Short Film - 'Bruises'

I was approached by director, Jamie Alexander, who I had worked with on a previous short film, to join his team for the production of a short film entitled 'Bruises'. The circumstances were a little different on this production as each director had been given a pre-written script that they could interpret in their own way. In Jamie's case, the line that he felt needed the most focus in terms of make-up was when the male character confronts the female character, saying, "You've got bruises on your body". There were absolutely no specifics as to the location of the bruising, the age, the severity, etc and Jamie remained fairly vague about what he wanted. Eventually we decided on some bruising around the ribs, approximately 4-5 days old so that it would be deepest in colour. He then negotiated with costume to find a blouse for the female character that would slide up when she was lying on the bed to reveal the bruising beneath.
24 hours before the shoot I received a phone call from Jamie to tell me that he'd changed his mind about the location of the bruising and instead wanted something more around the collar bone / neck area. This wasn't too much of a problem as I had done a photo shoot the week before which involved a similar kind of bruising and still had a lot of the reference images that I had used.

I arrived on set of the shoot to be greeted by the producer, Jack, who showed me to the makeshift green room that had been created for the actors in-between scenes, this would also be where all of the make-up application would take place. Unfortunately from a make-up perspective the room was not ideal; it was a very small room filled with computers which meant that there was no table space available to lay out brushes, IPA, make-up, etc. The chairs were all office chairs that were very low, however, I made the best of the space and awaited the arrival of the two actors. I knew that the actress, Lucinda Davidson, was a second year acting student at the AUB, and the actor, Russell Barr, was a professional that had been brought down from London. I was slightly apprehensive about working with a professional actor but knew that it would be necessary experience to gain before going into industry.

Russell Barr

Lucinda Davidson

I began with Russell's make-up as he was needed on set first and confirmed with Jamie that he wanted nothing more than a basic camera-ready make-up. This was something that Russell appeared to take offence to and warned me that I should never refer to anything that I was about to do to an actor as 'basic'. He was also very unhappy that there was no mirror available in the green room, which, with hindsight is something that I should have considered bringing with me. Once Russell's make-up was complete I could focus on Lucinda, who needed a basic beauty make-up to make her appear ever so slightly older and, of course, the bruising on her neck. It soon became apparent, however, that time management may prove to be a little bit of an issue as Russell was insistent, rightly so, that make-up and costume should be down on set to do final touches before each scene. Ideally if make-ups were being done at separate times, more than one make-up artist would be required to split the responsibility between application and final checks and touch ups. After a fair amount of running between the set and the green room, I was able to concentrate on Lucinda's make-up fully. The application of foundation and contouring was pretty easy as Lucinda had almost flawless skin. For the eyes I did a very soft smokey eye using browns and fawns and a very fine liner. For the lips and blusher I took inspiration from the burgundy blouse that had been provided by costume and used similar tones.

Deciding on placement for the bruising on the collar bone / neck proved to be a little more difficult than first anticipated as it appeared that costume had not received the same notification that I had that the location of the bruising was changing and was no longer on the ribs. The blouse that had been provided  was open at the neck, but did not reveal very much of the collar bone at all, mostly the sternum. I tried to bring the bruising down as far as possible without it looking like an odd placement and agreed with the costume supervisor, Leanne, that before takes we would both try to ensure that the make-up was visible without interfering with the placement of the costume too much.
When Russell returned from shooting his scene, however, he was very unhappy with the colouring and overall look of the bruise and, despite my explanations of what the director had requested, he demanded that Jamie be brought up to the green room to review the make-up. Thankfully, when Jamie arrived he shared my opinion that the make-up was what he had envisaged and politely disagreed with Russell and instructed that everything be left as it was.

When shooting began using both actors I remained on set for the majority of the day to do final checks and touch ups. There was one scene in particular when Lucinda and Russell had to share a passionate kiss on the bed and this meant that after every take it was necessary to re-do Lucinda's lip colour and remove the excess lip colour from Russell's face. Other than this the shoot ran very smoothly and I am excited to see the finished film. I certainly learnt a lot from the experience of working with an opinionated professional actor; most importantly that it is crucial to remain respectful whilst also defending your decisions if you believe them to be correct and standing your ground.

