Ǿ甬ᇈ⫧ No Longer Human by Osamu Daizai Video: The Fallen Angel Student name : Ya-Lu Chang Student number: CHA07218515 Course : LCF BA (Hons) make up and prosthetics for performance.
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Introduction The performance I would like to show in my project mainly derived from the Japanese novel No Longer Human, a story that happened during the Second World War. Inspired by the works of Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyaki, director Arato Genjiro and those famous oil paintings by David Stoupakis, I decided to set the background of this performance in modern times. This video will use body language of dancers to present Dazai Osamu’s poignant l ife. It will comprise of four parts presenting protagonist’s childhood, mid-life, before death and story after his death. At the mean time select some beautiful and graceful dancing poses as photo shoot t o highlight the major design elements that embodied the protagonist’s characteristics and inner vision.
About No Longer Human The topic I choose is “Escapism into Suicide”. The vision is dated from the novel No Longer Human (Osamu Daizai, 1948), a posthumous autobiography of the author，Osamu Daizai. It is a sad but to some extend beautiful story, which tells about how a talented young man struggled to escape from reality through all his life. The novel (Picture 1) was released in 1948 and contains a 3 pieces of journals written in the “first person” view point. The first journal is about the protagonist, Ohba’s unhappy childhood. Born in a landlord family, Ohba always feels distressed and isolated as he realized his notion of happiness is quite different from other poor people. Besides, under the influence of Japanese patriarch system, as the sixth son of the family, he almost grew up alone without parent’s care and love. For him, “the most difficult time is nothing more than having dinner with the whole family”. While he felt strongly abandoned by the society and even his own family, he always behaved comically on purpose just trying to catch others’ attention as a way to implore love. In the second journal, 0bha began to indulge in alcohol and drug in university, trying to escape form the reality. He even gave up his studies and involved in the banned Communist Party of Japan. The final journal is about 0bha’s miserable social life. He led a chaotic life and tried several times committing suicides. What’s worse, he gradually got into extremely emotional, abandoning himself in alcoholism, drug addition, prostitution, suicide and even negating and rejecting the whole world. At last, he was sent to mental hospital for his hopeless morphinism, ending up with a last desperate word “I am no longer a human”.
Death of Osamu Dazai As the story in No Longer Human is to a large extent the reflection of Osamu Dazai’s experience, he has almost led an identically legendary and miserable life. There were five times that he attempted to take his own life, and three of that with woman. It’s said that he is the Japanese writer who commits suicide the most times. Suicides are the highest art in his life, as some critics believed. Generally speaking, it is on the one hand his personal experience that brings about Daizai’s moral distortion and negative life style, while in effect it is also because of the specific historical context that keeps him at war with the state of depression and conflict. The suppress in Japanese revolution and the failure in the second world war, as famous literary critic Hirano said, resulted in the death of Dazai. In the postwar era, the Japanese economy was collapsed and the society sufferred the ruinous attack in all aspects. Most of people became homeless as their houses were badly blitzed. Besides, after the large expense during the war, the whole country was trapped in the poverty and shortage of basics and lots of people struggled and died of the starvation and sickness. It was an epoch when human nature were
twisted under the long-term suppress of the Mikado despotism that people had to fake themselves for living (picture 2). Facing all of the cruel reality, Dazai couldn’t rebuilt his values and faith, bringing about his lost in the turbulence, showing unbalanced mind and strong vanity. (Picture 2) What’s more, in the Japanese Concept of Life and Death, suicide is significant and swift death in the prime, like cherry blossoms, is wonderful for life. As one Japanese painter says, “Death is the highest of arts. It is birth as well as the perfection to lives”. As a result, lots of Japanese literati commit suicide in order to pursue the art of death as death is rather a mean of completion and perfection. In their opinions, the world of living is defiled while the world after death is pure. The notion to a certain extent explains why Daizai hence chose death as a way to resist the reality and pray for redemption as death, for him implies perfection, absoluteness and eternity.
