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Today was the first day of pre-production for the film unnatural selection written by Ross Bikerdike and directed by Emmarose Callaghan.

I’m in charge of costume hair and makeup for this production.

We started the day by having a readthrough for the cast. This helped me to get a sense of the feel of the piece and understand each of the individual characters more.

I wrote some notes about it:

Themes:
Mental health
Dictatorship
Post apocalypse
Dystopia
Disorientating
Friendship
Survival
Power
Trapped.

Boyson:
Eccentric
Unsettling
Weird
Uncaring
Calculating
Strange

Advisor:
Robotic
Smart
In control
Cold
Factual

Alex:
Independant
Strong
Quick thinking
Kind
Brave
sensible

Emma:
Scared
Weak
Kind hearted
Vulnerable
Loving

Trsitan:
Angry
Defensive
Strong
Masculine

Mason:
Spoilt
Thinks he’s better than everyone
Smart
Manipulative
Intimidating

I had a meeting with the director who showed me the kind of thing she wanted the characters to be wearing.

It seems that she wanted all the contestants to look pretty uniform and not look like individuals which i agree with. I think taking away most of their individuality will reenforce the idea that this is not a place you would want to be.

She came up with the idea of a colourful suit for Boyson to portray him as eccentric, weird and a bit off.

We took inspiration from the capitol in the hunger games when we were discussing the costumes for Boyson and the advisor. Ultimately we want them too look colourful but also unsettling and a bit off.

I set up a meeting for the cast and i to go to costume tomorrow morning.

Talking to the cast, i was asked if i could try and find some hair ties, makeup wipes and sports bras for the fighting scenes so i will go into town tomorrow to source these things and ask for money from the budget to buy them.

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Today i met with the cast, writer and director in the university costume department to find costumes for the contestants and boyson.

We couldn’t look for anything for the advisor yet because they still haven’t cast that part.

But i found some green army style outfits in the right sizes for all of the candidates and luckily we found a pink suit for boyson and an ill fitting waistcoat which would make him look strange and creepy like we want him to.

The pictures I took are attached to the bottom of todays log.

After this i went into town to look for hair ties, makeup wipes and sports bras.

I managed to find sports bras in primark for £4 so i went back to discuss this with the producer meg and she said to hold off on buying them because she wasn’t able to give any budget to costume.

Tomorrow i plan on bringing in hair and makeup stuff to practice on the cast.

hopefully i will know who is playing the advisor by then so that i can work on finding a costume for him/her.

I have made another appointment to go and collect the costumes to distribute to the cast on friday.

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Will Burns-Jones, Playing Mason, testing Boysons suit.

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Will Burns-Jones, Playing Mason, testing Boysons suit.

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Elinor Horton, Playing Alex ( we will add a belt to this one)

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Elinor Horton, Playing Alex ( we will add a belt to this one)

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Today i brought in makeup and hair products to practice on the cast so that i could find what looked right, get approval from the director and writer and also so that i would have a better idea of how long it would take to so hair and makeup on a morning before shooting.

For the female contestants, we decided to do french and russian braids.

This would look military and neat but also allow for a little individualisation. For example, jess playing emma decided to put her own plaits in and make them look more feminine whereras alex would have edgier russian braids and tristan would have just one single braid to re-enforce her masculine nature.

Will who plays mason aggreed to buzzcut his hair to make him look more military and for duncan i wanted to do a slick back look inspired by jared leto.

I spent quite a while trying to perfect this look. Photos are at the end of todays entry.

I did some practicing with makeup as well.

The makeup for this film on the contestants will involve a lot of bruises which will be a nightmare for continuity so i will write down the exact process i use so i can refer to it and make sure to take photos every time i do the looks so i can make sure the continuity is good.

I have decided i want the bruises to visibly develop and heal a little bit each scene of the film which will mean i have to know when each scene comes in regards to when the characters got their bruises.

(picture of practice at the end of today's entry)

The smaller cuts look much more realistic than the big ones so i will stick to just bruises and smaller cuts. I want to do a cut on alex’s lip after she gets punched in the face during last man standing.

Today i found out that i will be playing the part of the advisor so tomorrow i will focus on that costume and making sure i have everything in order and ready to go.

