Bringing Characters To Life - Little Red Riding Hood

Another fairy tale that I have decided to include in my book is the well known fairy tale - 'Little Red Riding Hood' or by the Grimm's tales 'Little Red Cap'. I have always been fascinated by this story and the many connotations that the story could hold; the relationship between both Little Red Riding Hood & The Wolf and from this ideas surrounding sex or sexual desires. 

As well as this, the whole setting and concept of the story evoke both darkness and an eary feeling as most of the story is set deep in the forest whereby no one is around to protect Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf. 

I also felt that the characters and plot of this fairy tale would give me great creative scope with regards to my love of special effects and prosthetics. As this is a part of the industry I'd like to learn more about I felt it was important to show my enthusiasm for the subject through my final major project piece. 

Little Red Riding Hood

The fairy tale opens by describing Little Red Riding Hood as a dear little girl who is loved by everyone, so it is important that my interpretation of her character is either shown as naivety or vulnerable - as these types of people tend to evoke the most sympathy. 

I feel the best way for me to do this is through composition, the composition shown here of the girl looking down and away from the camera immediately makes an audience feel sympathy for the character as she could look either upset or in some way hurt.  

It's not far into the fairy tale that Little Red Riding Hood's red cloak is mentioned. It is this symbolic cloak that makes her character so recognisable to so many people. My book isn't going to contain much text, just one or two important sentences on a page so symbolic items such as Little Red Riding Hood's red cloak will become important for easy recognition.

I want to use a short red velvet cloak along with a short, frilly skirt and white socks or tights to create a child-like image but also a slightly unreserved look. I don't want to take the promiscuity too far as the character is still a child however many criticisms of the story describe the relationship between Little Red Riding Hood & The Wolf as a sexual one, perhaps with the setting off a young girl alone in a forest being followed and approached by a stranger.











The Grimm Brothers tale ends with The Wolf eating both the Grandmother & Little Red Riding Hood, I wanted to use an element of special effects to show the violent attack on the young girl. I am going to use either tuplast or gelafix to create height and the illusion of deep claw marks across the face and also bruising colour and fx blood to create a viscous and sore looking wound. I am hoping this will create a shocking effect for an audience and as they turn the pages the timid, shy face of Little Red Riding Hood becomes manipulated.





The Wolf

For me the character of the wolf is the main focus of the fairy tale, for it is his character that has the most speech throughout the story; he approaches Little Red Riding Hood in the woods, follows her to the Grandmother's house and then eats both of them before being killed by a near by hunter. Through prior research I feel like the wolf's character is more human like than animal, so I want my interpretation of the wolf to hold both human characteristics as well as elements that will define him as a wolf.

To show the wolf's menacing side and to create an evil like snarl, I'm going to make a prosthetic piece molded with gelafix and cotton wool, this will give height to the eyebrows and hopefully create a more pointed brow. I will then add with spirit gum wolf like fur with either crepe hair or pulled wool to create a more realistic eyebrow.

In the same way that I am adding fur to the eyebrows, I will be adding fur to the face. Like this image I don't want to go over the top with fur as I want to keep the wolf looking more human than completely animal like - almost as if catching the moment of transformation between human and wolf in a full moon.








   

 To really draw attention to the dark and more violent sides of the fairy tales and this one in particular, I will use more intimidating single close ups of the wolfs teeth and fangs, the long and sharp wolf claws and frowned brows.

As you can see from my image references I have taken inspiration from the film 'Wolf' featuring Jack Nicholson, this clip shows the scene of the film where he is followed by 3 strangers who threaten to rob him, through the scene you can see elements of his appearance change just slightly into that of a wolf, once fully transformed he then pounces and attacks the men.

In regards to the wolf's claws I am planning on making my own with acrylic nail tips and acrylic paints using the same technique as this.