Goodbye to Berlin: 2014

Friday, 5 December 2014

Bibliography

ISHERWOOD, C. 1998 Goodbye to Berlin

RIRINUI, J. 2013 Makeup is Art

BELLATONI, P. 2005 If its purple someone’s gonna die [online]

http://nutic.wikispaces.com/file/view/CABARET+Script.pd
f accessed: 6/10/14

[online]http://cinemaquote.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/cabaret-‐ 1972.html accessed: 6/10/14

[online]https://www.boundless.com/u-‐s-‐ history/textbooks/boundless-‐u-‐s-‐history-‐textbook/from-‐the-‐new-‐ era-‐to-‐the-‐great-‐depression-‐1920-‐1933-‐24/the-‐culture-‐of-‐change-‐ 187/art-‐deco-‐expressionism-‐and-‐surrealism-‐1032-‐1996/ accessed: 12/10/14

Cabaret 1972

Pinterest.com

Vogue – Issues: October, November, December 2014.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320244/plotsummary

http://www.dcclubbing.com/style/edm-documentaries-worth-the-watch/

http://www.biography.com/people/leigh-bowery-20943343

http://artblart.com/2013/01/27/exhibition-xtravaganza-staging-leigh-bowery-at-kunsthalle-wien-vienna/

Final Evaluation

Overall I am fairly happy with the progress that I have made throughout this project. I have learnt a variety of new skills that will be needed when working in film and television. I have also learnt how to work under somebody else’s design and concept, which is a key skill to have, especially when working in the industry.

To begin the research for this project I made sure that I had a clear understanding of Weimer Berlin. I found this subject really interesting, and I found that it really helped my understanding of my historical character. I felt that it helped me understand the situation that a lot of people had to live in, so I could really understand what my character was going through at this point.

When creating my makeup and hair design, I made sure that I went into a lot of detail with the scene that I chose. This enabled me to fully understand what emotions my character would be feeling, which helped decide what makeup and hair design I chose.

To prepare for the assessment I swapped designs with my partner before, and we made sure that we practised both our makeup and hair designs before the assessment, to ensure that we were fully prepared. A difficulty which I had with my partners design was the eyebrow blocking. She taught me a technique to use, and when practising it went well but I feel that on the assessment I could have covered them a lot better.

I particularly enjoyed creating my contemporary character, as I feel that it enabled me to use more of a variety of hair and makeup techniques, and pushed my skills further. When creating the hairstyle, I was originally going to frizz the whole of the back section of the models hair, although it was proving to be extremely time consuming. To overcome this, I had to crimp the bottom sections. I feel like this still worked, and the frizz on the top section covered this anyway so it worked well.

Final Contemporary images

Sunday, 30 November 2014

Final hair and makeup design

For my final hair design I want the hair to look almost like a candyfloss frizzy effect. I will use the same technique we used to create the 1930s bob, although instead of curling the back I will frizz and crimp it. This will add a contemporary look to the design but still using influence from the 1930s.

From my initial ideas I practised them on myself, and realised that I liked aspects from all of them. As a result of this, I decided to merge them together, and came up with this design. I kept the thin black brow so that it had reference to the 1930s, and used the silver sequins to show money to fit in with my chosen scene.

Saturday, 29 November 2014

Initial makeup ideas

These are my initial design ideas which I came up with after researching into club culture. As my design is based on Sally Bowles in the 'Money' scene, I wanted to include silver, sequins and glitter in my design to connote the idea of money and fortune.

I practiced my favourite two designs, and I realised that I liked different aspects from each design. After experimenting with them further, I came up with my final design.

Club Culture moodboard

Pat McGrath

After creating my moodboard it made me think of some makeup looks by Pat McGrath which fit in with the look I am going for really well.

Friday, 28 November 2014

Dolores Del Rio

In my contemporary design I need to include an aspect of the 1930s in it to show that this is what I was inspired by. After creating a mood board on Pinterest I came across Dolores Del Rio, who was a famous actress in the 1920s/30s.

I love how her hair is still in the 193-s style bob, although it is a lot more frizzy. I think that it would look really effective if I played on this aspect when creating my final hair design - although I would make it a lot more extreme. This will add a contemporary twist to the traditional 1930s bob, and at the same time include a 1930s aspect in my design.

Contemporary Character - Sally Bowles

For my contemporary character I have chosen to use Sally Bowles. Christopher Isherwood based Sally on a real actress called Jean Ross, who he met in the early 1930's and shared a lodging with.

