Month: May 2015

A Little More Gore

Ruthafus2 Comments

So, since our serial killer project for CMS is due this week I figured I’d play around with a little bit more SFX makeup (it’s still just watercolor paint because student budgets are real) 🙂
Before:

After: 
  
Anyway, now that that’s done lemme tell you more about my fictional serial killer:

Serial Killer: Raven Samuels (played by Anthony De Chalain


As you can see– like most serial killers– Raven seems to be a normative man without any noticeable quirks or issues. When he’s in the public eye he is an extremely charitable individual that gives back to the community and spends a lot of time in church (the latter serves as an explanation for his religious post-murder bathing of his victims as it works as a form of cleansing his victims and himself of their sins).
In the next week I’ll be posting the finished product of my serial killer project so keep reading 🙂

Laters lovelies ✌️

Shooting Light and Photography

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“For me the Camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”–  Henri Cartier-Bresson.

So, I don’t know if you guys know this but photography plays a pretty monumental role in the world of CMS and PD. It has the ability to capture a vital moment in a scene or capture the essence of a character in just one shot. We learnt all about photography in our last CMS lesson with Mr Ivy. We found out that– especially in the world of film– photography starts with a conceptual focus that eventually leads to a perceptual focus. Conceptual focuses purely on the concept as well as the character and perceptual focus is to elucidate the meaning that you want the audience to perceive from the concept. By doing this the perceptual focus strengthens and emphasizes the conceptual focus. Photography is a means of quickly capturing whatever you want to communicate.

Lighting is also a vital part of photography. Without an understanding of lighting your picture and concept might end up being misconstrued by the viewer. Lighting plays an essential role in creating meaning. Aspects such as shadows can influence the viewer’s perception of the meaning you, as a photographer, aim to portray. For example, The an amalgamation of the elongated shadows and cold light seen in early morning shots could seem ominous to the viewer so you wouldn’t want to shoot a happy, lighthearted picture at that time of the day.

A great example of the way in which light changes in harshness, direction and color would be Monet’s series of paintings entitled Haystacks. In this series of paintings Monet portrayed the way in which lighting changes at various time’s of the day as well as in different seasons.

End of Summer, Early Morning
End of Summer, Early 
Early Summer, Early Morning
Early Summer, Early Morning

The two pictures show the differences between the same time of the day in different parts of the season.

Every kind of natural shooting light has different aspects to it. These include:

Early Morning Light:

  • Shadows are elongated
  • Light falls at a long angle
  • The light is crisp and quiet as there is no pollution or defraction (dust etc).
  • Cool, blue light
  • Best for reflective shots

Mid-morning Light:

  • Shadows are longer
  • Good for landscapes
  • Textures are vibrant and clear
  • Mid-morning light is diffused

Midday Light:

  • Intense shadows and colors
  • Unflattering light (basically bad selfie lighting)
  • Because of the intense shadows it can often create dark shadows in and around the eye area (humorously referred to as “Godfather Lighting”).
  • On people it often highlights the areas of their face that make them look older (i.e TERRIBLE SELFIE LIGHTING).

Late Afternoon Light:

  • Intense textures
  • Often a more relaxed time of day (i.e when people start drinking)
  • Often creates very emotive shots
  • Shadows are more diffused because of the amount of difraction and pollution
  • Good for social commentary.

Sunset:

  • Known as “Magic Hour”
  • Often has a fast sense of movement and a good flow
  • The light is obstructed and diffused
  • Intense textures
  • Ambiguous shadows

There are other aspects to lighting such as afterglow, moonlight and diffused light. However, we didn’t go into quite the amount of detail that we did with all of the others.

So that’s all I have to say about that. If you took anything away from this post I hope it’s that:

1) Always start drinking in the late afternoon so you can have more chill.

2) NEVER TAKE SELFIES AT MIDDAY.

lol, jk. Go take some cool pictures (even if they’re selfies, most of my pictures are) and go feed a stray dog or make someone’s day or something. idk.

