Gothic Horror Music Videos

These are the music videos that we watched in class together i feel like i shows you how versatile this genre is from classic horror within 'Thriller' to pop glamours horror in 'Disturbia' right to a techno music video in a grungy dirty atmosphere within 'I fink your freaky'.
When watching these videos i was clear how important colour is when looking at this genre particularly  in classic horror the colour red worn by Michael jackson symbolising the devil and the innocent pale blue the main girl wears with hints of red to symbolise that she is the next victim the clothes tell the story just as much as what is happening does and this is an important part of creating a character.

Within Rihanna's gothic horror music video she takes inspiration from the choreography in the Michael jackson video referencing to 'Thriller' success and the fact this was the first music video to combine this genre. This inspires me to create reference points that my target audience will pick up on as the times move forward references to the old horror films disregarding the classics such as the Grudge and The shining are fading and new references are being created through new films our generation relates to this is important to think about bring in new references such as abduction and the paranormal as two examples as elements that scare our generation creating a new view of gothic horror.

I love the grungynest of Die Antwoord's video the setting and relationship between the two main characters is how i would imagine Claudia and Quentin to be slightly rough and  dirty with large attitudes. I would like to explore this in relation to my character design development.

Claudia & Quentin Introduction

The characters Claudia & Quentin are in love although they are unusual lovers.
Claudia is a girl in her twenties left alone when she was little so she never had much parental guidance she learning to understand how relationships worked through watching TV. She began to develop an unheathly relationship with horror films and thats how she saw life in her head.
She never likes to go outside of her apartment of witch is decorated gothic kitsch although has neighbours who provide her with all her daily essentials so she never has to leave her apartment. 
Her style is dependant on the main character within the horror film she has been watching that day or recently. 
Claudia is psychotic, slightly humours but with her danger is always around the corner. She is usually in a cheerful disposition apart from when she is having a bad time with her boyfriend Quentin.
Quentin is imaginary he is a constant disappointment and although visits regularly she sometimes shuts him out and is paranoid that he is cheating on her Claudia likes to keep Quentin firmly under her thumb and punishes him otherwise.
His appearance is based on what Claudia wants that day so is often similar to her own appearance dependant on the horror film.

For this project looking at Gothic horror we are to create a music video with carful consideration to our target audience ( teenage girls are often the ones to watch horror films) appropriate for our genre of music ( photographs, music track and storyboard as if to be a music video) combining these two characters Claudia & Quentin. We are to research through Film, Music, Fashion & art this genre- Gothic Horror and develop these characters to what we as designers imagine them to be like.

I am very exited about this brief and feel as through i already have a few ideas about final outcome and the idea of music genre i would like to create and portray within my final images taking inspiration from our class with seema on femme fatal i can see how elements of Claudia's character portrays a femme fatale woman. I would like to watch more classic horror films as i feel unlike others i don't have a wide knowledge previously to watching any kind of horror films and this will help my designs be particular to this film genre.

Henry Fuseli 'The Nightmare'
Andrew Graham Dixon . (). IPT 28 The Nightmare, by henry fusel.Available: http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/archive/readArticle/48. Last accessed March 2014 .
Image shown in Class the direct idea of the nightmare showing the romanticism within horror.

Femme Fatale & Creating Clean polished Hair

In seemas lesson we were given a presentation about Fashion Hair something i had already began looking at on Pinterest- http://www.pinterest.com/milliejohns/fashion-hair/, Gothic Horror and the associations with this genre such as mystery, vampires and the colour black.

Google . (). Victorian mourning dress image search. Available: https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=FyFMU7uwHMLNygOrsYH4DA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1043&bih=577&q=women%20in%20black#q=victorian+mourning+dress&rls=en&tbm=isc. Last accessed March 2014 .

The colour Black itself holds a lot of connotations in different cultures in Europe fashion black is seen as an elegant classic colour but in the Victorians and throught history black was seen as a mourning colour of dress to show respect for the dead. A Widow would wear black for months after her partner had pasted to shows respect.
When the widow was mourning this colour was also associated with a woman that you should be carful around that she almost held a supernatural being about her in other words this could be associated to the Femme Fatale a woman who's embrace was believed lead to her lovers death.
Below i researched the idea of the fem fatale this gave me a clear idea of what kind of woman this would be and how i can incorporate these ideas into my own characterisations of my character 'Claudia'.

''A femme fatale (/ˌfæm fəˈtɑːl/ or /ˌfɛm fəˈtɑːl/; French: [fam fatal]) is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotise her victim with a spell was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural; hence, the femme fatale today is still often described as having a power akin to an enchantress, seductress, vampire, witch, or demon, having power over men.

The phrase is French for "fatal woman". A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. In some situations, she uses lies orcoercion rather than charm.''

