STUFF ABOUT MY STUFF

Next week I am to call David Rossiter to come check out the Enlighten Company office. I am preparing to ham it for an internship.

!!!!

Applied to graduate my arts degree yesterday. COOL

Thursday I do another shoot with Jack Kenny and I finally get to go over the last batch of photos. I'm somewhat excited but the stress definitely beets the excitement. 3 projects, 5 papers, 7 exams away... GAY

To recap my endeavors from yesterday---- if you want to hear about deco horror aesthetics and blah blah blah

Upon first sight of Jack Pierce’s astounding makeup masterpiece in Frankenstein (1931) I became deeply infatuated by his work. In combination with the art-deco influenced sets and sharp contrasting lights, the three became an instant work of the mysteriously intriguing past---that of the Depression era. To a person like myself, the 1930s tend to seem like a missing piece of American pop culture history. It is very difficult to find any physical remains of the era beyond what has been left to us in the arts, as not many material possessions have survived from the time period. It is difficult to find archaeological clues: ointments in bottles that made certain strange things easier, perhaps tiny glass clips to keep things together, maybe some photographs so see how a hanky was properly worn by the commoner...these things might exist exclusively in basements or museums that we don’t know of. It is the collector’s enigma in a way. Being able to experience such a time period through the lens of Universal in such a groundbreaking manner for the time period really does become groundbreaking in a strange, remorseful sense. I am able to see these amazing works of art playing out in 3 dimensions, and all angles of every dimension are crafted as artfully as can be. I see a beauty in the simplicity of the plots and the sets, a lack of complications which have escalated to such great heights of satire in our western world today. The easy aesthetics of thick dark lines and geometric shapes---crooked castles to keep us curious and sharp eyebrows to make our imaginational compensation a little more full---these are things we cannot find much outside of the 1930s, and so sorrowful it is to the carefree dreamer of what once was.
This has brought me to my project: a simple recreation of the lighting and makeup which has brought so much pleasure to my own eyes. As a local makeup artist I don’t get many opportunities to work with the intensely exaggerated ideals of this exciting period of horror. I took it upon myself to create this opportunity to work with these long-forgotten aesthetics in the hopes of discovering new ways to look at people and understand this part of our past. I have included a personal recreation of Dr. Frankenstein, as well as Bride of Frankenstein, the very visual character of it’s successful sequel. These two characters are the most visually entertaining to myself. Colin Clive’s reckless god persona and Greta Garbo’s appealing “rat in a cage” act are both quite outstanding and memorably mimicked time and time again.
In my portraits I tried to interpret a three-point lighting system, one behind to create a halo effect and a large lamp above in front pointed at a sharp angle above, which accentuated the sharp shadows seen in both of the Frankenstein films. I used penetrating dark line to accentuate the parts of the face we notice when we are quite ill or crazed for Dr. Frankenstein. I used an angled, tight brush to apply his color, grabbing the more deco shapes out of the shadows. The Bride’s face is more composed of abstract simple color lines and shapes. I used shadow washes for a more graceful and feminine effect, but also because I didn’t want to detract from her paleness.
During this session I noticed a lot of social and sexual attitudes reflecting from the time period in the manner of these two character’s presentations. On the male character we accentuate the lines that we see on a grimaced, masculine, hard-working face. His brow is furrowed and deep in contemplation or philosophical thought. The woman’s face, despite the fact that she is a monster, is still made up to be beautiful. This may come from the idea that women in film must always be pleasing to look at, or the concept that even a monster of a woman is still quite feminine. Also present is the worry that the audience may be bored with a less than beautiful supporting role. Whatever the reason, the comment still stands there for us to interpret. It is not until thirty or forty years later that we see a big casting female made up to be unappealing, and in the 1930s her aesthetic isn’t even necessarily sexual, but that of an artful and respectably intriguing beauty.