History of special effects.

From reading the book 'Special effects the history and techniques'  by Richard Rickitt
Cinema is now over a hundred years old photography being invented in the 19th century originally the 'flick' cinema was enough to satisfy audiences but after awhile the audiences wanted more they wanted to be allured into the cinema full of drama and magic that they wanted to believe in  which developed into trick cinema where they could see flying cars etc.. 
For the special effects world that developed with its audience as monsters in the 20's wouldn't scare people in the 80's so as tastes an developed and people were more immune to the horror it changed.

The first recognized special effect in film was in an 1895 film showing the execution of Mary queen if Scots. Alfred Clark, the director had an actor walk to the execution block and as the axe fell he stopped the camera and swooped the actor with a dummy. Techniques like this would remain the standard for films for most of the next century.This  technique was known as Stop Start and was only possible because of the development of the movie camera.The next big development was by the french magician Georges Melles.Georges Melles introduced various types of tricks into film making. Such as multiple exposure, time lapse photography and he even hand painted certain frames to give the effect of aging quickly. Throughout the 1920 and 1930 as film cameras improved so did the ability to create special effects. It was during this time that the make up side really began to grow.As science developed new materials make up artist were able to develop new technoques especially around prosthetic s.
One of the most advanced and ground breaking make up artists of this time was the actor Lon Chaney. He developed techniques that are still used today. He even became known as the man of a thousand faces.He is most famous for his role as quasimodo in the hinchback of notredame , the phantom in the phantom of the opera and as the professor and the man in the hat in the classic horror movie London aftef midnight. He would use such techniques as shading, mask making and padding in his body to change his appearance.Techniques such as molding have not changed much since then, they have just got easier due to the advances is materials.

Avatar

Avatar is an film by james cameron. It basically shows how humans are systematically destroying the planet without any car for the indigenous people. It highlights how, even when big business knows that its actions can do terrible harm to everyone they only think about the profit. The native or indigenous people are portrayed as having skills and knowledge that are beneficial to all. And that its not to later to try and change our ways and look aftef the planet.The blue people are called navi very similar to navaho And in modern culture native americans are seen as being carinbg for the planet. what I also like about avatar is that the whole body links with nature for example their body links in with the animals they attach together for them to fly so by coming together they work. I also like how they have long native like hair which goes with my theory of them being like native Americans.

american horror story

 

American horror story is a perfect example of special effects beauty each epsiode explores new terrifying characters that grip the audience and shows the true beauty of special effects. It explores the 'un-natural' each series has some sort of hybrid in asylum they show the scifi part with alien and human pregancy. Especially in freak show they show a variety of human hybrids such as lobster boy ” The storyline was based on Grady Stiles He was a real-life freak show performer who was born with claw-like hands and feet. Lobster Boy murdered his daughter’s fiancé and eventually got murdered himself after two of his own family members hired a hit man to kill him. Before researching I didnt know it was based on a real story looking deeper I've found that It is a rare form of a congenital disorder the development of the hand is interrupted which causes the mutation The central ray of the hand is affected and usually appears without proximal deficiencies of nerves, vessels, tendons, muscles and bones in contrast to the radial and ulnar deficiencies. The  hand appears as a V-shaped cleft in the centre of the and. In most types, the thumb, ring finger and little finger are the less affected parts of the hand The incidence of cleft hand varies from 1 in 90,000 to 1 in 10,000 births depending on the used 

Sarah Paulson is pictured as Bette and Dot Tattler, conjoined twins

Conjoined twins are identical twins. An extremely rare phenomenon,It's estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births,Approximately half are stillborn, and an additional one-third die within 24 hours. Most live births are female, with a ratio of 3:1. Most stillborns are male.