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Today i focused on trying to find a costume for the advisor now that i know that i will be taking that role.

I have decided that the makeup will be simplistic with harshly structures eyebrows to make me look more stern and a dark coloured lip to make me look intimidating.

I will tie my hair back in a low pony tail but leave a couple of strands hanging in front of my face to make it look slightly feminine and like she takes care in her appearnace since she’s not a contestant and can afford to.

Thinking about the structured outfit emmarose had in mind i thought i would have a look online at what womens suits or blazer dresses would suit the character.

I found the one pictured at the end of the entry.

I think the colour will match Boysons suit and give them some unity.

I asked meg if the budget would be able to afford it but she suggested that i just look in costume tomorrow since this won’t be possible with the current budget.

I will take emmarose down to custume to help me decided on what outfit would be best for the advisor that we can get for free.

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Today i went to costume to find an outfit for the advisor.

I tried on a blue skirt and jacket with a white blouse but unfortunately it didn’t fit at all so we ended up going With a 1950’s style blue dress. It isn’t quite the sleek modern vide i had wanted for the character to make her come across as robotic and cold. It looks more like an old fashioned nurse than someone who would be intimidating but the colour is exactly what we wanted.

I would have liked to have been able to use some of the budget on costume hair and makeup to really bring my ideas to life and make the characters look exactly how Emmarose and i had envisioned them.

Having said that, the mother in netflix programme The Umbrella Academy wears a 1950’s housewife outfit and can come across very cold and calculating at time. I will try and go for this vibe in my performance of the character to back up the costume choice.

I collected all of the costumes and distributed them to all of the cast for them to all look after during filming.

I made everyone sign a mini contract to say they would look after it and return all of it as it was given out.

I’m ready to begin filming next week and i’m very happy for the most part about how all of the characters are coming to life through their costume, makeup and hair.

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2pm call time.
Scene 1 and 30

Today was our first day of shooting. We shot scenes 1 and 30 in peel park by the trees.

We neeeded a shot of someones feet dangling from a tree to suggest they had been hanged. And then scene 30 which features our 2 protagonists at the end of the film facing their final dilemma.

The costumes, hair and makeup needed in this scene are:

Emma-
plaited hair,
military outfit,
tear streaks on her face
red around her eyes.

Alex-
plaited hair,
military outfit,
semi healed bruise on forehead.
Semi healed cut on lip.

Boyson-
slicked back hair,
pink suit.

I arranged to meet the cast at set and then walk up to the SU so they could have a private and safe space to change and room out of the wind for me to do the hair and makeup on the girls.

Jess’ will be doing her own hair throughout the shoot since she said her hair is hard to deal with sometimes so she had turned up with her hair already done and in costume, this meant that i just had to focus on her makeup.

I started by putting some matte powder on her face to make her skin look dry and uncared for. I then put a cool toned, light pink under and around her eyes. The cool tone will suggest she has dark circles from stress and lack of sleep and the pink will make her eyes look sore, like she has been crying a lot.

I used a light pink babylips lip balm to form tear streaks down her face and smudge out the pink eyeshadow under her eyes to give it a wet look and the illusion of tears.

I wanted the change to be very subtle and look natural so as to not make her performance look fake.

(continuity pictures at the end of entry)

Next i did Elinor’s hair and makeup. With her having such short hair, i made sure t use some spray and bobby pins to give her the tight and neat looking russian braids that i wanted Alex to have to make her look more edgy. I also decided to leave a couple of shorter strands of hair sticking out of her plaits to signify she has been on the move and bits of her hair might have fallen out.

This scene is last in the film so i wanted the bruises on her face to look slightly healed and warmer toned.

I focused on creating two main injuries, a bruise on the side of her forehead that she will have got in the last man standing scene when she is punched down to the ground causing  a trauma to the side of her face that would leave a bruise.

I created this by starting with a warm toned brown as the base going from the side of her left eye, up onto her forehead and across to the middle of her forehead. I then added a darker cool toned brown at the corner of her eye and in the middle of the area i had already filled to act as the impact zones, i then built on that adding, darker liquid lipsticks in purple/browns and red. Using liquid lipstick gave me more control over the intensity of the colour i wanted.