Though Dazai osamu is male, I would still like to interpret the character by using a female model. If presented as a man, people might see his feminine and emotional attributes as a weakness, whereas when presented as a woman, the character would be able to be seen as drawing strength from the more masculine aspects of the character while as the mean time still maintaining the emotional state that is faithful for the original story. The emphasis of this whole project is on the change of Dazai Osamu’s emotion through all his life. On other hand, this is my own personal project that I want to present more about “me” as a designer. On the other hand, I wish this work could help me get more job opportunities which I prefer more focusing on fashion industry after the graduation, so I set up at the very beginning the background of this performance as “modern times”.
Inspiration Origin: My project is originally influenced by the Japanese film “no longer human” (Picture 3). The Director Arato Genjiro is one of the famous Japanese Film Producer, actor and director. His movie is known for slender shooting style and ecstatic and beautiful images. In the movie “no longer human”, Arato sucessfully finds the balance between being as faithful as possible to the spirit of the book, and bringing changes in details. He begins with soft music and bright tonal to express a decadent feeling recording a lost soul of the character. The special contrast give me a point of inspiration.
The director I would love to recommend myself, Ya-lu Chang to be the Assistant director of this performance video. It is not only because this is my personal project, but also I want to present the protagonist’s life by using my own approach and thought. The video will comprise of four parts presenting protagonist’s childhood, mid-life, before his death as well as the story after his death.
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Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Production Team Director: Jo Ying-Peng, a video artist who was graduated in Central St Martins, Find Art (MA) in 2009. Assistant Director: Ya-Lu Chang Photographer: Tao Wei LCF BA (Hons) fashion photographer year 2 Dancer/ choreographer : Jacqui Johnston (Picture 4)
Female Model, Male Character Dazai osamu is such a sentimental person that to some extent he might be prone to be feminine emotionally. During my research, I found that in his period most of the famous performances tended to use female actress to play the role of male character. Take the Takarazuka Revue as an example. Founded in 1913, the most interesting feature of this historical company is that it was an all-female musical theater group. It had ushered in a brand new vision of the unique and charming drama culture and female culture at the time as female actress can not only perfectly perform all male’s grace and handsome but also keep their own elegance and purity. Besides, there is a specific term in the western culture named as “modern-era breeches role” which means that some plays do have male roles that were written for adult female actors, and (for other practical reasons) are usually played by women.
BACKGROUND Historical context second world war People create history while in fact the specific historical context also creates people.
The country is a wreck, people are starving, or will: there is no industry left, no organization, and except for Emperor, no national unity. So the people by and large are too tired to be anything but docile. September 2, 1945 (photographs of John Swope)
Famous literary critic Hirano said resulted in the death of Dazai. In the postwar era, the Japanese economy was collapsed and the society sufferred the ruinous attack in all aspects. Most of people became homeless as their houses were badly blitzed. Besides, after the large expense during the war, the whole country was trapped in the poverty and shortage of basics and lots of people struggled and died of the starvation and sickness. It was an epoch when human nature were twisted under the long-term suppress of the Mikado despotism that people had to fake themselves for living . Facing all of the cruel UHDOLW\ 'D]DL FRXOGQ¡W UHEXLOG KLV YDOXHV DQG IDLWK bringing about his lost in the turbulence, showing unbalanced mind and strong vanity. The people in the street are poorly clad and slump along ZLWK D GD]HG XQFRQTXHUDEOH IDWLJXH ,W¡V UHDOO\ D GHDG FLW\ and after seeing it I am definitely more conscience of the food fortune our country had in not having its cities bombed into nothingness. September 6, 1945 (photographs of john Swope)
-DSDQHVH VROGLHUV UHDGLQJ SRVWHU IRU -DSDQHVH FLYLOLDQV WKDW LGHQWLILHV DOOLHV¡ SODQHV DQG advises what to do in the case of a bombing. September 2, 1945 (photographs of John Swope)
No effort had yet been made to clean up the city or to rebuild a thing, even temperately. And yet there were still people everywhere. How they lived and what on and what they did. I don't know: there was nothing left around then but hopeless and utter destruction. September 6, 1945 (photographs of John Swope)
Aria is a small fishing village which has not been damaged, although the people are so poor and the town so bedraggled in its poverty and lack of cleanliness that might as well have been bombed. September 9, 1945 (photographs of John Swope)
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MIND MAP
Dazai Osamu Born 19 June 1909(1909-06-19) Kanagi, Aomori, Japan
Family Background
Died 13 June 1948(1948-06-13) (aged 38) Tokyo, Japan
Wealthy landlord family 'D]DL ZDV ERUQ 6KŞML 7VXVKLPD WKH HLJKWK VXUYLYLQJ FKLOG RI D ZHDOWK\ landowner in Kanagi, a remote corner of Japan at the northern tip of 7ņKRNX LQ $RPRUL 3UHIHFWXUH
Occupation Writer
His father was a member of the House of Peers and was thus often away from home, and his mother was chronically ill after having given birth to 11 children, so he was brought up mostly by the servants.