A theory exists to explain the origins of conjoined twins. The more generally accepted theory is fission, in which the fertilized egg splits partially

Abby and Britney are real life conjoined twins Ive watched a documentary on them
This is a snip bit of it

Scarification

Scarification is the pourposeful scratching, burning, branding or cutting the body with designs pictures or words to remain thefe permanantly. The process is ment to cause more scar tissue than normal.The practice goes back thousands of years, to earliest tribal societies and can often show the tribe, family and position of the person scared.It can be done to mark the change of boyhood to manhood. It can be used to prove the braveness of a person. It can be used to show a persons sexual orientation and role and also religious status.It was so important to some societies that people who did not go through the experience were treated as outsiders and not allowed to take a full role in that society.The most common way of scaring is cutting. To make the scar more prominent,the cut can be filled with ink, removing the upper layer of skin and oavking the cut with clay or ash. This is pushed out of the skin as the cut heals. This is the most common way of doing it. It can also be done by branding with hot metals.It can be very dangerous and has often caused the death of people through infections.. That's why I wanted to incorpate using scarification to go with my concept of 'we've become what we've destroyed' the scarification has a lot of influence of the pain but can still be quite beautiful designs even though it's a old tradition it's still around today and even people that don't follow that certain religion, beliefs or tribe are having scarification done for a replacement of tattoos which is also very like scarification as body mutation is very popular in today's culture almost everyone you meet will have some sort of piercing or tattoo.

Lord of the rings

 In the film the lord of the rings the ents are also known as tree people.  They were used to represent the solid reliability of trees. Trees stand firm and are deep rooted, meaning that they are not fickle and will not change sides. They stay solid strong and firm when faced by trouble.




Peter King is a British Oscar winning makeup artist who won at the 2003 Academy Awards for Best Makeup for the film The Lord of the Ring

We make the prosthetics, wigs, beards and then do a show-and-tell for each character in the film", A quote from king talking about how he works on set. I realise that the 'tree people' aren't makeup but visual effects and so are gollum but the tree people did give me insperation on creating my hybrid I love how their described as protectors of the forest especially with my concept and gollum they help me understand what can and cannot be achieved with special effects it's intresting to see how it's actually done with the green screen. I do love the special effects Peter king has used on Gandalf the wig work and pieces really making him look the part I feel all the characters interlink and really create the storyline which is the main idea of creating a character.

sculptures

The earliest statues carvings were mainly religious in meaning. They could be carved out of various materials such as wood and bone as well as stone. But because stone lasts longer they are the most common ones found today.When society discovered metals that is when the started to make molds and casts to pour the molten metal in. This is a similar process to molding for prostherics. That is you make an accurate cast of the person you want to make up and use that as a base for your work.

Sculpture Ron Muek

I Adore Ron Muek's work I love how he uses ordinary people he often does them in vulnerable states. I aspire to his attention to detail he is truly a master of his craft I love the scale of his work and the variety of it it goes from life size and heart warming to hump his and controversial. 

His work of two old women in conversation

This work is titled In Bed. The woman's hair is made from horse hair while the sheets are cotton

One of his most shocking pieces is a new born baby with blood and umbilical cord hanging from his stomach which shows he has no creative boundaries and he will use every day life and experiences into his work with them so life like.

This is one of my favorites of his work I love how you can see the pours in his skin and the slight stumble everything is so perfect which makes me realise attention to detail is crucial and really does make a difference to the finished look. I also like how it's just the head it adds drama to the piece and the intense on his face gives more impact as its so realistic it even seems intimidating too look at even though it's a sculpture. that's what I feel art is its making you think question it makes an impact.
'If they succeed as fun things to have in the room, I'm happy. At the same time, I wouldn't be satisfied if they didn't have some kind of presence that made you think they're more than just objects,' said Mr Mueck

In a rare interview he said : 'I don’t think of them as mannequins. On one hand, I try to create a believable presence; and, on the other hand, they have to work as objects. They aren’t living persons, although it’s nice to stand in front of them and be unsure whether they are or not'

Roses

These are different colours of roses I've researched as I love how different coloured roses have different meanings although I orginally want them to be skin coloured too look like there growing out of the body I just wanted to make sure that it was the best option. I do love the peach coloured roses as they represent passion and I am passionate about this project and for it to be with my concept it's the passion of nature and passion of us becoming one with nature it's also the closest to skin colour so I may add a slight touch of peach into the skin colour just to represent passion.