Special Effects and Make-Up Research

By Deanna Hopps

After last year, myself and my group wanted to push the boat out just a little further and try out some special effects in make-up and actually doing realistic looking wounds and doing make-up to do that final touch for our actors and actresses to get into their roles and to help represent their characters more. This post shows you the rough ideas that we have about how to go about this and what they will look like.

Alice's Make-up

As I have said in my previous post on costume research, Alice is a very natural and innocent looking girl, so the use of bold colours like reds and blacks are out of the question. We want soft warm colours or the gentle pinks and blues and only a small amount to highlight her features just a little.

Idea 1 - Warm Neutrals

This is a rough idea as to how Alice's eyes would look

A gentle shadow of pink maybe

Idea 2 - Soft pastels, most likely pink

Another rough idea for the second look

The Wounds

So for the wounds I thought what would be best would be to use some scar wax and realistic fake blood which you can get from more face-painting or special effects shop. We thought this would make Alice's death look more realistic and any cuts and wounds on Richard's hand would just give our film that extra authenticity. Also, using the scar make-up and fake blood would look much better than buying a wound already made and sticking it on - sometimes they can be a real pain.
One drawback with this is that we would  have to make sure the wounds are done in the same place and the same way each time - however we are aiming to get all of these shots done first as to not have to worry about that later.


The video above is simply showing how we would go around creating the wounds using the wax this lady uses in her tutorial. The wolf marks on her cheek are one way of doing the cut marks on Alice's forehead from where she hits her head on the stair banister rail, however it would only be one cut and wouldn't look so wolf like.

This fake blood is perfect for realistic wounds as it doesn't dry or drip - its stays moist which gives that perfect look for our film

Example of the scar wax used

For Richard's knuckles, if we don't do the cuts on the back of his hands, I was thinking about simply using a type of blusher to make them look rather red and sore looking. This would stop the hassle of recreating his cuts to look old when it comes to the end of the film when he is waiting for the funeral, because red marks fade over time.

Behind Closed Doors - Prop Research

Necklace

The style of necklace we'll need

        We want to give Alice a silver cross necklace. The picture above is a good example of what we're looking for; a cross, not a crucifix. It has to be silver, as gold in the eyes of Christians may represent greed. Alice is Christian, so she always wears this necklace. We want to have shot of the necklace around Alice's neck when she's lying at the bottom of the stairs, and another when Richard drops it on the floor on his way to leave for the funeral. On this shot, which will probably be the last shot, we want to use a focus pull to move the depth of field from the background to the foreground to show the necklace as the last object in the film.

Engagement Ring

Our chosen style of ring

       The engagement ring we chose will look something like the one above. It is silver primarily to symbolise her religion of Christianity. Gold is often linked to Greed and the Devil, when silver is pure and good. The ring will have some kind of gem on it because it is an engagement ring and not a wedding ring. We are looking to spend no more than £10.00 on one, so it will have to be a realistic but fake 'replica' ring.

Keys

Example of keys.

       The keys are going to be used in two shots of our film in two different scenes. The use of the keys in the first scene will be to signify that Richard has just come back from work and it just gives it a casual look. In the second scene the use of the keys is signifying the fact that Alice is leaving Richard and giving him back the keys as if to say this is actually final.

Book

The book we want to use: 'The Girl in the Face of the Clock'.

        We want to use a book as a prop in the story. When the female, Alice, is at home waiting for Richard to return, she sits at the table (which is laid) and has a book with her. This is that book. We chose this particular book because it foreshadows what's going to happen to Alice later in the film. When the argument goes upstairs, she takes the book with her. Richard follows her up the stairs, and Alice throws the book towards him. Richard ducks, and the book goes down the stairs. When Alice falls, the book is face-up lying beside her, and the camera focuses on this. We could have the camera look at the book, then pan over to show her lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs with Richard standing at the top, just like the book's cover portrays.

Newspaper

Example of a newspaper.

         The newspaper will be used in the first scene, where (this was a new idea we came up with) a newspaper boy will bring the paper early in the morning and post it through the letter box - which really links to our films title and meaning which is that he, the same as the two girls, doesn't know what is going on behind that door, he's just got a job to do. It really shows how we have no idea what could be happening in somebody's house at any time.
         Another idea was that we could do another foreshadow of Alice's death within the paper itself, somehow. Whether we mange this is yet to be seen but it is an idea. 

