Tableau on Green Screen

This project has required the five group members: Karen, Katie, Kristina, Tiffany and I to create fantasy characters for a tableau on a green screen. As a group we all felt very excited about the project and wanted to have an end result to be proud of.

We began our first meeting by deciding on where our tableau would be set, and the type of background we wanted.

We all felt inspired by this image created by Illamasqua for their Art of Darkness campaign. We liked the dark, magical feel of the image and wanted to emulate that in our own work. We therefore decided to set our tableau in a woodland, as we felt that it was a fairly general fantasy setting, so whatever characters we created would fit in with the background.




The Illamasqua Art of Darknes Tableau

 


My mind map of initial ideas from the group meeting



Next we started to think about what we would like in the woodland, such as plants, toadstools, tree stumps, rivers etc, and how our characters would be placed, such as sat on a tree stump or reflected in the river. We spoke about the types of creatures typically found in fantasy woodlands and forests, such as wolves, bears, centaurs, fauns, birds, goblins, elves and witches, and how these characters may have mythological roots. We then considered whether our characters would all be good, evil or a mixture of both. We discussed using a traditional fairy tale such as Snow White or Hansel and Gretel, and each team member creating one of the characters, but we could not decide on a fairy tale which had characters we could adapt to suit all our individual styles.



America's Next Top Model tableau of the Seven Deadly Sins



Kristina told the group about a tableau she found inspiring, in which the contestants from America’s Next Top Model portrayed the Seven Deadly Sins. She thought that we could incorporate this theme into our fantasy woodland setting. As there are five of us in the group, we had been thinking about creating five characters, but with this theme we decided to each choose a sin to depict, and the two spare sin characters would be made up more simply by whoever finished first. As a group we all liked the concept and felt it would look effective in a photograph.

We also felt that the contrast between the portrayal of the sins in the America’s Next Top Model picture and in the 1995 film Se7en, (which features seven murder victims each killed for being guilty of the sins), allowed us lots of flexibility in our own representation of the theme.

In our brainstorming session we noted down areas to research such as the origins of the sins within religion and folk lore, the time period, the punishments for committing the sins and sources we could look to for more adaptations and inspiration, such as films and art.  At this stage I felt that I liked the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, but didn’t have any ideas of how to portray any of them as a fantasy character.

We discussed how the sins where depicted in the film Se7en. I felt influenced by the way the film had represented Gluttony by an obese man being force fed until his stomach exploded. As I am always keen to challenge myself and create different types of prosthetics, my initial idea was to create a ‘fat’ makeup and a gory stomach explosion effect. I thought that this portrayal of the sin would translate well in a photograph, and felt that as it was quite extreme, it still fitted into the fantasy genre. I told the rest of the group about my idea, which was received with enthusiasm. They had also had initial concepts of how they would create the sins, although Kristina could not decide between Envy and Lust. We agreed that the designing of the two extra sins would be a group effort. This is how the sins were originally distributed:

Pride – Karen

Envy – Kristina/Spare

Lust – Kristina/Spare

Wrath – Katie

Greed – Tiffany

Gluttony – Me

Sloth – Spare

During the meeting I feel that the team worked very effectively together. As we have known and worked alongside each other for four years and are all familiar with each other’s styles, strengths and weaknesses, we all communicate well and are able to express our thoughts and ideas easily. I also feel that the number of members in the team helped us to be productive. If there were many more people, personalities could have clashed and it may have been harder to decide on a theme, but there were enough of us to ensure a wide variety of concepts and discussion.

Taking inspiration from Se7en, I created some initial concept art for the character of Gluttony. I decided to make the character male as I thought the ‘fat’ makeup would look better on a male face, and as I planned to pad out the costume to fatten the body, I felt that this would be easier to achieve with male clothing.  Initial concept sketch for Gluttony   Initial concept sketch for Gluttony 

 I shared my ideas for Gluttony with the group tutor Natasha. She felt that the design was more in the horror genre than fantasy. As I did not know how else to portray Gluttony in a way that would translate well in a photograph, she suggested I choose a different sin. Natasha said that Sloth put her in mind of a woodland creature. As fantasy creature makeup effects are my favourite to design and create, I decided to change my sin to Sloth. Some of the other group members also changed their sins to fit the fantasy genre and their own personal styles, and others stayed the same. This is the final distribution of the sins:

Pride – Kristina

Envy – Karen

Lust – Spare

Wrath – Katie

Greed – Tiffany

Gluttony – Spare

Sloth – Me

At this stage I still did not have any ideas of the type of creature I wanted to create. I considered the different fantasy creatures that would be found in a woodland, such as centaurs and fauns, and thought about attaching fur to a pair of leggings to make this type of costume. As I felt the creature should look lazy and/or asleep, I thought that the position of the character should be laid against a tree stump or log, with ivy or vines wrapped around his body as he had been slothful for so long. As I did not want to incorporate any beauty or fashion elements into the design, I decided to keep the character male. After deciding this I felt much happier with the concept than my previous one for Gluttony. I also felt that creating a fantasy creature for Sloth would better fulfil the project brief.

I went to local woodland for inspiration and considered where our characters would be positioned, such as on a riverbank or amongst the trees. I was inspired by the different plants, fungus and moss growing on the trees and felt I wanted to incorporate this into my design by developing the idea that the character was being taken over by his environment.



My mood board showing my inspiration from the woods




My mood board showing a concept for the fantasy woodland setting



I began researching the history of the Seven Deadly Sins, and displayed my findings in a timeline. The first recordings I could find of a list of acts said to be worse than others was in the Bible, and included “haughty eyes, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6: 16-19).

In 345 AD, a well-known monk called Evagrius of Pontus drew up a list of 8 evil thoughts, which he claimed were put into the minds of monks by demons who wanted to lure them away from their path to God. The thoughts were: gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia (spiritual sloth) vainglory and pride. In 540 AD, Pope Gregory I reduced the list to seven by combining ‘acedia’ and ‘sadness’ to make ‘sloth,’ made ‘vainglory’ part of ‘pride’ and adding ‘envy.’

In 1589 Peter Binsfield, a German bishop and theologian, paired each sin with the demon who tempted people to commit them. At this stage I still did not have any ideas of how I wanted my character to look, or what prosthetics I was going to make, but I was greatly influenced by the demon of Sloth, Belphegor.



An engraving of the demon of Sloth, Belphegor



I thought that the downturned shape of his nose and large ears gave his face an ill-tempered expression which suited the sin of Sloth, and the horns kept the character in the fantasy genre. This, combined with engraver Georg Pencz’s depiction of sloth which showed an angel and a goat, lead me to the decision to portray the character of Sloth as a faun, a creature I had considered earlier on in the process.

   

My initial sketch for Sloth



 My initial sketch of the Sloth character combines the elements I had decided I wanted to feature. As a faun, the character has the legs of a goat, which I planned to create from faux fur attached to leggings, and the top half is based on the Belphegor engraving. As the faun had been slothful in the woodland for so long, I added moss and mould to the horns. As it would be easier to attach the horns, and to keep in the style of Belphegor, I designed the character with a bald cap.

I considered different shapes of goats’ horns to create for the character, but I eventually decided to elaborate on my idea that the woodland environment was taking over the faun due to his slothfulness and make the horns into the shapes of branches. The pictures of the tree-man character makeup inspired me to extend the branches and create roots holding them up.

Throughout the process I kept the shape of the ears and nose the same as those in the Belphegor engraving, as I felt they suited the character perfectly.

  


My individual mood board showing elements of the character design, such as the plants and moss growing around the character as he sleeps, and horns inspired by branches

 Apart from the horns, there were no other large changes to the character from the initial sketch to the final design, due to the fact that I was so strongly influenced by the appearance of the Belphegor demon.

As a group we considered who we would use to model for us. We had to consider people who would be available to come in to college twice, first to be cast and then for the application and photo shoot. We also had to make sure they had the right body shape, hair length and colour, facial features and personality to sit through a long makeup process. As I had no male friends or family available to come into college, Karen asked George, her partner Ben’s brother to model for me. In hindsight, it was a risk for me to commit to using a model that I had never met or seen a photo of. But as previously mentioned we know each other well enough as a group to trust each other and know what suits each others’ styles. Kristina volunteered to bring in her friend to be the extra character of Lust, and Karen thought that Ben would be suitable for Gluttony. As she already had his face cast, it would be easier if any prosthetics needed to be made for him. As Karen and Kristina were bringing in the models for the extra characters, they naturally took on most of the designing and preparation work for them. Although this meant them having to undertake more work, I don’t feel that this could have been avoided, and if either of them needed help or advice with the extra characters, the rest of the team were very willing to help.