'Bruises' - Finished film, screen grabs.

I was able to track down the Head of Sound, Olly, with the edited version of the film, 'Bruises' that I had worked on previously. I was able to view a sped up, silent version and request screen grabs wherever I felt that my make-up was showcased. These came out reasonably well although I was quite disappointed with how the bruise had shown up on screen. Despite liaising with the lighting department and director of photography on the day of filming to ensure that the bruise was shown in the best light, I did not feel that it had been done justice in the finished product. This is a lesson that I will take with me onto future shoots; to request to look through the actual camera lens to decide for yourself if the make-up is going to work on screen.
The other issue that I encountered appeared to be with crediting. As I had suffered with a few bad experiences in the past where producers had failed to credit me in the final film, I requested to see the credits rolling in the silent edit. It was a good thing that I thought to ask as I soon realised that I had in fact been credited as; 'Hair and Make-up by EMILY Barker'. Olly was quite shocked and embarrassed and ensured me that if I spoke with the director, Jamie, he would be able to sort out the mistake as soon as possible. This experience has re-enforced my need to double check credits before the film is finalised, and also possibly to consider drawing up a contract for larger scale projects to ensure that these sort of mistakes will not happen.

Here are the final screen grabs:

Short Film - 'Needles and Pins'

I was approached for a second time by Jamie Alexander, following our work together on 'Bruises' to do make-up on his next short film production entitled, 'Needles and Pins'. Having had a generally positive experience working with him on the previous film, I was keen to take up the job.

This time the film would be set in the 1960s and depict a family; father, mother and son in their home at Christmas. The actor playing the father would be Paul Alexander; Jamie's dad! This was a little intimidating at first as, not only would I be working on an experienced actor, but he would also be likely to give very honest feedback on my skills to the director. The actor playing the little boy would be Shay Cahill, which I was very pleased about as I had worked with Shay previously on a film last year and he was a pleasure to work with and very co-operative when it came to having his hair and make-up done. There was a little bit of a panic on the first day of shooting as the actress that had initially been arranged to play the mother dropped out the afternoon before she was due to shoot, so there was a last minute search to find a replacement. Thankfully the producer, James Kirby, was able to find a suitable replacement very quickly, however, this did have its implications for make-up. The actress that had originally been chosen had had mid length hair, and their art designer, Marlow, had requested that she have traditional 60s style hair with a lot of volume at the top and the hair flicked up at the ends. I had ordered some plastic inserts to add to the hair to give the necessary volume prior to the shoot. The actress that was eventually chosen to be her replacement, had short cropped hair, so this hairstyle would no longer be suitable. I tried speaking with Jamie and Marlow about this issue but they were, by this point, too involved with filming to give it much consideration and told me to simply do whatever I felt would suit. I therefore decided to go with a very simple hair style inspired by Twiggy in her early modelling days; a short, sleek style, combed forward in a side parting. In terms of the make-up  Marlow had requested that I incorporate the iconic style of the 60s by doing some sort of cat-eye make-up. However, as the actress was in her late 30s and was playing a house wife and mother, this needed to be a much less dramatic version of the make-up. This was very easy to achieve on the day and I was happy with the final result. Paul (the father) required very little make-up as his face was very rarely on screen so I agreed with Jamie that I would simply powder him down to reduce any shine. Shay's make-up was also very minimal as I did not want to cover any of his freckles, which I felt added to his character. He was, unfortunately, quite tired by the second day of filming, so a little concealer was necessary to hide the shadows under his eyes. His hair style, as requested by Marlow, was a simple neat side parting for when he was properly dressed, and tussled for the scenes where he was wearing his pyjamas and had just climbed out of bed.