The second injury i wanted to create was a cut on her lip. This was quite simple to make. I used a dark purple/red and a little bit of a brown powder and tapped it onto the right hand side of her lip in one concentrated spot to look like bruising. I then went in with an angled brush and a red liquid lipstick to create the illusion of a scabbed over cut in the centre of the bruise.

I then tapped some translucent powder over the entire thing to make the textures all look like skin and also to make the bruises look even more faded since they would be a day old by this point.

Boyson in this scene is wearing his pink suit, the suit he wears a lot of the time when doing official business with the contestants.

All i needed to do was slick back his hair. I did this by wetting his hair with heat protectant spray, straightening the front section of his hair, pulling it back and spraying it with heavy duty hairspray, making sure to slick down any fly away hairs.

I stayed on set for the rest of the shoot just in case of any touch ups that were needed and to help out with sound but thankfully there were no hair, makeup or costume mishaps today.

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11am call time

27 and 2

Today we filmed scene 27, which is the scene where all the contestants vote of who should be eliminated. We filmed in 318 Lower Broughton road basement.

Today we had the full cast other than me in costume:

Boyson:
Pink suit
Slicked back hair

Emma:
Military outfit
Braided hair
Light makeup around eyes
Alex:
Military outfit
Braided hair
Semi healed and faded bruises

Mason:
Military outfit
Light makeup around eyes

Tristan:
Military outfit
Semi healed Bruises and cuts on face
Braided hair

I brought each cast member up to do hair and makeup one at a time, for Boyson, Alex and emma i followed the same process as yesterday except for i didn’t give emma tears around her eyes or down her face, i just dusted a cool pink beneath them to make her look tired.

I used a very gentle purple beneath masons eyes to make him look tired as well.

It was the first time for me doing Tristan’s hair and makeup for filming. I gave her a single, thick, russian braid in the centre of her head to give a more masculine feel than the other girls with two braids.

From last man standing, i wanted tristan to have a graze on her forehead from when she gets headbutted by mason and a slight bruise on her cheekbone from her fight with alex.

Tristan is tough though so i only wanted her injuries to be minor in comparison to Alex’s, especially since i wanted them to be slightly faded at this point.

I went in with a yellow brown colour for her cheekbone and a cool toned purple brown to make an impact mark. I used pink lip balm and light pink powder on her forehead to make the skin look sore and grazed. I added little tiny strokes of red liquid lipstick on top of the pink to create little cuts and add to the grazed effect.

I followed the same process as yesterday for doing boysons hair, with wetting it, straightening it, brushing it back and then spraying it.

Again i stayed on set but thankfully there was no issues with costume hair or makeup that i had to worry about.

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9am old adelphi

1pm crescent building

Scenes 5,25,26,11,9,19

Boyson:
Pink outfit
Green outfit
Slicked back hair

Advisor:
Blue dress
Pony tail
Normal advisor makeup

Alex:
Military outfit
Braids
No bruises until half way through morning shoot

Emma:
Emma entrance outfit
Military outfit
Hair products to fix braided hair
Under eye makeup

Tristan:
Military outfit
Braid
No bruises until half way through morning shoot

Mason:
Military outfit
Under eye makeup

Today we are filming in two seperate locations, the first shoot is at the old adelphi building in the courtyard for scenes 5 and 25 and the second one is the crescent building in the basement for scenes 26,9,11 and 19.

I arranged with the cast to meet at 8am in the new adelphi building on the top floor so that they could get into costume in the changing rooms, i could do all of the hair and makeup and then set off to walk to set at about 8:30.

I got there early to get dressed and do the makeup for the advisor.

I did the same makeup look i had practiced last week with thick, dark and harsh eyebrows. A dark lip and a simple eyeliner. I tied my hair back  to look clinical but left the feminine strands of hair out to frame my face. The combination of harsh colours, yet the feminine eyeliner and dress will give an unsettling feeling to the viewer as they wont know if the character is trustworthy or not.

Next i did checked the costumes for all of the other characters then did their hair and makeup as usual.

Jess needed both costumes for today and we arranged that she would braid her hair during the change of location and lunch break to keep the continuity in the scenes. Boyson would be wearing his pink suit, the one that he does all his official, public facing business in.

