Exploring Specialist Techniques

I YyExplore- special effects

-Media Makeup
-Fashion Makeup
-Prosthetics
-Wigs, facial hair ect
-body paint
-hair designs

look at artists work to inspire me and research how to do it..
dont do it on masks do it on someone take images.
do I need scenes?

I've started off by researching a woman's face to transform into a mermaid but using Photoshop. I thought it would work well for this project as in my FMP ect I have been creating things by hand like masks, face paint and it would be good to try create the look in a different way and then for in future I could design my things on Photoshop to see what I like best then make it by hand.

In this image I have used Selective colours to brighten up the face and also I have used the brush tool to go around the eyes and change the colour of the eyes to make them more disobedient. The hair I have again used the brush tool but turned dwn the opacity to get the different shades in by going over some bits in places for drker strands.

I thought at this point does it have to be a mermaid? no it doesn't so I went onto smudge the nose and play around with different effects but I didn't really like it so I scrapped this idea.

the pink around the nose and on the forehead was annoying me so I selected the paintbrush and also selected the same colour  as the skin on the forehead and went over it turning the opacity down.

2000 word essay contextual.

In this essay I will be writing about my chosen subject area which is Makeup and special effects the time period I will be looking into is the 1950's for T.V and film. Makeup and special effects within films in the 50's wasn't as good as it is today. I will be talking about how it was done in the 50's and how it has changed over the years. Alongside general makeup on a day to day basis.

1950's special effects
In the 1950s televisions took over, this meant no more paying to see films as it was available to view for free in their own houses. Moving up in the world they started to film most movies using colour alongside this they also worked to improve the size and quality of the image and widescreen was finally introduced. Whilst people were to watch films for free in their own homes and now in colour theatres were closing as the mass of people watching films at home increased and the population decreased watching at theatres. Movies at this time tended to be violent and action moving at a lot faster pace. As the vast majority of theatres were closing down the special effects department were also closing as they had such little use. For years people struggled to create special effects as it wasn't as simple as it may seem and they needed new ways in which they could make it more advance, But the public were unaware of how hard and complicated it was to bring a still image to life and as of this they admired film artists because they were able to do so.

How has it changed over the years? well like where as in the 50's people were struggling to create special effects and it was like magic now people just upload a computer and its all done on programmes also it is better, faster and cheaper than the 50's. Both in the 50s and as of today creating special effects takes a lot of work to create. In the 1950s, Bruce Mozert explored and did what no one had every done he sealed his camera in a waterproof case and it was an astonishing outcome and this is where underwater technology started. Television changed America that wouldn't come again until the internet, before internet, Television was most effective way to get things out there because everyone was watching the same thing due to there only being one channel BBC. Over the years the stations grew also advertisements. When television grew the genres of shows grew too.
social environment.
At this time in the 50's colour was a big thing and it was used for TVs this helped show colours of the picture and was much better than an original black and grey colour was a big improvement on the earliest television technology in which the image is displayed in shades of grey. In the 1940s' war in Britain was still ongoing, throughout the war trade routes were cut off. What happened in the British war was rationing, everyone had to try and make food last as trade routes were cut off this effected everyone Because of rationing it wasn't just food so design slowed down a little rationing finally stopped in the 1954.. In 1952 seven years after war had finished every one went mad after being starved of things so they craved for colour and other things. In the 40's Britain had lots of bombings where lots of houses were lost and cultures were attatcked by cathedrals being bombed. Houses in the 50's were flat terraced houses with toilets outside not like our houses today with toilets maybe two one downstairs as well as upstairs. At this point both men and women could work not just men as it was wrong for women to work as they were seen as to be housewives. As things advanced after the war electricity was becoming more popular inside the houses along side washing machines and this was due to both men and women working so it was affordable. This influenced special effects as people had enough money to buy televisions that now had colour and special effects was becoming more effective. As everyone had a craze after the rationing TVs were a big part of the craze sales rose and 4.4 million families in America had a television sets where there free time was sat watching TV. People spent so much time watching TV, that movie attendance dropped and so did the number of people listening to radios. Abstract expressionism and artists were influential but colour field paintings became more popular. The style of clothing and housing furniture and many other things became brighter and more positive, there was nothing bad, this is where pop art the art movement emerged. it started in England and made its way to the united states in the 1960's. when appeared in Britain it referred to mass media and comics. Andy Warhol was a big pop artist he released a lot of work like photography, installations and one that caught my eye a series of experimental films called 'Empire' it was an eight hour shot of the empire state building.
Festival of Britain:- (1951) Herbert Morrison, was one of the main organisers as he was the labour MP. The festival was an exhibition where everyone celebrated the recovery after the Second World War. Although it was a national festival, London was at its heart as after the war London was still in ruins. Many Londoners saw their first ever television pictures. More than half sponsored documentary films were made for the Festival. The festival was to have shown the future by being alive and colourful. It was a celebration to show a battered country can make a new future with science, design and innovation. Was good to get people together and be happy. It was a new vision of what Britain could look like, they were building a future and a new begging. It was to have changes Britain forever.

