added some wound filler and some blood to make it look slightly more realistic. To get the mould off you will need to use Pro-Clean which is a type of oil. If you have left the glue to dry properly there won't be any other way to get it off.

I would have to try this technique quite a few times before I got the hang of it without getting frustrated throughout the whole process. 

As you can see the edges aren't that blended out and it looks really fake. Trying to blend out was incredibly difficult and I actually ended up giving up which you might of noticed. Also trying to get colour on it was difficult because I ended up accidentally lifting up the mould meaning there were pieces flying all over the place.

Continuity Assessment 2

Let me tell you the second assessment was just as stressful as the first. However I was able to get things done slightly quicker and I was more pleased with the outcome than with the first one, however there were a few problems. Let me explain....

There I was again, all in black, model in front of me and my make up all laid out. I started off the same as last time with doing the fringe part of the hair in the rollers and then I moved on to the face. After applying a layer of foundation I moved on to the vampire bites hoping that I could spend a little more time on those and less on the shading of the cheeks. After doing them last week I had a general idea as to what I needed to do and I was able to get them done in a lot quicker time. I then mover on to the shading of the cheeks and eyes. In photos you may not see the difference but it was slightly darker in the first set than thy were in these ones. I then moved on to the hair. Now because of the whirlwind that was the last assessment I didn't know where I pinned the curls, however I did remember how many curls that I did so that was one thing that was constant. Like last time I did have to rush a little but not as much meaning my stress levels weren't that high. The last step that I did was to add the blood to the lip.

Looking at the differences between the photos you are able to see that the blood on the lip is slightly more to the right on the first one and then more central in the second one. This particular style has taught me that if I am ever going to need to do continuity again I will have to be extremely wary of the placement of things like dripping blood. Also the hair is pinned slightly differently in both photos. This was something that I knew I would have to be careful about when I chose to do this design, however I didn't realise it would be as noticeable. 

Overall these assessments were stressful and it was all down to the fact that I didn't practice. The outcomes for both sets were better than I thought they would be and I am pleased how they came out. 

Continuity assessment 1

Continuity assessments. What can I say, I hated it. I hate all kinds of assessments as I find them incredibly stressful. This one more so than others as to be truthfully honest I didn't really do a whole lot of practice so everything I was doing I was kind of winging it. Yes I had practiced doing each thing individually but never as a whole thing, so I wasn't really sure of the timings. 

So there I was dressed in black, with my model in front of me, make up all set up and Sue starting the countdown as to when we could start and I realised that I really should've practiced more and I had no clue as to what to do first. I ended up starting off with putting the rollers in the front parts of the hair. I then moved onto the face and placed foundation around the face and the neck of my model. I then added in the grey tones under the cheekbones and around the eye sockets. I tried to make the eye sockets slightly darker so that they looked even more sunken in. I then moved on to trying to place the wax for the Vampire bites. This is where I screwed up. I had only practiced on my hand and not on a neck so I didn't realise how hard it was to try and position it without hurting my model. Then trying to get the colour on it and trying to make sure everything was blended was incredibly difficult due to the placement. By this point I only had about 40 minutes left to finish off the hair and add the blood to the lip. I thought I could do it easily in that amount of time. Boy was I wrong! I was rushing to get all the hair curled, because me being stupid chose the harder of the designs to do and trying to get all the hair curled and pinned meant that I didn't get any photos of where I pinned the hair so I would have to hope for the best next time. I had to swipe a quick line of blood across the lip to finish of my look and get it photographed. Overall it was a incredibly stressful process and I wasn't completely happy with the out come because I had to rush everything. I am glad that I chose the designs that I did because I think that they really fit in and suit the character that I had chosen but I think due to me not practising enough I found it really difficult to portray the designs properly.

Vampire bite

After testing out the cut throat I decided it would be best to try and create the vampire bites just to make sure that I would be able to do them quickly and easily to the best of my ability in the allotted time. 

So the first thing that I did was to create a small ball of wax and place it on top of my hand. I then gently blended out the edges so that it looked as thought there was a small lump on my hand. Now as I was doing this on myself I found it rather difficult to blend the edges without moving the wax ball. Once the edges were blended out I used the pallet knife to create a small indent in the middle of wax so that it looked as though something sharp had pierced it creating the vampire bite effect as I like to call it. I then added some foundation over the top so that it almost blended in with my hand. The next step was to slowly start to build up colour around the wound. I tried to make it so that there was a thin layer around the edge and that it got darker towards the indent. I then placed a small amount of wound filler into the indent and added some blood to make it look slightly more realistic. 

