Tom hardy adaptation of Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights (2009) was an adaptation of the famous victorian gothic novel 'Wuthering Heights' which was written by Emily Bronte. This Tv series was written by Peter Bowker and directed by Coky Giedroyc.  The film starred Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Lancashire, Rebecca Night. The series was split into 2 episodes. 'Based on the classic novel by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights is a story of love, obsession, hate and revenge. The protagonists, Cathy and Heathcliff, form a love that is dark and destructive and affects the lives of everyone around them.'

The original Wuthering Heights novel was written in Yorkshire dialect and when i came to reading it i found it very difficult to understand. I had to read through each chapter twice to make sure i sort of understood. Instantly i thought of trying to find clips on youtube of the different adaptations and thats when i came across this one. I found this so much easier to understand and it set the scene in my head so i could then put words from the novel to a scene in the series. 

References:

1. 

Wuthering Heights (2009 Television Serial) Wiki (2016). 

2. 

Wuthering heights - 2009 PBS part 1/2, 2012 . YouTube

Emily Brontë

Emily Bronte was an english novelist and poet who was best known for her only novel 'Wuthering Heights'. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Bronte siblings.

Emily wrote under the name of 'Ellis Bell'. She and her two sisters decided to write under male names to deter any bias on the basis of their gender. Emily hated being known as an author and made Charlotte promise to never tell anyone.

All the information that we have today about Emily didn't come from her herself. She kept extremely quiet about herself and her life, her sister Charlotte actually revealed a lot of information about her after her death at the age of 30.

Wuthering Heights was first published in London in 1847. Wuthering heights was a part of a 3 volume set that included Anne Bronte's 'Agnes Grey'. Authors were printed as Ellis and Acton Bell; Emily's real name did not appear until Charlotte got it re-published after her death in 1850.

References:
1.

Emily Brontë (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Brontë (Accessed: 14 April 2016).

2.

Interesting facts (no date) Available at: http://sbalshonorsbritlitbronte.weebly.com/interesting-facts.html (Accessed: 14 April 2016).

Wuthering Heights family tree

When reading Wuthering Heights i instantly found that it was a very difficult read and there were A LOT of characters involved. So about 2 chapters in i decided that it would be good to research all the characters involved and create a family tree.

After i had written the family tree i was able to link all the characters together and their relationships within the book, i found myself looking back to this every time i read more as it helped me get a better understanding of the storyline as a whole. 

From doing this i definitely found that i understood the book better by writing things down and creating visuals for the novel. When it came to understanding it all after i had read the novel, i then watched the adaptation starring Tom Hardy, because this is a visual and it put a picture into my head to fit with the storyline, i was able to get to grips with what the novel was trying to portray.

Burns using gelatine

There are a lot of different types of burns so before you start a burn you need to think about how it was caused, how old it is, has it been infected? etc.

1st degree burns (Sunburn) can be created using Isopropyl alcohol to create that red,sore skin.

2nd degree burns (boiling water spilt on skin) has a a lot more texture to it as the skin starts to show through.

3rd degree burns (acid burn) the edges are a lot more blended however the depth of the burn is a lot worse and the inner flesh is showing.

If the cause was a house fire the flesh can burn like meat would. It would turn black when burnt and can also have soot in it.

Health & safety:
- Gelatine is known for being very gentle on the skin and it is very unlikely for someone to react to it, but just ask and make sure that they don't react to it, you could do a sample on their wrist just to make sure.
- To use the gelatine it has to be melted in a microwave and gets extremely hot so you have to be careful when applying it to the skin as it can burn someone very easily, so test it on yourself before applying it on their skin to make sure it is not too hot.

Gelatine:
- Melt the gelatine in the microwave for around 15 seconds until it has all melted to a smooth liquid consistency.
- If you add glitter to the gelatine if you were using it for another use other than burns then it cannot go back in the microwave to be reheated as metals cannot be put i the microwave.
- Unlike latex where you may have to use a barrier cream the gelatine can be put straight on the skin. It is very unlikely for someone to be allergic to gelatine so it's a really good product to use if you can't use latex.
- You can pour gelatine into moulds to keep continuity within your makeup looks. Have to make sure that you have coated the mould with vaseline or something similar so that the gelatine doesnt stick to it.
- Can use it to stick jewels on the skin, it's a good adhesive.

Application:
- Check that it is not too hot on your skin before you apply it to the model.
- As it starts to become tacky on the skin, make sure the edges are blended and then start to lift the product using your spatula to create texture to the wound.
- Cool with a hairdryer.
- Blend away hard edges with witch hazel and a baby bud.
- Powder over the top of it to matte out the area, shine can be added again later by using vaseline.
- Use a supra colour to add red to the area to create the look of sore, hot skin.
- Then take a look at your wound you have created and darken it in areas thats needed and you can add blood, wound filler and puss to make the wound stand out more.

