Unit Introduction

Gothic Horror and the Victorians...

Miss Havisham (Great Expectations 2012 film)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20021948

This unit aims to inform me of the processes and practices that are integral to makeup and hair design for the performed body. We will be reading the classic book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and also the 2012 film. This consists of studying the characters through make up and hair and developing a wide set of skills through TV, film and theatrical make up. The era of the written book was in the 19th century therefore further knowledge of Victorian era will be studied in depth.

Queen Victoria
http://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=victoria

During my previous work with make up and studying different eras I've never studied or created make up of the Victorian era. Therefore I don't have much current understanding of the era and what was the ideal beauty of the time. I'm very intreged to learn the era,  beauty trades and what the ideal woman was to look like. I'm very excited to start this unit and research about the Victorians in culture and beauty through in depth research through a variety of sources. The era we are studying and the book we have been allocated to read is "Great Expectations" which is during the same era, this brings together the characters and how they are portrayed in this particular time. 

Great Expectations 2012 film
http://www.impawards.com/2012/
great_expectations_xlg.html

Over the past few weeks I have been trying to read the novel Great Expectations during the period it was written I find the book quite hard to read and understand honestly. When starting to read the book I wasn't really understanding all the words and what was going on in the story. I then decided to watch the recent film of 'Great Expectations' which was directed by Mike Newell (2012). I think the characters are very interesting however its hard to keep up with what going on. After watching the film I starting reading the book again and I found it much easier to understand what was going on as I could picture the scenarios of the film in my head while reading. As I'm quite a slow reader I downloaded the audio version of the book so I followed the book while it was being read out (which is 18 hours and 30 minutes long). I found this much easier to understand and felt much more comfortable doing it this way.

What is Gothic horror?

https://eighteenthcenturylit.wordpress.com/contemporary-reactions/

Origins:
It’s a genre of literature that combines romance and horror. Its Believed to have been originally invented by author Horace Walpole, in 1764 with his novel The Castle of Otranto and is generally viewed as the first Gothic novel. Gothic horror started to be adapted into films in the 19th century, with such films as Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde.Gothic literature is associated with gothic architecture of the same era. The first great gothic horror classic, was by Mary Shelley with Frankenstein in 1818. Dracula (1922).

Turn of the century:
Le Manoir Du Diable (The House of the Devil) is considered to be the world first ever horror film. The film’s plot is about a demon produces skeletons, ghosts, and witches from its bubbling contents before one of the summoned underworld cavaliers holds up a crucifix and Satan vanishes in a blast of smoke. This is in fact the entire plot to the film as the films running time is only 3 minutes.
LeLeManoir du diable (1896).


http://www.slideshare.net/apalmer28/gothic-horror
http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126941.html