Dirt & Dirty Teeth

   In last weeks session we was taught of different ways of creating dirt on the skin. The first method we was shown was by using fuller's earth which is a dry material which can be used dry to create the effect of dirt or dust, but if you add a small amount of water to fuller's earth it comes a paste or clay like consistency which can act as mud on the skin. Another good thing about using fuller's earth is that you can colour it, just add a small amount of super colour and your mud will look a lot more realistic compared to the images above.
   We was lastly taught how to colour teeth and make them look rotten or dirty. Start by drying the teeth you're going to colour by wiping a cotton bud over the teeth, also making sure that your model doesn't shut their mouth during this or the drying period of the teeth colouring product. Once teeth are dry, apply colour using a cotton bud wherever you so desire to have the teeth colouring, building up the colour from a light wash to a darker colour will help this look a lot more realistic and leave mouth open to dry. To remove this product still using a cotton bud and a small amount of surgical spirt, rub the teeth until all colour has been removed.  

Practicing My Design

   After deciding my final make-up look, I decided that it would be best to practice my design as if I was to face any difficulty when achieving my final outcome I'd much rather face them now while practicing and be able to fix them. 
   For this practice I decided to just make up the face, but when doing my assessment I will make up every bit of skin that I plan to be on show in the final images. In my previous skin undertone post I decided that I did want my character to have more of an undertone to the skin instead of having a thick or theatrical effect, and I found on my arm a way of achieving this was to use my Kryolan aqua colour palette, however when it came to practicing it on someones face the outcome wasn't quite what I expected. The product wasn't staying on the face and would move previous product on the skin and making my base look very dramatic. After thinking of other ways to apply my off green base I came to the idea of adding foundation to my chosen colour mix which applied so much better compared to the water activated paints before. Sadly, due to the lighting in these images make my model looks very green, however in person it created a very sallow and sickly effect to the skin which is the overall effect I wanted to create for my character.
   Carrying on with working on the skin, on my design I had my character have very tired/black eyes, to achieve this I started off by using my grease paint in yellow and green with a cosmetic sponge that I had taken random chunks out of which create the effect of broken capillaries and a more realistic bruising effect. I then went in and added depth to the bruising with my Kryolan bright eyeshadow palette by using various blues, purples, greens, yellows and pinks to create the tired/bruising effect I want. When doing this, I kept in mind to keep it very controlled and be mindful when placing different shades, I also had a few reference photos of bruises to see the different stages of bruising and what different colours do the different stages of bruising have for me to keep in mind how old or new I want my bruises to be. After I had finished around the eyes I then applied some vaseline around the area to attract light, therefore making that area look more raised and swollen. I didn't just stop at the eyes with this bruising technique, I applied it around my models face in a contouring application which I felt made my character look more beat up, as he was put together so naturally there would be bruising in areas of the body and face. 
   Lastly, I then moved on to creating the huge scar around one side of the face. I started off by laying down a guideline of a red lipliner to show me where the scar will be placed and how it was going to look on my models face, but also to show me where to apply the product as my chosen product to create this indented scar is clear. My chosen material to create this scar was Kryolans collodion, which I found very easy to work with and remove from my model. Out of all of my work so far, creating the scar was by far the most time consuming part of my whole design, this is due to the fact of you have to layer the product on the face or body to create deeper scars and for my design I wanted a very intense scar on the face. After layering the product a few times I started to notice a difference in the skin and saw that the product was working, however I did notice that no matter how much I layered up the collodion it wasn't getting as deep as I would of desired it to be. An idea came to mind to help with the illusion of my scar being deeper than what it is, was to add shadows and highlights to my scar. Adding darker shades of red or my off green mixture to the inside of the scar will help make the scar look a lot deeper, and adding white highlights around the top of the scar on the skin without the collodion will make the shadows pop and look a lot more realistic and raised.
   During my assessment, I plan on doing so much more to this design, such as dirtying up the face and body and adding so much more texture to make my character to look as realistic, yet so unappealing to the viewer. Unfortunately I won't be able to go too overboard when adding texture to my character due to having to recreate my character the next week and make him identical to my first creation, but I will view my added texture in a mindful way and create a controlled manner. I have also thought about adding more scars around the face, some raised and some sunken into the skin, I will experiment with this idea during my second practice for time wise and if it works with my character.