Cut Throat

I decided to practise doing a cut throat so that if I chose that to be my final design I would have an understanding of what to do and how best to do it.

The first thing that I did was to add a very thin layer of barrier foam just in case my model had any reaction to the products. I decided to use Sculpting wax as I thought it would be easier to use than Gelatine. I placed a large amount of wax into the back of my hand and using a pallet knife, warmed up the wax slightly so that it was more pliable and easy to work with. Trying to then place it on the neck was incredibly difficult. There were quite a few times that I got incredibly frustrated with it as it either kept sticking to the pallet knife or my fingers. After a while of trying to get the wax on I finally succeeded. I originally placed a long line along the neck and then used the pallet knife and dragged it along the middle to create the cut effect. More frustration occurred when doing this. The next step was to add a thin layer of latex over the wax so that when it came to adding colour it wouldn't ruin the shape of the wax. I then finally started to add colour. I started off using a light shade of red around the outside and started to build up the colour the more towards the middle of the cut. I found that I struggled to blend the colour without ruining the latex. I then added a small amount of wound filler and some blood to help make it look a little more realistic. 

In photos it doesn't look as bad but you are still able to where the edges of the latex are. On the first image you are able to see a slightly darker patch, which is where I accidentally placed a small black patch and wasn't able to completely get rid of it! However due to the amount of time that it took to do I don't think that I will be using this as my final design!!

Hair Chart 2

My second hair is also very similar to the first one. The only thing that I changed was the fact that the top half of the hair is in a plait wrapped around to form a bun. I would then curl the bottom half and pin it so that it frames the bun. I changed the idea slightly because it may be slightly difficult to keep up with continuity and also because time might be an issue. I am not as big of a fan of this design as I am of the first one but I think it still fits in with the character and the era that it was set in. (Again you'll have to excuse my drawing skills!)

Face Chart 2

For my second face chart I decided to try and keep it as similar to the first one as possible. I liked the idea of having the gaunt look to my character but due to timings I'm not too sure how quick the cut throat will take so I made a slightly easier version. Rather than having my designed my character after death, I decided to do it right before. So the gauntness is still there but rather than having a cut throat there are a set of Vampire bites. I think this look works just as well because it fits in slightly more with image of Vampirism. I don't think I explained it on my last face chart post but I decided to have blood dripping down the lip as I feel that it makes it a little more obvious as to the mythical being that I am trying to portray.

Hair Chart 1

When it came to designing my hair chart I had to make sure that it fit in with the era that the book was set in. Dracula was written so that it was set in late Victorian times meaning that the hair was a lot looser around the face and that more of it was up rather than down. I decided to take inspiration from the film rather than the book as I was able to get a better representation of what Lucy should look like. 

Now you are going to have to excuse the horrific drawings, unfortunately I'm not the best artist! The look that I was trying to convey was to have the back of the hair up and completely curled. I would then pin certain curls in a few places near the top of the head. I would use rollers to create the front parts of the fringe and also pin those back. In the film Dracula, Lucy often had her hair down and in both the book and the film she was seen to have had curls so I thought it would be good to include this in my design. 

Face Chart 1

So I started to think about ideas for what I could do for my character. Lucy Westenra was a high class female in society, however in unfortunate events Lucy was turned into a vampire!! I wanted to try and keep to the idealisations thought about vampires, so things like pale skin, smooth skin, pointy teeth and just overall looking flawless. However I also wanted to try and keep to close to the book, so Lucy unfortunately had her head cut off to make sure that she was officially dead in the vampire terms. So I tried to base my character around the dead version of Lucy. 

This is the basis of my first look. I wanted to include the slit throat as it links to Lucy's character but I also want to try at having a go at something slightly different. I think I am either going to use Gelatine or Sculpting Wax to create the cut and then add on the colour. I wanted to create slightly sunken in cheeks and eyes to create an effect that made her look as though she was dead. After bravely scouring through images of dead people and make up styles I came up with an in between version so that it wasn't over the top but it still had an effect. Apart from the throat, I wanted to keep my design simple so as I only have a short amount of time to get both the hair and the make up done and I don't want to be rushing.