Sally Bowles Practice

These images are of my Sally Bowles design I've practiced on myself. I think it was a good first try and made me think of what needs to be tweeked and changed for this design. I really like the concept of what I am going for and really happy I didn't struggle trying to get the eye shapes symmetrical. I don't think the shape is fluid looking as the black line starting from corners need to have a smoother curve drawing to the outer part of the eyes. I also think it looks too thick and almosts resembles clown makeup which I definitely want to avoid as that isn't what I'm going for. The eyelashes also need to have the same thickness ratio as the bottom lashes are thicker than the top and I think they would look better if they were similar to the top lashes instead of being thicker. For the skin I wanted it to look quite contoured and so this needs to be exaggerated more so it can be shown more on camera.

If I want gold eyeshadow I am going to need to make it much thicker to be seen on camera. I can exagerate it by taking the gold right up to the eyebrow as well. I experimented with 2 different products for this - b. sunner eye shimmer which didn't stand out enough and didn't thicken up on the eye as much as I wanted it too. The gold shade from my Kryolan grease Palette worked better as I could thicken it more and it also stood out.

I took the first image thinking I was finished with the lips but then noticed the top line wasn't black enough on camera so I went over it more and it looks a lot better in the 2nd image. I think I do need to work on perfecting the outline making it smooth and the upper lip needs a bit more green on it. I also was indecisive about whether I should have a layer of shimmer or glitter on top of the lips just to complete it and reference my idea of Sally Bowles' dream to stardom in my look. I think I prefer the idea of glitter and making her lips sparkle for this design as that references my idea more clearly than using a shimmer effect.

Practice of Kit Kat Girl Design

These images are of a practice my partner for the assessment did of my Kit Kat Girl Design on me. I think that the hair design worked out really well in the practice as the curls were all going in the same direction down the sides of my head. For the makeup I like the pale skin tone but think it could have some blusher applied to the cheeks so the face is a focus of one and not just on the eyes and lips. The eyebrows are supposed to be blocked out and two thin brown lines would be drawn on top of the eyebrows as replacements but wasn't done during this practice as my partner had already practiced this technique in her own time. I think the shape of the eyeshadow could be more exaggerated just so it can be seen on camera as I don't think it makes the design noticable or interesting with the eyes open. The lighting where we practiced wasn't the best though so I thought maybe the lighting is making it hard for them to be noticeable. I like the lip colour although maybe it could be slightly darker just to make it pop more and be the colour I was originally looking for.

Moodboard for Contemporary Sally Bowles

To create my mood board for Sally Bowles I thought about the key colours I wanted to use for my design which is gold and green. I chose gold to symbolise her want of being a star and famous and chose green because of her infamous green nails that she has which represents her uniqueness. I really like the idea of her hair being brown and sprayed green to almost match ombre black and green lips because this represents how unique she wanted to be and adds that contemporary flare. The key colour of gold I want would be applied to her eyes or upper half of her face as this is where I think it would look best.

In the film Cabaret, Sally Bowles' eyes are emphasised and look large which has been don't by applying long fake eyelashes on. I love big eyes because they can really make the face more striking to look at and wanted to take this feature idea of her and make it contemporary. I've thought this through by applying the eyelashes lower, higher or both on the eyes and colouring what's in-between white to make the eyes look overly huge as does her eyes but this is more of a contemporary spin. The images on the right of my moodboard relate to this.

Anita Berber

Anita Berber in 'Cocaine' Dance www.wornthrough.com

Anita Berber was famous for her erotic and nude dancing performances and symbolized the decadence of Berlin in the 1920's. She lived a short and wild life by taking drugs constantly - she loved drugs so much she named her dances after them. She was mainly addicted to opium and cocaine and drank on average one bottle of cognac a day. She was described to have fiery red hair and wore heavy dark makeup on her eyes and heart-shaped lips along with a pale face. She died unsurprisingly at the age of 29 in 1928 from excessive drug taking along with tuberculosis. 

Otto Dix's painting of Anita Berber, 1925

Otto Dix never used such a vibrant red in his paintings but it makes sense for him to use it for his portrait of Anita Berber because she presents the colour's symbolism - lust, fiery and the colour of Venus. She is positioned in a supposedly sexual way as she appears curvy. I also think what she is wearing is quite thin fabric or almost see through as you can see the outline detail of her stomach. This can show how comfortable she is in her skin and wants to show it off to the world.

Anita Berber Charts

 The image above is my face chart for an Anita Berber design. I wanted her to have heavy black eye makeup and small dark red lips to resemble how Berber wore her makeup everyday. Her skin is also pale as it appears white in pictures of her but with a slight contour to define her cheek bones as I would imagine her face is sunken from drugs. I also thought it would be relevant to apply wrinkles under her eyes because of the effects she'd have from drinking alcohol and taking drugs everyday. I think that Anita Berber's makeup wouldn't always be completely perfect because maybe she was on drugs or drunk while applying her makeup on some days so I would like to not make her makeup absolutely perfect and quite average. She'd be the one applying the makeup, not a professional makeup artist. 

