Evaluation of the Project

   For the final major project unit I undertook two projects and produced from these two separate outcomes that both represent the concept of character transformation. The first outcome is a published book that focuses on the darker side of fairy tales and uses the original stories from the Grimm Brothers as a basis in creating their characters; the aim of this was to use my passion and interest in special effects make-up to show the darker, more violent side to fairy tales.  The second outcome that runs alongside the first is a portfolio of evidence that shows my work as a head make-up artist for a student zombie film called ‘Ruthless’ (2013), based and shot in London. The aim of this project through my outcomes was to show the transformation from a normal looking person into a character, whether it be the character of a zombie in ‘Ruthless’ (2013) or the character of the wolf in the story of Little Red Riding Hood. As I aspire to obtain a career in either television or film, I felt that my outcomes would be relevant to the industry and would benefit me with new and improved skills in preparation for future employment.

   By undertaking two separate projects and conjoining them as one, I have had to use a number of skills; mainly my time management, organisational and problem solving skills to ensure that the whole process ran smoothly and within a time frame. As well as building upon skills already gained, I’ve also learnt new skills throughout the process. Through my role as the head make-up artist for ‘Ruthless’ (2013), I’ve learnt new budgeting and accounting skills when sourcing and buying the make-up and hair products while also giving me an insight into a future career as a free-lance make-up artist. I've also learnt new management skills through organising and administrating a small team of three other make-up artists, including delegating job roles and overseeing the whole filming process. By creating new make-up looks and sourcing inspirational imagery I've built upon my creativity and research skills in order to create original make-up designs. Furthermore through actual experience in a chosen industry, I feel the skills that I’ve learnt can now be used appropriately for future reference and will assist me greatly when moving forward from education into the industry.

    Through the process of creating my book, I’ve learnt to be as organised and fully prepared for last minute changes as possible and in the case of these to think rationally about overcoming the problems instead of panicking. I’ve also learnt that researching deeply into both concepts and designs and using several image references is key to creating successful final images. Lastly I’ve learnt not to rely on other people so much as in the case of this project I have been let down several times by models and photographers alike.

    I have always thought of myself as being a much organised person and having good time management skills however with this project those skills have been put to the test. I have found it very difficult to arrange shooting dates within my time frame and through being unable to book studios at the university due to full bookings, I was forced to re work all of my planned shooting dates. This involved shooting nine of my ten looks in just three weeks, this for me wasn’t possible so I made the disappointing decision to remove one of my stories and therefore two of my characters from my book; I chose to remove the story that had the least relevance to my book’s concept. If I had stuck to my original time plan and made the most of studio time available then I would have been able to complete all of my ten characters in time.

With my original ten characters, one of the first difficulties that I faced was trying to come up with original and interesting designs for each character while still in keeping with the narrative. This became difficult as I struggled with how far to push my designs; did I want them fashion based or more theatrical, through research and my desired career I eventually choose to have the character designs in keeping with the TV, film and theatre industry.

   Having one to one time with tutors has also been vital to the success of my designs and the project as a whole. Receiving informative feedback from industry specialists has helped me to use my creative and visual abilities appropriately especially in deciding which elements of the characters need the most focus and how to layout my book so that it portrays the most important aspects of my characters.

     Although elements of this project have been both challenging and testing, I’ve had to use my initiative in order to resolve any major issues, I believe that it’s important to think rationally and find a solution to the problem without disrupting the project as a whole. For example in regards to ‘Ruthless’ (2013) I had an issue with one of my make-up artists so I spoke privately with the producer so that it could be resolved between him and her. Throughout the filming process I felt that my management skills lacked and that I didn’t have full control over my team, one girl in particular tended to do her own make-up without my guidance and as she wasn’t involved in the designing process I felt that her looks weren’t in keeping with the concept of the film. In regards to the book I was let down on three separate occasions by photographers and after seeking help from a technician, I took notes of his lighting set up and used this as a reference for shooting all of my future looks myself, this ended up working to my advantage as my lighting had the same reoccurring theme throughout. I also incurred problems with my book publisher; when I uploaded my book design, the background colour of black was appearing as grey; I sought advice from a local printing company that helped me resolve my issues ready for a successful print.

        My intended target audience for the film ‘Ruthless’ (2013) and also for the book was a younger generation particularly interested in the horror film genre, as they would be more likely to understand the reality of the genre and less likely to be effected by violence or gory images. The typical age bracket of ‘horror fans’ is between ‘15 - 24’ years old (UK Film Council), as the largest number of cinema goers also falls between this age bracket. The horror genre is generally aimed at men as they tend to be attracted to violence and action and usually seek thrill in films, however my outcomes were targeted at both sexes as 'the number of women attending cinema screenings of horror films now marginally exceeds male attendance figures’ (UK Film Council) and proves that the horror genre is now reaching out to a larger audience of both males and females. I feel that both of my outcomes and their concepts sit successfully in the horror genre and are therefore appealing to my intended target audience.

      I believe that the standard of my outcomes are appropriate to industry level and relevant to its competitors, however I do feel that I could have pushed some of my looks further particularly the zombies to show more of my design and make-up capabilities. I found it challenging at times to create innovative designs that would both sit comfortably within the genre and be relevant to the TV and Film industry.