Football

Football like the one we'll be using.

        The football will be used in the very first shot of the first scene within the establishing shot of the house. It will be kicked around by two young girls as they walk past the house laughing - this is meant to demonstrate the idea that they don't have any clue of what is going on behind the door of the house we are filming in - they think everything if fine when really, in our film, it turns out it really isn't fine. The football adds to this carefree look on life that children have, because they are simply having fun.

Formal Prop Plot

Behind Closed Doors - Costume Research

        There are 3 characters in our short film: Richard, Alice (Richard's girlfriend) and Stacey, Richard's work colleague who is only shown near the end of the short film.

The Antagonist

        The antagonist's (Richard's) clothes are going to be typical office clothing, as we want to show that he has not yet returned home before he appears in the film, and we want to show he has an important job, and so has a good wage. He'll be around 20 years old.

        Typical wear will be formal black trousers, a white shirt, a red tie and a black suit jacket. The red tie will symbolise his wrath and anger later on, the colour of this tie is a hint at one of the seven deadly sins, which is a fundamental aspect of our film.

        This is roughly what we'll want our actor to be dressed in, but with black instead of grey. Ryan Reynolds is our example actor for this film, as we want this kind of manly look with a threat to be violent.

Real Media Products:


        The film 'Enough' is the main inspiration for our short film as it follows the same theme of domestic violence. Within the film, the main antagonist (Mitch Hiller) often wears a suit which makes him look superior to his wife as well making him look professional and also quite bad. This is the same kind of portrayal we wanted for our film.

The Protagonist 

        The protagonist is Alice, Richard's girlfriend. She is a religious woman at the age of 20. Her typical wear is pastel colours, in this we would like her to wear light blue jeans with a light pink top and maybe a cardigan. This is to represent innocence and her harmless religious background.

Our example actress who we are using would be Zoey Deschanel, for her innocent and harmless look.

Antagonist 2 - Stacey (Richard's Work Colleague)

        Stacey is Richard's work colleague that he has had a past affair with. Because of this simple piece of information, and the fact she works in an office, we wanted to follow the stereotype of the promiscuous female office worker that sleeps with everybody in the work place. To also go along with stereotypes we wanted to try and make Stacey blonde, which is conventional of the stereotypical female trope.

        The costume Stacey will be wearing is completely black as its funeral wear but we want to still keep that promiscuous theme, so we may dress her in a small black dress. The black is both related to funerals and as a sign of respect. Also, a little black dress is often associated with a confident ego and good confidence.

Costume idea

Second Idea

        To keep with the promiscuous and revealing costume idea, we thought that instead of a little black dress - should the actress not feel comfortable wearing one for example - then a small black skirt, white blouse and black blazer would suffice.

Costume idea

Costume idea

Costume idea

Formal Costume Plot

Real Media Products that share our Costume Idea:

        The film 'Enough' is the main inspiration for our short film as it follows the same theme of domestic violence. Within the film, the main antagonist (Mitch Hiller) often wears a suit which makes him look superior to his wife as well making him look professional and also quite bad. This is the same kind of portrayal we wanted for our film.

          The female character from 'Enough' backs up our protagonist Alice's costume choice as she is often presented when she is in her marriage wearing thin, pastel coloured clothing which makes her look smaller, weaker and more innocent than her husband, who is the exact opposite.

        The main characters in the film 'Men in Black' are dressed in very professional-looking costumes, with black, formal clothes. This kind of idea represents the whole 'man on a mission' role, and they look very professional stereotypically. We used this because the characters in the film have a professional undercover job, which nearly always have a headquarters, which links to Richard's job perfectly.

        Veronica from the film 'Heathers' shares the same characteristics as Alice with the fact she is the innocent girl. She starts off wearing clothes that don't actually reveal any of her body. She also wears subtle clothing/pastel clothing instead of the bright colours which makes a statement about her innocence.

Behind Closed Doors - Risk Assessment

        A risk assessment is a key aspect of a film. You must assess all of the possible hazards that could occur and state how you can fix these or what they can do to us if that hazard occurs. We discussed these as a group, and Daniel put together a table, which I have embedded below.

'Behind Closed Doors' Risk Assessment

Behind Closed Doors - Location Research

In this post I will be showing you the locations that will be used within our film short and I will also be adding in the set pieces that will be used within each area of the location.

