Test: Look 2

The key feature I wanted to create in Look 2 was the aspect of how the darkness - which in itself is a character in the urban legend - was reaching out and trying to ensnare. I began to think of ways to represent this and came up with the use of not just including the face/hair in a look but also to incorporate the hands.

I then tried to get my test model to try out several poses to see which would show off this aspect of my design the most and discovered through several shots that making the hands reach up and around the neck made the darkness seem dangerous.

                                                 
                                                    

FallOut Boy: Reference 2

In their latest music videos "The Phoenix" and  "Young Volcanoes" through the use of SFX the lead singer Patrick Stump has had created his surname. After considering the use of this amount of SFX in their latest video I have decided to create in one of my look's the use of scratches on the model to incorporate the use in my possible idea for the music video. 

     

This part of the story - before they are captured individually which is depicted in 'The Phoenix' video it portrays when initially only Patrick is taken after carrying a briefcase of importance...                                              

 ... while in the phoenix it shows the band being individually captured and displays Patrick being tortured/ having his hand cut off to show as a form of the fact that they have captured him ..

               

... and to free the briefcase from him they cut off his hand - literally portraying his name: Patrick Stump.

                                                     

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This idea of injury and torture is again impacting in the video for "Young Volcanoes" as it displays a form of torture at a meal table but also using drugs to influence their view on reality of the captured band members which the audience perceive and then registers what is fiction and what is reality at the end.

TEST LOOK 1

FOB reference 1 - basing on artist because..talk about thwir new 'sound' and how the video's currently tell a story

My Song's know what you did in the dark

The Phoenix

Young Volcano's

Moodboard & Face Chart: Look2

Through research and referring to the above moodboard, I have designed this as my facechart for the second look:

Moodboard & Face Chart: Look 1

Through the research and relating to the moodboard I have created this make up look for my primary look:

Face charts: Initial Ideas and Development of both looks

Through the initial ideas of deciding to base my two looks on the urban legend "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Light?" I have decided on some key aspects I wish to involve.

The first initial face chart shows this through the use of taking out facial features, as it is often an instant way of recognize individuals, despite sometimes the darkness not allowing you to fully see, to here it was in my mind to begin distorting this as a reference to the killer in the dark.

Another initial idea I've had is to incorperate another legend into the look, this would allow the design to grow. Here I have chosen to incorperate "The Clown Doll/Statue" legend as a link - using the facial detail disguised in the way a clown often looks, however using the darkness from "Aren't You Glad..." as a way to display this legend. However on looking at the brief it was only needed that one legend was used for both looks.

Finally instead of just a black and white colour oriantated look I discovered how I was to incorperate the use of the colour that represnet both danger and anger, which is reference to the killer - Red. I thought that it was best to use this in a way to cover the eyes as this is where people are more expressive so encourages those thoughts. Through this look I also began thinking of a way where not just the face  was included in the look, but also the darkness "reaching out and consuming" the model, by using the neck.

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Look 1

These looks were designed for male model, and SFX was the key element here so combining the darkness and anger into the distinguished and accentuated eyebrows with key elements of contouring to balance the SFX rather than an extreme make up look too, which would fight with it for attention in the photograph and in the music video (as the look is required to be suitable as seen in the brief).

Look 2

This look for a female model would be more extreme as the design is an airbrushing technique based one -  needs to involve the initial element of disguising the model's facial features, just the eyes to begin then more of the face, contain a red lip as a reference to the initial designs to incorporate the colour due to its link with death (blood), anger and danger - all keys aspects in the "Aren't You Glad..." legend.

Airbrushing Technique

relate to as it would be used in video's/ editorials to showcase the precsion needed for the impact and the HD technology used to capture.

RESEARCH: Eternalux

Through online research I discovered a small look book collaboration between photographer Charis Talbot & hair and make up artist Tony Arts and what I found appealing and relevant was how they again used a minimal colour palette to create the shots, but that through the use of styling they were able to subtly display a gothic horror initiative to the looks. 

Link to: Eternalux - Charis Talbot Photography

    

 

RESEARCH: CAROLINE SAULNIER

As part of my research into existing adaptations of Gothic Horror in Fashion I discovered the "teaser's" from Make Up Artist Caroline Saulnier's latest beauty book - on which she has collaborated with the esteemed photographer Rankin -  which references aspects included in our unit brief. 

 Through these images it's clear that when using a limited colour palette but adapting the hue's to shade and highlight areas can create a more dramatic image than one with a variety of colour as the eye has less to take in visually so it can almost create an illusion and distort the face.

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As recorded by Hunger TV - I have discovered how it is possible for fashion/editorial look's to also be just as impacting to an audience as a still photographed image.

Art related Gothic Horror : Emy Bitner

I also discovered through searching online for alternative Gothic Horror artists the illustrator Emy Bitner from Pennsylvania  USA. I like how her minimalistic drawings are still able to interest the viewer and it is often then missing features to the characters she draws that make the viewer question and want to look at the image more. 

  

''EMpathY'' - By Emy Bitner

These images are taken from a published collection of gothic horror art by the comic artist Emy Bitner. She is now a freelance illustrator who has an extensive background in both digital and traditional fine arts. She has studied in a variety of american universities and has received both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Minor in Drawing and Illustration from the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. 

