Evaluation

Overall I really enjoyed the 'What the Dickens' project and found it to be useful in developing my hair and makeup skills. The technical lessons were great and I really enjoyed being taught by Lottie as I feel her teaching style and humour helped me to learn at ease in a comfortable environment.

I was really pleased with how my Estella look turned out. I was really happy with the hair, particularly as it is not my strong point, but it just goes to show that practice really does make perfect! The only thing I would have changed if I were to redo my look would be the hair colour of my model, as the novel clearly states that Estella had brown hair. However saying that, I really liked the effect it had on Lorna's ombre red hair, even if it isn't historically accurate. I was really happy with the styling as I managed to pull it together without spending any money yet I still found it to look effective.

My Miss Havisham look I was not so happy with. Due to running out of time I decided to use my friend Becka as a model and used a wig on her for ease. However as the wig was synthetic it didn't photograph very well particularly under flash. I wasn't that happy with the makeup either; bruising, ageing and prosthetic work is definitely not my strong point as my main focus is on beauty and fashion so I found I struggled to make my design look realistic and appropriate for TV. Saying that, I did enjoy the experience and the skills I learned will help me in the future I'm sure. If I were to shoot this again I would choose a more suited model, practice bruising and ageing more beforehand and use real hair!

Final Miss Havisham images

Final Estella images

Styling for Miss Havisham

The Styling for Miss Havisham would appear to be quite simple, a lavish Victorian wedding dress.

These style of wedding dresses would be perfect for Miss Havisham. Although it is important to remember that use to wearing this dress for many years it would have yellowed and started to fall apart. Also the fit of the dress would have done due to not eating properly. 

This is a good image to show the yellowing of the dress although I imagine it to be damaged and frayed a lot more. 

Styling for Estella

The clothing for the characters is just as important as the hair and makeup. 

The dresses here are typical of something that Estella would have worn. Off the shoulder and highly embellished.

Because I wanted my Estella to be very sultry, I will also incorporate black lace into the outfit. 

Lace will instantly add more sex appeal to Estella, which after all is what Miss Havisham wants out of Estella.

Hair tests

As hair is not my strong point, I did a hair test for my characters on a mannequin head to ensure the styles I created for my final images would turn out how I envisioned. 

Estella

For my Estella hair style I wanted a bun at the back of the head and tight curls around the front.

I was really pleased with how the hair turned out as this was my first attempt at creating such a style

Miss Havisham

To trial how I could do Miss Havisham's hair, I created the same style and then de-constructed it. 

As you can see I pulled out a lot of the curls, I then backcombed the top section and pinned it back, creating a very messy bouffant-eqse style

Miss Havisham face charts

Miss Havisham  

Face chart #1

 

With this design I toyed with how extreme I could take her transformation. Here she looks almost dead and skeletal. Although I like this design I reminded myself that the look is for a TV production and this design would be suited to the theatre. 

Face chart #2 

 

Although more subtle, I still kept some of the hollowness in the cheeks and the darkness under the eyes. I added bloody bitten lips as they would most likely be chapped from a lack of water. I also imagine her to bite her lips as a nervous habit. 

 

Estella face charts

After conducting my research, I created some face charts of looks that I could use for my characters.


Estella

Face chart #1

(please note that the lip colour scanned far more vivid than it looked in real life, it should be a nude-pink)

As an experiment, I created this face chart for when Estella is beat by her husband, although I liked the idea I decided to go back to my original plan of creating Estella just after she returned from Paris.  

Face chart #2

(please note that the lip colour scanned far more vivid than it looked in real life, it should be a nude-pink)

I much prefer this face chart, soft brows and faint blush show youth and the soft pinky nude lip makes them appear more kissable.

Overall impression of characters

In conclusion to my research, I created two moodboards, one for each character.

