Hair and Make up test day

I decided to hold a make up and hair test day on the 9/12 on my two main characters in order to look at some different ideas and styles to see what suited them, the character and what looked good on camera. I found this very helpful as we decided on make up and hair for the main shot in the woods. As a major section of my video, the make up and hair needs to look right and fit in with the style and genre of the music as well as the ideologies people have of the indie folk genre.

Make up

for Lily's make up, we tried out three different looks, all inspired by grunge/indie models and recreated by myself.

the first look is quite simple, consisting of foundation, blusher, eye liner and mascara.

I really liked this look because it was simple yet effective. it reinforces the idea of natural beauty that is presented a lot in the indie folk genre. As the song is entitles 'Youth' it is also good that the make up isn't too heavy and doesn't make Lily look much older than she is, which is important as the character should be in her mid-teens. I think this make up compliments Lily, there isn't a lot, yet there is enough to cover any unexpected imperfections. I like the fact that Lily is quite pale as again it reinforces the 'natural' look that is fashionable at the moment

the second look is slightly heavier, using dark brown, smoky eye make up.

I thought this make up looked nice but I wasn't sure about it for the woodland scene. I liked the smoky eye effect as it is quite grungy and the earthy brown colours reflected the natural theme I was going for however I think it is just a little too heavy for a scene that is meant to reflect natural beauty and innocence. I do think I will use this type of make up for the swing rope flash back scene though as it would fit quite well for an 'every day' make up look.

This make up is the heaviest out of the three, with simple eye make up but dark brown/red lipstick.


I didn't like this make up look at all. It is definitely too heavy for the scene and it didn't compliment Lily either. It made her look a lot older than intended for the music video and makes it seem less realistic. It also definitely took away the idea of a 'natural' look and doesn't make the character seem innocent and a protagonist. Lipstick will probably be used in the band room flash back scene but that will be a bit lighter and less harsh.

Hair

Like the make up, I found three ideas for hair as well which again, were recreated by me.

The first hair style is already a lot like Lily's hair, dark blonde and long so I thought this would be an easy hairstyle to achieve.

I liked this style on Lily as it is her natural hair, also the straighter it is, the longer it looks and long hair is very fashionable among young people today.

The second style is slightly wavy yet still natural looking.

I really like this hair style on Lily, the few curls just add definition to her hair and makes it look more multi-tonal which looks really nice on camera and also it is not too curly so that it shortens the look of her hair.

The last hair style is quite curly and looks fairly 'greek goddess' like.

This hairstyle on Lily is very similar to the last one. I like that the curls are quite loose and start about half way down her hair. The curls also make her hair look shinier and will look better messed up in later scenes.

I have decided on the first make up look for lily along with the second hair style. I think these looks are the most natural and look the nicest on Lily and on camera. It promotes the idea of natural beauty which links to my specific story line and also the genre of the song.

For Wes, I wanted to recreate an Alex Turner hair style which is quite messy and popular with the indie audience.

The left picture is before and the right picture is after. In the after picture, the lighting is quite bad, however you can see that I have messed it up by back combing sections and using a wax to make it look messy. By making his fringe bigger and hiding more of his face (connoting that he has something to hide), he looks more like an antagonist which is precisely the look I am going for. This will be the type of hair used through out the woodland scenes.