Murder mystery

STIMULI

For this project we had a stimuli of a murder mystery, we were commissioned by Gloucester Welcomes Refugees to produce and perform a murder mystery piece, we started off by getting familiar with a murder mystery game that was used as a baseline for a past performance, we got together and played the game seeing what it was about but also making ideas in our heads about what we could get out of it, we then took our pack that we would base our performance off and read out each of the character options, then decided which one suits who most, we were then asked to research the 1920's and here's what i found that made me interested and that I found helpful: Masquerade balls, mixed the glamour of the past with the brave, carefree spirit of the jazz age perfectly captured the mood of the early 20's century. The wealthy elite used these expensive events, which were frequently hosted in luxurious venues like expansive estates, private clubs, or big ballrooms, as a chance to display their extravagance, creativity, and elegance. These events were known for their themed parties, when guests enjoyed creative costumes based on periods in history, far away places, and magical ideas. Crafted with luxurious supplies like lace, feathers, sequins, and diamonds. Masks played an important part in the mystique and often reflected the decade's signature art deco design style. The masks also gave many people a chance to leave their social roles and participate. 

We then decided on who is going to have what role in the backstage side of the performance, our script was written by the directors with input from the whole class of what they want for it to include. I personally thought that the script should include some humour so that our audience stays engaged and doesn't lose focus. As for me i had the role of hair and makeup design, I decided to take on this role as i wanted to expand my skills and push myself out of my comfort zone.  The performance was set in the 1920's therefore the style of hair and makeup back then was different, so the first thing i did was to  start  to get an idea of how the characters will look I researched and looked into how people in the 1920's styled their hair and did their makeup, and what i found was that in 1920's the women used to have their hair in mainly a short bob or if they had longer hair it would be tied up into a bob ish looking style, this was something to consider as most of the females on our course have longer hair so we had to come up with a hairstyle that not only suited the time period but also was fast to achieve, since we only had limited time per person, and we also had to keep in mind that the hairstyle needs to stay in throughout the whole performance as well as being comfortable for the actor, the makeup in the 1920's was just starting to become a things, women were just starting to buy makeup. "One of the most iconic beauty looks of the ’20s was dark lipstick that outlined and emphasized the cupid’s bow of the upper lip." (reference link), we decided to stick to only a red and a light pink neutral lip since it suits the time frame, for the eyeshadow of the countess we decided to go with purple as it symbolizes royalty and the countess is the main woman of the party.  As for the eyeshadows of the other women I thought it would be a good idea to match the colour of their eyeshadow to what they are masquerading as because then when took off their masks everyone would still be able to know what their character is. We made the decision that men will also have makeup on, we used matte foundation on the men as well us powder to help prevent light reflecting off, of their faces when performing due to stuff like sweat. For the hair of the men it was gelled back into a neat and tidy hairstyle which was achieved with gel, a comb and hairspray to make sure their hair stays in place.

In these photos you can see the bob style that women used to wear, in the example below it even shows that women with longer hair would cut it, however if some did not want to cut off their hair they would pin it up to make it look like a bob, women would also experience with different ways to style the bob also shown in an image below, in our performence we wanted to prioratise comfort but we also wanted it to fit the era.

I first started with looking at what makeup products we have and what we are missing and made a list of what needs to be ordered. Going through it carefully and weighing out our options since we had a set budget for our project and only a part of it was dedicated to hair and makeup so we could only get things that were the most important and the most needed.