BYEEEE xx

Some More Color Theory for Y’all

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Production Design and Costume, Makeup & Styling, as you know by now, rely heavily on the use of color and how it can affect meaning. We recently finished a project in which we had to explain the use of color as well as the meaning it is sending to the audience in the film we make every term with our crews. Alternatively, we could have also made up our own narrative and applied the aforementioned explanations.

I chose to analyse the film my crew and I are making– entitled Hope— as I feel it kills THREE birds with one stone:

1) I use it to finish my PD assignment.

2) I effectively analyse and assess what I need for my film with regards to CMS and PD AND I have quite a detailed summary to discuss with my director and the rest of my crew.

3) I can receive feedback from Miss E and make the necessary changes, thus benefiting my film.

Anyway, Here’s my assignment. Feel free to read it and give me some feedback as I’d love to hear from everyone 🙂

Color is an essential aspect of filmmaking as it plays a vital role in manipulating the audience’s emotions and perspective regarding a particular scene or character. The colors that are seen in the frame can affect both the mood and the atmosphere of the scene. This is a vital part of Production Design as, through the creation of the set and environment, it is the Production Designer’s role to subtly manipulate the audience’s perception of the character’s mental, physical and psychological state. The use of color is not the only thing that creates mood and atmosphere. Saturation and value are also invaluable aspects that can lift or drop a mood. Saturation is the intensity or purity of the color. Value is the brightness or darkness of the color.

The narrative that will be discussed is the narrative of my crew’s term project entitled Hope. The lexical concept is hope as the story revolves around a young girl named Sophia who is attending her first day at university. Unfortunately for the Sophia, she is not wealthy and comes from an incredibly poor background. The other students that attend the university are in the upper and middle class. Because of this, the protagonist feels a sense of isolation. In the opening scene Sophia draws unwanted attention to herself by tripping and splitting open one of her dirty, worn shoes. Her fellow students jeer and mock her. This is the first action—disregarding her dirty, old clothing in juxtaposition to their expensive designer clothing—that separates Sophia from the rest of the university. The second scene consists of Sophia being consumed by temptation and stealing money from another student named Hope. Hope is aware that Sophia stole the money but refrains from saying anything. Later in the film Hope hands Sophia a note with a bible verse on it and this gives Sophia the strength to disregard the hurtful comments and the clear class division and, instead, focus on graduating from university and making something of herself.

In the first scene I intend to enlighten the audience on the issue of Sophia’s isolation through the use of color, saturation and value. To briefly summarize the Costume, Makeup and Styling perspective, Sophia’s loneliness will be shown through the use of dull tones with a lot of grey incorporated into them. She will wear extremely layered clothing— regardless of the weather— to show her closed-up nature and low self-esteem. Because the actress playing Sophia is naturally a warm toned person, duller colors will also be used to make her seem anxious and drained as this is her state of mind in the first scene.

The creation of the environment through the use of the color pallet will rely on two sets of complementary colors used in different scenes. The complimentary colors used in the first scene will be a bright red and green. The bright red is an extremely loud color and, because it’s a warm color, the viewer’s eye will be drawn to it first. “Bright red can raise your heart rate and anxiety level. It is visually loud and can elicit anger.” (Bellantoni, P. 2005). In Western culture red has many meanings but the specific meaning I aim to emphasize is that of anxiety. Because the protagonist is exceptionally anxious in the first scene and for the majority of the movie, the majority of the props and items (such as posters and coffee mugs) seen in the frame will be a bright red color, adding to the protagonist’s anxiety. The majority of the background cannot be manipulated as much as I would like as it is being shot outside on AFDA campus. However the majority of the aspects I am able to manipulate will be red as when one uses complimentary colors it is not wise to use half of each color. One color should be more dominant than the other. Depending on the saturation of the scene, the brightness of the red could lessen as oversaturation often leads to frustration from the viewer due to the inability to rest their eyes on a certain thing.

The few aspects of the environment that will be green will be to complement the red as well as emphasize Sophia’s ambivalence regarding her place in university as ambivalence is one of the Western interpretations of green. “Perhaps its duplicity comes from our earliest times on this planet when green signaled both food and danger. It is a simple fact that green, in its plant manifestation, signals life itself. Green in the atmosphere, however, can signal a low-pressure system that can spawn a tornado, and ‘Beware of the green water’ is a sailor’s warning. So green can signal health and vitality or danger and decay.” (Bellantoni, P. 2005). Green is also a color that is synonymous with envy and at this stage in the narrative Sophia is overcome with envy as she does not have what her peers have.