Genres Novels, short stories
Unhappy Childhood Under the influence of Japanese patriarch system, as the sixth son of the family, Daizai almost grew up alone without parents’ company. He never had the chance to taste the delight of being loved since small, which lead to his feeling of being a fifth wheel and being abandoned by the family or even the world. Love for him seemed elusive and out of his reach. He said in No Longer Human, “the most difficult time is nothing more than having dinner with the whole family. It is a pathetic rite that requires everyone to be serious and humorless.� Always feels distressed and isolated when he realized his notion of happiness is quite different form other. ( so he behaved comically as a mean to draw attention and “ implore love from others�. His wealthy background led to self-consciousness, contributing to a nagging sense of isolation that is an undercurrent throughout his fiction.
Lifestyle
Japanese Culture
Miserable social life - Alcoholism - drug addiction - suicide attempts
In the Japanese Concept of Life and Death, suicide is significant and swift death in the prime, like cherry blossoms, is wonderful for life.
He wrote it in No Longer Human, he “eventually realized that only alcohol, smoke and prostitute could help him forget the selfishness of human beings.� (Osamu Daizai, 1948)
He Xiangjiang ancient artist directly says “there is noting more the art of death, death is born�
Historical Context
Five Times Attempts of Author’s Suicide There were five times that he attempted to take his own life, and three of that with woman. He was successful at the last time in 1948. (He was struggled in the ambivalence between cling to and criticize his family. And Suicide became the only way for him to escape the depression.)
Second World War People create history while in fact the specific historical context also creates people. Hirano Qian said: Taizais death can be said that this is caused by the wounds of history
First time attempted suicide with a woman who unfortunately died but he serviced. (Following his idol writer RyĹŤnosuke Akutagawa who committed suicide, Dazai tried to kill himself by taking overdose of sleeping pills)
Interpretation of the intrinsic factors of Daizai’s suicide
Second time was in 1927 at his age of 21. Dazai enrolled in the French Literature Department of the Tokyo Imperial University, though he knew little French. Confused by the high-level course, he neglected the studies, donating himself to the Left Wing Movement and engaging with alcohol, cigarette and prostitutes instead. Under the suppression, he committed suicide by drowning off a beach with another woman (whom he barely knew), 19-year-old bar hostess Shimeko Tanabe. Once again, Dazai survived but Shimeko died, leaving him with a strong sense of guilt.
A novelist belongs to the times and is always bound by the society and personal experience. “Dazai� in Japanese is homophonic with “sin�. Much in evidence that No Longer Human expressed a sense of fear, guilt, sin and escapism which were coming from the culture ethos, profound understanding of life in postwar Japan and personal experience of the author (He Raoming, 2006). No matter for the protagonist or Daizai himself, committing suicide was the way they fought against and freed themselves from the reality. As Obha blamed himself everyday that, “living is the seed of sin.� (Osamu Daizai, 1948)
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STORY BOARD
Family photo (Under the influence of Japanese patriarch system, as the sixth son of the family, Daizai almost grew up alone ZLWKRXW SDUHQWV· FRPSDQ\ +H QHYHU KDG WKH FKDQFH WR WDVWH the delight of being loved since small, which lead to his feeling of being a fifth wheel and being abandoned by the family or even the world. Love for him seemed elusive and out of his reach.)