films in the 50's
A film that really indulged me in the 50's was 'The creature from the black lagoon' (1954). This film is about scientist that capture the gill man from the black lagoon, he breaks free and he returns to the black lagoon to kidnap Kay Lawrence with who he has fallen in love with. In the 1950s, Bruce Mozert explored and did what no one had every done he sealed his camera in a waterproof case and it was an astonishing outcome he did this to record Ginger Stanley underwater for the scenes of this film. Ginger Stanley is known as Kay Lawrence her name in this film, the beauty that the Gillman falls in love with the moment he spies her swimming above him. The actor playing the creature was Ben Chapman (on land). Robert Hickman was one of the main makeup artists on creating the gill man he is also known for the makeup in the film Around The World In Eighty Days (1956). The costume was made from foam rubber which shows it was made simply and not with the high technologies we have today. The costume wasn't very heavy but it took 2-3 hours to get in and out of. It has been 48 years since the film so costume has now disintegrated as it was only made from foam rubber. The three costume designers were three brothers Bud Westmore, Jack Kevan & Chris Mueller called the 'Westmore family'. Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan were the two who transformed ben into the creature.

Whilst looking into the Westmore family I got really indulged into their work for the film Mr. Peabody and the mermaid (1948) and This island Earth (1995).

This island earth is a horror/sci-fi film about aliens who seek scientists to help them from earth in their war. Bud Westmore was the makeup artist within this film working along side
Cleo E. Baker working on special effects. Unlike most other 1950s the Gill Man (Creature from the Black Lagoon ), the Metaluna mutant for This Island Earth (1954),Special effects films, which were Monster Movies, This Island Earth becomes a Space Opera halfway through. The "mutant" costume originally had legs in comparison to the upper body but they struggled making the legs look and work properly they were made by studio deadline to have the mutant wear a pair of trousers but as posters were shown that the mutant was supposed to have legs. Faith Domergue was wearing the costume and said it was too tight that she was unable to wear underwear. Most of the sound effects were picked up on a short length and played at different speeds. A shot from this film is shown briefly in the film 'E.T'

Another film that I was interested in was The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1952). This was the first film that used a split screen technique to insert models into the live-action later known as 'Dynamation'. Ray harryhausen was offered to take this film on board in 1951 after he had shown Jack Dietz models and drawings, alongside little sections on Evolution and Mighty Joe Young. There must have been a spark as they also gave their approval for the use of Rays stop-motion. As Ray was so determined to work on this project he didn't make much of a profit and lost out but he wasn't bothered as the film was big at the time.

