MIRROR IMAGE
ONES ALTER EGO OR HIGHER SELF
FILM INFLUENCE
DESIGN IDEAS ORIGINATING FROM FILM AND TV
All images : Mostow, J. (2009). Surrogates. [DVD] USA: Touchstone Pictures
Knowing that expressions can alter our mood, a Japanese scientist Fumio Hara has built a facial robot that has the potential to create and respond to expressions. Her muscles are made of pistons and her skin is just silicone, but her camera eyes can spot our smile, and smile back at us. The scientist hopes to market her as the companion of the future- keeping lonely people company, which also might keep them healthy.
(Bates, Cleese, and Staff, 2001. P.123)
As more and more of our communication is done electronically, the one thing we are missing out on is face-to-face contact. But not for long. The information technology industry is developing avatars- virtual faces- that in the future will speak to colleagues and negotiate for us in international meeting. People will open an email and up wil pop our avatar, speaking our words and responding to their comments with appropriate expressions.
(Bates, Cleese, and Staff, 2001. P. 124)
So the honest among us will have the face digitalized and all our faces will have the the worldwide coverage of todays superstars. But of course our avatar does not have to look exactly like us. The temptation to straighten up the nose or even adopt a completely different appearance will be too much to resist for some of us. Will we be able to truse facial expression at all in the future when we have made our virtual faces more beautiful than our biological ones? And how will we decide how to make a beautiful face?
(Bates, Cleese, and Staff, 2001. P.125)
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Avatars first came into general consciousness by way of computer games and online chat rooms or forums. It's well known that someone you meet online may not be who they pretend to be.
Surrogates are a future high-tech phenomenon that allows the human population to purchase remote controlled humanoids, which interact with society on their behalf. This way, people recline at home without moving, while living visually inaccurately through robot avatars controlled by their minds. They present themselves to the world as younger and more attractive versions of themselves, none of them are really there, they are all idealized versions of themselves, hiding behind masked identities.
DESIGN RELATION:
This film has had a big influence on my whole project outline and has formed the basis of my research into ‘doppel beings’ or an idealized self. Throughout the film, the higher class are able to depict exactly who they want to be or look like, it seems to be the richer you are, the more beautiful your surrogate is. My design will be influenced by this and the setting will be elegant, higher class. The person will ultimately be able to choose their identity from a box of features, taken from various individuals.
LES YEUX SANS VISAGE: EYES WITHOUT A FACE
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
These days we could have almost any face we like, whenever we want, provided we could afford it. A face transplant would involve removing the face, facial muscles and subcutaneous fat from the recipient. A line would be traced across the hairline and down the temples on both left and right sides. It would pass just in front of the ears and round the jawline. The donor face from a recently dead person, complete with lips, chin, ears, nose, eight major blood vessels and even some bone would then be grafted into place.
Human face transplants have not yet been legalised in Britan, although a team of surgeons is poised to perform the first face transplant in America. And a number of animal face transplants have already been successfully carried out around the world.
Kemp, Bruce, and Linney, 2004. P.91
Below images: Franju, G. (1960). Eyes Without a Face. [DVD] France: Champs-Élysées Productions
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
A Surgeons daughter went missing and had severe burns to her face, which was described to have looked like it had been removed with a scalpel, her body was found in a river where rats had started to eat away at the surrounding flesh. Only her eyes were in tact, she was identified in a morgue as the surgeons daughter.
Later, the viewer sees his daughter, locked away in their family home which is gated ‘no entry’ she has her face hidden in a pillow and is told to be in the habit of wearing her mask until he succeeds in repairing her face. He faked her death in order to protect her. She searches the house for a mirror, to see herself, however, all of the mirrors have been covered and she is unable to catch her reflection.
The surgeons secretary works along side him to lure young girls into the villa where he attempts to remove their faces, leaving only their eyes behind.
DESIGN INFLUENCE:
The scene where the doctor outlines the subjects face ready for the transplant inspired my design for the face template, I will be leaving areas free for the individual features and the outline will look similarsimilar to the above images of the cut outs.
HUNGER GAMES: PART 1
INEQUALITY BETWEEN RICH AND POOR
Below images: Lawrence, F. (2014). Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1. [DVD] USA: Color Force, Lionsgate
Main actress- candise is well groomed, well presented and stylised, accurate? Why she has been made up from being in recovery, in accurate and not believable. Landing scene, actresses hair has flattened and looks limp/dry, accurate from the air pressure and wind outside of the aircraft.