Wealthy family. (Their parents are limiting what he would like to be. he always feels distressed and isolated when he realized his notion of happiness is quite different form other.
“Eventually realized that only alcohol, smoke and prostitute could help him forget the selfness of human beings.”
He behaved comically as a mean to draw attention and “implore love from others”.
Passion about arts.( Growing up in the traditional family, for Dazai Osamu it was some kind of constraint on his behavior. As a writer, when all his books were unpopular and unsalable, he had no choices but to sell his paintings for living, which became another constraint on his spirit).
Personal experience that keep him at war with the state of depression and conflict. (Under the impact of the two atomic bombs, the economy of Japan had experienced a serious collapse along with a great many of Japanese unemployed and families broken up. The far-reaching war had left people dank sadness and pain that can never be truly healed. In such a period of intense and indifferent, the selfishness and fragility of human beings became much more obvious. ) Eescaping form the reality.
There were five times that he attempted to take his own life, and three of that with woman. He was successful at the last time in 1948. (He was struggled in the ambivalence between cling to and criticize his family. And Suicide became the only way for him to escape the depression.)
Loneliness
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RESEARCH
Growing up in the traditional family, for Dazai Osamu it was some kind of constraint on his behavior. As a writer, when all his books were unpopular and unsalable, he had no choices but to sell his paintings for living, which became another constraint on his spirit. So I would like to express how the reality constraining his body and brain based on these three pictures.
These three pictures show his unhappy childhood in which he suffered a lot from the negative impact of his family.
7KLV SLFWXUH VKRZV KRZ 'D]DL¡V FKLOGKRRG ORRNHG OLNH +H ZDV FRQILQHG by his family preventing him from looking for freedom, just like a puppet. I am fond of the exhibition “Shadow Catchers Cameraâ€?. As the true face ZLOO EH YHLOHG E\ WKH VKDGRZ , WKLQN LW¡V D JRRG ZD\ IRU H[SUHVVLQJ WKH solitude of the character. Highly inspired by this approach, I decided to take it as a reference for my following work.
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STYLE ONE - CHILDHOOD KEY IDEAS 1/2
In designing the character during his childhood, I mainly take the works of Issey Miyaka 1999 as an inspiration. I intended to shape a character that is isolated and elusive since he was small with no one can really touch his inner world. In picture 2, the part I like the most is that the real expression in his face is veiled by hair and nobody knows about his emptiness inside but the forced smile outside. Picture 1 show that he tries to escape from the outside world. He believes that he will not belong to the world any more once his body is separated from the outside world.
As to the makeup part, I prefer the Kimiko Yoshta styling which always highlights on the mouth. 'XULQJ 'D]DL¡V FKLOGKRRG FRQVLGHULQJ WKH IDFW that he often did some stupid things on the account of attracting more attentions and loves from others, therefore I also put the key point on his mouth to show the feeling of forced smile.
