Little Red Riding Hood's - Little Red Riding Hood

My final shoot was the character of Little Red Riding Hood in the most well known fairy tale of the same name although originally called Little Red Cap by the Grimm Brothers. This was for me my least favourite character out of the 10 as I found it difficult to develop this look further from its stereotypical image. With all of my characters I have tried to push the boundaries of their stereotypes while also trying to keep symbolic elements of the characters that make them well known, in the case of Little Red Riding Hood, her famous red cape. 

Many theorists have labelled the original tale as holding sexual themes, with the concept of a young girl walking alone in the woods approached by a stranger. I however see this as showing the characters naivety as well as vulnerability as she opens up to the wolf, a stranger, about where her grandmother lives. I found these emotions challenging to show through make-up and hair alone, so I have relied on my model and composition to say a lot about her character. For the styling I've also used the red cape and a short skirt to reiterate the sexual voodoos surrounding this story. 

Before I talk separately and more in depth about the make-up here are some of the most successful images from the Little Red Riding Hood shoot - 

Make-up 

I found the make-up design for this character the most challenging of the ten as realistically Little Red Riding Hood is a child, however I felt this look would be too bland without a stronger make-up look so I've used darker and more sultry tones of red and black on the face to create some more interest, although I am still concerned about whether the image is to simple. 

 To steer away from the more plain make-up, I choose to add a diverse element to the look by adding severe looking claw marks along one side of her face, to show the more violent side to the story - whereby the wolf leaps out of bed and devours Little Red Cap alive. I initially choose to use tuplast to create these scars however on the day of shooting my tuplast had blocked itself and wasn't working as it should so I choose to use wax as a second option. Derma wax is known for being hard to apply to the skin and doesn't have longevity on the skin; this became a problem during shooting. Once molded the wax began to fall of the skin, so I had to get as many shots as possible while the make-up was still in tack, in future I will check the working condition of all of my make-up products before taking them to a shoot. Upon reflection I also feel that the bruising surrounding the cuts are quite dark and perhaps I should have used less dark purples and blacks and more redder tones as it is meant to be a fresh wound.

 I also think that I should have used a lighter fx blood coming from the wound as the image that sits next to this one in the book I have used a lighter shade and different brand of blood, this difference might become more apparent when the two images are sat next to one another. 

Although I have come across a few elements of this look that I would change, I feel the sharp, straight lines of the claw marks across her face contrasts well with her straight sleek hairstyle. Also the composition of her turned away head works well in conjuring up a feeling of sympathy towards her character and reiterates her naivety and vulnerability.

Styling

In order to make my characters easily recognisable to an audience and to use the advice given to me by a industry specialists I choose to keep the styling element of Little Red Riding Hood's symbolic red cloak. I hired this cloak from Hampshire Wardrobe as I felt it was the only suitable option to represent the description of the appearance of the character told in the narrative. To portray the underlying themes of sex in the story, I have teamed the cloak with a short, feminine cream skirt and a floral lace crop top that is purposely meant to show a small amount of the model's stomach. I wanted to portray the characters naivety in the fact that she hasn't purposely dressed in a slightly revealing way to attract attention from men as she is only child however her stopping and talking to the wolf, a stranger in a forest presents her as both naive, vulnerable and easy prey. The element of the styling that was least successful is the cream underlining of the cloak that can be seen in the images, throughout shooting I tried to push the lining into the hood so that it was less visible but the way in which it had been sewn wouldn't allow for much movement so I had to make do. If I was to shoot this look again, I would try and source a clock that had both red on the inside and outside of the hood.