Monday, 2 March 2015

Understanding of continuity and its importance in TV and film industry

My understanding of continuity is that something continues, it keeps going and if you put it in the make up and hair context when it comes to theatre, film and TV , it means that something has to look the same. For example if a film is being shot and they do a break just in between or they continue to shoot on the next day , the make up and hair has to look exactly the same as it did before. Otherwise the audience will notice that there was an interruption. I think it is especially important when you do special effects to have notes that will help you to achieve the look again or even the use of molds if you do scars, so the actor will have the same scar and not one with a different shape or size.

To achieve the same look for my continuity assessment, I wrote down some notes and also printed out images from the first assessment and pinned them on the mirror to match it. Unfortunately my printer does not print that well and the images were kind of in a bad quality but I had them also on my phone so it was alright. The most important thing for my continuity assessment was the recreation of the run down tears. It was tricky because you can't really direct the way of the tears. That's why I practiced before the assessments which the best angle is to apply the tears with the pipette. Apart from recreating the direction of the tears I also had to consider the mixing ration of the water and grey pigment I used to create the run down tears. It seems that for the continuity assessment the ratio was a bit darker/stronger and so the tears looked slightly darker, but I think it is not that obvious. Hopefully! Another point where I had to pay attention to were the dark circles underneath the eyes. I had to make sure that they are not darker or lighter then before. Otherwise there wasn't anything else when it comes to the make up. I was quite relaxed with the hair, because most of it it was underneath a veil. Nonetheless I tried my best to recreate the same hairstyle. I also took pictures of how the hair looked underneath the veil and in what position the birds nest was. So basically I just had to pay attention to the curls at the front which wear poking out from underneath the veil and I thought I can't do much wrong there. Well I was wrong. There are two medium sized curling tongs we have in the studio and unluckily I grabbed the wrong one:) So when I did the ringlets at the front I noticed that they are looser than the last time and it frustrated me a bit but overall it was alright because I would mess up the curls anyway. So yeah it is important to pay attention to what kind of curling tong your are grabbing especially if they look very similar.
Otherwise I found the continuity assessment was a nice challenge for myself, to test how far I am capable to recreate the look.


Continuity notes for the hair:
  • 3 sections on each side at the front for the ringlets
  • when plaiting the braids which go into the bun make sure to take them a bit apart before joining, to make them look bigger
  • DON'T take the plaits apart which go into the birds nest!they need to be tight
  • place the nest on the right side of the head( right side if you are standing behind the person)
  • apply the baby powder at last to make the hair look dry and dusty
  • try to add the dried leaves and rose petals on the same places on the hair as before-> check with images
Continuity notes for the make up:
  • try to get similar ratio for the tears mix as before
  • tell model to lean back with her head so I can apply the tears in the right angle with the pipette 
  • try applying the tears as close to the waterline as possible
  • don't go too dark with the dark circles, keep comparing with the images of the first assessment as you keep applying the colours, build up the colours, you can always add more if necessary
  • use supercolour for the bitten and dry lips instead of the lip stain. 
What is also important is to bring the props in that have been used for the first shoot.

Props to bring in:
  • self made birds nest
  • veil
  • dry leaves and rose petals, remember that you placed some dry rose petals on her decollete as well
  • lace necklace
  • dried rose bouquet
  • remind model to wear the same clothes

Images from the first assessment

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