The second scene takes place in a classroom and it consists of Sophia stealing money from her fellow student, Hope. Again the colors used in this scene will be red and green. They will be less saturated than the first scene and slightly dull and dark as it represents the character’s pessimistic mindset, dark mood as well as the danger that comes with the act of stealing. As the representation of colors is still from a Western perspective of culture the red will represent passion. The majority of the background will be green in this scene as it is highlighting the danger that the act of stealing entails. With regards to the state of the classroom, the majority or it will be in pristine condition to emphasize the standard of the university as well as the fact that the university is well maintained due to its abundance of money.

The final scene will be Sophia’s graduation scene. She will still be in dirty, worn clothes. However, the tones will be a brighter set of complimentary colors. She will be wearing blue jeans, a white blouse and her nails will be painted orange. Her black graduation robe will have streaks of blue and orange on the collar as well to round off the look. The background will consist of blue and orange streamers to represent the university’s colors. In Western culture blue can represent positive aspects such as intellect and that is fitting for this scene as, regardless of Sophia’s social standing, she managed to graduate from her tertiary educational institute. “Steel blue and dark indigo are colors least associated with the sensual and most associated with the intellect.” (Bellantoni, P. 2005). Using steel blue in various parts of the background will draw the audience’s attention to the fact that Sophia is intelligent. This is in direct contrast with what they would focus on for the majority of the film which is her social standing.

Orange also has various meanings in Western culture. In general orange is a warm and welcoming color.“Actually, of all our investigations, opaque orange was the most upbeat and least dramatic of the colors. There were no flare-ups, no surprises. There were no in-depth insights at the critiques.” (Bellantoni, P. 2005). Orange will be used to elucidate the fact that Sophia has reached a stage in her mental stability that allows her to harbour less harsh feelings towards those whom have more than her.

anx
The general atmosphere surrounding the character of Sophia representing her mindset.
888
The anxiety (the catalyst) that the character is feeling as well as the effects of the anxiety on the character (tension, worry, angst etc)
11111111111
An example of a prop that could be used in the second act as it is set in a lecture hall.
1111111111111
The general atmospheric pallet used for Sophia to show her mental state and her personality.
IMG_6309
Possibilities of makeup for the other students.
kloihuh
The most influential image as it represents Sophia’s isolation.

Color 1 7 222 11111 111111111111111

References:

Bellantoni, P. 2005. If It’s Purple Someone’s Gonna Die – The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling. Elsevier Inc. [ONLINE]. (accessed on 23/05/2015

References:

 

Assignments got me like:

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The only reason I’m managing to survive the tidal wave of assignments for CMS and PD is because I’m genuinely interested in the two subjects and I find them really useful with regards to live performance (If you haven’t read my first blog post there’s more on that subject https://butterflyinachinashop.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/a-basic-introduction-to-everything-ruth/).

Anyway, I always end up asking myself one question when I get a new assignment: WHAT EVEN IS A SOCIAL LIFE?  So I managed to find some memes that sum up my feelings about the workload at university. Assignments got me like:

4267acaefd507eb67ebd33f793faee5e9905e753f4360460aa6d0e12f978586d 9930a78fdaac271c66aa5554b0059c09 2a4399954bcaa89065c44bcca0bd8293 1794819_698165386896500_1164106343_n 0423662168280640213bffbed8817eb2570e6caecb8ef52c66152cab7b4e2893 1926831_698166100229762_1922209860_n mama-june jim-carrey-meme-generator-is-it-friday-f58361

Embracing the Slightly Psychotic

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Hello lovelies!

I don’t know why I thought I would start such a dark, psychotic post with such a sweet greeting but it’s too late now.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. For CMS we have to create a fictional serial killer and his backstory etc etc. Just a warning for the faint-hearted among you (and maybe also the people that thought I was a sweet person that couldn’t dream up anything besides fluffy unicorns and rainbows) because you’re about to read a pretty fucking dark story that I made up. AGAIN, I’d just like to say this is purely fictional so don’t go having nightmares or calling the fuzz on me. This is just some information on my fictional serial killer and the psychology behind why he does what he does. Photos will follow soon.