    When creating my proposal for this project I originally had the main outcome as a portfolio of work for ‘Ruthless’ (2013) and then alongside this another portfolio of studio shot images that showed other types of character transformations. However once I approached my tutor with these ideas he suggested that I use a more professional approach when creating my outcomes, together we agreed on presenting my idea of character transformations through stories in a printed book to put my looks into context. He also suggested that my film portfolio should be professionally printed on photography paper while displaying a colour theme and labelled with my name to help brand myself and my work as an artist. Although the extra work load was challenging on my time frame and skills, upon reflection I am overjoyed with the decision to change my original ideas as I’ve now discovered how much more professional my work can look. I’ve substituted an original idea of a sketchbook in order to give myself more time to focus my full attention on the portfolio and the book.

   Overall I am very pleased and proud of both of my outcomes, although there are certain elements that I struggled with and problems that I had to overcome, I feel that my outcomes are both professional and appropriate to the industry and its standards. If I was to undertake the project again, in regards to the film I would have spent more time developing my zombie looks further to help make them completely original and different to its competing films. Also in regards to the book I would have given myself more time to design the layout of the book in InDesign so that I could have tested a more interesting and visually pleasing layout for my images and text. However on a more positive note, I happy with the project as a whole and what I have achieved in a short amount of time.  This unit has helped greatly in improving my confidence in make-up and hair application and producing several looks for both the film and the book within a short time constraint has prepared me for the reality of working life and given me a great insight into the film and TV industry.

The Book Has Arrived

After sending my InDesign template of my book design into Blurb, I received a fast and efficient delivery of the book back. I wasn't expecting such a quick delivery as the book was estimated to arrive on the 3rd May and actually arrived on the 1st May but thankfully I was here to answer the door. I felt both excitement and anticipation when I first held the package in my hands and I was unsure whether to open the parcel around my peers or on my own. I opted to take the first view on my own and proceeded to open the book, my first reaction was that it looked a lot more professional than I had envisaged, the black hard cover was a dark, deep black as apposed to look more grey and matte, I was extremely happy with how the book had been printed to such a high standard. 

I began to open the book and again I had the same reaction pleasure at how professional the colouring, paper type and texture looked in person. One of my biggest concerns was the colour of the black background of the book as I had previously had issues with Blurb and the colour of black appearing as grey on their PDFs I was thrilled to see that my pages were as dark black as I had hoped and that there hadn't been an issue with the colouring. The deep shade of black in the pages was paramount in creating and portraying to reader the dark theme and concept of the book. As blurb gives you a choice of which type of paper you want your book to be printed with, I was advised by my photography teacher to use the photo paper called Premium Lustre, as he said it will bring depth and tone to my darker images and their darker colours. He was correct, the paper type defiantly adds depth to the pages and has a subtle sheen to it creating a more luxurious, expensive looking print. 

Overall I am extremely happy with the quality of printing and how the book has transpired from a screen design into an actual book. I have studied the book several times and there are a couple of elements that I feel could be improved if I was given more time to re- design and re-print, however with my time frame before the physical hand- in this isn't possible. As in print you can see the images much more clearly than on a screen there are a few elements of the images that could do with further editing, for example in one image of Rapunzel part of the tuplast scar on the face is coming off, this could have been easily fixed in Photoshop with the clone tool and therefore would have been less noticeable in print. Also I feel that some of the images are too big for the page size and seem to get lost in the binding of the book; as the book is newly printed the binding is quite stiff and high arched in the middle of the book. I would try and press the binding down slightly however I don't want to handle my final copy at all as it is still in the cellophane packaging ready to be handed in for submission. 

Although I have mentioned certain elements of the book that could do with slight improvement, overall I am really happy and proud of my book as I feel it represents concept well and is printed and displayed to a professional industry standard. Through my own thoughts I was keen to hear other people's feed backs on the book, I showed my friends, family and university peers to see whether there reactions were positive or negative and whether I could receive any constructive criticism back from them. Most people were really impressed with my work and praised me on how professional the book looked and how it showed that a lot of time and effort had been put into it. A constructive criticism that I did receive was that the black of the images was a different shade of black to the background and that the pages might have looked better linked and more professional if the black edges of the images blended into the back background. During production I noticed this myself however as I had to change the images to CMYK colour for print it causes the images to lighten therefore making the black a lighter shade than if I was to keep the image in an RGB format.

As well has having the book ready for submission, I have also now completed my 'Ruthless' film portfolio. I printed all of my evidence work on professional looking printer paper with my name logo as a make-up artist on each corner of each page in the portfolio, I hoped that this would create a more professional finish. I am really pleased with the overall outcome of my portfolio as it shows a range of evidence of my time and work throughout the film process and clearly shows how much time, planning and skills went into my role as the head make-up artist. I choose a range of my most successful images and mood boards to add a visual element to the portfolio and to also show my design abilities and make-up skills. An element of the portfolio that I'm not so pleased with is the front cover of the portfolio, the logo was created by the marketing team and not by myself and in my opinion I feel that it looks slightly amateur and not particularly original, however as this logo is representative of the film and all of it's advertisements I had to use it as the front cover and title of my portfolio.