KEY IDEAS 2/2
,Q P\ RULJLQDO GHVLJQ WKH PRGHO¡V IDFH ZDV FRYHUHG E\ WKH KDLU DQG WKH HPSKDVLV ZDV MXVW RQ the mouth showing his longing for care and love from others. And a cover would also be designed on the top as a metaphor of a wall between he and the world behind which he can KLGH RQFH KH IHOW UXQQLQJ DZD\ IURP WKH UHDOLW\ $IWHU ,¡YH GRQH VRPH UHVHDUFK , KHDUG RI D research by Seth Pollack and others in University of Wisconsin that they found out a pattern that child who lives without care and love would lead to the lack of two hormones, Oxytocin and Arginine Vasopressin which play a significant role for human building interpersonal relationships. It is said that Oxytocin can be found in many kinds of mammals including human. For us, Oxytocin functions in lactation and induction of delivery, and it also influences some areas of our brain in a way that it has effects on creating a sense of security. Lacking of communication ZLWK SHRSOH LQ RQH¡V FKLOGKRRG ZRXOG OHDG WR WKH VXSSUHVVLRQ WKH GHYHORSPHQW RI $UJLQLQH 9DVRSUHVVLQ V\VWHP /LNHZLVH 'D]DL¡V $UJLQLQH 9DVRSUHVVLQ V\VWHP DQG SHUVRQDOLW\ GHYHORSPHQW were influenced by the negative family environment. As a result, I improved my design emphasizing more on the head in the wig part in order to present the effect exerted on his brain. I believed this is a very important reason that resulting in his insecurity and ineffective communication with others.
I feel confident about this design for that the texture of the fabric has been taken advantage to form the shape.
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DESIGN
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STYLE TWO - MID LIFE KEY IDEAS :KHQ , ILUVW VDZ WKLV ZRUN ZLWK LWV WLWOH ´QRW NQRZ ZK\ VKH FDQ¡W VHH DQG FDQ¡W EUHDWKH¾ , ZDV VWXQN LPPHGLDWHO\ ,Q P\ YLHZ LW LV GHILDQWO\ D SHUIHFW H[SUHVVLRQ RI 'D]DL¡V HPRWLRQ DV LW ORRNV OLNH WKH person in the picture is burning and at the same time struggling with so many things are binding and constraining him/her. It is quite similar to the feeling that Dazai kept struggling on his art even under so much pressures. Based on this picture, I am hoping to play with different materials to present such a feeling of shock and burning.
The war aroused serious recession and unemployment in Japan. Under all pressures from his family and the whole society, Dazai Osamu began to indulge in alcohol and drug when he was in the college as a way to give up himself as well as the whole world. The worse was that he even went to the extreme and chose to commit suicide as a way out, just as he said he “was no longer a human�. It is now widely acknowledged that children who were born in dysfunctional families tend to be more likely to have BPD (Borderline personality Disorder). Scientific research had reached an agreement that people who had "emotionally invalidating" childhood environment (or an environment where the child's emotional needs are not met) tend to have intense but stormy and unstable relationships with others. They may often has difficulty with trusting others and maintaining intimate, close connections. According to the research, there is no doubt that Dazai Osumu did suffer a lot in a psychological level as the sickness actually brought him an empty lonely depression or irritability and anxiety that finally compelled him indulging in drug and alcohol abuse as well as the physically self-damaging actions. While in the physical level, the long-term indulging in alcohol and drug had resulted in his irregular heartbeat, and eventually the enlargement of the heart, heart failure and even worse fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Considering all the factors, I decided to design the shape of my cage mainly based on the work “broken heart less� by Ron Gamble 2009, as it represents the wound not only mentally but also physically.
David Stoupakis 2002 “hours of freedom� In this picture, there is a lady being tied up, but still holding a lollipop on hand. The wooden hand symbolized that every puppet is under control while the tied-up mouth meant they can never tell or share their pain with others. It helps me imagine that even being trapped or constrained; she is still not giving up what her pursuit in heart. The picture gives me an idea that the cage can be twined outside to present the story that the character was tightly constrained and could not extricate him from the agony. In addition, I would also create a small room with his novels and favorite works of other artists inside.
“broken heart less� by Ron Gamble 2009
As can be seen in the picture, a girl with her lips in dark red is crying in a distressed expression. This picture has successfully shown a grave feeling as well as a cubic facial contour of the girl. Inspired by that, I chose to keep the same makeup style consistently in designing WKH ORRNV EHIRUH DQG DIWHU WKH FKDUDFWHU¡V GHDWK DV LQ this way it can truly show a sense of agony and sadness through the whole presentation.
