Timed assessment 2

Ok, so the second timed assessment is finally over. That means that the timed assessments are over. That means that I am happy. Happy for that and happy that almost everything went well. I liked how the result turned out the second time except for the hair which I felt that didn't look 100% exactly the same, but anyway you couldn't tell the difference without having multiple looks at the first assessment picture and the second. I followed the exact same steps as I did at the previous exam when it comes to the make-up application, except that I used a different foundation because in the meantime I ran out of the Make Up Forever HD one. But Kryolan worked well though I couldn't mixt it with anything else as this one is a grease-based foundation (really good looking on a dry skin) and the other ones I've got (and the moisturizers as well) were water based. About the photography, because I didn't take lighting setups at the previous assessment, I just used whatever setup it was at the moment and it turned out to be a bit different but that's it. At least the make-up was completely the same. And the brows, oh, the brows...

Dexter TV series moodboard

Yesterday I have wrote about my ideas of developing two characters inspired by a TV series. Well, I've looked again at the story and although I really like it and it would be good, I think that it's not so representative of the TV series as the TV series is more reality-like and there is not so much spooky, supernatural stuff but more criminal investigations etc etc. So I have thought about re-writing the story in a different manner to fit with the TV series style as well.
Actually that's the primary reason why I have chosen it, because I didn't know that I was capable imagining and actually sleeping after so much supernatural stuff going on in my head. So yeah, because it was more easy to watch considering this perspective.
The action is taking place in Miami and everything seems to be pretty normal until we get into Dexter's head and see how he really is like.

Claudia, Quentin & Mrs Laderman character profiles and first story ideas

Character profiles

Claudia
Claudia is a girl in her twenties. As a child she was left alone to develop with little parental guidance and through her relationship with T.V. movies developed an unhealthy relationship with Horror films, believing this to be the way life really is.

All the scenes take place in various parts of Claudia’s apartment, which is European in style with
a great deal of kitsch décor. She is agoraphobic and is kept in touch with the outside world by her neighbours who provide her with her every day requirements.  She models herself on a variety of girls often twisting her look to suit whichever film she is watching at the time and there is often
a nod to the main character in the current film within her appearance.

The script portrays her as psychotic and there is always the feeling that although her character is scripted/can be seen as humorous, danger is just around the corner.   However all this is normal to Claudia and she is of a cheerful disposition in this mad world of hers.

Quentin
Claudia has an imaginary boyfriend, Quentin, who is long suffering and a constant disappointment to her. They don’t live together but he visits regularly and they talk on the telephone if he can’t get in to see her. As he is part of her imagination his appearance changes to suit her mood. Sometimes he will be a David Beckham looking guy, whilst in another scene he will appear as a Pete Docherty type, Daniel Craig type or a Hollyoaks Babe. If she is having a bad day he will morph into an uncouth couch potato chav with all that brings with it.

He is as into the horror film genre as she and into role-playing to suit her whims and moods.
Claudia has a paranoid suspicion that he is constantly having affairs behind her back and keeps him firmly under her thumb, sometimes restraining him or keeping him prisoner in one of the rooms.

Mrs Laderman
Claudia’s neighbour in her 40’s. She alternately changes into a variety alter egos and is Claudia’s friend and confidant. Living in the apartment opposite, she was Claudia’s only link to the outside world. Although they are friends there is suspicion that Mrs L’, has designs on Quentin. In fact she has designs on Claudia.

Here are my ideas for the three characters, along with the three words I want to use to help with the characterisation:

Claudia - White rose:

I have thought about creating Claudia as a girl in her twenties having mental disorders because she was left alone as a child and the only example in life that she had were horror films. She is agoraphobic and she never leaves her home, that's why she hasn't got any friends and she doesn't even know how the real world looks like. When she thinks about the sun shining, she thinks that the sun will burn her skin... when she thinks about the forest, she doesn't think about the green woods that w usually think about, but instead about dark, gloomy trees and foggy places. She has a sick mind, but her neighbours pity her and try to help her as much as they can. 

Why I thought about a white rose in relation with Claudia is because the story behind this involves symbolic meanings of this beautiful flower. Referring to historical facts and going back in the 19th century, in the Victorian times, when language of flowers was popular and gothic horror literature was born, the rose had another meanings besides the meanings we know to be true today. A white rose symbolises purity, untainted beauty, morality, everything that is sacre and beautiful in the world. "Now, the opposite of a white rose, is a black rose. This may mean the opposite of what the white rose signifies, meaning impurity or immorality, revenge, and ugliness. Unlike the promise of new beginnings, the black rose may say otherwise, as signifying no return, or no hope."(Wikia)
You might say yes, this could be true, but it has nothing to do with Claudia's story. Not right. You'll see reading further.

