Character Moodboard and Breakdown

This is my Emcee moodboard. It is made up of all the images I choose to influence my Emcee design. When I originally looked at Emcee I thought he was a really simple character but his complexity stems from his ability to shut his feelings out of his performance. I initially spent a lot of time trying to justify the reasons the director had made for characterising Emcee in those particular ways. I found it really difficult to come up with a unique idea for a historical Emcee, I looked too closely at the ideas that were already presented. The Emcee traditionally had a white face with dark eye and lip make-up.
Transgender was something that thrived during Berlin in the 1930's so I wanted to somehow incorporate this in my design. I knew I couldn't make a woman look like a man. So I decided that I would use quite a lot of make-up on a man, but not so much that it looked too theatrical... After all this design is supposed to be for a television show. After the feedback I received I decided that I wanted to research into circus men. I thought the circus would be relevant because of its similarity to Cabaret.
I wanted my character to be more 3 dimensional so I then decided to look at Corpse Paint. It is most common with heavy metal bands because of its dark and sinister nature. I don't automatically see Emcee as a dark character but the more I realised he is a very mysterious character I thought an even darker make-up would be appropriate. Emcee could be seen as a reflection for the idea of Cabaret because he is so glamorous and vibrant yet he hides his true self with an invisible mask therefore allowing himself to reflect the carelessness and naivety of the people part of the Cabaret scene.

(http://faceculture.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/corpse-paint.html)

I decided I wanted to look a little into clowns but I didn't want my Emcee to actually be a clown because its too obvious. Although Emcee appears to be quite mysterious underneath his general exterior is happy because he is performing and selling the idea of a Cabaret lifestyle. But a happy clown would have been too cheesy and wouldn't have fit with his characteristics, despite being from a circus. I came across a film called 'House of a 1000 corpses' which features a character called Captain Spaulding. His make-up in the film is very extravagant but without knowing anything about the film it demonstrates a man who once had perfect make-up but it is dirty white and slightly grungy and dark.

(http://headhuntershorrorhouse.wikia.com/wiki/Captain_Spaulding)

I thought the contrast in different types of make-up is really interesting because they all contribute to the design that I want to create. On one hand you have this gothic heavy metal eyes and on the other you have a dirty mysterious looking clown. They are both attributes that I want to convey in Emcee.

One thing that I want to use is facial hair. It was very popular in men that were part of the circus during the 1930's. Either because they couldn't shave or because of the fashion. It is also a feature of the face that is masculine. This contrasts a lot with the make-up that I want to apply to my male model. But experimenting with that will be really interesting. One because I haven't worked with many male model's before and also because I have never used fake hair so trying to work with that will be a new experience.