As a team we created a mood board to visually communicate our concept and influences of the tableau. The collection of images in the centre represents our theme of the Seven Deadly Sins, and each group of elements around it depicts the individual sins. We worked well together when creating this, and were fair about the space allocated to each person. The background image is a copy of a photograph taken by Karen on a group trip to Grassington Woods, and will also serve as the green screen background for the finished tableau. Although Karen took the photos, we made the final decision on which to use as a team without any conflict.



The group mood board



We were required to send the photographer Elliot a layout for the tableau showing where the characters would be placed. As we all had an idea of how we wanted our characters to be positioned and what heights they would be at, the layout was decided on fairly easily. As my character would be at a low level and lying on the ground, I was grateful that the rest of the group understood that he would have to be positioned at the front of the scene.



Planned layout for the tableau


 

When casting George’s face, I used Life Form instead of alginate. As I had only used alginate for previous life casts, I found the Life Form quite hard to work with as I did not realise how quickly the product sets. As the Life Form started to cure before I had covered the whole face, the final cast was affected. Next time I use the product, I will start from the area I plan to sculpt on, such as the nose or chin, to ensure a better quality result.

I sculpted all the prosthetic pieces using Chavant’s Clay le Beau Touché, as it is soft, pliable and adheres well to other materials. Whilst sculpting I referred to pictures such as the Belphegor engraving and photographs of trees, roots and bark to ensure I achieved the realistic look I required. I enjoyed sculpting all the pieces and was very happy with the final products. Although I had never sculpted anything like the branch horns or roots before, I am very glad that I tried something out of my comfort zone and am proud of the results.

I made the pieces from a mixture of materials. The nose and tree roots were silicone, as it is soft, flesh-like and looks realistic when coloured. I used liquid latex to pick up the texture of the branch horns, and filled the pieces with expanding foam to ensure they were light enough for my model to wear. I also made the ears from liquid latex. I made two bald caps using Super Baldiez diluted with Isopropyl Alcohol, which meant I had a spare if needed.

On the day of the green screen photo shoot I arrived early to ensure I could set up all my equipment in time and secure a good working space. By the time the rest of my group arrived, there was no workspace left near me and they had to move elsewhere, which left me feeling a little isolated during the application process, although this was no one’s fault.

I began the makeup by applying one of the bald caps to George’s head. Although the edges blended very well into his skin, some small tears appeared due to the cap being a little too thin. Luckily these could be covered by the tree root prosthetics, but next time I make a bald cap I will create a thicker mix of cap plastic and alcohol.

Due to a problem with the rubber used in the negative moulds, I was unable to encapsulate the nose piece with Super Baldiez, which would have given me an edge which I could blend into the skin. As it was, I decided to use Aqua Fix Cream adhesive to disguise the thicker edge of the silicone. Although the edge was still slightly visible, I was satisfied with the result I achieved, and am glad I had the experience should something similar to this happen again. I coloured the piece with a combination of grease and alcohol based makeup, and I feel I matched the colour well to my model’s skin tone.

As I had not had time to cast George’s ears, I had to sculpt the prosthetic ears onto casts I already had from a previous project. When it came to the day of the photo shoot, I realized that George’s ears were much smaller than those I had sculpted on, meaning that the pieces were an ill fit. Out of all the elements of the makeup, the ears are the ones I am the least happy with as they were hard to fit and blend into George’s own ears and I feel they do not look very realistic. However I decided not to remove them as I felt they added to the fantasy aspect of the character.

When applying the horns, I had difficulty keeping them stuck to the bald cap. Initially I added some Sculpt Gel around the bases to try and anchor them more securely to the root pieces. This helped slightly, but the horns were still pulling away from the cap. After discussing the situation with Natasha, I decided to wind thin wire around the bases of both horns in a figure of 8, which enabled both horns to support each other. I glued moss over the wire to disguise it and add an authentic, overgrown look. I was very happy with the look of the horns and feel they are the most striking element of the character. I feel that the horns could have been placed slightly higher on the head, but I was restricted by this placement by using the root pieces to cover holes in the bald cap.

As I had planned throughout the process, I made the faun legs by attaching fur to a pair of leggings. My design shows that I intended to hide the hard edge of the leggings by laying down crepe hair over the top, but on the day I ran out of time and was unable to do this. Nevertheless I do not feel that this affected the finished look too much and the ivy wrapped around the body distracts from this.