DESIGN
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STYLE THERE/FOUR - BEFORE & AFTER DEATH KEY IDEAS Picture 1
The idea comes to me that a cobweb of lace can be set to match the style of hair when I saw the work of David Stoupakis in which the face of a girl is covered by a net. It reminds of a scene that fishes are caught in the fishing net. I want to present that my role cannot get rid of enormous pressures, getting no way out but living in the agony.
Picture 2 by Annelies Straba, 2005
This scene is about the illustration before his death as well as the imagination of after. At the very beginning I considered the sakura as the theme to paint on the hair on account of that sakura is known as the symbol of Japan and many people consider the death as cherry blossoms. But later on, I thought it would be better to focus more on the whole life of my character, so I FKRVH 'D]DL·V OLIHWLPH VWRU\ DV WKH WKHPH DW ODVW ,Q WKH design, the curves represent his emotion and the red color symbolizes his passion for art. For my design development I mainly took the work of David Stoupakis 2007 repercussions (picture 1) as a source of inspiration. The picture permeates a strong IHHOLQJ RI VDGQHVV DV \RX FDQ ILQG LQ WKH OLWWOH ER\·V expression. There are tens of thousands of mouse around his feet that he can barely move all at. The idea I got is that I can make use of a heavy wig to show how Dazai can not move under all the pressures. As I have done some research on the Japanese Concept of Life and Death showing that swift death in the prime for them, is wonderful for life like the beautiful cherry blossoms. One Japanese painter says, “Death is the highest of arts. It is the perfection to lives as well as a sort of rebirth”. Considering this Japanese cultural context and as well the continuity between the designs before and after his death, I decided to design a long hair which the bottom part can be removed anytime to make the video more coherent. What I want to perform in this design is that suicide is not just terrible but also a sort of arts. Dazai stayed true to his heart that he would choose to leave this world without any doubts. However, his works would in another way expand his life to the eternal. As to the second picture which is the work of Annelies Strba2005, I am quite impressed that she uses such bold color with abstraction. It stirs up the idea that I can use some bold color on the wig or even do the painting on it, taking it as a work of art.
KEY IDEAS
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As the character ended his life by the river, I decided to do the shooting in the water. I conducted an underwater testing in the 4 meter pool in Crystal Palace National Sports Centre with a friend of Central Saint Martins. We went to school for Insurance Certificate and then filled out the form for the appointment. During the testing process, we found out a lot of troubles and problems. For example, though I already used waterproof makeup, WKH PDNHXS RQ PRGHO¡V IDFH VWLOO KDG EHHQ UREHG RII D OLWWOH ELW when my model jumped into the pool. There was also a safety problem concerning that the skirt was so long that it might shield RYHU P\ PRGHO¡V IDFH LQ WKH ZDWHU UHVXOWLQJ LQ KHU GLIILFXOW\ LQ EUHDWKLQJ :KDW¡V PRUH DV WKH VLWH ZDV LQ WKH EDVHPHQW WKH OLJKW might reflect on the wall causing shadow in the video so that we might have to put some additional effort to cover the photographic equipments. And the above all was that my wig might not be able to bear the hydraulic pressure without floating on the surface. All of these problems forced me to give up my initial plan, so I changed the shooting site to the bathtub instead of the pool for the sake of my wig.
DESIGN
As you can see in the picture, the line that I designed for the wig is rather a fluctuate line instead of a smooth one for the reason that it can reflect his winding life.