For the first scenes we filmed in old adelphi, Alex and Tristan wouldn’t have bruises on their faces because it takes place before the last man standing scene.

I would put the bruises on them on location between filming scenes.

When the cast arrived i focused on just braiding their hair and darkening under their eyes slightly (apart from boyson who needed no makeup)

On after filming scene 5, i took hess to a secure place on site for her to change her costume privately.

I had to find the security guard and get access to their toilet. After she changed, she started on her hair and i was able to start the process of putting the bruises on Alex and Tristan. This scene is quite soon after the original fight so i wanted the bruises to look fresher and darker. I added more deep coloured tones to them t achieve this effect. I followed my instruction from previous days and referenced my continuity photos to ensure they looked the same as other days, just darker.

When we moved to the second location, i checked over the cast’s makeup and touched up the bits that i felt were wrong. Changing the intensity of the bruises to suit each scene.

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9am old adelphi

1pm crescent building

Scenes 28, 31, 13, 15, 17

Boyson:
Pink outfit
Green outfit
Slicked back hair

Advisor:
Blue dress
Pony tail
Normal advisor makeup

Alex:
Military outfit
Braids
Bruises

Emma:
Military outfit
braids
Under eye makeup

Tristan:
Military outfit
Braid
Bruises

Mason:
Military outfit
Under eye makeup

Todays schedule was similar to yesterdays so i called all of the cast to meet in the new adelphi building at 8am again.

Today i was able to do the bruising on the contestants at new adelphi before going to set since the scenes take place after the last man standing scene.

This meant i could take slightly more time as i didn’t have the pressure of needing to shoot the next scene asap.

The only costume change for today was boysons suits so i checked over his outfit once he had changed and made sure it all looked as it should.

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8.45 call time

Scene 7 and 24

Boyson:
Pink outfit
Green outfit
Slicked back hair

Advisor:
Blue dress
Pony tail
Normal advisor makeup

Alex:
Military outfit
Braids
Bruises (after her fights have been shot)

Emma:
Military outfit
braids
Under eye makeup

Tristan:
Military outfit
Braid
Bruises (after her fights have been shot)

Mason:
Military outfit
Under eye makeup

We filmed all of the cultivation suite scenes today in the squash courts in the sports centre at the university.

I met the cast on location to check costumes and do makeup today.

Starting out, i just had to worry about doing their hair, checking costumes and giving the contestants darker undereyes.

I spoke with the director emmarose to find out when i would have to put on the bruises for each cast member to ensure she got all of the coverage of them without bruises that she needed.

We decided that we would have to put makeup on some of them for some shots and then remove it to get other shots.

To keep on top of continuity for this, i marked up the scenes on my script With numbers in the order that we would be shooting each shot so that i knew when someone needed a bruise adding or removing.

I followed the same process i have been following to make sure the bruises looked right. Since this is the fight scene in which the bruises appear, i want them to look their most intense here. I used a lot more bright reds and purples to make the skin look sore and the blood beneath look disturbed.

I blended the bruise further back into elinors hairline to make it look even more intense and left a larger smudge of wet red colour on her lip to make it look like it was freshly bleeding and not just scabbed over.

I took these continuity photos:

I’m really happy with how this week has gone and i have plenty of continuity pictures of the characters.

For next week i will continue to map out which scene need the bruises at which intensities to make it look coherent in the finished film.

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11am call time in town both days

Scenes 23,12,20,22/29,6,8,4

Boyson:
Not Applicable

Advisor:
Blue dress
Pony tail
Normal advisor makeup

Alex:
Military outfit
Braids
Bruises

Emma:
Military outfit
braids
Under eye makeup

Tristan:
Military outfit
Braid
Bruises

Mason:
Military outfit
Under eye makeup

I have put both monday and tuesday together for this day because we were filming in a hostel and i was there late into the night on monday and early in the morning on tuesday so it felt like one big shoot! Some of the cast even stayed there overnight.

It was a later start than planned on monday as we couldn’t get into the hostel until the afternoon. Once we got on set, the cast would go to the toilets one by one to get dressed and i set up a chair in the middle of the “dorm room” and one by one, braided tristan and alex’s hair..

I then did all of their bruises and under eye makeup using the same process that i have been using each day, as described in the first and second day of my logs for production.