Tools used:
-Gelatine
-Spatula
-witch hazel
-baby buds
- hair pins
- makeup brushes for supra colours
- hairdryer

Reflection:
I much preferred using gelatine to using latex, it was a lot softer on the skin and didn't hurt at all to remove. It's created a much better look, the texture felt a lot more skin like. The only part i found hard was blending the edges, i need to practice that more as the product was so much thicker than latex and dried extremely fast it was difficult to make sure all the edges were blended before it started to go tacky. Another issue was that the product was extremely hot when it was first taken out of the microwave, i ended up burning myself on the product. This is where i have to be really careful with a client as it could easily burn them. We are trying to give them the effect of the burn not actually burning them hahah. I have to make sure that i check it on my skin a couple of times before so that it's not too hot. Next time i need to take a lot more time to focus on blending the edges and creating a detailed burn to make it look real.

Cuts, Scratches & bruises

Health & safety:

-When applying the latex over the wax make sure that if the person has sensitive skin you apply barrier cream prior to starting any of the make up as this will prevent the latex from reacting to the skin.
- When making a cut from the wax using a spatula, it's important that you don't press too hard as when i was having a cut done on my face, the spatula actually scratched my skin and made it bleed a little.

Products used:

Bruises:
- Ben nye bruise wheel
- Kryolan bruise wheel

Cuts:
- Latex
- Moulding wax
- Supra colours
- Sealer ( if allergic to latex)
- Acetone to blend edges
- Blood ( colour of blood depends on the type of wound)
- Collodium (scarring) - use pro-shield foam before
- Wound filler ( texture of flesh)
- Puss (infected wounds)
- Alcohol

Tools used:
- Stipple sponge
- Black stipple sponge
-Kryolan blush brush
- plastic/metal palette knife/spatula
- hair pin

1. Apply the wax onto the skin using a spatula or palette knife and make sure that all the edges are smooth so that it looks like it's part of the skin.

2. Make the cut in the shape that you want and then apply latex using a stipple sponge over the top and blend the edges, this will hold the wax in place on your face.

3.  Dry the latex using a hair dryer on a cool heat.  Blend any edges that aren't smooth using acetone.

4. Using the alcohol and a supra colour, put a wash of red over the skin to create the illusion of sore skin. Apply all the others colours to create the kind of cut that you want.

5. Apply wound filler to the middle using a hair pin, this will deepen and darken the cut. Then apply some of the blood around the rest of the wound. This gives the wound some texture and makes the blood look glossy.

6. To create scratches on the skin you can take a black stipple sponge and some blood and drag it over the skin.

Scratches:
To create scratches on the skin all we used was either some of the fake blood / red supra colour and used the black stipple sponge really lightly on the skin and just swiped in a downwards motion. This will create the effect of a scratch.

Bruises/ black eyes:

Using the ben nye or kryolan bruise wheel, create the desired black eye or bruise you would want. You have to take into consideration that bruises change colour depending on the length of time they have been there. You can get different colour bruise wheels, yellow tones, purple tones, brights and dull colours.
Black eyes and bruises are ever just one colour, so you really have to look in detail at what colours you can see in a black eye and try and replicate that.

Reflection:
The cuts went well apart from the edges and some of the colouring. I need to get used to using latex and the wax and practice blending the edges more. I found it difficult to blend the edges of the latex even when using acetone, however the wax was a lot easier to blend. I need to purchase the right spatula to help make this process easier, as using a smoother, flat spatula makes it easier to smooth out the edges of the wax especially.
I found the wax a lot easier to work with than latex, a lot less messy and doesn't hurt at all when removing it.
My partner used a plastic spatula on me and it ended up scratching my face underneath because there was a sharp edge on it, so i definitely need to purchase a metal spatula so that it's smooth and i don't make that mistake with a client.
When it came to the black eye i din't have a lot of time to try this, literally had 5/10 minutes. So next time i would make sure i had a lot more time and think about the colours i should use and the placement of my colours.
I am not going to use either cuts or bruises in my design for my character, however the bruise wheel might come in handy for darkening up the eye area and creating a red sore look which is something i am looking at doing.

Review: BBC Art Of Gothic

The Art Of Gothic programme i thought was very interesting in how it explained how 'gothic' means a lot of different things depending on the era and whether it was novel,paintings, architecture etc.

Andrew Graham- Dixon presented a BBC Four programme on how 19th century architects and artists made a big impact and looked at past medieval Britain and the modern age to create buildings and paintings inspired by the gothic meaning that they had discovered.