Rick Baker Research

   In a pop culture world bursting with science fiction and fantasy, theres no special effects makeup artist more respected, admired than Rick Baker. From humble beginnings cooking up monster masks in his mother's kitchen, Baker's talent and enthusiasm to make-up and special effects catapulted him from his first Hollywood job as a makeup assistant on "The Exorcist" (1973) to supervising the creation of a bevy of cantina aliens in "Star Wars" (1977) and creating the scariest post-modern wolfman in "An American Werewolf in London" (1981). Thanks in part to his work on Michael Jackson's 1983 music video "Thriller," in which he turned the pop star and his backup performers into the dancing undead. He soon found himself creating creatures for "Harry and the Hendersons" (1987), "Men in Black" (1997) and Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" (2001). Baker's career then went into a comedic direction with his work with comedian Eddie Murphy, who he transformed into a bevy of characters, including the portly Sherman Klump in "The Nutty Professor," (1996) and its sequel.

   Baker announced his retirement on May 28, 2015: "First of all, the CG stuff definitely took away the animatronics part of what I do. It's also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, and the business is crazy right now. I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is basically time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don’t think I will have a huge working studio anymore.”

Fever, Sweat & Tears

   This weeks practical session we was taught how to create a fever, sweat and tears using our super colour by Kryolan and glycerin. Whilst working on my partner and looking at my final product I found that when I was applying the redness around the face I was being semi heavy handed, which made the paint show up so much more intense and harsh against the skin. In the future I would make sure I didn't have a lot of product on my sponge, but to also go in with a cotton pad dipped in make up remover to help soften the redness and blend nicely into the skin.

Fever & Fever Eyes Method:

1.  start off by mixing the reds in this palette with some moisturiser to dilute the colour the applied it to the face with a black textured sponge and be very light handed/don't load up the colour onto sponge
2. stipple around the face where you'd get redness e.g. around the cheeks, forehead, nose, neck etc
3. to add more texture get a paint brush and flick colour onto models face
4. make sure edges aren't harsh and are almost translucent
5.  to create fever eyes use red shades from your super colour palette and apply on corners of the eyes and under eye

Sweat & Tears Method:

1. using a black textured sponge dipped in glycerin apply a small amount to the forehead, top of the lip, back of the neck etc
2. for tears apply using cotton bud but do NOT get inside the eye

Continuity And Its Importance In Film

   As for our final project this semester we are being judged on our continuity when we create our monsters/characters, so to put us to the test we was told to create something on our partner whether that be a bruise, black eye, dark lip, or even an eyeshadow look just something small to get us to learn about the importance of continuity especially in film or TV.
   In this lesson I chose to create a bruise of the forearm of my partner by using my aqua colour by Kryolan. I started off by stippling on different colours, layering up as I go along until I had reached my desired intensity of the colours and shape, then wiped it off and repeated my process. As you can see my second attempt at my bruise looks nothing like my first bruise and this is because I won't looking at my original image as much as I should have when recreating this. Hopefully after much practice on my model when it comes to my second final outcome my continuity will have improved quite a bit in that you won't be able to tell the difference between the first and second exam image.

Examples of continuity fails in movies: 

Design Influence: Skin Undertones & Practice

   As for my character I decided to go with more of an undertone of colour rather than a flat, thick layer of paint all over the face and body I thought it would be a good idea to test out colour schemes that I could use for my monster. I thought the most natural way of creating a new undertone to skin and still show skin texture though would be using my aqua colour palette from Kryolan as you can really water down the pigment with these paints creating a kind of water colour wash effect.
   I started off by using the green in this palette and a lot of water and applied it to my skin using cosmetic triangle sponges. I decided to use sponges as it really helps to blend the colour into the skin and not create brush stroke marks which is something you want to avoid when painting a face, arm, body etc. After playing around with the colour by stroking the sponge up and down my arm to remove any unnecessary colour I thought the effect was very realistic, by realistic I mean that you can still see my natural skin texture though the paint and it isn't overly noticeable on the skin.
   My next go at creating undertones I decided to try and achieve a greyish green effect to the skin, I created my colour by using the left over green from the previous application and mixed the slightly amount of black. When applying this onto the skin I noticed that it really clung to hairs and showed a lot of skin texture that I didn't really want to be shown on camera, I also noticed that the colour that I had got wasn't the colour I wanted to achieve in the end result. If I was to ever come back to playing around with colours I would defiantly be looking at mixing white into my mixture and also try and find a solution to unwanted skin texture showing though paint.
   My final colour scheme test I thought mixing the tiniest amount of yellow into my green would create a rather sickly effect which is also something I want to achieve with my monster. After mixing the colours together and applying it to my skin I noticed that this mixture gave a lot of depth to my skin as the green was showing though in a kind of blotchy, bruised way but also defining features like my knuckles which I rather liked the look of.
   In conclusion the my third trial at undertones seems to be a strong candidate for being my overall skin tone for my monster, however I do plan on mixing up more colours before my exam to make sure I get my final and favourite colour combination.