The difference between the first two films and the last on is that the first two had artists for costumes special effects and makeup ect. But in the last film it had used dynamation for the first time ever.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen was a genius in the 50s well known for his work of many films which contained special effects, realistic creatures and helped develop stop motion model animation an a split screen technique called dynamation. The first film Ray did the technical effects for was in 1953 and it was a film called 'the beast from 20.000 Fathoms'. In this film it was when Ray first used a technique he created called "Dynamation" that split the background and foreground of pre-shot live action footage into two separate images.
Millicent Patrick
Millicent Patrick was a costumer, character designer, and illustrator for many films back in the 50's. She took a big role in creating the SF cinema’s most distinctive characters. she was known as Mildred Elizabeth Fulvia di Rossi. She was the daughter of an architect and engineer. Millicent's early ambitions were to become a concert painter where she didn't follow through with this she went to study art on a scholarship and later became hired by Disney as an animator in the 40's. She was the first every female to be hired by such a big studio. Millicent designed both the creatures from the above films the Gill Man (Creature from the Black Lagoon ) and  the Metaluna mutant for This Island Earth (1954). She was a very big name in industries and was amazing at what she did and everyone wanted to see what she had to offer.
Bud westmore
Bud westmore was a very talented man who specialised in special effect for films in the 50's. His family are well known for makeup 'Westmore Family'. Over 450 movies and television shows he has been credited for. From the first film 'The creature from the black lagoon' he assisted the designer where he was credited for his creatures conception Not just films but Westmore also worked very hard on television. In 1957 Bud Was asked to design a makeup model of their soon to be iconic doll which he produced the Barbie doll. As everyone knows now the Barbie doll is well known and has been effective. in 1959 it was introduced with both blonde and brown hair. The largest building on the Universal Studios Backlot is named in his honour. He was a tremendous and very creative man.

I chose these three Artists as these were the ones who indulged me the most and the films that these artists are in seem to be very interesting. I find it hard to watch films now days never mind watching films from the 50's but these for some weird reason I got stuck into and I think the reason for that is because I have researched into how the costumes were made and how the special effects were created. And I like the alternate between the costume, the special effects and also the stop motion model animation. I decided to include Millicent Patrick into this as she was a female and at the time in the 50's it was just the start where females were aloud to work and she also blew me away with her work and it was very interesting. Its not very often to find women working on such things like this in the 50's.

I chose to write about my subject area (special effects and costume) in this decade as we see special effects now and everything is all high tech and simple but where as in the 50s they went through lengths to try create such magical work for the nation to be happy and joyful after the war. I really enjoyed doing this research in my contextual lesson and thought it would be good to write an essay upon.

Exploration

firstly, I started off by using clay to make a mould for a creature mask to then put latex on top of. After I left it to dry it all cracked and I decided I wasn't too keen on the idea anyway. Here are a couple of pictures of the clay mould.

To create these grooves I used clay equipment and dug it into the clay and pulled chunks of the clay out in places. This was the best part of the mask as the rest was boring.

I did the eyes this shape as if they were aliens I left the holes as I was going to attatch material or plastic over the top and paint eyes on.

As the first mask didn't turn out too well I decided to create another, again by sculpting with clay I really like this one compared tot he last one. All the risen bit point to specific elements on the face like the eyes and nose. I did this to draw attention to these parts.

mouth section close up.

I was trying to create a creature that had wire coming from each section of clay of  the face and after casting it I could make the spaces in between the wire a stretchy but slimy material.

I went on to mod rock this mask as I felt it was stronger material to hold the wire.

I built up some areas using modrock as the lines didn't stand out much.

whilst waiting for the masks to dry I went on to creating a body for my creature using a mannequin I attached some material to it using designs from my sketchbook. I wanted to create the middle section as a mermaid so I used a skin colour material and pinned it under the boobs. I did this as I thought I could attach or cast two shells as a bra. I then looked back at my designs and mixed them all together and that's when I came up with the head piece. I liked it to begin with but then it looked a little weird so I removed it from the mannequin.

I took the face cast home and started to paint it pinks and purples. at this point I came to the idea I wanted it to be some sort of weird mermaid and I added extra eyes. I used acrylic paints and glitters to decorate the mask.

here is a better view of the eyes.

This is the mask close to being complete all that is left to do is the eyes. I feel that some of the eyes need building up and making 3d instead of them being just paint.

The other mask I created I thought would look good blues and greens. so again using acrylic paints I painted the mask using darker shades on the risen bits.

after creating the first mask I though it looked a little empty around the edges so again looking at my designs in my sketch book and thought I could add some fins. I started by creating the fins using a thick wire and to stable it using a thinner wire.

I used the same technique for the machete fin for the bottom of the tale I did a machete to see what materials would work best on a bigger scale.

 

I then added tissue paper and applied it with glue and water like paper mashe

I also did a bigger scale one but designed differently.

whilst in the process of testing things out and experimenting I decided to do an arm cast. to see what would work best to create webbed hands. I wrapped my arm in cling film and got a friend to cast it using mod rock.