Shay on set

Shooting ran fairly smoothly, and although there was a lot of waiting around, as to be expected on a film set, I found myself fairly busy as Jamie was keen to keep continuity spot on as the shooting ran over 2 days. It was a pleasant experience to have a director who understood the importance of continuity and final checks to call me in when needed, rather than constantly having to hover and request final checks.

Cast and Crew

Overall this was another very good experience working on a short film and has re-enforced my opinions on the professionalism of the film production students at the AUB. I feel that I have formed a much stronger working relationship with Jamie and James (producer) after working on a second film with them and they have expressed a wish to work with me again, which I would be more than happy to do.

Short Film - 'Squidge' - Retitled 'No Place Like Home'

I was approached by producer Jack Wierenga, who I had worked with on a couple of films with previously, to do the make-up on a short film for director Ximon Gray. The brief sounded quite interesting as it would give me a little bit more scope for simple prosthetics and interesting make-up, rather than the more simple 'camera-ready make-up' I had been doing on a lot of short films recently.

The concept was of a prisoner being held on death row who receives a package just before his execution that contains a kaleidoscope; his favourite childhood toy. Placing his eye to the kaleidoscope the cell around him is transformed in a whirl of colours to become his childhood bedroom and he appears finally serene and content.
The brief for this project, like with my film for Jamie Alexander, was 'Image and Sound' which meant that visuals were much more of a key aspect than things like dialogue. In fact, Ximon's film contained barely any dialogue at all.

Callum West

The actor that was initially chosen for the role was Callum West, an acting student from the AUB. As Callum was a little younger than Ximon had pictured the character being, he asked if I could do some very subtle ageing, mostly to make him look sleep deprived and weary from his time in prison. Although suggestions were made to simply cast an older actor, Ximon was adamant with his choice as he said he liked the slightly child-like element to Callum's face that would work well with the concept.

An example of the chosen tattoos
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Ximon also expressed an interest in the character having a number of tattoos. Initially he was not specific on whether he wanted traditional, make-shift looking prison tattoos, or more traditional tattoos that would have been obtained before the character was imprisoned. I set about researching both but eventually decided to go with more traditional tattoos. This was mainly because I feared that making tattoos look make-shift, as if they had been done by hand in prison, could make them look more like they were badly designed and applied by myself as a make-up artist. Ximon actually preferred this decision as he said that the bright colours of the sailor-style tattoos that I had chosen would contrast well with the dark de-saturated setting of the prison cell. I had debated for some time the best technique for applying the tattoos, and eventually decided that as it was a 2 day shoot and continuity would be a big consideration, that it would be better to print designs onto tattoo transfer paper rather than free-hand draw them. I ordered the paper online, which including p&p came to £16.98, which I was assured I would be re-imbersed for by the producer.

Another two elements that Ximon was keen to incorporate into the make-up was a scar along the face and some dirtying of the hands and feet. He also requested that I try and find/make some long fingers and toenails, however I was quite against this idea. I felt that the only way to do this in the time that I had would be to buy women's fake manicure nails and dirty them up using latex/diry colours/textures. I had no idea how I would go about doing the toenails. All in all I felt that this ran the risk of looking quite tacky and also came with a number of health and safety considerations in the actor removing them, and I was able to persuade Ximon to drop the idea.

Robin Brown
www.starnow.com

Unfortunately, as with many of my short film experiences, we had a last minute difficulty as Callum was unable to make the shooting dates and a replacement actor needed to be found. Ximon was very indecisive during this process, determined to find an actor with the same child-like essence that he had seen in Callum. Sadly, given the last minute nature of the situation, and the lack of budget to transport and accommodate an actor from far afield, this was not necessarily going to be possible. After being unable to decide for certain between 4 potential actors, begrudgingly Ximon chose Robin Brown, a 50 year old actor from Bournemouth. Many of the crew felt that Robin was actually a more suitable choice for the role, however, there were a number of implications for the make-up design with the change of actors.

