Cinderella's - Cinderella

My shoot today was the character of Cinderella in the well know story of the same name. When people hear the name Cinderella, a lot will automatically conjure up a picture of a beautiful, young Princess however in reality when reading the original Grimm's tale Cinderella is through most of the story, a slave - dirty and unkempt. This is the image of Cinderella that I wanted to portray to eliminate people's initial Princess interpretation, Cinderella is in fact a house slave forced to work day and night, wearing the same ragged clothes and sleeping in a pile of ash at night - this ultimately doesn't conjure up an attractive appearance. 

Although I am very happy with the outcome of this shoot, throughout this whole final major project process I have faced many difficulties, one of the most difficult things for me has been finding suitable models for each character. I've used students from the performance course, model mayhem, mutual friends and university students, however as the shoots are long and obviously unpaid it has been hard to actually secure models for my booked shoots. Finding models has also been difficult because the people I find need to fit the character as apposed to being just photogenic, however with the models that were on offer to me I feel satisfied with the people I have chosen, particularly with this model Jessica as her child-like features and petite figure cause her to look quite timid and innocent (fitting with Cinderella's character). As my book includes violence and gore another problem I have faced has been getting the models to work with props such as contact lenses, uncomfortable and strong make-up products that are hard to remove, an animals heart and unusual styling elements - to overcome these difficulties I have to be very patient and understanding, skills I hope to carry with me into future employment.

Here are some of my favourite images from the Cinderella shoot - 

Make-up 

The purpose of this make-up look was to make the character resemble someone that looks worn, tired and unkempt. I wanted the model to look as hard done by as possible without making her look too ill or deathly, this became quite difficult as dark tones under and around the eyes automatically create that ill look. I used small amounts of brown and grey powder around the eyes, mouth, temples and cheeks and built up layers of this powder until I was happy with the complexion. As Cinderella is described as sleeping in a pile of ash I used fullers earth mixed with water to paint onto the forehead and roots of the hair, once dry this created a dry, grey, cracked look and could resemble ash. I am happy with the outcome of the make-up however I feel that the fullers earth technique looked better in real life as on the camera it became washed out and not as visible, if I had more shooting time I would have applied an extra layer of fullers earth.

Styling

The styling as this shoot is my favourite element, the ragged cut skirt and loose grey top instantly show to an audience a character that is dirty, poor and unkempt, this also creates a instant reaction of sympathy for her character. I hired this outfit from Hampshire Wardrobe where it had previously been used as a peasants outfit in the theatre, so it was instantly very fitting to my design. I also hand stained a piece of material to resemble a dirty cloth, to match her dirty outfit and to show her role as the house slave to her step mother and step sisters, I feel this works well in some of the shots however to create a range I have a variety some with and others without. 

Composition 

Within the book and this story one of my main images is going to be Cinderellas transformation from a ragged house slave into a beautiful lady fit for the ball. Originally when researching into design elements for Cinderellas character I came across this image, which I felt re interpreted would be a successful and very visual way to show her magical transformation. 

To create this I had to take several shots of the model in different positions, both moving and staying still, from here I can then crop elements of each together and layer them on photo shop to create the same flowing, movement effect as the image above, I felt by pushing myself to create something I had never tried before would show both my editing and Photoshop skills as well as just my make-up and styling. This however took me a whole day to complete as erasing elements of each layer becomes tricky and precise as you begin to add more layers, although I feel my hard work has payed off as I feel I have created a very successful and technical final image that will run across a double page spread.