Back to the mannequin whilst the cast was drying I had took of the head piece and cut down the material down to the body section.

moving on to the tale of my creature.

I laid a piece of calico on the floor. I folded it over so it was doubled up and drew on it so it was thick at the top and went into a point towards the bottom. I then sewn down the line I drew and turned it inside out making a pouch. i then stuffed the tail using wadding to bulk it out.

I felt that because the tail was so bulky it wouldn't bend and I wanted my creature to be sat on a rock so I added some strips of wire inside so it would bend better and I could position it on the rock.

I positioned the tail to how I would like it to sit on the rock but here on a chair. it sat quiet well with wire inside so I sat a mannequin inside it as I didn't like the material piece I had done previously.

this is a better picture of the tail.

 

I felt that it would take time to create scales onto fabric. So I rolled out some chicken wire and placed the tail onto it then I cut it down to the size of the tail and wrapped the chicken wire around it. I did this as I felt that the chicken wire  had a better effect for scales than the material did. Also I

 seen this sheep made out of wire at Yorkshire sculpture park and thought it would work well.

 I think it looks like a snake when it sheds its skin.

After creating another tail using chicken wire I then went on to experimenting how I could create different effects for scales. I put a glove through the inside of the netted tail and the fingers dangled. I didn't quiet like this effect as I think it lost the technique of using the chicken wire.

I also blew the glove up to see if it created a different effect but still I didn't like it.

going back to my bulky soft tail whilst thinking what I could use for my wired one I decided it needed a fin at the bottom so using wire i pierced some wire and bent it to secure it. and made a fin. Using thinner wire again I attached it from the bottom to the top to make it stronger and section it off.

I did samples of how I could create scales on the tail. But as I was trying to manage my time effectively I decided that spray paint was quick and also looked very effective. I used a little piece of chicken wire and held it over the material whilst spraying it to create a scale like effect. I chose these two colours as these are the colours I painted the mask.

this is a close up of the scale effect made by using chicken wire the purple showed more effectively than the pink.

my arm cast was set, but I didn't want it to be an ordinary hand so I removed a finger and moved the thumb further round to spectate the fingers for the web.

back to the fins on the mask I tried to heat manipulate a rubber glove over the wire frame I had made but it just burnt and smelt.

so I decided to use pink bin bags, I feel this worked effectively and looked really good as it melted really well and also it put holes in places so the wire underneath was visible. I think this finished the mask off.

After I did a body cast with mod rock I then went on to painting it skin colour and showing where the rib cage is.

 

 I felt it looked odd next to the tail as it was skin colour and the tail was pink and purple so I did the same effect as the tail using spray paint but on the body cast.

 

After spraying th body i then placed it inside the tail to see if it would fit.

It fit quiet well but I needed to get rid of the wire band at the top of the tail for it to be a better fit.

 I moved on to creating the bottom fin I did this the same way as I did the fins on the face by heat manipulating pink plastic bags in the outer section. As I felt it worked really good before.

To add a different colour I used the same technique but with white bin bags as I didn't want it to all look two colours and blend in.

I placed a lighter pink tissue paper over the frame to see if it would work well before attaching it  and after speaking to my friends they said it looked good so I then glue gunned the lighter pink tissue paper to the frame to complete my fin. 

 this is my fin finished. I had to use white to break up the pink as it would look too pink. I feel tissue paper worked quiet well as I wanted it to be related to pollution and all the paper ripped.

after doing the fin I had to figure a way out to attach the body to the tail I fount this hard as the body was thin and the tail was quiet big at the top and also had a wire band around it. I had to cut  the wire band out for the material to fit to the body shape then I went on to glue gun then material to the mod rock body as nothing else would have worked. I had to pad out the back so she had some form of a bum as it was just flat.

this is the mermaid, creature so far with the fin finished and the body finally attached to the tail.

I was worried about the end of the tail ripping straight through the fin so I attached it to the tissue paper.

my creature had no arms and I was running out of time. I didn't want to make her arms out of mod rock like the body as I felt it would look too much like a mermaid. so I went on to looking i8nt what I could use instead of mod rock and I thought I could use a pair of tights and attach them inside and stuff them with wadding to create arms like an octopus with suckers.

