The Results
I had images photographed by a third year photographer who i've worked with before and I knew he'd take really good quality images. He's also excellent at re-touching which is great, as some of the flaws in my makeup could easily have been solved with more time/better planning etc, so I feel he is re-touching to make the images look as good as they should have in real life.
Obviously I wanted the images to be really clear and good
quality, but because of the film plot I also wanted some quite
dramatic lighting, as apposed to just straight images with
standard lighting. I decided to keep the backgrounds simple
to show off the makeups to the best of their abilities. I couldn't
have a black background for the geisha because her wig would
blend into the backgroud too much, so I thought a grey
background would be effective. I got shots of them seperately
and together.
This image is the example I sent to the photographer of how
I wanted the lighting to be, but not quite that dramatic, as
I didn't want the dark dramatic lighting to obscure too much
of the makeup.
[dramatic lighting] n.d. [image online] Available from: https://tutsplus-media.s3.amazonaws.com/photo.tutsplus.com/uploads/2013/03/dramatic_lighting_portrait_mainL_sone.jpg [Accessed: May 2nd 2015]
Final Images (before and afters
Finished Film: "The Fujin's Awakening"
Reflection and Critique:
I think the way the film is done is really great and showcases the makeup well. Its just unfortunate that as i'm not really happy with the makeups, I don't really like that thay're so showcased. If the makeups in the film could be edited just slightly, like in the photos, then I'd be happy with it.b
Upon reflection, one thing I would do differently is utilise my assistant director more. She was very helpful in finding me a team, but because she had a deadline for her project as well, she didn't have time to do a lot of things which meant I had to sort them out, such as transferring hard drives, discussing filming times and locations with everyone. I think if I could find someone with more available time to do these things so that I could focus more on the makeup then that would be good.
Similarly, I should have asked someone from costume to create outfits or a stylist to get the costumes together, as I spent some of my time planning the outfits when I could have put that time towards executing better makeups. Although I liked having control over the looks and I could then see how they'd work in conjunction with the makeups, I would have liked to have spent as much of my time as possible just focusing on the makeup.
Filming Experience:
Filming on the day went much better than i'd hoped it would. Because our sound recordist had dropped out, we'd planned to use the sound that the camera picked up but on the day it was so windy that it quickly became apparent that this would be useless, as no sound would be picked up because of the wind. I did panic for about 3 minutes, as I just didn't know what that meant we could do. I discussed it with my male actor, as he's third year and I thought he might have some suggestions. I brought up the fact that i'd looked at expressive dance music videos and he suggested that we make it into a 'movement piece' which I think was an excellent idea. It certainly isn't dancing, which isn't what I wanted to create so thats good. We basically stuck to the same direction that was originally planned for the scene, but without the script, so I really felt like it still told a story, rather than them just moving around. I am upset that we couldn't use the script, as I think that mine was one of the only pieces with a script and I was excited to film a proper scene, to create a clip from a film. However, I still think this captures the characters and the makeups which is really what matters.
Because there was no scipt and less acting required, we actually managed to get all the filming done in under 2 hours. We took over the shoulder shots, reaction shots and differet angles of the 2 characters interacting and felt we exhausted all the possibilities of filming.
I think the fact that it was so windy on the day also added more mood and drama to the piece, and seemed appropriate as the Fujin is the god of wind.
My assistant director was also meant to be there on the day, but she messaged me saying she had a migraine, so sadly she couldn't be there.
I'm really glad that Elisabeth messaged me asking if she could take photos
on the day, as I think she got some amazing shots of the characters in
action at the location, rather than the ones of them just in the studio which
is nice. There are also ones showing us working as a collective, which is
good to have. I'd never thought about contacting someone to do that
previously, so I think I now know for future projects to try and find
someone to do this.
Other Images from Set:
These photos she took also helped a lot with the editing process, as I could visually show the editor the effect I wanted him to create. I said to start the clip with the brighter colour scheme, but then change it to the darker one towards the end of the scene, as I wanted the geishas interacting wht the Fujin to be darker and dramatic.
As we were no longer using the sound from the filming, we also needed some kind of soundtrack. I discussed this with the editor and he sent me the link to a soundtrack which was atmospherically sad and quite nice, but maybe slightly generic. He informed me that he could use any soundtrack from a youtube video, so I found something that I thought would work better. Its a Japanese track called A Great Spirit Lies in Wait by Akari Groves, and I feel it creates more of a disjointed tension.
Sadly for the final version of the film, my editor used the wrong music. Its the not the track I chose and it's too upbeat for the mood of the film but it works OK
 THE-FUJIN-BTS-IMG_4370-web.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4361.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4088 2-2.jpg |
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 THE FUJIN IMG_4092.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4170.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4180.jpg |
 THE FUJIN IMG_4182 2.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4277.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4279.jpg |
 THE FUJIN IMG_4304.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4309.jpg |  THE FUJIN IMG_4332.jpg |
 THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4315.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4248.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4228.jpg |
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 THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4202.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4150.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4149.jpg |
 THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4145.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4140.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4132.jpg |
 THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4114 2.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4109.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4077.jpg |
 THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4073 2.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4067.jpg |  THE FUJIN BTS IMG_4040.jpg |
I think these final images are the best part of this project. I feel like even though the finished images are edited, they're edited to the point that I still could have done the makeup to look like that. I know if I did the makeups again now, I could do the makeup as good as it looks in the edited photos. I really like the lighting, as I think it looks dramatic and effective.
I think the photos of the Fujin illustrate the how important it was to heavily powder him. I think all the parts of him that look remotely shiny just look silly and unrealistic. I also think that from his full length shots, I can visualise how much more effective the look would have been if I could have worked with a topless model. He looks slightly swamped by the cape, and I could have added much more bodily texture. I don't like the look of the areas where I just painted on the cracked areas, they don't look convincing.
Importantly, I think they actually look good as two characters together. I think they compliment each other and work as a pairing, which is good.
Apart from the hairline on the geisha, I think she looked really good before editing. I also asked the photographer to even out the white foundation slightly, but it actually looks decent in the before photos. The styling of the wig is my biggest achievement.
Stills
Group shots
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