Claudia couldn't leave her apartment even if she wanted to. She felt that she will leave, all the demons that were waiting outside will come to get her. She constantly had nightmares about her going out and never being able to come home alive... because her parents left the house one day when she was younger and never returned. She thought that there were monsters outside ready to kill her. She was insane. That's merely why she couldn't make any friendships and the ones that she got were based on other feelings or just pity for her situation. She spoke only with two of her neighbours, Mrs. Laderman and Debrah Morgan, although she only considered Mrs. Laderman as a friend and Debra just someone who used to visit her from time to time and ask her if she's okay. Last time Debra visited she was really nice bringing her a bouquet of white roses which Claudia really cherished. When her other friend and neighbour visited, Mrs. Laderman, she also complimented the bouquet even though she seemed to have an unusual smile on her face doing that. She felt that something is not quite right with her friend but they kept talking and she told her about Quentin. She spoke about him as if he was real and although he wasn't, Mrs. Laderman believed to be so, and didn't know that it's just the result of Claudia's sickness.


Quentin - The woods:

Quentin exists only in relation with Claudia. Quentin is Claudia's imaginary boyfriend and they have never seen each other in her apartment. Due to Claudia's obsession with horror films, she always portrays him in a dark forest, him being the only living creature that seems to be actually alive in the whole picture. But still, this is changeable by Claudia's mood. If she feels happy, he will be full of life and loving. If she feels sad or frustrated, he will be constantly worrying about her and looking desperate. If she feels miserable, he will look miserable as well. And if she feels dead, he will look like a monster, like a zombie who just returned from the dead. He exists as long as Claudia thinks about him and no one else can see him, although that she feels that he is very real. Maybe it's just the schizophrenia, or is Quentin really an invisible entity?

Mrs. Laderman - Door:

Mrs. Laderman is the middle-aged lady next door to Claudia. Claudia considered her her friend until a point, because Mrs. Laderman was her confidant and always there to listen to her problems when she felt like complaining. And she was complaining a lot. Mrs. Laderman was there for her since she was 13 years old and struggling with adolescence in the ugliest way possible: being agoraphobic and schizophrenic and not being able to go out and make friends and actually experience life. Mrs. Laderman loved Claudia, because Claudia was her only friend too. Well, she had another neighbour who talked to, and that was Debra, but they weren't so close as she just moved nearby. Was Mrs. Laderman's love for Claudia just a pure, friendly love? Or was it something else?
The truth is, since Claudia grew up things have changed between them. She started feeling something unusual towards her, and she started suspecting that Claudia is seeing with a boy. She felt incredibly irritated when she found out that Claudia is really in love with Quentin, that's why after Claudia confessed, she stopped coming over Claudia's home.
Claudia noticed that Mrs. Laderman is not how she used to be, and this happened right after she told her about Quentin. She started thinking that Mrs. Laderman had designs on Quentin, and stopped trying to reach her by the phone or anything.
One day, Mrs. Laderman wanted reconciliation because she missed Claudia and wanted to clarify her feelings towards her. She went and knocked on Claudia's door. She opened, and when she saw Mrs. Laderman, she had a nervous breakdown. She was really angry at her because all the time they haven't seen each other she was alone and devastated by her own thoughts. Instead of reconciliating, they started fighting. Mrs. Laderman wanted to let her guard down, but Claudia felt the weakness and stabbed her to death. When realising what she just did, she felt extremely guilty and scared and wanted to run away. But she couldn't. She was trapped in her own fears, trapped in her life and in her apartment. She felt like her own life was falling apart and she couldn't deal with this no more. She desperately called for Quentin's help but he was nowhere to be found. She panicked and she remembered about the pills that the doctor gave her to take when she felt like she couldn't deal with life anymore. She took them all in a desperate attempt to escape... and she escaped, in the end. In her last minutes she could see Quentin lying over her disfigured, with fire in his eyes and laughing with his teeth almost falling out of his big, mutillated mouth. He then told her: "I've been waiting for so long for you in Hell, next to our parents whom I've killed. I am so happy that our family is finally reuinted. You thought that I am your boyfriend? No, little sister, I am your stepbrother, killed by your mother at birth. She was having an affair with another man while being with our father... he found out about that while she was pregnant and thought that I am not his child. He discussed with mother about this and they both agreed to give a second chance to their marriage but to do so, they had to kill me at birth because they were't even sure that I was their child! They have killed me with cold blood and I wanted revenge. You know that you only could imagine me in the woods? There's where they have buried me as a newborn. There's where I have kept for years some space next to me for my beloved parents and for you, you second chance! There's where you belong, my dear sister, in the ground next to me and the whole family. You were right when you feared that going out of the apartment will harm you. Outside are another dead souls ready to eat yours alive. You have to pay for your parents sins, and you will with your own life. That's why I did everything I could to push you to take your own life and write yourself the sentence to Hell. That's where you belong and now I can finally find my soul rest knowing that I had revenge, even though I will burn in Hell for an eternity along with my family.".