Once we were in the studio Elliot told us that due to the size of the room, he would not be able to shoot all seven characters at once, so we split the sins into two groups, which will be digitally combined later on.

The first group consisted of Envy, Gluttony and Lust. I feel that this group of characters worked very well together due to their different heights and poses. I think that the use of props adds lots of realism and texture to the tableau, and each sin is identifiable.

The second group was of the remaining characters: Sloth, Greed, Pride and Wrath. To ensure the two groups looked authentic when merged together, the log was moved to the other side of the studio. I was very happy with the placement of my character in the shot, and felt the positioning, along with the makeup and props, showed a true portrayal of the sin. At the time of writing this post, the final images with the background are still in production.

Individual photographs were also taken outside by our technician Clare. I am extremely happy with these and enjoy seeing the character in a different position. It is also interesting to see how computer editing and lighting effects can change the look and mood of a makeup.

In conclusion, I am extremely happy and proud of the final outcomes of this project. As a team I feel we supported each other throughout, and we were all focused on the success of the team and not just our own personal achievements. I think that the theme of the Seven Deadly Sins suited the group perfectly, as we were all able to create characters in our own style whilst ensuring they looked effective as an ensemble. Although it was Kristina who suggested the theme, at no time in the process did she force her own ideas onto the rest of the team or try and take charge, which I am grateful for.

Personally I feel that this is one of the best character makeup looks I have ever created, and although there were some issues with the final application, I am glad that I was able to learn from these for the future. I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the process, including the research, design, sculpting and mould making, and welcomed the challenges to create different types of pieces with new materials. Seeing my design come to life on the day was very rewarding and I am looking forward to seeing the finished tableau.

Peer Assessments

“Working with Phillipa is always a pleasure; she brings fresh ideas to the group from a special effects background adding diversity. Phillipa had a clear objective for her final design from the initial meeting. Her ability to compile research is outstanding thus showing in her sketchbook which is informative, well organised yet artistic with in depth detail into products and textures. She will go out of her way to aid other team members and always has positive attitude and presence which raises the groups.  
Her final prosthetic was flawless with all edges blended and colour matching the models skin tone. Her design was extremely effective alone and together with other characters therefore fulfilling and exceeding the brief set.
I would love to work with Phillipa on future projects.” – Katie

“Phillipa's design of was based on the seven deadly sin sloth. Her final design was mainly special effects based on a faun like creature involving prosthetic horns made with latex and a prosthetic nose which looked very effective. She had a clear vision of what she wanted the final design to look like and had researched well and looked at different areas of interest which reflected in her design and end look. Phillipa used her time well therefore creating excellent quality prosthetic pieces. Because some of her pieces were quite complex she had a few problems with deciding what materials to use but resolved this by seeking advice from a professional. She had thought well about props and costume in relation to her sin. The pieces were very well made and applied, involving a lot of technical skill, which looked extremely good and fitted in well with the theme.” – Tiffany

“Phillipa's enthusiasm for this project is extremely apparent throughout and has been consistently expressed through her research, designs and final piece. She has demonstrated a wide range of special effects skills, using a variety of products including bald caps, foam latex and silicone to bring her imaginative, unique and innovative visions to life. She overcomes any problems with ease, to a professional high standard and always puts 100% effort into her work. Phillipa has contributed towards the team at every opportunity, even if it may compromise her own design. She has sourced props and costume to authenticate her design further and it is evident from her design she has carried out extensive research to create a highly conceptual and fantastical piece.” – Kristina

“Phillipa’s design was on a par with the type of prosthetic work she likes to undertake, and is most suited too. The ability to let her imagination explore the magical world of fantasy was shown well within her design. Her research into this excelled, and clearly showed her knowledge and understanding on this subject, and this is clearly demonstrated in her sketch book, which was well organised and contained all the elements required. Her design contained various pieces, which all worked well when put together, and created the visual she was trying to achieve. They were all very detailed and were made from different materials, giving her the knowledge of the various products that are available.

Phillipa is clearly a team player, and was willing to help anyone within our group whenever necessary. Her design contained all the elements the brief was asking for. The various prosthetic pieces she produced clearly demonstrated the high level of skills she possesses. These skills transferring to the application of the design, which went according to plan. coming into college to undertake extra workshops shows that Phillipa is dedicated and wants to achieve the best of her abilities at all times.” - Karen