Design Influences: Scars

   Another design influence for my designs has been scars on the face and body, this has been due to again my characters background as he was made from old body parts found in a graveyard so there would naturally be some form of scaring, stitching or cuts on his body and face. I was also very inspired by Rick Baker's bride of Frankenstein to do something like this on the face for my final design and thought to have the placement of one big scar across the face would be a nice twist to his original idea.
   Whilst designing my designs I was torn between making the scars on the face raised or an indent in the skin, but came to the conclusion of having the extremely long and deep scar to be indented into the skin and to possibly have raised smaller scars around the neck or body.

Design Influences: Bruising

   Throughout my designs I have used bruising or some form of irritation to the skin, this is because due to my characters background there is bound to be some kind of bruising or irritation in large, concentrated patches or around his whole body in general. A big reasoning for me using bruising around my monsters face and body is for me to show off hallowed out features such as cheekbones, temples, collarbones and neck tendons. I decided to use a bruising colour scheme for when I add shape and definition to my monster as to me, having a more undead approach to these things instead of using what is considered a "normal" contour will have a more realistic look compared if his skin has a greyish green undertone. I have also decided to use bruising in my designs as a way of showing tiredness around the eyes which is where a lot of the bruising is on my designs.

Hair Design #3 - Final

   After looking at both my two hair designs, I decided to strip back all other elements from my first two designs and just have the focus on having messy hair with a side parting. I chose to go with this much similar design because I felt like having facial hair/sideburns would really cloud my overall look, if you look at my make-up designs you'll see that I have a lot of things going on, on the face and I decided that I wanted that to take full attention. I also felt that this hairstyle would be the easiest, but also the quickest to recreate within our short time scale yet still be effective to my character. To create this look, like all my other designs I would use my rat tail comb to section the parting then use hair gel to slick and stitch down the hair but also give texture and volume to the much larger section of hair by running my fingers though the hair.

Hair Design #2

   For my second hair chart I wanted to still see what facial hair could look like on my overall design, but try the classic side parting with a controlled mess of hair. I'm a much bigger fan of this design compared to my first design as I believe in the situation my creation is in, that having messy hair would really fit the look a lot better plus look more realistic if my design had messy hair. I decided to go for the messy hair on top as because my chosen character, Frankenstein's monster has been created out of different body parts and put back together I thought having untidy hair would pull the whole character that is meant to look untidy, messy and disgusting together. Although this is one of my favourite hair designs, I'm still unsure on the sideburns, purely because in the situation the monster is in would he have facial hair at all? This is still something I'm thinking about for my final design, however it is defiantly an option this early on in my design period.

Hair Design #1

   For my first hair design, I wanted to try out a stereotypical Victorian male hair style and facial hair. As you'll be able to see from above the slick side parting, keeping my design very sleek and tidy with the addition of sideburns on each side of the face. Looking at this design now, I don't think this is the design for my chosen character as Frankenstein's undead monster wouldn't be known for having tidy, put together hair unlike his creator. However this design could work for some people doing the monster, I on the other hand wanted to show a more distressed look to my design as for the situation and scene my design is pictured in I wanted my creation to look rugged and untidy to show a contract between every other ordinary Victorian male on screen.

Face Charts #3 - Final

   Out of all three face charts I feel this face chart is the one that looks more along the lines of "undead" and zombie like. Just like the previous two I'm still sticking with the off coloured skin tone for the face and body but also focusing on making the monsters skin full of different textures such as dirt etc. To achieve this I'll stipple and spray different shades of colours onto the skin to create a muddy, uneven skin tone as he does have a body made up of different people. My approach to the eyes, cheeks and body are to stay within the bruised effect compared to them looking irritated or hallowed out, I decided to go for this design to give the illusion that he's very beat up as after people have surgery (which is what he initially had) people tend to come up in bruises and have irritated skin around the area they was operated on. This is another reason why I decided to add an extremely large scar going across the face, inspired by the Rick Baker's bride of Frankenstein I thought I'd add a different twist to his idea of having the stitching and bolts around both sides of the face.
   Around the mouth and nose I plan on making them areas very dry, yet again adding to the different textures on the face, but to also make him appear ill looking. Paired with paled out lips to match the skin, I think adding the dryness around the corners of the mouth will be a nice touch to my monster.

Face Charts #2

   Just like my first design, with the skin I still want to take the approach of a more "natural" way of showing people that my character is the undead by using washes of colour on the skin. For this design I chose to still slightly stick with the hallow or irritated eyes to give the illusion that maybe the monster has some kind of infection as he is made of different body parts, but to also show off his emotion the monster feels during most of the book which is either angry or sadness.
   Going back to the skin, as you'll be able to see I wanted to hallow out not just his eyes but also the whole of his face and body. I plan on making every muscle and bone even more dramatic to add to the undead feel of this design. On the face as well you'll be able to see I've decided to add broken capillaries on the face to also give him that irritated look to him, but also because I love the kind of spooky effect they can give and I imagine the broken capillaries paired with the off coloured skin and bruised eyes will end up making my model looking very scary.

