Research Focus: Make Up & Special Effects Research

Makeup

Makeup, by definition, is a variety of cosmetics designed to enhance or alter someone's appearance. In film, this is to ensure that the actresses and actors are suitable for the scene they are about to take part in. Makeup is absolutely crucial when filming as it is what makes a character look realistic; if the characters don't look realistic, the audience may quickly lose interest. Makeup artists help to communicate the personality of the characters to the viewers. Clinical psychologist Linda Blair claims that it takes only 7 seconds for a person to judge another person, and I would argue that this applies to an audience seeing a new character for the first time. Within those 7 seconds the character wouldn't have even had the chance to speak and therefore the audience's judgement comes directly from the characters appearance. Seeing as makeup can alter a characters appearance, it becomes particularly crucial in sending across the right 'feel' to the audience. For example, if at first glance the audience was to see a woman with bright red lips and smoky black eye-shadow, they may stereotypically assume that the character is promiscuous without even letting her speak. One key, and extremely difficult skill, is to ensure that the makeup artist is able to recreate the same look to ensure consistency, even with out-of-sequence filming.

SFX
SFX is prosthetic make-up that allows the SFX artist to create advanced cosmetic effects. SFX allows the artist to completely transform a characters face until it is utterly unrecognisable. This is particularly helpful when, for example, an actor is asked to play the role of a single character from two different time periods or of two different ages. For example, in Stardust, one of the actress' are required to play a young and old version of their character. Therefore, the SFX artist was asked to create these looks. It was extremely important that the looks were realistic as if they weren't it would take the audience attention away from the plot and the narrative and perhaps even cause the audience to lose interest. Additionally, in particular regards to horror films, SFX allows the appearance of wounds and scars to be created without actually injuring the actors. It's important that these injuries are realistic as when they are they can dramatically enhance the tension of a scene as well as impress an audience and make them want to continue watching.


Conclusively, based on my research, I have recommended that we use neutral tones for our lead character as we want her look to appear natural and effortless, in keeping with her character traits, and we also know that we'll be filming on multiple days so this would be a look we could easily recreate. In terms of SFX, I am going to recommend that we have trials to see which look is more realistic, seen as the realism can make or break the sequence.