As Robin was significantly older than Callum, there was no longer a need for any ageing make-up. I did intend to still add a little blue/purple-ish tones beneath the eye to heighten the idea of sleep deprivation, but this would be all that was needed. Robin also had a number of tattoos which meant that the ones that I had chosen and printed would be unecessary. Ximon was still keen to use them, however, I needed him to accept that I was not willing to place any of the fake tattoos anywhere near any of Robin's real ones as it would just draw attention to the fake ones and make them look ridiculous in comparison, especially since all of Robin's tattoos were old and beginning to bleed out and fade. It transpired when Robin arrived to set that he had tattoos on his arms, hands, and neck; all 3 of the areas that Ximon had requested I place the tattoos. The tattoo transfers went unused.

I was still able to do the dirtying of the hands and feet that Ximon had requested. I had initially wanted to use Ben Nye Plains Dust, however, I had my supply taken by a producer when working on a theatre show in London and with the short amount of time before filming was unable to order anymore. I decided to use a combination of vaseline and brown eye shadow instead, which was fairly effective. Ximon was also still keen to include the scar on the face as we had discussed previously. I had ideally wanted to use Kryolan Rigid Collodian to create an indented scar, however, once again, lack of time and budget meant that ordering this was not an option. Instead I did a raised scar along the cheek using Tuplast. This worked better than I had imagined and I received a lot of compliments on set about how realistic this looked and how well it stood out on camera. Continuity with the scar was obviously a very big consideration so I made sure to take a number of photographs for reference on the second day.

I encountered one last surprise on the second day of filming when Ximon decided, very last minute, that he wanted Robin `th have a single tear falling from his eye when he has his nostalgic moment of peace in his childhood bedroom. He had brought in some eye drops which he intended to use, however, I was forced to explain to him that touching or putting anything into an actor's eyes is not my job due to potential health and safety implications. He was quite unhappy with this at first but eventually understood and asked Robin if he would be willing to do the drops himself, which he said he was. The drops did not work very well as they came straight out as soon as Robin lowered his head, which was a nightmare when trying to film the shot. I suggested the use of a Kryolan Tear Stick, which I borrowed from the make-up studios but this failed to create enough of a tear to film a shot of a single tear rolling down his cheek. In the end a combination of the two produced a reasonably good result.

This was certainly one of the more stressful films that I have worked on as it was difficult working with a director who was quite indecisive and liable to change his mind at the last minute. This did at least improve my ability to adapt to situations quickly. I am very happy with the make-up as a whole and am looking forward to seeing the final edit of the film.

Cast and Crew

Screening and Feedback on 'No Place Like Home'

I was invited to the screening of the film production students' I & S films, for which I had worked on both 'No Place Like Home' and 'Needles and Pins'.

'Needles and Pins' was screened first and I was slightly disappointed to find that the grading that had been used in the final edit was very dark and this eradicated the detail of the faces so that any make-up work was unnoticeable. I was also surprised to discover that the only actor whose face was really visible throughout the film, was Shay's. Kirsten's face was barely featured, and when it was it was only very fleetingly and often from a strange angle.

Next was 'No Place Like Home' a title which I was unaware had been chosen prior to the screening. I was very happy with how the make-up had turned out in the initial shots where Robin is acting in the prison cell setting, however, I was horrified to see how the scar appeared on screen when he was in the bedroom setting. Although I had been working closely with Seth, the director of photography, during filming to check the make-up was appearing well on camera, I was not satisfied with how it eventually appeared on screen. Seth had mentioned on the day that the scar was appearing too shiny and was catching the light coming through the window in the bedroom scene and I had therefore applied a heavy layer of powder and checked through the camera lens myself until we were both happy. On screen, however, the scar was catching the light so much that I was struggling to focus on any other aspect of the shot. Although a make-up artist should never rely on other departments to cover up their shortcomings, I do feel that perhaps the brightness of the scar may have been partially down to the grading of the final edit as it had appeared much more matte when I looked through the camera lens on set.

Full version of the film available on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsuQSJpc5Hg&feature=youtu.be

Working with photographer, Kate Bosworth.