Exterior image of our Location:

The location of our film

The location for our 5 minute short is a house setting - somewhere that many arguments take place between couples and it also relates to our film's title which is "Behind Closed Doors" as in you don't know what happens in somebodies home once their front door is closed. 

The stairwell created the perfect death scene idea as it could be both an accident or on purpose should somebody fall down the stairs and its something so simple. 

The house's look itself looks like a family home, which is the atmosphere we want for our film. 

Although Richard works in an office and the audience can assume he has money, we feel that having our characters still living with Richard's parents allows us more give on the ages of our characters and the actors we get to play them.

Kitchen/hallway:

The hallway/kitchen in our chosen location.

The stairs on our location we'll use.

Set Pieces

The living room/dining room we'll be using on location.

The hallway & kitchen are one of the three rooms we chose for our film to be set. We included the kitchen because not only do many arguments often start there, it has that element of danger in it - especially if there is somebody - like in our film - who is getting incredibly angry. The sharp objects like knives add that extra aspect of suspense - especially if we have Richard standing right next to some while the argument is going on, because at any moment he could reach over and grab it or for the woman to use it as defence. This won't happen in out film, however that aspect is still there and makes the kitchen one of the best places.

The hallway, although it is rather narrow which could cause us a slight problem with the filming equipment, is where we will be filming Alice lying at the bottom of the stairs and using it mostly at the end of our film when the female arrives to take Richard to the funeral.

A photo frame will be needed for a film short so that Richard can pick it up and hopefully smash it on the floor. Inside will be a photo of Richard and Alice which he will then tear in half and let them fall to the ground.

A couple of plates will be put on the drainer, along with perhaps some dishes. These two plates - or one - will be used to throw at the wall in Richard's frustration.

Living Room:

We chose the living room as another area of out location to shoot because it is meant to be a place where you can sit and relax and many memories happen within a person's living room more than any place in the house. By using the living room as a place for our argument we are subverting this idea of tranquillity and replacing it with the sense of hostility and an idea of being trapped.

The table in the background is where we will be staging the romantic meal by using set pieces.

Set Pieces

These wine glasses are what will be placed upon the table for the romantic meal that Alice has made ready for Richard to come home from work. They are also one of the things that Richard will be throwing and smashing during the argument.

Obviously we won't be getting our actors to really drink wine and we don't want to have the glasses with wine in them due to one of them being smashed, so we are going to have the wine bottle placed near the centre of the table between the two meals. I thought red wine would be best as it links in with Christianity. The wine bottle in the picture won't necessarily be the wine brand we use - it's just an example. 

For there to be a romantic meal set out, we thought Alice could either have laid out the food just before he was meant to arrive home OR we simply have clean plates where they are supposed to be sat. The second idea may prove easier so we don't have to worry about serving up food and making it look exactly the same for each scene and cut that we do. 

The digital clock is what we will be using for Alice to be monitoring the time. It's easier to film the time changing on a digital clock rather than a 24 hour clock. This will possibly be somewhere rather close to the sofa where Alice will be sitting at the start of the film.

Cutlery will be used to lay the table for obvious reasons. We don't want the audience thinking our characters eat with their hands - especially not at a romantic meal. 

A romantic meal wouldn't be the same without candles, however these candles will be melted down rather a lot to show the length of time Alice has been waiting for Richard to come home. The candles we will use will most likely be in jars or candle holders as to stop the mess. 

Stairs:

The stairwell is probably one of the most important locations in our short and possibly the most difficult. This is where we will be shooting the climax of our film where Alice falls down the stairs - of course we won't literally be getting out actress to throw herself down them. They are also important as they are where Richard is first seen sitting on the them and the last place you see him at the end of the film before he gets up to leave the house.

Set Pieces

A small rug is needed to be placed at the bottom of the stairs so that when we come to using fake blood on the carpet - it actually goes on a rug that can be thrown away, we don't want to leave a great stain on the carpet of the house. 

Behind Closed Doors - Script

Behind Closed Doors Screenplay

Behind Closed Doors - Treatment

By Deanna Hopps

        For our film, we needed a treatment. A treatment is a story-like narrative of the film, which often reads a lot like a book explaining what the scene is like and what happens within it. It acts as a more in-depth script and allows a much better picture of what the film, will look like when finished. One of our group members, Deanna, assumed responsibility for it and created a good-quality treatment, just like the first year of the course.

Behind Closed Doors Treatment