Her emotions reflect disbelief and mourning. Honest acting, building a distinct connection with the audience from the opening scene and throughout.
Fashion ranks a hierarchy in social class throughout the film. The 'mockingjay' costume is powerful and sexy. Hairstyle and make up, does it make you feel real, relation to the people? Actor humours the scene and the unscripted acting. Excessive make up is unnecessary and prematures her ageing, making her appear older.
RELATION TO DESIGNS:
Style and fashion is outrageous in the richer class throughout the film where it is common for them to dye their bodies in extravagant colours or undergo surgery to alter their appearances. The residents of the capital, the richest citizens, wear wigs in multitudes of colours to express their wealth and in one scene Peeta announces: ‘ it would be hard to tell if they were wearing any fancy costumes, because you might as well mistake their ordinary clothing for a costume’. In the Capital, wealth is heavily concentrated in the hands of the rich, the result is a huge disparity between their lives and the lives of the poor.
Abrahamson, L. (2014). FRANK. [DVD] United Kingdom: Runaway Fridge Productions. Element Pictures
FRANK
Masked identity, he never takes off the head.
How to describe frank: friendly and intense, nobody knows what goes on inside of the head.
Referral to mannequins as human beings.
Scene:
Why do you wear that? You think its weird, Normal faces are weird too.. Smooth then all bumpy and holes, what are eyes like, a science fiction movie, don't get me started on lips, they are like the ages of a very serious wound. Would it help if I said my facial expressions out loud, welcoming smile.
Flattered grin, followed by bashful smile.
Have you ever seen him without the head? No, maybe he is facially disfigured, forced to wear a mask.
WHITE
CHICKS
Wayans, I, K. (2004). WHITE CHICKS. [DVD] USA: Wayans Bros. Entertainment
When two twin sisters known as the Wilson sisters get a facial scar in a car accident, they refuse to leave the hotel due to their faulted appearances. But in order to save their job, two police officers disguise themselves as white women in the form of the 'Wilson' sister look-alikes.
MAKE UP TEAM: NOTES TAKEN:
Cannom and ”Van Helsing” sculptor Glen Hanz created four separate foam ”appliances” covering the entire face (except for the bottom lip) of each actor. ”I chose to work with foam latex, because it’s stiffer than silicone and shrinks up a bit, so it functioned as a facelift,” says Cannom. ”It pulled up the skin under their necks and on their foreheads, so it was really hard on their skin.” But a small price to pay for a little non-surgical lift.
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |
MAKE UP ARTIST, NOTES TAKEN FROM COMMENTARY:
Not surprisingly, turning the Wayans brothers white was no easy task. ”We tried everything and it all looked ashen on their skin. Nothing worked,” says Cannom. ”So we developed a water-based acrylic paint in a bright orangey-red that we airbrushed on them to cancel out the ash tones.” And, over that, Revlon Color-Stay foundation, which was used in 50-gallon drums. Why the regular dime-store makeup? ”The paint alone was too shiny, so the Color-Stay matted it down to a soft finish,” says Cannom.
I took design ideas from this film in a sense that identity was stolen and two black police officers where made to look like white women, all of their features were manipulated in order to change their ethnicities and make them appear feminine. I will be using features from different ethnicities to alter my models appearance and change her identity; the different features will collectively act as a mask, covering the models natural face. Again, wigs were used as a means of disguise and I will use various wigs as props in the filming of my final make up application (in the style of the hunger games, in multiple styles and colours, giving the impression of a surreal reality, an illusion).
IDENTITY SWAPPING, DISGUISE AND WIGS
Elysium is a futuristic film, set in 2154, where life on earth has become so polluted, diseased, and poverty-stricken that the richer citizens have created an ultimate world away from the poor, an orbiting space station called Elysium. Here they can preserve their way of life and continue to live in idyllic, luxurious space, away from societys disease, forever, due to advanced medical technology that can reverse aging and miraculously cure any illness or injury.
MOON ELYSIUM
Jones, D. (2009). MOON. [DVD] United Kingdom: Liberty Films UK
Bloomkamp, N. (2013). Elysium. [DVD] USA: TriStar Pictures
Both actors in the film are called Sam Bell, and both are clones of the original. Both have his memories, memories of how to maintain the base and harvesters, and memories of a wife back on Earth.
The film unravels that there have been many clones before them, and that there are many clones in storage in a secret room on the base, ready to be awoken in the future.
When he had the accident mining, a new clone was activated to replace him. This new clone found the previous clone and they slowly pieced together what had happened.