Week 1: Pre-Production

Week 1: Pre-Production.

After giving my pitch on my ideas regarding the Estings advertisement, I began to collect materials I would need in order to make my film successful. As I plan on dressing up for my animation, I concentrated straight away on finding face-paints, as I thought they would be the hardest to come across.

I bought one brand of pure black face paint for £3.99 and have used this brand before so I knew it wouldn’t cause havoc to my sensitive skin. The other two were donated to me via friends, the dish of white face paint is a base coat, which will turn flaky and come off easily, the white face-paint in the bottle is similar to make up primer, and will keep my face from peeling.

I then went onto collect a varied amount of brushes, from thick wallpaper brushes to fine silky ones, I tested these out to see which would help create the finest edge. I found that a medium sized bush and a very large brush both had very good line and texture, but as the film was going to be shot from a slight distance, and I black and white, it wouldn’t make too much of a difference. I did, however, choose both of the brushes to use, the large one for doing the majority of the painting and the medium sized one to fill in where the large brush could not.

I went to numerous hardware and home-ware stores both in Berwick and Newcastle in order to find a painting suit that I could wear during the filming of my animation. I wanted to use this piece of clothing because it gives the impression that the character has been given an actual job and not just wandering around painting walls. I finally found a “One Size Fits All,” deal and although it could be mistaken for a forensic suit, I feel it does the job well. I also took to the charity shops in search of a black and white striped top similar to the apparel of a Bohemian mime, but at the same time, not wanting to look like an escaped convict. In the end I chose not to wear the suit as it looks too modern, and a black and white top plus black trousers and braces is the typical get up of a mime that I finally decided on.

Once I had completed my task of finding materials, I went on to test out the face paints I had purchased in order to see which one looked most successful. I first tried out the style of the White Face Clown, using a soaked and squeezed sponge, I put the white face paint all over my face to which I then added the primer in order to keep the ace paint as smooth as it can be. I then used my black face paint and a thin paintbrush to draw large marks under my eyes, as well as large eyebrows giving off the look of mischievousness and curiosity. Although I find this style very effective, I think it would be too scary for younger viewers to watch, as the face is rather menacing and wouldn’t appeal to children, or even adults!

I then went on to Paint my face in the style of the Bohemian Mime. I found this task a little bit more enjoyable, as the Bohemian era was partly known for its wide variety of vibrant colours and sparkling jewelry. I applied the white face paint and primer as I had done for the White Face Clown, to make my face white but not shiny. I then went on to use the black face paint to go over my whitened eyebrows, eyelids and to add a stripe going over my right eye. I added two small dots on either side of my eyes to make them appear more doll-like and less scary. I feel as though this style works a lot better than the White Face Clown as it is much more toned down and not as terrifying, however I do feel that there isn’t a vast amount going on, on my face. I then decided to try and kind of morph between the two. This resulted in a much more defined and obvious look.

This is the image of the two kinds of faces put together, I felt that this style was a lot more successful, mainly because of the fact that it isn’t considered as scary as the White Face. I also think that the black lined lips work very well instead of a constant smile, because emotion can still be shown and the black will exaggerate that particular emotion. Having stripes over both eyes, I feel, is more effective as well because of the delicate lines going over my eyes, creating more of a pattern and abstract-ness than the White Face Clown. One thing I would change about this would be the eyebrows, as I think they are too ordinary and not animatedly bug, like most mimes’. I would also add mascara to this style, because as you can see in the photo, my eyelashes have turned white from the face paint. To this I would also add more liner around my eyes to make them more defined.

Once I had the design and style of my costume and face-up planned. I moved onto the actual pre-production of my set, which began with me obtaining a very, very large frame! This frame is about 6ft by 3ft and is large enough to fit the image of the E4 logo onto it. I felt as though this frame would be simple enough to film, and would need a white background to make it look like part of the room.