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DEVELOPMENT Style Three/Four - Before & After Death
Dancer: Jacqui Johnston Website: http://www.dance.jacquijohnston.co.uk/Home.html Jacqui successfully auditioned for Laban Centre of Contemporary Dance in London, in 2005, now known as Trinity Laban, and went on to complete a BA Honours in Dance Theatre by 2008. Since then she has gained experience as a Freelance Dance Artist performing for Sylvia Ferrira DANCE Company. I came across a lot of problems when setting the hair style. As all the looks and styles DUH QHZ WKDW , KDYH QHYHU WULHG EHIRUH , GLGQ¡W SODQ YHU\ ZHOO WR PDNH WKH IURQW ODFH DW the beginning. I realized I would need more space until I almost finished noting so that I had to rework on it from the start. In terms of hair highlights, the color I was looking for is bright red. The first time I went to the hair salon, staff there UHFRPPHQGHG PH PL[ 7UX]RQH &UHDP 3HUR[LGH DQG /RUHDO¡V KDLU G\H LQ WKH proportion of one to one ratio. However, what turned out after my testing was pink instead of the color I was expecting. Luckily, when I went to the hair salon the second time, I met a nice hairdresser from whom I know that the cream peroxide I used was WRR VWURQJ IRU WKH ZLJ¡V KDLU +H DOVR VXJJHVWHG , VKRXOG PL[ WKH WUX]RQH FRORXU releaser with the hair dye to solve the problem. Then there comes to a series of H[SHULPHQWV , WULHG /¡RUHDO EXW WKH FRORU FDPH RXW DV SXUSOLVK UHG WKHQ , WULHG DGGLQJ GLIIHUHQW SURSRUWLRQ RI /¡RUHDO FRQW WR H[SHULPHQW LW $IWHU FRXQWOHVV WHVWLQJ , ILQDOO\ JRW WKH ULJKW SURSRUWLRQ WR KDYH WKH EULJKW UHG ZKLFK WKH PL[ RI /¡RUHDO FRQW /¡RUHDO DQG WUX]RQH FRORXU UHOHVDVHU :KHQ , VWDUWHG WR G\H WKH hair, however, I was shocking to find that the wig I bought was not totally made by KXPDQ KDLU VR WKDW VRPH SDUWV RI WKH ZLJ FRXOGQ¡W EH G\HG , WULHG WR FKDQJH WKH KDLU G\H IRU /DILFKH¡V EXW LW VWLOO GLGQ¡W ZRUN $W WKH ODVW PRPHQW , KDG QR FKRLFH EXW XVH the make up for ever aqua cream to dye the hair bunch by bunch. I have learned a big lesson during this process that I should have used the same material for testing instead of taking it as a waste to test on the human hair. Of course I went back to the shop to DUJXH DERXW WKH IDNH KDLU LQ WKH ZLJ EXW OLIH LV EUXWDO WKDW , GLGQ¡W HYHQ JHW EDFN D sorry. After this lesson, I would remember next time to do the testing beforehand to PDNH VXUH LW¡V JHQXLQH QR PDWWHU ZKDW , EX\
Style One - Childhood
Though I had tested the proportion of the cage by using fabric and paper beforehand, I decided to remake the whole cage since the elasticity of the cage was a little bit faulty while the shape was also not perfect enough.
The most difficult part in doing the cage I think was to decide an appropriate size. It took me long time to figure out how can the cage stay nice no matter dispersing or packing up and would not conceal the design on the head.
In the first look, I chose to use pale gold color for the hair and white for the cage. As LQ WKH VWRU\ DERXW 'D]DL¡V FKLOGKRRG KH DOZD\V KLGHG KLPVHOI EHKLQG D PDVN DQG JRW used to show happiness to others even though he was badly hurt deep in his heart. Therefore, I tried to keep his appearance as an innocent and naïve kid by making use of light color. I also designed a cage that can be unfolded on the top of the wig intending to show his loneliness and desperate in finding ways to get rid of the reality. In terms of the fabric, I chose velvet indicating that he was born in a notable family.
Videoing
As I am not professional on hair cutting, to do the bangs part was one of the difficulties for me so that I invited the professional hair stylist to help me trim a little bit.
Style Two - Mid Life I have learnt how to cooperate with different people, especially with dancer and directors. The work has comes out as a good result as I was expected.
I had tried lots of different materials to present the feeling of being twined and constrained. I finally chose burned wounded bandage after several tests because its specific sense of decadence can better demonstrate the inner world of the role.