When Sally first appears in the book, this is how she was described by Isherwood: "I noticed that her fingernails were painted emerald green, a colour unfortunately chosen, for it called attention to her hands, which were much stained by cigarette-smoking and as dirty as a little girls. She was dark enough to be Fritz's sister. Her face was long and thin, powdered dead white. She had very large brown eyes which should have been darker, to match her hair and the pencil she used for her eyebrows." (Goodbye to Berlin, pages 34-35)

I have decided to base my makeup around this scene, as I thought that it would be interesting to create a makeup and hair look based on the 'money' aspect. My initial thoughts are to use a lot of silver and sequins as I think it would show money really well. I also want to show that Sally is a warm, fun character, so I could change the colour of her hair.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

Turning historical design into contemporary

I printed out images of my final historical design, and use pastels and gel pens to turn them into a contemporary design. I found this really useful, as it helped me to start thinking about how I would create a contemporary look with factors from the 1930's within it.

In this design I wanted to create an ombre look, as this is a look which is very popular in todays culture. I also wanted to create big lips, but exaggerating the shapes seen in Cabaret. I added silver in to link in with the scene 'money'.

I didn't really like this design, as I thought that it looked quite 80s. I wanted to create the effect of big hair in a similar shape to the 1930s style but it didn't work out very well.

This was my favourite design out of the three. I liked the idea of turning the hair into more of a pastel colour, and I particularly liked the pink tones. I also like the idea of keeping the 1930s style hair in my design, just adding some contemporary aspects to it to turn it into a club culture design. I like the idea of having silver in the roots, which would also fit in well with the money scene which I am going to base my design on.

In this design I experimented further with the pink hair, and I like the idea of having darker pink tones within the style. I also tried to add frizz to the side, but you can't really see it in this image. I think having frizz instead of curls would add a contemporary look to the hairstyle, otherwise it might look too 1930s. I also experimented with makeup, by adding glittery brows and a glitter ombre lip.

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Leigh Bowery

Leigh Bowery was an Australian fashion designer, club promoter and performance artist. In 1985 he opened the fetish and disco nightclub Taboo, and he eventually established himself as a fashion designer. He was a known fixture in the local clubs, mainky because of his extravagant and outlandish outfits. He was a very influential figure in the 80s/90s, and he was main inspiration for the Tranimal Drag movement.

Monday, 24 November 2014

Party monster

As an introduction to the topic 'Club Culture' we watched the film 'Party Monster'. The film is about the main character Michael Alig, and his extravagant life as a club kid leader and party organizer in the underground New York club scene in the 80s/90s. His club kid days came to an end when he murdered his drug dealer, and ended up in prison.

When comparing this film with Cabaret, a main thing that stands out to me is how extravagant and over the top the makeup, costume and characters are. They are also both set in worlds where anything goes, and the characters live crazy lifes based around money.

I feel that Micheals character is extremely similar to Sallys. The way that he came to New York as a nobody with big dreams and no money is similar to how Sally ended up in Berlin. Its interesting to see that in Micheals eyes he seemed to have 'made' it, but in the audiences eyes you can clearly see that his life is a train wreck. This makes me think that this could have ended up to Sally in the future. Also I think that he is similar to Sally in his exterior as well - he has a very extravagant appearance and behaves in a very childlike manner - completely depending on James St James.

Sunday, 23 November 2014

Georgias design - final images

Practising my partners design

In preparation for the assessment I practised Georgias makeup design beforehand. I practised it on Georgia, although for the assessment I will be doing it on a model which she is providing.

The practice went quite well, and I am now a lot more confident for the final assessment, as I feel that I understand her design concept a lot more now as well. The main factors which I need to improve on are the eyebrows - I need to ensure that I flatten them completely with the glue - so that the foundation can smooth over with out any bumps. I also need to make sure that the black drawn on eyebrows are the same shape and thickness. I also need to make sure that the lips are the shape which my partner wanted - as when I orginally did them I made them slightly too pointed, whereas she wanted a rounder effect.

We put the wig on quickly just to see what it looked like with the makeup, but I didnt attach it properly this time as I will be putting it a different model anyway.

Eyebrow blocking

In my partners design one of the key elements in the makeup was the fact that the eyebrows need to be completely blocked out to create the thin 1930's eyebrow.

The technique which I am used to doing would not have been effective enough, as it doesn't cover the brow completely.

In preparation for the assessment my partner taught me how to block eyebrows using a pritt stick, as this is the technique which she wanted me to use in her design.

Equipment:
• Eyebrow brushes
• Pritt stick
• Powder
• Spatula
• Thick foundation/concealer

Technique:
• Brush the eyebrow hairs downwards.
• Coat the brows in the pritt stick until the hairs are all completely flat.
• Powder on top of the glue.
• Use the spatula to coat the brows in foundation until they disappear.

I think that this went really successful, as the brows look covered before even putting any more makeup on top. This is the main aspect of the design which I am most nervous about, as it is a new technique which I have only done once before.