1930's curls

In our first year we learnt how to do finger waves using barrel curls. But the importance of doing this style is so we can use it in our historical designs as well as manipulating it for a contemporary.

• ·         Begin my brushing the hair through with a pin tail comb so all of the knots are gone.
• ·         Then part the hair on the side, either left or right depending on which way the hair naturally falls.
• ·         You want to start your curling at the front of the head. Place the hair around the tongs at the end of the hair and roll it anti-clockwise until the strand is wrapped around the tongs and you have reached the root of the hair.
• ·         Leave it there for about 30 seconds then gently easy the hair off the tongs, trying to keep the barrel curl in place. Then clip into place with a sectioning clip.
• ·         Repeat this step in a brickwork formation across the entire head.
• ·         When you come to doing the curls on the side of the head that has less hair try to angle the curls so they point towards the centre of the head.
• ·         Once the whole head is curled start unravelling the curls in the order that you curled them because they will be more set and cooler.
• ·         You then want to use a paddle brush to brush the curls till they are frizzy.
• ·         Then apply a shine spray at it will make the hair more shiny and make the hair look healthier.
• Then use a comb to brush the waves into place, gently try to backcomb the waves into place.
• Try putting sectioning clips in the waves to keep them in place until you are ready to photograph.

If you were to use a model with longer hair you would follow the same steps. But when you take the hair out of the clips, brush it through and then use stuffing or if the hair is thick enough you can roll it underneath.

Then use wig pins to pin the hair into place. If necessary backcomb the hair to give it more volume.

I found this surprisingly difficult, especially with short hair. Just because the ends of each strand were very straggly and I couldn't always wrap the tongs all the way to the end which had an effect on my overall image. The finger waves themselves didn't sit properly and then I was left with a piece of hair from the fringe that I tried to curl around into a kiss curl but I was not successful. I thought it was really practising this look because it was so vital in this project and I found the more I tried it the best I got at it. I would have loved to try it on long hair so that I could really transform a long hair style into a bob.

Emcee Facechart

Based on my research of 1930's circus this is the face chart I have created. This is just an initial idea because I don't feel like I have completely come to terms with the character that I want to create. The Emcee's that I have seen have either been in a film or a play so their make-up is allowed to be a little theatrical but I want mine to seem authentic.
It is difficult to try and convey so many personality traits and a background story just through the make-up and hair. I am not used to working with male hair because it is so short there seems to be less styling that can be applied.

• Begin by mixing together two of the Kryolan foundations with the Illamasqua rich liquid foundation to create a milky tan tone and apply straight to the face.
• Blend well as the foundations you use are a thick consistency.
• Apply a dark concealer colour just underneath the cheekbone and then a pale concealer to the actual cheekbone and blend again. This will give a contoured effect and add more definition to the face.
• Use a coffee coloured eyeliner to fill in the eyebrows of the model. Slowly add a darker brown or black into the eyebrow so that it isn't a block colour.
• For this image I decided I would use a model that already had a moustache so that I could see what it would look like if I were to actually use their real facial hair. So I began by applying the same technique as I did with the eyebrows but to the moustache. Then use a brown eyeshadow to lightly to dust the moustache.
• For the eyes apply a very fine line along the top lash line with gel or liquid eyeliner and then repeat the line but vertically down the eyelid, carrying on to underneath. You may choose to make the eyeliner thicker where the two lines meet.
• Then apply mascara to the top and bottom lashes for definition.
• Lastly, powder the face.

I found that once I had created the moustache I didn't like the look it gave my model. It made him look more like a pilot from another era than a 1930's Cabaret man. It wasn't thick enough, the colour was wrong and it didn't curl in the direction that I wanted. That is when I decided I wanted to use artificial facial hair because that way I could cut it, colour it and style it the way I wanted to. One thing I wanted to keep about the original Emcee is the black hair because it contrasts so well with the pale face so I had to make sure I got the facial hair to match my model's hair colour. I felt that my first face chart didn't convey Emcee how I had imagined and it looked to plain. I knew it was time to go back to the drawing board...