Miss Havisham

Estella

BBC 2011 adaptation

This is my favourite film adaptation of Great Expectations. Choosing the right actor/model is imperative to ensuring your makeup, hair and styling are shown off in the best light possible. It doesn't matter how much of a good job you've done, if it's on the wrong person, it will fall flat. This is where the BBC adaptation excelled. I feel all the actor choices were perfect, as well as all the styling, hair and makeup. 

Douglas Booth, who plays Pip, is very easy on the eyes (not the only reason I love this adaptation, honest) was an excellent choice, as it is clear to see why Estella fell for him despite all of Miss Havisham's teachings. 

Miss Havisham, played by Gillian Anderson, in my eyes is the best portrayal of Miss Havisham to date. Not only is she a more appropriate age to play her, but her acting in the roll is flawless, and I have nothing but admiration for the hair and makeup department who worked on this short TV series as I feel they really showcased how much period makeup and hair has advanced in recent years.

Another great choice of actress is Vanessa Kirby, who portrayed Estella. Her aesthetic fits perfectly for playing the part of Estella and this is enhanced through the use of great styling. 

Apart from the hair, makeup and styling, I think what else makes this adaptation such a great success is the cinematography. The dark and desaturated look given to the picture really helps to set the mood and the music used really draws you into the piece and makes you feel like you're really there.

A look at the story

To get on better terms with the characters I decided to read extracts of the novel. This way I could get a first hand experience on how Dickens wanted to portray his characters to the world. 

Pip

Pip, Philip Pirrip, is the main character in Great Expectations and narrates the story. He is an orphan who is brought up by his sister. She treats him badly and regularly resorts to beating him. Her husband, Joe Gargery is the only person who shows love to Pip and he looks up to him as a father figure. Joe is a blacksmith and Pip initially wishes to follow in his footsteps when he grows up. 

At the start of the story Pip comes face to face with an escaped convict Abel Magwitch who forces Pip to go and get him a file to break free from his handcuffs and shackles. When Pip returns he also brings along a piece of pie for Magwitch to eat, this shows a kindness that Magwitch is not accustomed to seeing. 

One day he is called upon to visit Miss Havisham up at Satis House, where Miss Havisham implies that maybe Pip's life will improve and he will become a gentleman of great expectations. However Miss Havisham changes her plans for Pip after she discovers that Estella has fallen in love with him.

Despite Miss Havisham not paying for him to go to London and become a gentleman, a anonymous benefactor comes forward via the lawyer Mr Jagger which allows Pip to go to London and fulfil his dream of becoming a gentlemen of great expectation.

Towards the end of the story it becomes apparent that Abel Magwitch is in fact Pip's benefactor as he never forgot the kindness that Pip showed to him all those years ago on the marshes. 

Miss Havisham  

Miss Havisham, one of the characters who the project brief requires me to create, is a bitter and twisted spinster who was left at the altar as her fiancé was only interested in her money. This act of unkindness leads Miss Havisham to go on to plan her revenge on mankind, in which he adopts the orphan Estella whom she raises to become a heartbreaker of men. 

Her appearance is described in detail through the eyes of Pip. He finds her to be scary and ghost like, still wearing her wedding dress from all those years ago. The dress no longer fits her properly as her poor diet and malnutrition has caused her to lose a lot of weight. In addition to her weight loss, her skin has become dry and grey due to the lack of sunlight and her hair is messy and ashy due to it still being in her wedding style. The wedding dress is described as yellowed due to the amount of time it has gone unwashed and been worn continuously for.

In our practical lessons we have learned how to age the face through the use of latex and ageing stipple, as well as how to contour the face to make it appear gaunt. The use of an ashy base will also help to create the look of Miss Havisham. We were also taught a variety of Victorian hairstyles that would be appropriate to use. These technical lessons will make creating the character a lot easier for us and through research we will be able to create a historically accurate makeup and hairstyle. 

Estella  

Estella, the young orphan who is taken in by Miss Havisham is described as being a very beautiful individual. This is a vital character trait as she needs to be good looking in able to go out an break the hearts of men as Miss Havisham so selfishly desires. The only detail in which the novel refers to Estella's appearance is that she has brown hair. This is probably due to Dickens wanting the reader to create their own vision of what she would look like. 