Face Charts #1

   When thinking about my final look for this project, apart of me wanted to really stay true to the original Frankenstein and use some of it's very famous traits. Unfortunately, as a designer you're constantly having to be better at the game of creating something that maybe hasn't been done before, so whilst I was trying to figure out what I could do I thought about what is seen to people as "dead" or "undead"? To me, undead would have extreme under eye circles or hallow eye sockets so that is where the inspiration for the heavy black and purple smokey eye came from. An idea whilst drawing up this face chart was to add some form of gloss to the eyes to create a swollen effect to the eyes.
   For the rest of the face I wanted to create an overall wash or undertone of colour instead of doing a harsh thick layer of colour that sat on the skin. I chose to do it this way to make my overall creation more realistic and to stay away from a theatrical type of approach to my monster, but to also enforce the idea of the undead, so my character looks extremely sick/not right looking as all normal tones to someone who is alive will have been taken out. Another element of the face is scars, my reasoning behind using scars instead of the typical bolts or stitches on the face is to add a different twist to my monsters appearance. For me, it makes it look as if the monster has been walking for many months or years as the joining of different body parts have healed.

Late Victorian Hairstyle Practice

1.  The first part of creating this hairstyle was using the hot rollers, we started off by sectioning the front two sections vertically behind the ear and then in a middle parting. Then with each of those separate sections we took two horizontal sections starting from the top and two vertical sections of hair under the two above.
2. After that we created two pony tails one under the other at the back of the hair, leaving some hair underneath them. Separate the hair within the ponytail into sections and curl them using the tongs and once they’re curled we pinned the curls leaving some remaining curled hair out of the pin. With the remaining hair at the bottom, lift it to attach the pinned curls on the back of the head and this gave the hairstyle the waterfall look that became very popular in between 1830-1860.
3. Remove the rollers at the front of the head and with the bottom two sections comb them together and bring them to the back of the head and pin them with the rest of the other curls. With the top two sections, comb them together and bring them back to where we pinned the bottom section but just above them. Lastly take the rollers out and let them fall on the face.

Late Victorian Mens Hairstyles Research

   After 1860, and until the end of the century, hair was a lot shorter, but beards and moustaches, mutton chops and side burns were all really popular. Gentlemen used different kinds of waxes and oils to keep their hair in shape, including wood frames used at the night time to preserve the form of their moustaches. At the end of the century many decided to use a clean shaven face and short hair. It was popular for men fighting in the American civil war to grow facial hair because the temperature was so cold that by growing facial hair they could keep their face warmer.

Late Victorian Hairstyles Research

   As the skirts of the dresses were drawn back towards the late 1860's so was the hair with pulling it back to reveal womens ears. The flat top and the curls spiralling down the back of the neck copied the details on the back and train of the gowns.

   The industrial revolution created a massive rise in the middle class which brought a lot more new fashions and hairstyles to the era. By the 1850's department stores became popular meaning that women bought a lot of hair pieces to go in their hair. This depended on their wealth as to what kind of piece they bought. When the civil war was going on during 1861-1865 this brought a new hairstyle for women. It was more to do with practicality during the war rather than extreme hairstyles with hair pieces. The hair was worn off of the face and put tightly into a bun so that no hair was down in the face and bothering the women. It was a lot more practical to have no hair hanging down around the face whilst women was working.

   Towards the end of the 19th century curling irons were introduced which changed Victorian women hairstyles again and they become a lot more influenced by soft waves. However, only those who could afford curling irons would use them. They were introduced by Marcel Grateau and was known as the 'Marcell wave', it was a lot more natural wave to the hair rather than the sausage curls we saw in the 1860's.

Burns

   In this weeks session of SFX we was taught how to create first, second and third degree burns by using gelatine.

1. First degree: sunburn, oven burn ect. When creating first degree burns, keep in mind that you don't want the colour to be too pigmented on the skin. You want the persons natural skin texture and tone to show though the colour. First degree burns are normally the types of burn to create a stencil effect on the skin, as the person why of been wearing clothes and will create a harsh, definitive line.
2. Second degree: textured skin with no hard edges. Blistering is more likely to appear on the skin and have some form of a shine to it. Lots of different tones and ranges in colour to second degree burns.
3. Third degree: no hard edges of colour with interesting texture inside of the burn. Extremely deep so will include a lot of different colour ranges and depth to the burn/skin.