The other charachter I have imagined is Debrah Morgan, Dexter's sister. She is a very compassionate girl, always wanting to help others, and that's why when she has time she visits Claudia, knowing that she suffers from a mental illness. She called Claudia that night to see if the roses that she gave her were still fresh, because she just bought another bouquet and wanted to give them to her. Claudia didn't answer the phone. Neither did Mrs. Laderman. She kept calling but nobody was answering and she felt that something must be wrong with them. She decided to visit Claudia to see if everything's fine and because her brother was staying at her that night, she took him with her. When they got to Claudia's home, they have seen the terrible scene with Mrs. Laderman on the ground, stabbed and in a puddle of blood and Claudia lying on the floor, with her eyes open, dead and cold. They started investigating the case looking for a murderer, because something was not right with their story. Looking at the roses from the window sill, Debrah noticed that they weren't white anymore. They turned black, and both her and her brother felt that here is something more than just a murder.  There is a dark mistery that they have to reveal.

References:

• Wikia (no date) Black rose. Available at: http://symbolism.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Rose (Accessed: 6 March 2016).

Gender and horror

In the horror genre there are lots of debates of how the women are portrayed. They used to be portrayed as weak and waiting for help from a male presence, and being nothing but helpless and powerless without it. But as the times are changing and feminism becoming more present in the modern society, the approach on women's roles became to evolve and finally to be reconsidered, even in the slightest. Even though today women are portrayed as having their "revenge" because they have been shown in more powerful roles, not only playing the "victim" role, (Donahue 2014) there still exists gender inequality in the distribution of the powerful roles.

From the Victorian times up to the present century, women have been neglected in the horror and gothic literature, theatre, film etc. and were attributed weaker roles or roles in which they were depending on a man. Even if they had more powerful roles, they were still limited in a wolrd where all that mattered was how their bodies look and not what they feel of think. "One cultural tradition, older than Victorians but nonetheless proeminent within the late nineteenth century, identifies women as entities defined by and entrapped within their bodies, in contrast to the man, who is governed by rationality and capable of transcending the fact of his embodiment. In nineteenth century social medicine in particular, women were theorized as incomplete human subjects.[...] They possess the intellectual qualities that distinguish Man from brute only in the most limited and imperfect sense" (Hurley 1997).

No wonder that nowadays horror literature and film still perpetuate the idea that women are still not capable of being in a powerful position - the roots of horror as a genre is in the Victorian times and some of the mentalities are not so easily changeable.

Although these are some sad facts, the idea that the world is continuously changing doesn't bother me at all. Maybe there will be some good changes in the end, who knows?

References:

• Donahue, A.T. (2014) Women in horror: The revenge. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/commentisfree/2014/oct/17/women-in-horror-the-revenge (Accessed: 6 March 2016).
• Hurley, K., Hurley and Beer, G. (1997) The gothic body: Sexuality, materialism, and degeneration at the fin de siècle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dexter TV series

For the second part of my semester I have chosen Dexter TV series to create my characters. When we were given the list of the TV series which we should have watched I was really worried that I couldn't watch any of them as I am really not into the horror film genre and watching a horror film is a terrible nightmare for me. I have to admit that I didn't watch any of the TV series before and I was afraid even to look at trailers to see which one I could watch... but I have spoken with Kat about this and she advised me about which ones will be for "horror beginners" like me and I decided on Dexter, as it was more about killers and murders and not creepy horror stuff that I really couldn't watch. 

I liked the idea that everything takes place nowadays and that I could create a more-reality like story for my characters, and this boosted my inspiration.

The key words I have chosen to further inspire my characters are: white rose, the woods and door. I have a vague idea of whom I will attribute these words to but I am not sure yet and I will discuss this in one of the future blog posts.