Next thing to consider was the health and safety aspect of hair and makeup therefore  to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for both the person getting their makeup done and the person doing it , health and safety is very important  when it comes to this role as we need to make sure to stay professional and keep everyone safe and happy . Hygiene is the most important part of health and safety when it comes to hair and makeup . To stop the spread of bacteria and  viruses, all hair and beauty products and anything used should be completely cleaned and sanitised both before and after each use. For example, single use products like cotton pads, mascara wands, and lip applicators should only be used once and thrown away, and makeup brushes, sponges, and applicators should be cleaned with soap or a special cleaning solution It is very important to use clean brushes and stuff used for makeup/hair  for each application of makeup because cross-contamination is a big risk this also includes  hair stuff such as  combs and brushes. Another important part  of health and safety in this line of work is knowing and understanding that peoples skin can be sensitive as well as understanding and acknowledging allergies. Asking everyone  whether they have any allergies or  sensitive skin is really important  before using any new product, and patch testing should be done before applying products to anyone's face. Patch testing is done when you apply a tiny bit of the product onto a spot on the  skin  and monitoring  a reaction. If someone does happen to have sensitive skin then the possibility of irritation can be lowered by using hypoallergenic or sensitive  products, a good example of this is when one of our cast reported skin irritation from the foundation in a patch test, to resolve this we looked into getting a foundation that was specifically made for sensitive skin. Another possible risk is using expired stuff such as skincare, hair, and makeup as they all have expiration dates, and using them might result in rashes, infections, or reduced effectiveness. keeping safety also heavily depends on the workspace itself. Accidents are less likely to happened  in a neat and tidy  space, and proper ventilation helps reduce exposure to fumes from items like hairspray, setting sprays, or hair dye. In order to prevent skin irritation or chemical burns, people doing the hair and makeup should always protect themselves as well. For example, they should wear gloves when dealing  chemical items like bleach or hair dye.To avoid cuts or unexpected accidents, sharp objects  like tweezers, scissors, and razors must be used carefully and when not in use, these things should always be kept in a safe place you should always also be careful when using heat styling tools to make sure they don't overheat and making sure no one burns themselves on them. Another thing that is crutial is being prepared to accomidate to everyones needs and preferences for instance, if someone does not feel comfortable using a certain product then you have to respect their wishes and think of alternatives, you might also need to come up with alternatives if someone does have an allergic reaction.

I also used these forms where i wrote the profuct used, the location where i placed it and the result on, this helped me stay organised and ensured that there were no mess ups in the process of patch testing and it helped me be sure that everyone who did need a product changed, had it changed.

We did multiple tests of the makeup on several people to see what needs to be improved and a problem we run into with some of the lighter shades of eyeshadow was that it des not show up in the light therefore we had to think of alternatives and test them again until we got a result that we were happy with, another thing we tested was the actual makeup itself as when we done it in one room the lighting was different from where we were performing therefore making it look either like it was not enough or that it was too intense even for the era, what we did when the makeup appeared too intense was to pickup less product on the brush and also apply less of it to the face.

The step by step guide of how to apply the makeup and achieve the look:

1.Start with making sure all the articles that you will be using eg. brushes, are clean and safe to use.

2.Apply primer to your face by placing a small amount onto your freshly washed/sanitised hand and spread evenly across your whole face making sure to get the inner corners of your face such as your nose and near the eyes whilst also being careful none get into your actual eyes or mouth, this will help the makeup last a longer time and have a more flawless look.

3.Then follow the guide sheet provided for you of which foundations to mix and use the metal mixing plate and spatula to combine the right amount of each product which was determined and written down when shade matching.

4.Apply the mixed foundation to your face and blend it in using a foundation brush making sure to spread it evenly and not leaving any spot without foundation as well as making sure you also apply it to the eyelids to create a good base for the eyeshadow later on, being careful to make sure it is spread out evenly but making sure you dont poke yourself or get it on your eyelashes, as for men making sure to get as close to their facial hair as possible if they have any as to not leave a very obvious cut off line between the skin and facial hair.

5.use baking powder to reduce looking oily and matting the foundation down as well as keeping it in place throughout the performance, to do this grab a powder brush and pick up product from the container then gently tap the bottom end of the brush on your hand to get rid of excess powder, then use the brush and gently brush over your face focusing on spots that get most oily, then leave to set for a while.