Gelatine:

1. take a small section of gelatine and place in microwave for around 15 seconds or until melted
2. unlike latex, you can use gelatine straight onto the skin and it's less likely for people to have a reaction to it
3. is a good adhesive for onto the skin
4. also good for continuity as you can place gelatine into moulds, however make sure you use something like vaseline around the mould to stop it from sticking to the mould

Method:

1. start by melting the gelatine in microwave until melted
2. before placing it onto skin test on your own to make sure it isn't too hot to handle
3. once cool enough, place onto skin using a palette knife and smooth onto skin in the shape you desire
4. keep working the product and building it up and smooth the sides down as you go to stop raised edges and making it look less realistic
5. once it starts to get tacky, you can dap the knife over the gelatine to create raised skin and different types of texture. This is extremely important if you're creating a second or third degree burn
6. set gelatine with a hairdryer on the COLD setting of your hairdryer as you don't want to melt the gelatine again 
7. powder the skin to take away any tackiness and shine to the skin
8. start painting your burn in light layers of colour, always building up to the darkest colour you wish to go with your wound
9. as important as it was to add texture to the gelatine/burn, it's just as important to show that texture with the colouring. So in any dents or raised areas of your burn add shadows and highlights to your burn to make it seem more realistic
10. lastly, you can add more special effect products into the burn/wound by using wound filler ect to make it even more realistic and gross

    Looking back at my burn, I can see that I needed to do so much more to the wound in order to make it look more realistic. In future I will smooth the edges a lot more either using witch hazel or while the gelatine is still workable, I also would use a lighter hand when going in with colour and get more of a variety of tones and colours in my burn as it seemed quite flat in colour. Another additional effect I wish I could of played around with was the other wound fillers to make the wound seem like it had puss and infected.

Monster Mash: Vampire

A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures. Undead beings, vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures. Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalise this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited.

   The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of “The Vampyre" by John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel “Dracula” which is remembered as the vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, and television shows. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.

   It is difficult to make a single description of the folkloric vampire, though there are a few elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually seen as bloated in appearance, ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature.

Premature burial

It has also been hypothesised that vampire legends were influenced by people being buried alive because of shortcomings in the medical knowledge of the time. In some cases in which people reported sounds coming from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies. Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbing.

Porphyria

In 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed a link between the rare blood disorder porphyria and vampire folklore. Saying that the condition is treated by administrating haem, he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstream. Therefore vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and to ease their symptoms. The theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease.

Rabies

Rabies has been linked with vampire folklore. Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist at Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, examined this possibility in a report in Neurology. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. The disease can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (making them become nocturnal) and hyper sexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies.

Monster Mash: Werewolfs

A werewolf is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shape shift into a wolf or a hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (e.g. via a bite or scratch from another werewolf). The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many forms which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore which developed during the medieval period. 

   Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, accusations of werewolfery being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials. During the early period, accusations of lycanthropy (transformation into a wolf) were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of Peter Stumpp (1589) led to a significant peak in both interest in and persecution of supposed werewolves.

   After the end of the witch-trials, the werewolf became of interest in folklore studies and in the emerging Gothic horror genre; werewolf fiction as a genre has pre-modern precedents in medieval romances and developed in the 18th century out of the "semi-fictional" chap book tradition. The trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern pop culture.

Monster Mash: Ghosts

   In folklore, mythology, and modern media such as literary fiction, a ghost, sometimes known as a phantom, apparition, spirit, spook, or haunt is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance. The belief in seeing spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices such as; unreal rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, ghost ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.

   While deceased ancestors are regarded as venerable, and often imagined as having a continued presence in some sort of afterlife, the spirit of a deceased person which remains present in the material world is regarded as an unnatural or undesirable state of affairs and the idea of ghosts or revenants is associated with a reaction of fear. This is universally the case in pre-modern folk cultures, but fear of ghosts also remains an integral aspect of the modern ghost story, Gothic horror, and other horror fiction dealing with the supernatural.

Monster Mash: Zombies

   A zombie is a fictional undead being created through a human corpse. The term comes from Haitian folklore, where a zombie is a dead body bought back to life through various methods, most commonly magic. Modern depictions of zombies do not necessarily involve magic but often invoke science fictional methods such as radiation or viruses. One of the first books to introduce the Western culture to the idea of the voodoo zombie was The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook in 1929. This is the sensationalised account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults in Haiti and their resurrected thralls.

   Zombies have a complex literary heritage, from Richard Matheson and H. P. “Lovecraft” to Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” all showing the European folklore concept of the undead. In 1932, Victor Halperin directed White Zombie, a horror film starring Bela Lugosi. Here zombies are depicted as mindless, unthinking men under the spell of an evil magician. A new version of the zombie, different from that described in Haitian folklore, has also emerged in popular culture in recent years. This "zombie" is taken largely from George A. Romero's seminal film “Night of the Living Dead”, which was in turn partly inspired by Richard Matheson's 1954 book “I Am Legend”. The monsters in the film and its sequels, such as “Dawn of the Dead” and “Day of the Dead”, as well as its many inspired works, such as “Return of the Living Dead” and “Zombi 2”, are usually hungry for human flesh, although “Return of the Living Dead” introduced the popular concept of zombies eating brains. The "zombie apocalypse" concept, in which the civilised world is brought low by a global zombie infestation, became a staple of modern popular art.