There was a couple of times on monday where elinor’s hair would spring out of the braids because it was so freshly washed so i would keep spraying it down. On tuesday i brought extra bobby pins to keep her hair secure and looking neat and similar to how it has looked in all of the other scenes we have shot.

Tuesday was the last day on set for Tristan and Mason on set so we took a cute on set photo:

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10am call time

3,10,14,16,18,21

Boyson:
Pink outfit
Green outfit
Slicked back hair

Advisor:
Blue dress
Pony tail
Normal advisor makeup

Alex:
Military outfit
Braids
Bruises

Emma:
Military outfit
braids
Under eye makeup

Tristan:
Not applicable

Mason:
Not applicable

We filmed a lot of the scenes in Boysons office for which we are using the basement of 318 lower broughton road.

Filming here means that i had space to take time on perfecting alex’s bruises.

For the first scene we are shooting, scene 3, she didn’t need her bruises on so i just braided her hair, checked over her costume and did the cool toned brown and pink under her eyes to make her look more tired. I did the same makeup on emma as always.

Once scene 3 had been filmed, i brought elinor back up from the basement and focused on the bruises. Since the scenes aren’t directly after the fight scene i want the bruises to look slightly settled and a tiny bit faded so i added a layer of heavier powder over the bruise and got the effect i was wanting.

I did boysons hair the same as usual and checked his costumes after each change.

For the advisor i just made sure i did the same as always.

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10am call time

10,14,16,21

Boyson:
Pink outfit
Green outfit
Slicked back hair

Advisor:
Blue dress
Pony tail
Normal advisor makeup

Alex:
Not applicable

Emma:
Not applicable

Tristan:
Not applicable

Mason:
Not applicable

Today only the advisor were called to finish filming the scenes in boysons office where they are discussing who will be eliminated next.

This made my job as costume much more straightforward.

I did boysons hair as always and made sure his costume was right through all of the costume changes.

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9.30am

21

Boyson:
Not applicable

Advisor:
Not applicable

Alex:
Military outfit
Braids
Bruises

Emma:
Military outfit
braids
Under eye makeup

Tristan:
Not applicable

Mason:
Not applicable

Today was our final day of filming on unnatural selection and although i was called early, i was told to leave once i had done the hair, makeup and costume checks.

We were filming by the fence of a metal works company next to the canal, the opposite side of peel park.

It was really really windy so I drove my car down to set and set it up as a hair and makeup station.

Since jess already had her hair done, i quickly did her under eye makeup and roughed up the edges of her hair slightly to match the wind outside.

I then braided Elinor’s hair and did the bruises using my normal procedure, making sure they matched my continuity photos and then faded them very slightly with translucent powder.

I checked over both of the costumes one last time before i left and arrange to collect in costumes from the cast and return them to the costume department when it reopens after easter.

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we have no budget for costume, hair and makeup so ALL of the following must be sourced in the university costume department or amongst ourselves.
(I will uses all of my own personal hair and makeup products on the cast)

Boyson:

2 eccentric and colourful outfits

Possibly ill fitting to create a confusing and unsettling image

2 ties

A waistcoat

Colourful trousers and matching jacket

Plain white shirt

Plain black trousers

patterned , crazy shirt

Flip flops

Colourful trainers

Hairspray

Hair straighteners

Heat protect spray

Tangleteaser/brush

Translucent powder for face

Advisor:

One single, structured, colourful outfit.

Possibly a blazer dress

Possible a two piece womens suit with a skirt and jacket matching

White or black, block coloured blouse.

Blue 1950’s dress from costume

Tights for warmth

Foundation

Eyeliner

Mascara

Dark neutral toned lipstick

Eyebrow pencil in dark brown

Hair ties

Black heeled boots

Contestants:

Military style outfits x4

Green trousers x4

Green shirts x4

White under t shirt x4

Walking boots/ army boots x4

Belts x2 for the more feminine contestants

Dark and light, warm and cool coloured eyeshadows for bruises

Dark and light, warm and cool toned liquid lipstick for bruises

Translucent powder

Skin coloured powder (fair)

Possibly sports bras????

Hair ties

Hair spray

Bobby pins

Hair brush/ tangleteaser