The meaning of gothic came from the Italian renaissance where they explained it as 'anything that isn't civilised'. The 'Castle of Otrantro' was the beginnings of the gothic era and was a massive inspiration to later gothic novel writers. This novel was actually very poorly written however it caused so much fuss because it was something that people of that time had never heard of before. No one was ever allowed to talk about dark and mysterious thoughts like those written in the novel so when all these fantasies came about through the book people were stunned. A lot of famous novelists who wrote about these fantasies and deep, dark thoughts didn't actually want anyone to know that it was them who had written about it so they changed their name that was published on the book. When Horace Walpole wrote the Castle of Otrantro he also changed his name because previously he has been publicly humiliated for the fact that he had a gay encounter with his cousin, this was seen as very wrong at the time and when his novel came out it showed a lot of fantasies involving men.

In the documentary they then looked at art and paintings of that time and also way before gothic horror became so popular. They found that a lot of painters had included gothic like fantasies in paintings. He mentioned the term 'Sublime' which meant the fear of natural occurrences such as waves, storms etc. These were painted into scenes involving dark stories to make the scene more believable and realistic. He also found that people like William Shakespeare who was massively influential and still is to the present day also included gothic parts within his sonnets. Macbeth has a very dark meaning to it.

Another very important part of gothic horror is the romance involved within it, it's a big part of novels and art. At the time that it came about, sex, relationships and sexual fantasies were never spoke about. When these novels were presenting ideas about sex and relationships everyone was very shocked to hear it. The Mayor of London's son inherited a huge amount of money and threw a 21st style birthday party, but it turned out to be a 3 day orgy.

The French revolution (1787-1799) brought the fear of gothic horror to life. There was a lot of violence which brought peoples nightmare's to life. New machinery was introduced such as the Guillotine which meant peoples heads were being cut off just like the scenes in paintings and novels of horror.

I enjoyed watching parts of the documentary however, some parts were boring and i lost concentration. The parts that i did find interesting were good and related a lot to that of the novel i am studying which is why i had full concentration on parts. It gave me a better understanding about how diverse the term gothic horror is and how it can relate to a lot of different things in culture, such as paintings, novels, architecture, plays etc.

Ageing using latex & scars

Health & safety
- Test latex on the skin before use (little dot on the inside of the arm/wrist). Some people can be allergic to latex.
- Barrier cream/ foam on before you apply and latex based products, small prosthetics. It creates a barrier for sensitive skin.
- Latex can hurt if you apply it to 'hairy areas' especially when removing it.
- Remove products with warm water.
- Don't tip any products down the sink, it will block it.
- Cover the person's clothes over because it can damage all clothes.

When applying latex for ageing:
- Apply products with stipple sponges.
- Use acetone to blend away any edges.

Demo:
Decant the latex into a pot as it will help get rid of the smell. Keep the lid shut as it will form a skin in the bottle.

1. Apply the pro shield barrier cream around the areas you are applying latex.
2. Stretch the skin and stipple on the latex.
3. Test hair dryer on you so that you know it's cool so it won't burn the client.
4. The latex will turn clear when dry.
5. Layer up the latex as much as you want.
6. Look at the different colours in the hand, not just one colour ( it looks false)

Ageing:
- *Research how people age*. Skin ages differently depending on age, so think about this and the character you are trying to age.
- Around the eyes we are darker and a bit blue.
- Red liner for the eye (bloodshot eyes)
- Old age stipple latex.. same process as regular latex it just has colour. Can be bought it different skin tone colours.

Scar:

To create the look of an old scar we used a product called 'collodium'.

1. Apply barrier cream before using the collodium
2. Apply the collodium straight from the bottle in the shape that you want your scar and using a hair dryer dry the liquid
3. Then squeeze the skin together to create some texture to the scar


Reflection:
When applying the latex around the eyes i found it very difficult to blend the edges and make sure that the product didn't go in the hair. Next time i will have to be more careful when applying it and take more time. As you can see in the picture above some of the latex wasn't blending properly near the hair line even when i was trying to blend it with acetone. Another mistake i made was powdering it a lot more to make sure the latex became fully matte so it looked more like skin.

Using the collodium was very easy however the outcome wasn't very good. I didn't think it looked much like a scar it looked like pva glue had just dried clear on my hand. This is definitely a product i need to practice with to get better at creating scars.

My character is a youthful man so i won't be using any ageing as i don't believe he would have any ageing to his skin. He was an outgoing and adventurous boy growing up so i believe that his skin would be very youthful. For my character i want to use the latex technique described above but apply it to the lips to create dry skin on the lip as he was always outside and would be in contact with a lot of harsh weather, eg. wind,rain etc. This would cause the skin to become dry.