Within this blog post, I plan to document and relive the experience that I had during the first semester of my Level 5 HND qualification. In the first term, we were taken with the following assignments:
Unit 32 - Creative Research Project
Unit 33 - Working in the Performing Arts Industry
Unit 66 - Special FX 2
Unit 32 is our long and lean assignment (similar to Unit 2 from last year) and will consist of a research proposal, dissertation essay and a presentation. Unit 33 was completely essay based and Unit 66 was a combination of Essay and Portfolio, the same as Unit 25 Special FX from Level 4.
Unit 32
For Unit 32, we were tasked with creating a dissertation essay and presentation all around the them of The Changing Environment. With this, it was heavily suggested to base this theme around Covid and the pandemic that we are currently living and so this is the direction I want to go. As the pandemic is very new, there are very little reports detailing what the experience has been like for those working within the industry, backstage in theatre and also those studying during this time. Reading back over the limitations we have had from my Level 3 all the way through to now my Level 5 is crazy. Thankfully now, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel in some sense now that the majority if vaccinated however there is still a large amount of learning time that is lost. An important element of a vocational practical course like this is getting work experience and placements out in industry and COVID made a complete stop to this. I think this is one of the many contributing factors for me falling out of love with it as a whole as I dont see a career within the industry. Within my project, I want to really document how the coronavirus pandemic has affected those working and those studying to work within the hair and media makeup industry.
As of the end of semester 1, I have only constructed my research proposal and got general notes of who I want to interview etc.
Unit 33
This assignment was all essay based and was comparable to Unit 22 from semester 1 of Level 4 in that it was quite a self explanatory essay that based around growth, progression within the industry and setting up a goal for yourself. It also asked and commented on wanting your opinion and relating that to real life circumstances with examples and contextual research. I found this quite tricky as it was a lot more analytical than what I was used to coming off my level 4 qualification, however after speaking with my tutor a fair bit and researching into analytical techniques and ensuring to beef up my bibliography; I feel I was able to understand what it was asking of me and be able to achieve that distinction mark. Unit 66
This unit was the first and only practical unit within semester 1 of my level 5. Simiarly to Unit 25 from Level 4, this is a continuation of Special FX work for tv and film. This year however, we decided to base it around us running our own scare attraction at college after we gained contacts and experience on Doncaster Fear Factory. For this assignment, I decided to use a variety of products, tools and techniques to really push myself and boost my grade by creating silicone and latex prosthetics and also using hot gelatine straight onto the skin to make a burn.
For my sculpting, I decided to actually make numerous sets of boils on the skin from clay in the same way that I have done since level 3. Taking small chunks, pasting it on a tile and adding little balls for the boils onto my piece. After casting this in plaster, I found it very difficult to actually cast in silicone as there were too many sharp edges for the silicone to get stuck under and so this hindered me somewhat. I had also forgotten to include a cutting edge with my prosthetic; causing my pieces to be then very bulky once casted and applying them did not have a seamless effect. To combat this, with the help of my tutor, I decided to use some sculpt gel and blend the edges that way. I also used this technique to stick down my glass pieces that I had placed the forehead.
In terms of freelance work that I have done, as discussed in the later blog posts of my HNC Reflection Log series, I discussed that I would be working with Crows Eye Productions. Since then, I have worked on a few of their projects and there are many more in the pipeline. The most recent was the Mona Lisa.
As this was a period shoot, the makeup was very minimal but I ensured to keep the skin very glassy and make it look very natural yet beautiful. Paintings during the renaissance were always very matte but to give the more natural no-makeup look I decided to go with slightly glassy skin.
This makeup was then filmed as the wonderful actors showed how they would've gotten dressed in 16th Century Florence, Italy. The video of the piece is shown below.
So proud of you Oliver with all you have achieved throughout your studies with us. You are amazing and always put 110% in all that you do keep up the fab Work.😍