Lexical Concept: Power

Protagonist: Raven Samuels (Serial Killer)

Antagonist: Stella Van Niekerk (Detective)

Deuteragonist: Candice Samuels (Raven’s wife)

Tritagonist: Emily Samuels (Raven’s daughter)

Who is the Renaissance Strangler? This question was posed by many of the residents all over Cape Town during his reign of terror. On the 6th of June 1986 in Hout Bay, Cape Town, Everything about Raven Samuels seemed normal. He was of average weight for a new born baby, he possessed no deformities and he was physically healthy. Little did everyone know that on that day a very dangerous, unwell man was born.

Occupation:

Before Raven was arrested for the organised murder of four victims he was a struggling artist. His greed for recognition and power was one of the few aspects that led to the murderous rage he felt whenever he was rejected by gallery owners and art collectors. He mostly painted provocative nudes. Influences on his art include:

  • Gustav Klimt

(Galperina, M. 2012)

klimt

  • Giorgione

(Sleeping Venus, n.d.)

Sleeping Venus

  • Lisa Brice

(Lisa Brice at Goodman Gallery Cape, n.d.)

Brice

  • Antonio Frilli

(Laterza, M. 2014)

Hammock

Childhood:

Raven’s childhood seemed relatively habitual as far as the public eye could see. However, in private, there was a tortuous and confusing chain of command at home. His father— a misogynistic drunk—often abused his mother. She would wear scarves and polo neck shirts to hide the bruises around her neck and always had on a pair of gloves to hide the rope burns she sometimes had engraved into her wrists. Because of this, she was an incredibly unpleasant, bitter woman. Unfortunately for Raven, the catalyst of her hatred for men was his father yet he was the recipient of his mother’s cruelty. His father never abused him and never displayed anything but kindness and love towards him. This, ironically, led to Raven harboring extremely negative feelings towards his abused mother and having nothing but admiration towards his abusive father.

His mother was a slender woman with dark brown hair and fair skin. She was—like Raven—an artist and a rather successful one at that. When Raven was younger he would often draw his mother pictures to attempt to reach out and make her happy but, because of the poisonous hatred she hid in her heart, she burnt them, tore them or threw them away in front of him. She followed the dismissive action with some hateful rant aimed at Raven and ended off by questioning his talent as an artist.

This is where Raven’s inferiority complex came to be. “Inferiority Complex is a term used to describe people who compensate for feelings of inferiority (feeling like they’re less than other people, not as good as others, worthless, etc.) by acting ways that make them appear superior. They do this because controlling others may help them feel less personally inadequate.” (Inferiority Complex, n.d.). Raven overcompensated for his feeling of inferiority by lashing out violently. His only male role model was his dad and that had been a habitual reaction in his home so he never felt the need to question it or seek help.

Victims:

Raven’s victims were victims of choice rather than chance. He only ever murdered woman that were more successful than he was in the field of visual art (which wasn’t particularly hard to do considering he was a failing artist). Taking that into consideration, all of his victims were artists on the rise. They had not made it as artists yet but they were gaining professional recognition extremely quickly. All four of them had the same qualities:

  • Dark Hair
  • Fair Skin
  • Up and coming artists
  • Fairly Wealthy

His three victims were:

  • Margot Stern
  • Wendy Jones

And… wait for it…

  • His mother (PLOT TWIST)

His mother was his first victim when he was at the young age of nineteen. His mother was the only woman he murdered—in cold blood— in the heat of the moment. However, this is how he decided on his post-murder rituals that will be discussed in the next section.

Modus Operandi (M.O.):

A Modus Operandi— or M.O as it is abbreviated— is a “distinct pattern or manner of working that comes to be associated with a particular criminal. Criminologists have observed that, whatever his specialty—burglary, auto theft, or embezzling—the professional criminal is very likely to adhere to his particular way of operating.” (Modus Operandi, n.d.).

