unit breif

The unit this semester is in relation to Gothic horror. We will be looking into Charles Dickens  "the great expectations" and the Victorian beauty ideas, and practices.

This stage of the project will examine the reasons why the stories of Charles Dickens have been filmed more often than those of any other novelist (50 versions had already been made by the time of the First World War). Among the aspects that made his writing so well suited to the screen were the episodic structure, the clear definition of good and evil, the combination of social realism and the phantasmagorical, comedy and tragedy, and a cast of grotesques and eccentrics so colourful they’re God’s gift to character actors.  This initial brief will allow you to create a colourful tribute to a master storyteller whose tales transcend the medium in which they are portrayed and to, ultimately, take on a life of their own.

To embrace the range of possibilities through research and subsequent design development you will develop a sketchblog to record your journey throughout this project. Use your sketchblog to record your thoughts, drawings and ideas together with any sourced imagery; film, video or music that you feel would be of help to a television production team at planning meetings. Explain how you see the characters on screen and how you came to your design conclusions. You should look to suggest how you see the characters developing and how you feel they could be fleshed out in production through styling, make-up and hair design as well as their mannerisms, character traits and socio-economic background. You should also discuss how your overall character design will impact on viewing figures and potential audience bearing in mind the capability of High Definition Broadcasting.

How can you use the ideas from text, film and historical references to inform the makeup & hair design for the characters of Great Expectations?

For this part of the unit we will be looking at Miss Havisham and Estella. You must suggest through image and text, at least 3 solutions of how you will develop these characters and blog all of your findings and self-experimentation. The journey from text, film and historical research to characterization should be concise and show a clear progression of how you have reached the final stages of your designs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1305730/The-ugly-face-Victorian-beauty-BEAUTIFUL-FOR-EVER-BY-HELEN-RAPPAPORT.html
19/01/15