Research into what Victorian young women would have worn at the time will help me to create an accurate look for her though.

Miss Havisham

Miss Havisham is a very interesting character. Coming from a wealthy family, she fell in love with a man called Compeyson whom she was head over heels for. Unfortunately this love was only one sided as Compeyson was only interested in Miss Havisham's money. She was left at the altar on her wedding day, and thus became a recluse of her property, Satis House. 

Due to her betrayal, Miss Havisham went on to despise men. In her bid for revenge, she adopted an orphan, named Estella, who she raised in such a way that Estella would grow up to break the hearts of many men. 

Miss Havisham is often portrayed as an elderly woman, however newer adaptations appear to have recognised that she would not necessarily be that old, perhaps her early forties would be a more accurate age to make her.  



Here is a clip that shows Miss Havisham as played by Gillian Anderson in the 2011 BBC adaptation where Miss Havisham appears to be relatively


Here you can see the trailer from the 1946 adaptation where Miss Havisham appears much older

Victorian fashion research

To get a feel of what of what women of Estella's age would have worn in the Victorian time period I did research into the era. The fashion changed a lot throughout the Victorian era so the styling will depend very much on what point in the story I chose to base my Estella on. 

I will base my Estella on the time period from when she returns from Paris as I feel this is when she does through the biggest transformation in the story as she goes from a girl to a young woman.

(http://www.fashion-era.com)

This dress is a typical style of the time. The off the shoulder detail was very popular which showed a change of attitude to sexuality and showing off flesh. Colours that were popular at the time were soft and light shades of yellow, blue, pink, etc as they showed off youth. Lace was also popular at the time for young women as it was revered as sexy and seductive but in a subtle way.

Estella

Estella is the young girl who is taken into Miss Havisham's care, who trains her up to break men's hearts after her husband-to-be left her at the altar. 


In this clip of the 1946 film we see Jean Simmons playing Estella. From what I can tell Miss Havisham's teaching to Estella are very successful in this adaptation as Estella acts very harsh and cold towards Pip. This perhaps isn't the best approach for Estella to take as she needs to show some warmth towards Pip in able to draw him in and make him fall in love with her.

Throughout most of the adaptations of Great Expectations, Estella is usually portrayed in a similar way. Young, beautiful, perfect hair, rosy complexion. It is vital to ensure that Estella is good looking, otherwise the whole story will fall apart as Miss Havisham's plan for her is to incise in men and make them fall in love with her, and then to go on to break their hearts. 

What the Dickens?

For MSF109: Styling for Stage, Screen and Television we have been given a project based upon Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. To complete the brief we need to design and create a look for both Miss Havisham and Estella. 

To help get us kick started into the project we had a guest seminar with Kate Benton; Hair and Makeup designer for TV and Film and co-founder of PAM London. She showed us how to apply HD lace wigs as well as a number of techniques to create ageing makeup. It was lovely to meet Kate and to get an insight into how professionals work in the real world.

For my Miss Havisham design I think I will plan to make her look younger than she is quite often depicted. While her poor living conditions and malnutrition will have an obvious effect on her appearance, we mustn't forget that she isn't actually that old. 

While I'm more interested in the fashion and beauty side of the industry, I look forward to doing this project and getting to experiment with character makeup.  

To get myself in the mindset of the time period, I re-watched the 2011 BBC adaptation of Great Expectations, which happens to be my favourite version of the story. 
Here is the trailer. 


I prefer contemporary adaptation and I feel this BBC version does Dicken's story justice.
In particular I loved Gillian Anderson's portrayal of Miss Havisham, not only was the hair, makeup and styling on point, her acting really helped to create a believable character. It is important to remember that no matter how amazing the hair and makeup is, if the acting is bad then the character will not be successful, and vice versa as well.