Fiction & Mordern Day Monsters

   A monster is any creature, usually found in horror fiction, that is portrayed as hideous and may produce fear or physical harm by its appearance and/or its actions. The word "monster" comes from Latin monstrum, an aberrant occurrence, usually biological, that was taken as a sign that something was wrong with the natural order. The word usually indicates something wrong or evil; a monster is generally morally objectionable, physically or psychologically hideous, and/or a freak of nature. It can also be applied to a person with similar characteristics like a greedy person or a person who does horrible things. The root of "monstrum" is "monere"—which does not only mean to warn, but also to instruct. Therefore, the monster is also a sign or instruction. This kind interpretation was proposed by Saint Augustine, who did not see the monster as inherently evil, but as part of the natural design of the world, a kind-of deliberate category error.

   Among newborn young and embryos of humans and most species of animals are found occasional individuals who are malformed in whole or in part. The most grossly abnormal of these have been referred to from ancient times as monsters, probably because the birth of one was thought to signify something monstrous or portentous; while the less severe are known as abnormalities or even birth defects. No sharp line separates these grades of malformation, all being due to various kinds and degrees of modification of the normal course of development of the embryo. The study of these deviations forms the subject of teratology, a branch of morphology or embryology.

   A knowledge of the kinds of abnormalities and their causes may, like deliberate experiments, increase understanding of normal development. Convention recognises two major classes of monsters: those that represent defective or excessive growth in a single body, and those that have partial or complete doubling of the body or one of its axes.

Classic monsters

   Classic monsters spawn from legends and fictional stories. Well known monsters include Dracula, Frankenstein's creation, Wolf-man, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and zombies, to name a few.

Single monsters

   Giants and dwarfs are often classed as monsters, probably because of the prominent places they occupy in mythology. Since in humans they generally result from abnormal growth, they cannot usually be recognised as abnormal at birth. An exception is the disproportionate dwarfism known as achondroplasia or chondrodystrophia, in which the limbs and especially the legs are short, thick and bent, with head and trunk disproportionately large. This congenital abnormality occurs in many animals, including:

• Humans
• Cattle, particularly in the Dexter-Kerry breed in which the monstrous bulldog calves with chondrodystrophic dwarfism are often aborted before term 
• Domestic fowl

   A similar abnormality has become a breed characteristic in Bulldogs. In all these cases, abnormal characteristics are inherited together. Cases where this type of dwarfism in a human family behaves as a simple hereditary characteristic have been reported.

Repetition or deficiency

   Repetition or deficiency of single parts such as fingers or toes are frequent anomalies in humans and other mammals. Absence or abnormality of whole limbs is less common and includes besides club-foot, the so-called congenital amputations. Cases are recorded of human identical twins in which both members have the same type of limb abnormality, suggesting an hereditary predisposition to this type of malformation.

   In addition to monsters with primary limbs, others are known with incomplete or underdeveloped extremities. A rare type of monster that has always attracted interest has the lower extremities more or less united, as in mammals of the mythical figures of sirens or mermaids. Such sirenoid monsters may have a single foot or limbs fused throughout their length with no separate feet.

Origin of single monsters

   Much has been learned from study of abnormalities that occur in graded series. So, geneticists Sewall Wright and K. Wagner showed that an extensive series of monsters in one inbred family of guinea pigs could be arranged in a series in which those with least defect are normal, except for a single median lower incisor while with increasing grade of defect the lower jaw is reduced and lost, the ears approach each other on the ventral side and fuse leaving a single ear aperture in the throat; then the mouth and upper teeth are reduced, the nostrils formed into a proboscis, the eyes are reduced and fused in the centre of the forehead and finally all head structures are lost except a small median ear. Otocephaly, cyclopia, and related defects have been produced in experimental animals (fish and amphibian embryos) by chemical treatments that inhibit in ways the head is especially sensitive to. Monsters falling in similar series are found in humans and other vertebrates. They probably arise as a result of interaction between a specific heredity and abnormalities in the environment of the embryo sometimes due to disease or injury.

Double monsters

   Individuals partially, but joined together, are represented by the rare occurrence in humans of Siamese twins, which also reveal the mode of origin of this type of monster. Siamese twins, so-called from a famous pair exhibited for many years in the 19th century, are identical twins joined by a bridge of tissue that joins the circulatory systems. They probably arise by the nearly complete separation of a single fertilised egg into two parts.