I was approached by Kate, who is a second year fine art photographer at the AUB to do the make-up for a shoot she was planning. Kate had been involved in a car accident a short while before the shoot and her photography tutor had thought that it might create some very hard hitting art if she was to attempt to recreate elements of the crash through photographs. Although Kate had some images of her car after the crash she had not taken any photos of her injuries as, although painful, they did not look particularly bad. She wanted to remain true to what had actually happened and not go too over dramatic with the make-up.



The most noticeable area of injury after the crash was along the neck, onto the collar bone, as this is where the seatbelt had cut into her at the moment of impact. This created some bruising in a distinctive straight line shape. Besides this the only areas that she felt might require a little make-up were around the eyes as she appeared very drawn and over-tired from the late night spent in the hospital after the crash.

I built up the bruising very gradually using a variety of different grease paint colours and got Kate to check in the mirror frequently to tell me when to stop when she felt that the bruising looked accurate to what she had had previously. Overall I think that we were both very pleased with how the photos came out.

A lecture with legendary make-up artist, Nick Dudman.

www.imdb.com

This was a lecture that I was especially looking forward to after having seen Nick Dudman's demonstration at IMATS last year where he applied the Professor Flitwick make-up from Harry Potter on actor, Warwick Davis in front of a live audience.

I was pleasantly surprised that Nick chose to speak not just of prosthetic make-ups like those for the goblins and Voldemort, but also of all the collaborations he had done over the years with the animatronics department to create the weird and wonderful creatures in all of the Harry Potter films such as dragons, hippogriffs and an 8 foot tall (to scale) giantess. I had always been aware of these types of creations within the film industry, however, it was interesting to know how much collaborative work had happened within the make-up department.

Nick spoke quite extensively on the effects of CGI on the make-up industry and the ways in which it affected his work on Harry Potter. I was surprised to learn that the decision to digitally remove Ralph Fiennes' nose for the Voldemort character was very last minute as they had previously been attempting to create the entire look using make-up and prosthetic pieces. Another interesting point that he made was about the impact that CGI has upon the actor, often more so than a large scale make-up would. With a make-up piece the actor can be given time to get used to how their face moves with it on and how easily they can act through it; how they portray emotions, etc. With CGI, especially in the case of Ralph Fiennes, a key feature on their face is being removed and they may have no idea how their facial expressions will read on screen without it.

Another fascinating element of the lecture was when Nick described the process that a make-up artist must go through if they are lucky enough to be nominated for an Oscar. It is a subject that I had never really researched into and was shocked at how much of a complicated process it appears to be. It was particularly interesting to discover that there is a nomination process with an audition section where the nominated artist must do a presentation, provide a show real of 'best bits' and answer a series of questions before they can even be an official nominee.

All in all this lecture proved to be one of the most insightful and exciting that I have ever attended.

'Beloved Hair' exhibition at Musee de quai Branly, Paris.

As part of my trip to Paris in March 2013 I visited the Musee de quai Branly to view an exhibition dedicated to the history of hair. The exhibition is running from September 2012 until July 2013, so it was a great opportunity to get to see it whilst it was in Paris.

www.quaibranly.fr

The exhibition began by looking at a range of busts from various different eras and countries; focussing strongly on the contrast between Western hair and black hair with two sets of white and black busts facing each other. I found the black busts to be of the most interest as black hair is not something that I have ever worked with and I imagine it to be quite wild and unmanageable. A lot of the busts seemed to back this theory up with the models having quite unruly hair, both male and female.
Next the exhibition moved onto the contrast in hair colours; particularly looking at paintings and photographs that incorporate a stark contrast between blond, brunette and red haired models.

The section of the exhibition that I found to be most interesting was a section in the centre that was playing a documentary video focussing on the public head shaving of French women in 1944 as a punishment for having relations and often children with German soldiers during the war. This is something that I had heard about briefly but never really researched into any further. The footage was quite shocking and I would have very much liked to have stayed and watched the entirety of the film, however, as we were on a moving tour I was unable to stay very long. It is something that I would definitely like to look into further in the future as it signifies just how important hair is to a woman and how much of a humiliation it can be to be forced to lose it.

knotmydayjob.blogspot.com

Another section that I was particularly fascinating was the shrunken heads as I had heard of the concept before but somehow did not quite believe that it could actually be done and that the tiny, shrivelled faces in front of me were once fully sized human hea
ds. What was most intriguing about the information we were given was that, although some of the heads were taken from tribal enemies in battle, a lot of the heads were just taken from found dead bodies and were of no significance at all. It would appear that the process of creating shrunken heads was so lucrative that it was not as a mark of honour, remembrance for the deceased or a sign of triumph in battle as I had originally anticipated.

The exhibition continued into many other sections of interest, including a section comparing some of the most extreme hair styles from every continent. The Asian hair culture was very concerned with heritage and there was even a head piece that was described as containing hair from women of every generation of a family that was passed from grandmother to mother, mother to daughter, etc, for hundreds of years.

Overall the exhibition was a very eye opening experience and I feel very privileged to have learnt so much about a subject that I was previously so unfamiliar with. I would not say that it has motivated me to take up hair design as a primary interest, however, I will definitely give it further consideration when creating overall designs in the future as a result of what I have seen.

Designing my website.

When I was first faced with the task of designing and creating my own website to advertise myself as a make-up artist I was a little apprehensive. ICT has never been a strong subject for me and when I had attempted creating a website from scratch in the past I found it to be a very complex, frustrating and time consuming process.

Once I had overcome the issue of having the incorrect software on my MacBook I was able to begin. I had thought that the beginning stages would be very daunting; I was envisaging a stark, white, blank screen crying out for text, images, hyperlinks and other complicated elements. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by iWeb and how easy it was to use. I particularly liked the fact that templates were available for people less confident with the software, and also blank pages for those who wanted to put their own stamp on their website and get a little more creative.

I struggled at first to get a feel for how I wanted my website to look; I didn't necessarily want a plain black or white backdrop, however, I found that a lot of the other, more detailed backgrounds looked almost childish and very unprofessional. In the end I settled for the background suggested for wedding photographers in the template, potentially a strange choice, although once the images and text had been altered I was quite happy with the way that it looked. If there was one thing to be learnt from designing a website to display portfolio images, it is the importance of having a selection of high quality, professional standard photographs. As I had done a reasonable amount of photo shoots towards the end of the first year, my fashion editorial images were quite strong. It was the images relating to my work in SFX and theatre productions that appeared to be somewhat lacking. I am not entirely sure how to overcome this issue as not every theatre show will take the time to have professional photos taken, however, it is a problem that I will aim to overcome on future work experiences.

Another obstacle that I needed to overcome was my lack of confidence in talking about myself. In order to create a good artist profile that would give an insight into my skills and abilities and encourage viewers to contact me, it was important not to be too modest or afraid to sell myself. I still consider this element of my website to be a work in progress as I am currently not entirely happy with what I have written, however, it is certainly a good start.

Another element of my website that I feel requires more consideration is my welcome page. I understand the importance of having a photo or series of photos that can act as a trade mark when selling yourself as an artist; something that ties together a website, business cards, social media pages, marketing material, etc. Unfortunately I just don't feel that as of yet, I have an image strong enough to use. For the moment I have used my Bollywood inspired fashion make-up, however, it is not a professional standard photo and does not show off all of the skills that I have and would want to market.

Finally it was important to consider the information that I included in my contact details page. Obviously a certain amount of information needs to be included so that potential clients or employers can contact you to offer work, however, I am unsure as to whether or not I feel comfortable putting my personal mobile phone number up on the internet for everyone to see. On the one hand, I am aware that I can be notoriously bad for checking my emails, whereas I check my phone messages frequently. On the other, I would not want my personal mobile number to be used inappropriately. It may be worth considering getting a second professional mobile number once I have graduated and am moving into full time freelance work.

Updating my CV

I decided that now that I had undertaken a wider variety of work experience opportunities it would be appropriate to divide my CV up into categories; Short film and television, Theatre, Photography and Other. I also decided to place my work on Film and Television at the top of my CV as this is the area of industry that I am most interested in working in.

I feel that once I graduate and move into industry I will remove almost all of my educational qualifications from my CV apart from my BA(Hons) degree. Although my art foundation is relevant to my development as an artist, it is potentially a given that in order to obtain a place at an Arts University I would need some form of artistic qualifications.

I am also undecided what to do regarding my address on my CV. At the moment I have incorporated both of my addresses, both term time and during holiday periods. I am aware, however, that your location can sometimes affect the likelihood of being hired as many employers are only looking for people located in London.

Selecting my portfolio images

I was initially anxious about selecting images for my portfolio that I felt best represented my development as a make-up artist. My primary focus in terms of work experiences this term has been on short films as this was an area that I felt required some further attention as it is the area of industry that I am most interested in working in. Although this has been extremely beneficial for the development of my skills and in gaining experience of how film production works, it does not reap quite the same rewards as photographic projects in terms of obtaining high quality portfolio images. Thankfully I was able to contact members of the crew from certain films that were in possession of either the rushes or the finished edits of the films and save some screen shots. Although these are not necessarily the highest quality of images, they do show my work reasonably accurately and in the correct context and setting. The final chosen images were shots from 'Bridge' and 'Zoochory Hitch' from my first year and 'Bruises' and 'No Place Like Home' from my second.

Although I had undertaken one photoshoot during my second year I did not feel that the images were strong enough to put in my portfolio. Instead I made use of a number of images from photo shoots completed at the end of first year that had not been edited in time to be included in my initial portfolio, as well as a few from my previous portfolio that were strong enough to be included a second time around. 

Although working on theatre productions is not my area of specialty and is not something that I would really want to do within industry, I felt that it was important to show a range of skills and experience within my portfolio. The inclusion of a photograph from the production of 'The Beekeeper' at Waterloo East Theatre was therefore important to add a little variety. 

Finally I felt that it was important to include some work exhibiting my skills in special effects. Although this is the area of industry that I am most interested and passionate about, I found that my selection of photographs for this type of make-up was severely limited. I decided to re-use an image from my original portfolio as I felt that it was one of my strongest pieces and also included the image from the Dramatic Contexts unit. Although the application of the make-up was not 100% successful, the sculpture and mould making processes that went into it definitely display a level of skill with prosthetics. It is my aim for the coming year to expand my portfolio in this area specifically so that upon graduation I can confidently produce a portfolio that best reflects my passion for prosthetics and special effects and can be used to obtain relevant jobs within industry. 

One difficulty that I encountered when I went to print my portfolio images was the quality and resolution of my screen grabs from the films that I had worked on. I had feared that this might be the case and when I went to have them printed, these fears were confirmed. Because the images were so small, when they were blown up they appeared pixelated, and the larger the image, the worse it got. I was therefore forced to change my plan and have all of my images printed to A4 size in order to reduce the amount of pixelation. Although this is not the ideal scenario and an A3 portfolio at this level would be preferable, I made the decision that an A4 selection of better quality images would be best. This is an issue that may trouble me throughout my work as it is often very difficult to get on set photographs and it is therefore necessary to rely on screen grabs once the film is complete. In future I will aim to make a conscious effort to find an on set stills photographer, if there is one, and if not, bring my own camera and ask the actor to allow me to take photos on set before or after filming. 

Professional Social Networking

During second year it was important to expand my methods of marketing myself and making my name known. An easy way to do this, reaching vast expanses of people is through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. This can be an area to exhibit your work, inform the public what projects you are currently working on, give contact details for potential employers. It can also be a place to express opinions on new products, trends and make-up work, however, this is a very sensitive area and should really only be used to express constructive and positive opinions as anybody could be reading what is being posted.