  • Pre-murder rituals:

Raven would scout and stalk his victims for about a week each, partially to ensure he didn’t get caught but mostly for the sexual pleasure he derived from the primal act. He found all of his victims at their individual art shows in which they would display their work. Once there he would take any opportunity to take their wallet (for example, knocking it off the bar while they weren’t looking, retrieving some form of identification and then “politely” handing it back to them). Once he had their identification the real stalking began. He would firstly find out where they lived. Then he would silently break into their homes at night while they were there (just so he could feel a sense of power and superiority). He would then go into their room and take one pair of their underwear as a souvenir. After that he would leave and return a week later to make the kill.

  • The actual murder:

He would sit and wait for them in their bedroom. He would wear all black. Most importantly, he would wear the black leather gloves his mother used to wear to hide the rope burns her father had inflicted on her because he liked the sound they made as he squeezed the life out of his victims. Once they entered the room he would come out of the shadows, over-power his victims, tie them to the bed by their wrists with course rope and strangle them to death. Strangulation gave him a sense of power over the victims and made him feel godly.

  • Post-murder rituals:

Because death by slow strangulation often causes the victim to wet themselves he takes the sheets off the bed, washes the sheets, bathes the victim, paints their nails a bright red color (symbolising passion as well as death), lays their naked body on the bare bed (often in a pose that resembles an artwork by one of the four aforementioned artists), drapes them with one sheet and takes pictures. He does this for the recognition he gets when he sees the story on the news… but the photographs are just for him to put in his journal, along with his victims’ identification, and a cut up piece of their underwear.

References:

Images:

Wbesites:

Gore in Watercolor

Ruthafus1 Comment

Yesterday was arguably my favorite CMS lesson yet. There’s nothing worse than sitting in a classroom on a toasty Friday afternoon (Winter, where you at?) for three hours– no matter how interesting the subject is. However, this lecture was not what we expected at all. We entered the classroom, found our seats and prepared to be educated and enlightened on everything CMS by Mr Ivy.

PLOT TWIST: Miss E (our Production Design lecturer) was taking us for the CMS class *cue dramatic sound effects*. Even though her forte is Production Design, she– like Mr Ivy– is incredibly knowledgeable on the matters of Costume, Makeup and Styling.

PLOT TWIST #2: We weren’t, in fact, going to be discussing the psychology and theory behind CMS. No, instead we had a more practical lesson. We were handed an A4 page with four blank characters on it. These characters were in various outfits and poses. We then had to use watercolor paint to fill in their outfits. Each page had to be a different color harmony:

1) Monochromatic

2) Triadic

3) Complementary

4) Split Complimentary.

Here’s an example of one of my color harmonies (monochromatic because it was the easiest):

IMG_4343[1]
Monochromatic
After the excitement of getting paint all over ourselves for the previous two hours we spent the last hour learning how to create bruises, scars and cuts with watercolor. This was probably my favorite part of the lesson because by the end of the last hour we all looked like we’d started a CMS fight club. Among all the entertaining “I know I look bad but you should see the other guy” jokes and the “can you kiss it better?” pick up lines I found it incredibly interesting to see how one can make a fresh bruise, for example, with simple colors such as red and blue and to make it look like an older bruise all you have to do is incorporate a bit of yellow into it.

So, once we had learnt how to maim each other without the threat of a law suit we decided to test it out. My lovely friend, Leah (you can follow her at adventuresatafda.wordpress.com) and I decided to become blood brothers and solidify our friendship with matching watercolor cuts on our arms. after some playing around these were the results:

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My fresh watercolor wound ft. my very real elephant tattoo

To Leah and I it looked incredibly real but we wanted to know if other people outside of CMS would be convinced it was a real cut. So naturally I sent it to the person who has the biggest heart attack whenever I injure myself… My mum. I also chose to leave out the information that I was in a CMS lecture.

IMG_4361[1]

To be honest, I was expecting a bit of a more dramatic reaction but it’s no sweat of my metaphorical balls (I forgive you, mum).

All in all, Costume, Makeup and Styling is arguably one of the most interesting and entertaining subjects I’ve taken thus far.