   In humans, partially double symmetrical monsters occur. These vary from those with a single head, but neck, trunk and limbs doubled, through those with two heads and a single trunk, to others with head, shoulders and arms doubled but with one trunk and one pair of legs. Such double monsters probably arise following the less complete separation of the halves of the early embryo or partial separation at later stages. A rare type is one in which there is a Janus head, two faces on a single head and body.

Origin of double monsters

   The origin of double monsters has been traced to a variety of causes including disease of mother or embryo, faulty placentation in humans and other mammals, and other factors which reduce the oxygen supply or nutrition of the embryo.

   Monsters have been regarded by the first of people as of supernatural origin. Human monsters have been attributed to intercourse between women and the devil or between men and animals. Many mythical beings such as races of dwarfs and giants, cyclops with a single eye, sirens, mermaids, races of men with a single median leg — were probably suggested by actual observations of human monsters.

Early Victorian Mens Hairstyles Research

  The Queen Victoria of England ruled from 1837 to 1901. This period was called "Victorian Age" because of the particular characteristics it have had. It was an age of energy, with a huge industrial and economic expansion. The Victorian moral was of straight and solid principles. Hairstyles were successively changing during different moments of this period. Men, since 1840 until approximately 1865, wore their hair more or less long, and became in fashion big moustaches, sideburns, and beards. In the 1830's it was popular for men to wear a top hat, so their hairstyle replicated the fashion at the time. Men had a lot of curls and volume on top of their head with very slick sides with some facial hair so that their top hat could sit on their head and not affect their hairstyle so when they removed it their hair was still in place. Side partings were in fashion whether you were having a voluminous hairstyle for under a top hat or just slicking down the hair. Generally mens hair was fairly short which made a change from the 18th century hairstyles.

Early Victorian Hairstyles Research

   All victorian girls and women had extremely long hair as they never cut it and would let it grow as long as they could. In this case the longer the hair, the better because the longer the plaits could get, meaning they could do more with their hair. Long, flowing hair was only acceptable in childhood for girls, long hair was not considered acceptable to wear when you were older as long hair was sexualised and considered to 'set the male heart fluttering' and was considered sexy to watch a lady let their hair down or put their hair up.

   Early victorian hair consisted of a lot of plaits, buns and ringlets. Pre civil war it was popular to have ringlets at the front of the head to frame the face with a bun at the back of the head and also to have the plaits at the front of the head, looping underneath the ear and pinning to the bun. This was a popular hairstyle to women because they wore a lot of bonnets and that fitted underneath the bonnet but you could also see either the ringlets, sausage curls or plaits at the front out of the bonnet. The neater the hair and the different kind of hair pieces added depended on your wealth and social class.

Early Victorian Hair Practical

Method:

1. part hair into a dead centre parting and smooth out hair
2. section hair from the back of the ear and tie up back into a low ponytail
3. create your desired Victoria bun, I decided to go with a twist bun as they're very true and historical to what the Victorians would of worn
4. plait the two front sections into a loose but defined braid, then connect the ends of the plait to the bun and pin into place
5. hairspray down any fly aways to get a clean finish 

   When doing this hairstyle I found it rather difficult and frustrating to recreate, not because the design itself was hard but because my partner has a lot of baby hairs and layers. This meant it was harder for me to create a clean look and pin down every stray hair that popped up when creating the bun and plaits.

Black Eyes

   During our session on creating fake cuts we was also taught how to create black eyes/bruises as well. I created this look by using the bright eyeshadow palette from Kryolan and using various blue, purple, yellow and green shades. What I found when creating bruises or black eyes is to build up in layers of colour and slowly to create the most realistic effect. Also, bruises and black eyes don't have regular patterns, every bruise is shaped differently and has different variations of colour etc which is also something to keep in mind when creating your bruise. I kept a lot of the darkness in the socket of my eyes, and the yellow and greens around the edges to show a gradient effect but to also show the age of the bruise and I wanted to create an older bruise.

Fake Cuts

   This week in our make-up practical lesson we was taught how to create an open wound/cuts. As this is my first time using wax and creating a cut in general I can obviously see room for improvement in this final outcome, but regardless I'm still pretty proud of this outcome.

What You Need:

1. liquid latex
2. wax
3. aqua colour palette
4. grease paint palette
5. paint brushes
6. sponges
7. something to cut the wax and remove wax from pot e.g. knife

What To Do:

1. scoop a small amount of wax from pot and roll into the desired shape you wish to apply it
2. apply liquid latex to area and hold wax down until it's stuck in place
3. smooth sides of the wax and blend into skin to make the transition from skin to wax more realistic
4. set with liquid latex and apply powder to area
5. make your desired cut shape and depth
6. start applying your paint to wound, getting darker as you go deeper into the cut and use a small amount of black where you want the cut to be its deepest
7. keep working on layering colour inside and outside the cut until you're happy with the effect

Ageing Skin

   In todays practical lesson and the first lesson on SFX we was taught how to age skin with liquid latex. This technique is very handy as you can create wrinkly skin as it's quick and easy, but also can stop you from breaking out wax or any other method you may use to create aged skin.