(mondozilla 2013)

"Dexter is an American television drama series first aired October 1, 2006 on Showtime. The series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a blood spatter pattern analyst for a fictional Miami Metro Police Department who also leads a secret life as a serial killer.

Set in Miami, the show’s first season was largely based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004), the first of the Dexter series novels by Jeff Lindsay. It was adapted for television by screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the first episode. Subsequent seasons have evolved independently of Lindsay’s works.

The series has enjoyed wide critical acclaim and popularity. Season 4 aired its season finale on December 13, 2009 to a record-breaking audience of 2.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched original series episode ever on Showtime. Michael C. Hall has received several awards and nominations for his portrayal of Dexter, including a Golden Globe. The Season 8 premiere was the most watched Dexter episode ever with over 3 million viewers.

Besides Michael C. Hall playing the title character, the show’s supporting cast includes Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter’s adoptive sister and co-worker (and later boss) Debra, and James Remar as Dexter’s adoptive father, Harry. Dexter’s co-workers include Lauren Vélez as Lieutenant (later Captain) María LaGuerta, Dexter and Debra’s supervisor, David Zayas as Detective Sergeant Angel Juan Marcos Batista, and C. S. Lee as lab tech Vince Masuka."(mondozilla 2013)


References:

• mondozilla (2013) Dexter – TV series. Available at: https://horrorpedia.com/2013/07/29/dexter-tv-series/ (Accessed: 4 March 2016).

Continuity notes for TA - Updated

Make-up

1. Cleanse (Garnier micellar water), tone (studio toner), moisturize (Simple moisturizer), moisturize the lips (Carmex);
2. Apply eye cream (Balea);
3. Apply more moisturizing cream instead of mattifying face base, because the finish should be more natural and the model's skin is a little bit dry;
4. Color correcting: green for red spots and orange for dark circles (Parisax color correcting concealer palette);
5. Foundation: mix 5 pumps of MUFE HD with 1 pump of Paris Berlin waterproof and 1 pump of Paese mattifying base. Apply with a flat brush and dab with a beautyblender;
6. Apply highlighting cream on the areas to be highlighted (Inglot) with a micro mini beautyblender;
7. Apply concealer (Astor 24H) under the eye, blend with micro mini;
8. Set the under eye area with loose powder (Ben Nye) and a flat natural bristled brush. Be careful to set only under the eyes;
9. Cream contouring: Kryolan palette shades L0 and 6650 mixed: the cheekbones, the forehead, the nose, the jawline. Blend everything with a beautyblender;
10. Apply cream blusher (MUFE HD) with a stippling brush and blend;
11. Highlight with a powder highlighter (The Balm Mary Loumanizer) the cheekbones and the nose bridge;
12. Apply a small amount of loose powder all over the face;
13. Eyebrows: contour lightly with the lightest shade in the Essence brow kit, brush upwards and set with Anastasia Beverly Hills clear brow gel;
14. Apply MAC taupe eyeshadow in the inner corner of the eyebrows to the nose with a fluffy blending brush;
15. Apply Ga-de Creme Matte eyeshadow in the inner corner and on the browbone;
16. Curl the eyelashes, apply Anastasia Beverly Hills clear gel instead of Rimmel mascara to set the eyelashes;
17. Lips: wipe the foundation with a baby bud and apply more Carmex lip balm, then apply a bit of gloss on top (Avon).

Hair

1. Comb the hair;
2. Create the centre parting with a sharp-ended comb;
3. Apply small amount of green hairgel from the studio on both sides and at the back;
4. Comb and re-arrange the hairs;
5. Curl with a medium tong the fringe on the forehead;
6. Set with second layer of gel;
7. Apply hairspray and set with the hands.

Timed assessment 1

I am pretty excited about how this assessment went. Everything was good, I had enough time to finish the look, my model helped me a lot with caring for his skin to look its best, everything was carefully planned and prepared and I think that the result is beautiful too. I think I've managed to recreate Dorian Gray as he would have been in the late-Victorian era, young, charming and with attitude (except for the fact that in the book he had longer hair, but this could have been him after a visit to the barber). 

I took continuity notes during the assesment as well because I have changed some stuff during the assessment because I thought that this would look better. 

The only regret I have is that I didn't take continuity notes for the photography to make sure that next time it will look the same... but to be honest people were waiting in the queue for me to finish taking pictures after the assessment and I was too nervous to remember taking notes. 

That's how the finished result looks: