'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.

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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]