What You Need:

1. liquid latex
2. disposable triangle sponges/paint brush

   Start off by holding the skin very, very tight and apply a layer of liquid latex to the skin and wait until it dries. After it has finally dried, let go of the skin and you'll see the wrinkles start to appear and afterwards powder the skin to get rid of the shine and left over stickiness.

Gothic Horror: Origins & Genre

   Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the genre of Gothic horror and gothic fiction, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction, horror, death and romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story." The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. It originated in England in the second half of the 18th century and had much success in the 19th, as witnessed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The name Gothic refers to the (pseudo)-medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular in England and Germany. The English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French Georgia.

   The novel usually regarded as the "first Gothic novel" is Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, first published in 1764. Horace Walpole's declared aim was to combine elements of the medieval romance. The basic plot created many other staple Gothic generic traits, including a threatening mystery and an ancestral curse, as well as countless trappings such as hidden passages and oft-fainting heroines. Walpole published the first edition disguised as a medieval romance from Italy discovered and republished by a fictitious translator. When Walpole admitted to his authorship in the second edition, its originally favourable reception by literary reviewers changed into rejection. The reviewers's rejection reflected a larger cultural bias. A romance with superstitious elements, and moreover void of didactical intention, was considered a setback and not acceptable. Walpole's forgery, together with the blend of history and fiction contravened the principles of the Enlightenment, associated the Gothic novel with fake documentation.

Key Motifs:

1. strange places
2. clashing time periods
3. power & constraint
4. sexual power
5. the uncanny
6. the sublime
7. crisis
8. the supernatural & the real
9. terror and wonder

Frankenstein (1931) Review/Research

   Frankenstein is a young medical student. Very early you’re introduced to Frankensteins interested in human life and how to create it for himself. His experiments carry him along until he becomes truly obsessed with the unholy desire to create life. But he fails to reckon with God. 

   From graves, the scaffold, and from the university laboratory he steals bodies and uses parts of what were once human beings to build his creation. In one of the open scenes, you meet Victor and Henry who are digging around graveyards but you also learn that Victor is desperate for one human organ in particular, the brain and then steals the brain of a criminal from a lecture room. One night, as the elements rage in an electrical storm, he puts his theories and the body he has assembled to the final test. When the creature is bought back down and Victor sees that his theory has worked, you hear the famous line;

 “It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!”

   The thing that never lived, the horrible monstrosity of a man, the monster of his creation, does take on a robot form of life. He has given it everything except pity, humanity, love.

   From day one of the monsters life, it sets out upon a path of terror and murder. Victor, Henry and the professor try to tame and civilise the monster, to teach it, however the monster goes on killing. Frankenstein then collapses over the stress and regret of creating this monster and is taken home by his future wife, Elizabeth. Soon after the monster escapes by murdering the professor and flees into the countryside and kills a little child, the only human that had ever been kind to it. This time the monster seems to realise what it has done. What pity the monster is capable of showing, it shows here in this scene. Then, on the wedding day of Victor, the monster gets into the bridal home, attacks the bride-to-be and again escapes. This time the entire village is set to trap and kill the monster and goes looking for it. High up on the mountain they find "the thing," but not until it’s too late and has captured and is carrying away Victor after getting into a physical fight. The monster seeks safety away from the angry mob after him, and flees to the old mill where it was created. Here the mob comes and they set fire to the old mill. In its rage and fear of fire, the monster throws the body of its creator into the mob and, trapped in the flames, it burns to death. 

   Because Frankenstein created much of the cinematic language of horror films, it has often been copied. Consequently, and ironically, viewers coming to the film today may mistake the conventions that it created for clichés. The mad scientist and his neo-gothic lab, comma-shaped assistant, and rigidly lurching monster were all creations of director James Whale, and have become movie icons. 

   However, watching Frankenstein is more than simply an exercise in nostalgia. Despite moments of melodrama, the film is wonderfully economical, telling a complex and appealing tale. There are more moments of quiet power, most of them involving the striking Boris Karloff as the monster who simply wants to be loved, than you'll find in a fistful in modern day horror films. Whale knew his vision and didn't clutter the action with a lot of chatter. Instead, he filled the screen with images that would become part of our cultural vocabulary. He builds the story to its tragically inevitable climax, interchanging moments of subtle beauty and dreadful horror. 

   Rather than simply adopt a conventional perspective (that man should not play God), Whale emphasises the human drama that Frankenstein should not have abandoned his creation, turning a horror film into an existential tale of man's fear of abandonment.