Lastly, I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS E! Thank you for being one of the best lecturers I’ve had. Stay cool ❤

Ruthi Says Relax

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I don’t know about all of y’all  but drawing is probably one of my favorite hobbies. I’m not the greatest at it but I find it extremely relaxing and I see it as a bit of an escape from reality. Ironically, I was an art student in high school but my will to draw and make art decreased A LOT, especially in matric. I think it was just because I was so busy and anxious about the severity of the consequences that could come with doing badly in that year that my creativity was seriously hindered. This suspicion was confirmed in my first Costume, Makeup & Styling lecture in which my lecturer, Michael Ivy, told the class that it’s impossible to be creative or productive when you’re really anxious.

This year I’ve made an effort to take time out for myself whether it is in the form of cooking, going for a walk or just procrastinating (The latter is probably the most common for me, to be honest). However, just by doing that, I’ve become a much more relaxed version of myself which is great because there’s nothing worse than being so highly strung that it becomes impossible to enjoy anything.

Basically, I just wanted to share some of things I actually managed to enjoy purely by decreasing my anxiety (and when I say enjoy I mean really enjoy).

1) Sundowners at Chapman’s Peak

Processed with VSCOcam with a5 preset
Sundowners at Chapman’s Peak

Cape Town is such a beautiful place, it would be a sin not to go explore all the different natural beauties here. This was and still is one of my favorite memories.

2) DRAWING ❤

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My most recent drawing

So, like I said, making time for myself has made me a lot less anxious which, in turn, has made me a lot more creative. These days I doodle and draw whenever I have the chance to. It’s extremely relaxing, you should try it. “The drawing is already partly there– it’s in the paper and the paper is talking before you do”– Richard Artschwager.

3) Going for the occasional drink with homies

IMG_2535

Whilst I don’t necessarily advocate going to da cluuub and getting hella turnt, going for a drink with your friends is often a good way to unwind after a long day and I find it kind of therapeutic. Speaking from experience, it becomes very easy to neglect your friends so going for a drink with them every now and then is, firstly, a good way to catch up and secondly, its usually a good laugh. Don’t neglect your homies, yo.

Anyway… I better go before my wifi fucks out again!

Kthanksbyeee

x

Fifty Shades of Color Theory

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Hey there, beautiful people of the interwebz. I figured I’d catch you up on what I learnt in yesterdays Production Design lecture… Not because I have to or anything, just because it was so interesting (LOL JK, I kind of have to). Before I do that, I just want to apologize for not posting more because capped wifi is a real bitch and student budgets are a real struggle, yo.

For real though, color theory is NOT as simple as it sounds. when people think of color theory they usually think of the simple version that goes a little something like this: “yellow makes me feel happy because of reasons and stuff”. Joke’s on those people because color theory is actually hella complicated especially at a university level. So, I guess the question is: what is color theory? Well– simply put– it’s the use of color and how it affects your audience’s perception of someone or something. The colors that are seen in the frame can affect both the mood and the atmosphere of the scene. This is a vital part of Production Design as, through the creation of the set and environment, it is the Production Designer’s role to subtly manipulate the audience’s perception of the character’s mental, physical and psychological state.

The other question is: why is color so important in film? It has many purposes in film and other mediums of entertainment such as stage because it had the ability to guide the audience’s eye to something important. An obvious example of this would be Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. The entire film is in black and white except for one or two items such as the little girl’s red coat. It is heavily symbolic and because of the contrast of the dull black and white and the vibrant red the viewer’s eye immediately makes its way to the coat. It can also tell a story and change the mood of the scene completely. It’s kind of amazing, isn’t it? Color is something that’s always just been there for the majority of us. Usually– unless you studied art throughout your schooling career– it hasn’t really been something you devote too much time thinking about. Ever since you were little and you got taught your basics– the primary colors– you’ve never really noticed it changing your opinion or mood.. but it does.