For the hair chart of my Anita Berber design, I wanted to have the era's curls for the style but quite thick and pinned into place. Looking at images of Anita this is how she styles her hair. I thought maybe it doesn't have to be perfect like the makeup because she could have been high or drunk while styling her hair.

How Do I Begin To Understand the Role? (Historical Character)

If I could describe the Kit Kat Girl's character from what I have gathered in this scene she is:

Free - she still has the chance for someone to have her for the night therefore she is free to do what she wants.

Nonchalant - easy going and laid back that Cliff has rejected her as she knows she can have anyone in the room.

Flirtatious - She shows this as she approaches Cliff by asking him to buy her a drink and if he had said yes she would have continued to flirt as the other Girls in the 'Telephone Dance' had.

Bold - shows confidence in asking Cliff to buy her a drink as well as being the first to flirt with a man out of the Girls and doesn't worry about herself when a man says no to her.

What Will Happen If They Don't Get It? (Historical Character)

If the Kit Kat Girl doesn't end up with a man at the end of the night she will end up going home alone. I think if it was any other night she wouldn't care but as it is New Year's Eve she was hoping for a man to flirt with, dance with and take home with. I chose the 1st Girl that is rejected by Cliff because the rest of her story is untold and when it comes to this question, she might be rejected all night by men or she won't be. Another man could have brought her a drink as soon as she went to the bar.

Why Do They Want It Now? (Historical Character)

I think the Kit Kat Girl wants Cliff to buy her a drink and hopefully take her home as it is New Year's Eve and she wants it to be special even if her idea of special is having a one night stand. Flirting and sex is also something that she does and wants to do whenever she's out and just finished a show in the club. She just wants to have fun and enjoy the rest of the evening however she wants to especially as it is New Year's Eve.

Why Do They Want It Now? (Historical Character)

I think the Kit Kat Girl wants Cliff to buy her a drink and hopefully take her home as it is New Year's Eve and she wants it to be special even if her idea of special is having a one night stand. Flirting and sex is also something that she does and wants to do whenever she's out and just finished a show in the club. She just wants to have fun and enjoy the rest of the evening however she wants to especially as it is New Year's Eve.

What Does The Character Need/Want? (Historical Character)

The Kit Kat Girl character I have chosen wants Cliff to buy her a drink and within the lifestyle these characters are surrounded by she probably wants to go home with him too. When Cliff rejects her she shakes it off and goes to the bar and is left to be alone. In the 'Telephone Dance' the other Girls and men in the song sing 'Alone, alone, you shouldn't sit alone like that. Alone, alone, not on a night like this.' This line clearly indicates loneliness and if the 1st Girl hadn't been rejected she would be singing with them too and agreeing that no one should be alone but she is the one left alone. I think in the play her body language would show she doesn't care that she's been left alone to go to the bar because she knows she'll be with another guy any other minute.

Otto Dix

Otto Dix was an artist that revolved his work around the Weimar Berlin lifestyle. His paintings represented the decadence of the era and he showed this by painting prostitutes and women that look androgynous and aswell as beautifully grotesque.

Liegende auf Leopardenfell (Reclining Woman on a Leopard Skin), 1927 www.museum.cornell.edu/

This painting by Dix is of the actress Vera Simailova who is described as having fashionable androgyny. She has a twist of being two opposites - seductive because of the way she is positioned and her body language, and repulsive because she has been painted to have big proportions, and a face that could resemble a man.

Three Wenches, 1926 www.soho-art.com

In this painting Dix has painted three prostitutes in three very different sizes. I think he has done this to show that the type of prostitutes in Berlin weren't typically beautiful but instead he shows the realism of the seedy life in Berlin that prostitutes came in all shapes and sizes. This painting to me is quite shocking but entirely intriguing at the same time because of the representation it has of what a part of Berlin was like.

Close up of 'Metropolis', 1928 www.wikiart.org

The Metropolis painting is a depiction of Germany's 'Golden Twenties' lifestyle contrasting with post WWI life. The close up of the prostitutes in this image shows how Otto Dix portrays what they look like and the makeup they wore. I wanted to show this because it can give me ideas of what makeup designs I can do for the Kit Kat Girls and interpretations that Dix has made from these prostitutes.

I think Otto Dix's work will be helpful towards my makeup designs for my Kit Kat Girl character because the women he paints have the features of androgyny, makeup and hair that I would imagine the Kit Kat Girls would have. They would look beautifully grotesque like the paintings Dix portrays of women. The way he paints these women are also similar to how the Kit Kat Girls look in Cabaret 1972. I wasn't sure about how to make my designs look androgynous but by looking closely at the faces Dix has painted, their eyebrow are thing and raised and heavily blushed cheeks combined make them look like drag queens.