Making this wig gave me a precious lesson that I should make a plan carefully before conducting any work. During the process, I had spent much time on replacing the steel wires inside the cage as I found out that the white color of wires looked not beautiful. Besides, I realized I should have completed the small room inside first before making the style outside, which would make the operation much easier.
DEVELOPMENT
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FINAL PRODUCT PPD As a third year student, this is my last year in the college. I do feel a lot of pressure but on the other hand all these pressures have turned motivation and encouraged me to try my best to finish my final project in which I have designed 4 looks for the leading character in his different stages. The first design is a fabric wig with long hair, the second is a wounded heart-shaped cage and the last one is a wig of heavy and long hair. I spent huge amounts of time on the testing during the design process. Due to the sufficient preparation on the second design, I got through it quite smoothly in very shot time while for the first and the last design it was a different picture that I have put so much efforts and time on them. To give a little bit more details, when making the helmet like cage in the first design, I spent several days trying to fix a right size with so many times taking it apart and redoing it again and again. Since , GLGQ¡W KDYH PXFK H[SHULHQFH RI VHZLQJ , IRXQG PXFK GLIILFXOW\ LQ sewing the head part with fabric. After million times of testing, I finally finished it with the help of one of my friend. As to the third design, there were actually a lot more to talk about. My original design is to colour the middle to lower part of the hair into red after the knotting. However, the trouble is that the human hair which cost me a great deal of money turned out to mix with some fake hair that can not be coloured. My beautiful but poor long red hair then became muddy and ugly. In that bad situation, I had no other choices but buy a waterproof red eye shadow of Make up Forever from Pam Shop and dyed the fake hair with the makeup one by one. To think back the whole process, I found the reason for this mistake that I was not actually use the same hair for colour testing at the time, so the result was that I succeeded in testing the colour I want but GLGQ¡W ILQG RXW WKHUH DUH VRPH IDNH KDLU WKHUH ,Q DGGLWLRQ LQ RUGHU WR KDYH a video taking the last scene of my design that the character was supposed to die in the water peacefully, I spent plenty of time calling up the photographer and cameraman. At the time when I thought everything completed and well done, I then found out in the video that my model was holding her hair band on the hand all the time during the shooting. Besides, , VKRXOG KDYH XVH WKH KLJK GHILQLWLRQ ODFH LQ WKH NQRWWLQJ SDUW ZKLFK , GLGQ¡W because I was worried it would easily rot under the water. But the sad result was that the hair line became even more obvious in the water comparing to use the high definition lace. These two problems might be not a big deal to common people who saw this picture, but it itself is a extremely sensitive and unprofessional details for a make up artist. I would not make any excuses that I have some issues on time-managing as I always put things off and off so that there were time after time that the idea of giving up showed in my head when I was about to collapsed. Still I feel lucky and confident that I had made it through and finished my final project. This term I learnt how to cooperate with different people, especially with dancer and directors. The work has comes out as a good result as I was expected. It made me became confidence of time arrangement and project SUHSDUDWLRQ $OVR , KDYH WU\ ORWV WKLQJV , KDYHQ¡W HYHQ WKLQN RI EHIRUH Last but not least, I would like to give Denise, Hannah and Franky all of you my deep appreciation for your instructions and helps in the past 3 years. I VLQFHUHO\ IHHO JUDWHIXO VLQFH ZLWKRXW \RXU VXSSRUWV , ZRXOGQ¡W FRPH WR WKLV far. The future is unpredictable, but I promise you all that I would definitely keep trying my best and continue pursuing dream as a makeup artist.
Contemporary Performance Video: The Fallen Angel The video with the old cinema style represents the memory theme which based on the narrative from the original novel No Longer Human . The rhythm of the movement image illustrates the difference within the four stages from the character's miserable life where are smoothly slow tempo in the beginning (childhood), the intense multi layers filming which influenced by the wild youth time, the confusing acting with stair background which draws the madness life stage and then sinking in the water depicts the final peace after the death.
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