Bringing Characters To Life - Snow White

The third Grimm Brother's story that I have chosen to include in my fairy tale is that of Snow White & Rose Red, it is important that this story isn't confused with Snow White, they are two completely different characters in two completely different plots.



Snow White & Rose Red is a story about two sisters that live deep in the forest in a cottage with their widowed mother. I found this story most interesting due to the relationship between the two sisters. I felt that there was a lot I could do with both characters as in the fairy tale they are described as being complete opposites in personality but also inseparable as sisters and friends, after reading through the story a couple of times I came up with the idea of having the characters as one person with split personalities - one innocent and the other evil, almost like that of a schizophrenic.










In the same way schizophrenics tend to show elements of two different people so will my character. The first character, Snow White is described in the story as quiet and gentle and I pictured her character as very innocent and pure in both character and appearance. I felt this best way to send this message was through the use of white as it is very strong in quickly portraying a message of purity and will be easy to use an opposite much darker colour for the character of Rose Red. I would preferably like to find a model with either white or light blonde hair as I feel a wig wouldn't have the same effect, I will then use a white flowing and simplistic dress for the costume, pale make-up such as a nude lip and white or cream eye shadow and white eyelashes.

I would like the hair to be off the model's face as I feel this will give the look a child-like element and again rein-force the idea of innocence and purity. The image shown here is very successful in creating a very natural mood through elements such as simplistic, neutral make-up, soft lighting and dainty, feminine clothing. I hope that my image will be as successful as this in creating a mood of both innocence and purity. 

'A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations, most reported are hearing noises, delusions, often bizarre and disorganised thinking and speech.'

I wanted to take the closeness of the two sisters and use this to portray them as both the good and the sinful versions of each other. To show this through just appearance Rose Red must look much more obviously evil than Snow White through mainly costume, make-up, lighting and composition (e.g. facial expressions). Although the elements of this story aren't as obviously dark and gruesome as some of the other Grimm tales, I am going to exaggerate the idea through a dark and unattractive looking Rose Red portraying the devil side of Snow White. Much like this image I am going to make Rose Red's skin imperfect  and her hair matted and unkempt, her eye make-up will be very heavy and dark as will her lips. I hope that this is comparison with Snow White's pure clean make-up will show an obvious difference in both their appearances and personalities.

As first seen in the title of the fairy tale, roses both white and red are very symbolic and mentioned throughout the story as clearly main aspects of the story as a whole. A rose is symbolic of love and in this particular story an example of the love and bond that the two sisters share, it was paramount that I also used roses as a symbol in my images. 



In my book there will be one close- up of Snow White holding a white rose and another in opposition of Rose Red holding a red rose in her mouth. Both are symbolic in both action and colour in portraying with the same object two completely different messages and I hope that this will also become clear to a viewing audience. 



Another single image will be that off scattered red and white petals mixed on the floor.