-Wikipedia . (7th March 2014 ). Femme Fatale . Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_fatale. Last accessed March 2014 

Femme Fatale within fashion & Hair today show cases the sultry dominate woman and has been seen as the inspiration to many shows such as Alexandra McQueen using the centre parting creating clean sharp simple but strikingly beautiful hair.

Creating a simple Clean polished Hair style: 

Step 1: Blow drying the hair to create the polished sleek effect- take the barrel brush onto dry hair and section the hair length ways all the way up the head. Taking the brush take a section of hair and pull the brush down anchoring in place to create tension with the hair take the hair dryer on the highest heat and run it along the stretched section of hair in the direction of the hair follicles. Repeat on each side of the section and again on top. Use a blow drying technique for the ends of the hair.

Step 2: take the mouse into the comb and brush through the top section of the hair pulling back all sections including the fringe take the cardboard and clip into place. if the hair splits wet down the comb and brush through again this will re activate the mouse. don't hair spray if you need to create multiple styles it will not brush out mouse will also give the hold it needs.

I found the technique of blow drying the hair hard at first to get to grips with but once i got the hang of it i found i could mange the brush and hair dryer better i was very pleased with the final effect and although creating a simple look it created a really polished finish although i ran out of time to finish the overall style.

Conclusion 'What the Dickens'

I found 'what the dickens' pushed my technical abilities learning how to create a form and reproducing it to its exact first copy along with studying text  ‘Great expectations’ and the Victorian era pushing my imagination in character design and learning techniques from a historic era I have found interesting. Continuity is something previously i haven't be used to doing but developing the knowledge within the design you create i have found very us full and actually helped my designs be better through out. Although i have found i haven't be able to express my creativity as much through my designs as I would have if it was a contemporary version as i had to keep within the Victorian era styles and techniques I feel this has made me develop my technical skills further as I have been thinking more about how to make a technique look realistic and effective. I have really enjoyed learning prosthetics looking at the building of colour and texture something I will continue to do within the next project brief. I am pleased with all my outcomes within this brief although feel I could have done more research into the era and developed my designs further although I felt this was due to the short time span we had to create our final outcomes.

Miss Havisham Continuity 2

I was confident about recreating my Miss Havisham design using my notes and previous images although my close up photos of the makeup from the first assessment were blurry i then used my face chart to make sure i was creating the same design within the second assessment.
I was pleased with my outcome as i felt i was exact with all details and organised my time within the assessment to leave time to check all the details such as the pulled out sections of hair and the flowers.
The feedback was positive although Lottie did pick up on one flower that had slipped down at the back this was then an issue with the continuity i readjusted this within the photos to look the same. below are some comparison images from my first assessment on the left and second assessment on the right.

Final Estella

I was very pleased with the final outcome of my Estella Design i was worried when creating the design as my model has a mature face than i would initially have chosen but i felt i successfully made her look the age i wanted to portray my Estella ( teenage years about 14) i felt the freckles really helped although within the images i could have enhanced them as they didn't show as well as from away from the camera. The Hair photographed very well the structure and the texture of the had really showed up in black and white the ribbon from the bows enhanced the overall effect of the teenage Estella. I felt it was a very romantic portal keeping within the Victorian era taking the structural inspiration from an original Victorian Hair style but adding my twist from my key words interwinding and innocense. I
 feel these images show my progression within my hair creations and i am exited to develop my technical ability further after seeing the outcome of this designs and seeing what i can do. I feel this outcome meeting my initial expectations of my creation of Estella.

Presentation Of Ideas For Estella's Hair

During Seema's lesson we were to present our Hair Estella ideas to the class as if it was for a film production company i really enjoyed presenting my ideas and i found it gave me a better understanding myself of were and how my design has developed. My two key words for my estella deign inspired from the beginning are Interwinding ( to show Estella's psychological confusion about her upbringing and the way she has been taught to hurt men)  & Innocents.

The class feedback was that there needed to be a larger sense of the hair interwinding to create the effect i wanted i like the idea of the hair looking very detailed to show this element. The rest of the feedback was very positive and everyone seemed to like my design particularly the structure and combination of the bows.

Another point that was picked up was getting the texture of the extension hair used at the back for the barrel curls witch are very shiny due to the synthetic nature of the hair to match the real hair of my model i have thought about this and as the front will be wet finger waved and hair sprayed the texture will be shiny 

I feel confident about the creation of my deisgn and feel the structure in black and white will look very effective. 

The Hair Chart below shows my deign i will be using a clip in pony tail at the back to create the barrel curls from and strip clip in extensions at the bottom at the back to create the long curled loose hair at the back. The models hair will be used for the finger wave and pin curls at the side. 

I have chosen a side parting as my model has hair lost so i will use the hair from the opposite right hand side to cover the left securing by using my bow accessories.