She claims that her art work is heavily influenced by both her music taste as well as her love for computer  games, such as;Skyrim, Minecraft & Portal 1 and 2.

Art related Gothic Horror : Aleta Welling

To get a wider view of existing forms of Gothic Horror I have decided to look into artists that use these legends and also the genre in general as inspiration for their work.

Aleta Welling - Noxious Hues

Aleta is a primarily self-taught artist, who uses oil and acrylic paint as her main medium's. She has been featured in a variety of galleries, cafes and studios throughout Europe, the Mid-Atlantic area, and in her now local area of Phoenix, Arizona. She concentrates on the use of contrasting light and shapes expresses the way she individually views human nature.
As for the dynamics of the paintings she claims it is her obsession with dark colors, extremely contrasting shades and masking the characters in her art that can explain the comic-like and post- apocalyptic theme that occurs in a room full of my paintings.


                 

I chose to look into Aleta Welling due to the fact that she is not only inspired by other great painters, sculptors or photographers, but mainly by music in the industrial, electronic, dark wave and gothic genres as well. 

Background Research: Why are people afraid of the dark?

The main factor in 'Are't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Light?' is the use of darkness to increase the fear and apprehensiveness of the audience. As part of researching into the Urban Legend I have decided to research into why the dark is such a powerful fear to focus on and hopefully find inspiration for initial designs. 


As with all fears, emotion is triggered from each person's individual subconscious mind as a way of protection from a possible danger, which is based on the primitive aspect of our minds where the main concern is survival.

Achluophobia    (Fear of darkness)

Fear of darkness or Achluophobia is an irrational fear of darkness, the person suffering from Achluophobia will usually think that monsters or other evil things will harm him as soon as he stays in a dark place. The Achluophobia may impact their life to the extent that he may not sleep unless the lights are turned on.

Most people usually experience phobias specifically due to an emotional trauma in a situation. However with achluophobia, the fear of darkness can also be due to the primal instinct's every person has due to not being able to know what is there due to the usually reliable sense of sight being distorted making any threats harder to defend against.

Basically the fear of the unknown, rather than the darkness itself is what the fear is representing. On its own it is not often scary but the lack of sight makes a person anxious as you could never know if you truly are in immediate danger or not.

Through this I have discovered that due to the darkness reducing the vision it has inspired me to create within at least one of my final looks a form of altering the perception of the face of the model as this will recreate the basis of achluophobia where the sight is hindered and so not everything is visible. 

Developing research - Image Construction : 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968)

To create my final look's it is key that I need them to be able to work well for the photoshoot in which the images are gathered but it is also vital that I remember that the looks would be used within a music video and so therefore it is crucial to understand image construction, as well as how colour can be used in film and music videos to set the scene.

Over the Easter term-break I was asked to look at the psychological horror 'Rosemary's Baby' and study how through the colour palette - and the use of a limited number of specific colours, show a sub-conscious aspect of a character to the audience.

''Rosemary's Baby'' (released in 1968 - written and directed by Roman Polanski, and based on the  bestselling 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin) starring Mia Farrow is the story of a young newly-wed couple moving into a new apartment, surrounded with odd  neighbours and  unusual occurrences. When the  protagonist  Rosemary becomes mysteriously pregnant, the situation increases over the safety and future of her unborn child and paranoia begins controlling her life. 

During the opening scenes, the two main characters find a new property where they wish to start married life and a family. The main character of Rosemary walks in with her husband wearing a white dress indicating purity, innocence, as the classic virginal bridal stereotype. This can also be seen in the style and colour of her hair, as in the beginning it is featured as a longer and naturally styled bob, again relating to the pure, virginal however as the character Rosemary begins to make her own decisions and progressing into the protagonist character it is replaced with a more striking Sassoon-style 'pixie-crop' bob - however which still almost childlike and the innocent light-blonde hair colour to show how she is still naive to the fact of what is happening around her. In comparison, Rosemary's husband immediately seems to be the dominate figure of the relationship, which is relatable to the 1960's view of a relationship where the men would be in control and working - which is displayed throughout the film with him wearing a variety of blue coloured items displaying his authority and masculinity.

In comparison the colours that Rosemary and Guy wear to those worn by Minnie and Roman Castevet, in that Rosemary's clothes are all light of femininely styled - presenting her as innocent, naive and young. While in comparison Minnie Castevet would wear yellow and aged clothing to display how she was inviting Rosemary in sub-consciously so she could follow through with her plan of impregnating her- with the help of her husband and the rest of the witch's coven - with the child of Satan. It is also key to see that the meal in the few scenes before the night Rosemary is drugged Roman Castevet is wearing a red outfit which expresses the hidden danger that he is yet to release onto Rosemary. 

Through watching this film and observing how different colours worn by characters can subconsciously reveal motives and emotions that drive that character that the audience would only fully understand at the conclusion. However it is also shows through the use of colour it can effect how the audience can perceive a character as instantly a dramatic colour can instill an emotion to the viewer and how they associate the characters with each other.