The different colors are not the only thing that create mood and atmosphere. Saturation and value are also invaluable aspects of color that can lift or drop a mood. For those of you that don’t really understand what saturation is, it could be described as the intensity or purity of the color. As for value, with regards to color, it is the brightness or darkness of the color. A common misconception is that the more highly saturated you make an image or a scene, the better because who doesn’t love a bright vibrant image, right? Wrong. If I can give you some advice, don’t overdo the saturation. If it’s too highly saturated the viewer won’t have anywhere to rest their eyes which–as an audience member– can be quite frustrating. A good example of the right amount of saturation is the painting Wild Poppies by Monet.

Wild Poppies- Monet
Wild Poppies- Monet 

(Taken from http://wallpapercow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Wild-Poppies-By-Claude-Monet-Desktop-Wallpaper.jpg)

In this painting your eye is first drawn to the poppies (which, in turn, draws your eye to the two people walking through the field because of the composition). Monet does this by using relatively earthy colors in juxtaposition with the bright, vibrant poppies.

Arguably one of the most important aspects of color theory is color harmonies. To summarize, there are six different, but equally effective, color harmonies:

1) Monochromatic

  • 1 color
  • best for single subjects
  • creates an atmospheric effect

2) Analogous

  • Colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel
  • Easy on the eyes
  • Creates a peaceful, comfortable atmosphere

3) Triadic

  • Colors that are equally distant on the color wheel
  • Best used in cartoons and surreal scenes
  • Creates a playful atmosphere

4) Complimentary

  • Colors that oppose each other on the color wheel (e.g orange and blue)
  • popular and pleasing on the eye
  • Avoid using colors equally, one should be predominant.

5) Split Complimentary

  • More creative freedom than complimentary as you can use 3 colors
  • Lively and joyous

6) Tetratic/ Double Complimentary

  • Two pairs of opposing colors on the color wheel
  • Used for foregrounds and backgrounds
  • hard to pull off but ultimately pleasing.

Sorry for the long post… Actually, sorry not sorry, this sort of thing is really interesting and I’m sure you’re huddled over your laptop eagerly awaiting my next post.

Mad lovesss for you guys,

Until next time, yo.

A Basic Introduction to Everything Ruth.

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Hello my lovely reader chums. For those of you who don’t know me– which I assume is most of you– I’m Ruth Plasket. Charmed to make your acquaintance. I’m a passionate first year film student at AFDA’s Cape Town campus.

This blog is an online look into the many different disciplines of film that I intend to study at AFDA this year as well as my life and the various misadventures I’ve been on in the lovely city of Cape Town. This term I’m studying Costume, Makeup and Styling (CMS) as well as Production Design (PD). I hope to major in Live Performance. However, after my first two lectures on CMS and PD I find myself incredibly interested in the two subjects.

Whilst I haven’t changed my mind about majoring in acting and pursuing a career in the film industry as an actress I have decided CMS and PD are vital subjects to take to better myself as an actress. Now, some of you may be wondering how the subjects relate. Well, my lovely reader chums, let me tell you. CMS and PD revolve heavily around the psychology of the character. From a CMS perspective, one would use color, costume, makeup and styling to evoke emotion as well as display the character’s personality to the targeted audience. From a PD perspective, one would create an environment or set with aspects that aim to exude the character’s personality. This relates to acting as understanding the psychology of the character is vital when it comes to bringing that character to life in a convincing and believable manner. Evoking emotion through the character is also a lot easier when  one understands the emotional and psychological journey that the character undergoes.

Before I leave you, I would just like to clarify the meaning of my blog’s title. In my first CMS lecture my lecturer, Michael Ivy, told our class what he had told one of his past students. Rather than being a bull in a china shop one should aim to be a butterfly in a china shop. To explain it further, he encouraged us to try and be subtle. A bull in a china shop will inevitably break a few plates but a butterfly can have an even stronger impact without the horrific mess afterwards. As filmmakers I feel it is an extremely valuable lesson as one can achieve so much more through subtlety than blatantly displaying the message to the audience on the screen. It’s just something to think about.

In closing I would just like to say that I’m extremely excited to share my journey and the lessons I learn along the way with all of you and I hope that I can inspire you to follow your passion, whether it’s film, medicine, law, photography or even food (go on, admit it! We’re all a little overly passionate about the last one. No? Just me?). Feel free to follow me and let me know what you think.

Catch ya on the flip side.

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