6. For women, start on the eye makeup, using your colour of the eyeshadow, take an eyeshadow brush and your assigned pallet and pick up product with the brush, then once again gently tap the end of the brush handle on your hand to get rid of excess product then apply to eyelid going to the brow bone and going from the inner to the outer corner of your eye to create the 1920,s look and feel and also to help the makeup be visible to the audience from far away, and continue the process until you achieve your desired look.

7.With a fluffy brush, brush off the baking powder that was on your face.

8.For women, use your assigned blush shade and with a blush brush pick up product with the brush making sure to also dab off the excess product then apply to the cheeks going from the about 2 fingers width away from your nose then across your cheek and slowly twisting up to be about 2 fingers width away from the end tip of your eyebrow until you achieve desired pigment

9.For women apply mascara to your eyelashes  using a single use spoolie and the product from the mascara tube then dispose of the used spoolie, to easily apply it but to get the best results look up and then apply as it helps you reach all of your lashes from where they begin to where they end.

10.For women get your assigned lipstick shade and a disposable applicator then pick up product with the applicator and apply to lips then dispose of the used applicator.

HAIR for this step by step I will be using my character as an example.

1.Make sure your hair is fully detangled and brushed out fully.

2.Find a safe space to plug in your hair straightener making sure to make all those around you ware there is a hot tool.

3.Apply heat protectant throughout your hair and give it some time to dry.

4.section your hair in half and start with the first half.

5.Grab a piece of hair about 2 fingers wide and brush it out again to make sure its smooth with no knots

6.place your straightener at the top of the piece of hair right by the root being very careful not to burn yourself and then on then twist the straightener away from your face making sure the rest of the hair also twists, and then twist it once more also away from your face, then pull the straightener down the piece of hair, the speed you pull it down at will determine how loose or tight the curl will be, I tend to go quite slow as I am trying to achieve a tighter curl, then repeat the process throughout your whole hair.

7.When your hair is all curled spray it with hair spray to make sure the curls stay in, after that let the curls cool down for about 2 to 3 min which also makes them last longer.

8.Once your curls have cooled down grab a wide tooth comb, or your fingers and run through your hair leaving you with bouncy curls.

9.For my character I then grabbed about 3 fingers width of hair from the front/side of my hair, leaving the front bits out as I have curtain bangs, and tied them on the back of my hair.

10.To complete the look I added a feather hair piece on top of the hair tie to give it a very nice put together look.

Throughout the performance we face some challenges such as multiple script changes which was quite challenging as it meant that not everyone was up to date on the same stuff. Another challenge we faced was absence due to weather conditions as well as personal issues and even though that cant be prevented it still put us to the test on how well we can adapt, for example people reading in for each other and helping others with their lines. we had a couple changes that were added quite late in the performence for example the dance, which was a challenge becuase we had to choreograph a dance, choose the music that was suitable and we also had to take into consideration that the music would be played by a pianist therefore we had to arrange sessions with him to figure out the timings and pace of the song and dance, it was a very team effort situation as he had to go based off of our quqes in the dance and we had to go off his.

EVALUATION

In conclusion i belive that the whole performence run quite smoothly considering all the challanges we faced. I feel like if i was to improve on something to do with how i performed it would be to try to give off a more "innocent young girl" vibe as that was a very big part of my character since she was only 18 and her sister was very overprotective, i would have done this especially when my character was dancing with Pepe as this was significant since my character Daisy was not allowed to have anything to do with the poor let alone start to like and dance with one of them, next time i would also like to project more since sometimes it was quite hard to hear me like for example when i was being questioned and i had my head down, last thing i would focus on improving would be my fake crying, i would like to make this more realistic and belivable as i feel like it could have a big impact on the aucidence and could be a big moment. As for my hair and makeup role i would have liked to done a bit more research on the time frame to get more knowledge on it as i feel like this would help me be more wise with my choices of the looks for actors and be more precise about little details.

These are some examples of what the audience wrote down during the performence

Photos of final character looks and runthroughs