I was a little apprehensive about tackling the world of Twitter as it is not something that I am very familiar with, having never really used it properly from a personal perspective. It was difficult at first to pick up the technicalities like hash tagging and tweeting directly to or about someone, and what was meant by retweeting. I was also unsure as to how best to display my work as there did not appear to be any section that allowed the user to upload an album or collection of photos for permanent display, only to post a single photo at a time as a tweet. One thing that is very positive about Twitter is the ability to follow any make-up artist, celebrity or icon that may be of interest. In doing so it is also possible to see what other Twitter users are tweeting to or about these people. This meant that I was able to follow to projects of some of the most influential people in industry such as Ve Neil and Alex Box. I was shocked to discover that following certain members of industry can also raise awareness of my own Twitter page as after I followed Filippo Ioco, a famous body painter, he followed me back, meaning that he will see any tweets that I post about my work. Unfortunately my Twitter as been a little neglected since its creation with only 5 tweets being posted. This is something that I will definitely aim to improve upon over time to make it more of an active site that is readily used for networking.

Creating a professional Facebook page was a much less daunting process as I was already familiar with how the site worked and had a large network of friends online that I could market the new page to. Facebook also provides the opportunity to upload albums of photos which was perfect to act as a form of online portfolio for anybody wanting to view my variety of skills. As Facebook offers the option of uploading two photographs onto the profile page; one as a profile picture and one as a cover photo, I decided to include one professional image of my work and one image of myself at work, applying make-up (the same image used on my Twitter). Unfortunately, as with my website design I struggled to find a professional image of my work that was of a high enough standard and also exhibited the type of work that I would wish to market to the public. Ideally I would have liked to include an image of my skills in the area of prosthetics, however, I do not have any images that are of a high enough standard at the moment. Once my professional make-up project is complete I am confident that I will have a number of images that I will be happy to use for all promotional material, my Twitter and Facebook pages included. However, for the mean time, I stuck with the image used on my website and first business card; my Bollywood fashion make-up. 

In the 4 months since the creation of my professional Facebook page I received 100 'likes' (followers), which was a substantial improvement on my 10 followers on Twitter. I marketed the page through my personal Facebook page which means that the majority of these 'likes' are from friends and family. I have found recently, however, that a few external people are beginning to notice my page as friends, family and previous employers are sending people to my Facebook page to view my work. This would indicate that the use of social networking to raise awareness of yourself definitely does work. It is, however, dependant on the amount of time you are prepared to dedicate to advertising the page, posting interesting and relevant statuses and regularly uploading images. 

Business Cards

Originally when considering business cards I had wanted to wait until after the completion of my PMP unit as I felt that the work I was producing would be of a higher quality and have a more professional range of photographs. I do, however, understand the need to have a business card at all time, even if you are not 100% satisfied with the image used, you never know when you may want to give a potential contact your details.
In the long run I would like to market myself as working solely in special effects and prosthetic make-up, as this is the specialism that I wish to peruse. However, whilst I am still trying to make a name for myself it would be foolish to disregard any other potential work just because it is not within my preferred field. I therefore made the decision to print two types of business cards - one with an image exhibiting my prosthetic skills, and another that was more based in fashion editorial. This was I can choose which card I give to people depending on the type of industry that they are based in.
I made the decision to lay my business card out as simply as possible so that the information and images would stand out without being taken away from by fancy fonts and decoration. The image is on the front of the card and a plan white background with simple black writing giving my name, skills and contact details is on the back. Overall I am happy with how they have turned out, although I do still intend to update the images upon the completion of my PMP unit as I do feel that the image that I chose to advertise my skills in prosthetics does not show the best of my abilities.

Bibliography

Anon. (2012). Beloved hair. [online]. Available from: http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/programmation/exhibitions/currently/beloved-hair.html [Accessed 17th April 2013]

MacKenzie, S. (2012). Musee du quai branly is creepy. [online]. Available from: http://knotmydayjob.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/musee-du-quai-branly-is-creepy.html [Accessed 17th April 2013]