This is the outcome of the tights padded out with wadding I think it looks better than it would with just two ordinary human arm's. It gives it more depth and doesn't just look like a mermaid. the only thing I could of changed or altered was to use two pairs of tights on each arm to create 8 arms and not 4 all together or double the tights up as they look white and I wanted them to look skin colour.

I also attached some scales. I used tissue paper and also a pink rubber glove and cut the shape out of the scales on the tail and attached them loosely with the glue gun as I wanted to create a polluted creature.

Here is the mask placed on a balloon to see if the colour of the mask looked okay on the rest of the body. I felt that the colour pink was too dark and need to be lightened as it was too dark also I needed to figure out how to attach the head to the body.

Where the body was attached to the tail it looked like it was just stuck on and looked a mess so to cover it I went to the seaside with Emma and collected some shells to attach to her.

 

Also during my FMP I went on holiday and collected this shell as I knew I needed something as a bra. I thought if I could get a big enough shell I could cast it and create two shells for its breasts.

Firstly, I used clay and placed the shell within it but as the shell was flimsy and thin I thought to build the clay up to the shell so it wouldn't break the shell by pushing it through the tough clay.

 

 

This is how it turned out after pushing the clay up to the shell. I knew at this point by looking at the clay it wouldn't work out but its all experiments so I poured in the one cast plaster and waited to see the outcome. 

As I thought it wouldn't turn out well it didn't, although it didn't turn out very well I still liked the effect of it.

 

But whilst I still had some plaster left I tried the cast in sand. I made two blocks of sand but added a little water so that it would mould instead of falling apart then I placed my shell into the sand and pushed it down trying to get all the grooves of the shell into the dap sand. I then removed the shell and poured in the one coat plaster.

This Was the outcome of the sand cast and I really liked it as I got all the groves in it that I wanted and I also liked the effect of the san on the plaster rather than just a shell. I had to go around and take away all the excess plaster to get the overall shape of the shell.

I Had a little bit of plaster left so one of my friends said to put the plaster in a block on some newspaper so it didn't stick to the table and place the shell inside it to see it that casted well.

 This was the outcome of placing the shell in the plaster. I liked it but t wasn't as strong as the sand one.

I tried it again and it went terribly wrong.

 After finishing the shells I then moved on to creating a fishing net, instead of buying one I learnt how to arm knit and created a small net.

I got an old bikini and attached tissue paper to it, pink as I was sticking to the colours pink and purple.

After I then glue gunned the small fishing net to it and added a shell towards the middle. I felt that the shell in the middle brought it together.

I created this as I thought I could have different accessories on a table at the side of the creature to show that I had tied out different techniques for her clothing and that I could change her bra. I went on and added some smaller shells the bra as the tissue paper was more visible in some areas than others.

 Here I have started to add shells to the body to disguise where the material tail is glued to the mod rock body. I feel this worked really well as it blended in quiet well and also it worked well with the shell cast on the breasts.

This picture below shows the shell casts on the breasts and how it works well with the shells on the body.

I attached the shells on the hips using the glue gun but as the two big shells are made of plaster the glue gun wouldn't work to stick the plaster casts to the mod rock so I used one cast plaster to attach them.

I started to do some more arm knitting to create some fishing nets for behind my mermaid as I decided I didn't want her sat on a rock anymore I wanted her hanging so I thought it would look good and fill in the space behind her with fishing nets.

 

Putting the mermaid up I used fishing wire to hold her up under the body and instead of having to paint the backgrounds I went and bought three shower curtains, I got two spotty ones and also a plain green one. I think it worked quiet well as it gives it a background but the fishing net pulls you're eye away from them being curtains. 

As I only did a mask for the front of the face I used my hair extensions as the hair as they are purple and work quiet well. Also it covered to back of the head. I also lightened the pink on the mask as it was too dark and painted the body skin colour again because when I attached the shells to the breasts I got plaster on the body, I added a little pink to the top of the body and the neck so it blended the mask in to the body.

Whilst she was hung up I attached bottle tops to her arms as they looked too plain  and painted over them a little as they just looked placed.