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.

What do they want?

What does Emcee want? That is a question that can be left to the imagination. He doesn't share any of his real self to the audience so trying to figure out his motives has to be left to the script. I would say that he wants the audience to realise that discriminating people based on their beliefs or looks is wrong. He sings about a Gorilla in order to highlight the stupidity of the reasoning that the public have created. Realistically you would never use a Gorilla as a metaphor for who to love and who not to love. But is the most extreme of metaphors in order to demonstrate the whole concept. I think because Emcee has spent his life pleasing someone or an audience he could possibly agree with the cause he is preaching about. So if his message isn't conveyed he might give up his fantastical lifestyle as the Master of Ceremonies because all hope is lost. Or worse the audience will forget his song about loving people that different, whether they are Jewish or a Gorilla. The importance of the song at this time in history is to get the message across before the war begins and people like Fraulein Schneider are forced to choose between the person they love and the beliefs that they have. The song is performed in a light hearted way but the harsh reality of it was that it was coming true. 

Where have they just come from?

Literally speaking Emcee has just come off stage a scene or two before so he is full of adrenalin from being on stage. However, his stage presence is very natural because he does the show so often he is so comfortable. Having studied acting for quite a few years I learnt that you don't need to be nervous or embarrassed about being on stage because you aren't yourself, you are another character. So that is why it comes so naturally to Emcee because he isn't himself... We think. The great thing about Emcee is that he doesn't let the audience know anything about himself. He wears this constant mask so that the audience trust him but never know anything about his past. In the grand scheme of his life he has just come from the circus. I thought a man that has left the circus and gone straight to the streets of Berlin to be the master of ceremonies in Cabaret would be such an interesting character. It is most definitely a change of scenery but not really a change in lifestyle.

I have worked in retail ever since I got a job four years ago so I have constantly been in the presence of the public. Which I didn't think would change who I am but it has. I am more cynical and I prefer to be alone in my spare time. It is because I have spent most of my time attending to peoples needs and constantly talking to people. So it makes you more closed off as a person. This is what I think has happened to Emcee. He has spent most of his life in the public eye entertaining people. So when given the choice he doesn't spill his opinions and life experiences with the audience. This makes you feel sorry for Emcee because he is purely a microphone for the people of Germany because he expresses their views and highlights the controversy in Berlin at the time. 

Where are they?

Act 2 Scene 3 is set in the Kit-Kat club, Emcee enters in front of a paneled scrim. The fact that a blank screen on the stage when Emcee sings the song is a clever way of drawing the attention away from the rest of the story. Having a blank canvas for this particular scene allows the audience to just focus on Emcee and what he is singing about. The club is always dark but the lead singer or Emcee in this scene is lit by a spotlight so that everything in the club is dark besides Emcee. They are also in a time of change, with the state of politics in Germany. So the people of Berlin are used to living life they want, mixing with Jewish people, but Emcee tries to highlight where Berlin's state of mind is.. confused.

http://tennesseerep.org/blog/cabaret-radio-commercial/

When is it?

The whole idea of the script is that it's Sally Bowles romantic idea about life through Cliff's eyes. When I think about the heat of some scenes I imagine it to be extremely hot, therefore my script is set in the summertime of 1935. I chose this particular year because it is the time period when the idea of a second world war was on the cards so as it edged closer to 1939 you can see the state of Germany changing. Inside the Kit-Klub it is seedy and dark so if you spent long enough inside you would lose track of time. But for my particular scene with Emcee and the Gorilla I think it would have been at night, around 10pm. Purely because the message Emcee is trying to deliver is one that he would want people to hear so he would choose a busy time to deliver it. The time of year reminded me a lot of a scene in the Great Gatsby where the main characters go to a hotel in the city. The scene is tense from the heat of emotion but because of the literal humidity in the air. It is a perfect representation of what I imagine summertime Berlin to be like. Especially as Daisy and Sally as characters can be likened to each other. As well as Nick being like Emcee as he narrates the entire story.

(http://dylanbconnell.com/2013/07/29/great-gatsby-taught-me/)