Introduction

I am going to be using this blog as a platform to show my ideas, design processes and research during this special effects unit, 'Brave New World'. I have always been fascinated with special effects in films, and during my childhood I always believed in the characters. When I realised that what I saw in movies was not always reality, I wanted to know how the makeup teams created these characters, and how they made them look as if they had life-threatening wounds. Many of my favourite programmes and movies contained special effects makeup, for example the work of Neill Gorton in Doctor Who. One piece that I will always remember were the CatKind, the cat/human hybrids, because they were so believable. The prosthetics makeup artist who put together these characters was Victoria Bancroft, who worked alongside Neill Gorton as the special effects/prosthetics designer. I was fascinated with the 'second skin' that would have to be applied to the actors by the special effects team, as they were so realistic and intricate. Each single whisker had to be applied by hand, and the detail in the prosthetic piece was so mesmerising. When going into the second part of the unit, where we are to create human hybrids, I would like to look further into how the makeup teams created these cat-humanoids.

Dona Croll as a Catkind
Doctor Who; New Earth, September 2006.
BBC
bbc.co.uk/doctorwho

Ardal O'Hanlon as Brannigan, a Catkind.
Doctor Who; Gridlock, April 2007.
BBC
bbc.co.uk/doctorwho

 I see this unit to be exciting and very creative, as there will be a lot of intricate details in the prosthetic pieces we are creating, to make them as real as possible. The idea that there are no limits as to what you can do to change someone's features is what I find most exciting about this unit. I don't have much experience behind me concerning special effects, only during the course last year. With Sue, we learnt how to create burns with gelatine, scars, bruises, cuts, dry skin and theatrical and realistic ageing. I thoroughly enjoyed the gelatine burns, as they were so gruesome, and  you could choose whether you wanted the burn to be an old scar, or whether it was a new wound and infected.

Theatrical Ageing last year on my model Ayelisha.

Burn Wound using gelatine. 

I wanted to test out the use of prosthetics during my final unit, 'Claudia and Quentin'. We were given the brief which asked us to create two characters, Claudia, and her imaginary boyfriend Quentin. For Claudia, I looked at creating a patient from a mental asylum, influenced by 'American Horror Story'. She was grubby looking, with sore looking eyes, a sweaty forehead, cuts on her skin and knotted hair, all covered in dirt. For Quentin, I wanted to contrast this, by creating an demon-like alien. I wanted pale skin, dark eyes, vein-like marks reaching down it's head, and prominent facial features. I wanted to use wax and latex to create lifted cheekbones and brow bones, to make him much more interesting to look at. I practised with the wax, but kept finding it difficult to keep it stuck down, and the latex from peeling and being uneven. I had to strip away the use of prosthetics for my final idea. This made me want to succeed even more, and I believe it had an influence on my choice of optional units for this year. I expect this unit to be challenging and I know there will be times where I get agitated with things not going well as the unit is so technically advanced. I am hoping to outweigh this with successful looks for the end of each part of the unit. I fear that I will have trouble with some prosthetic pieces just like last year, and also keeping up with the workload. I aim to tackle my blog after the lessons whilst all of the information is fresh, and any ideas or looks I like are to be posted on my blog.