Evaluation.

The Evaluation.

Special Effects Assessment

 Evaluation.

For this assignment I am going to be using Gibb’s method of reflection to guide me, to be sure that I cover all the areas of reflective writing required.

Description.

For the final assessment in my special effects module I was asked to create a foam latex prosthetic piece and chose a theme from a list given to me within my brief. I chose ‘strange beauty’ I was drawn to this theme as I love fashion and I came onto the university course from a fashion background and I wish to go back into this industry once graduated. Strange beauty would allow me to create a fashion make-up to aid my foam latex piece. Creating a foam latex piece that was fashion related and still had to fit into the special effects brief was hard as special effects is one of my weaker points within the course. Creating a prosthetic piece from scratch that was my own design and something I saw gradually coming to life each week was extremely exciting for me and I believe this showed me that special effects does not always have to be surrounded by monsters and gore it can be whatever I make it.

What Happened?

The assessment day came along and I was extremely nervous, I had not had a chance to apply my prosthetic piece prior to the assessment day so it was the fear of the unknown. The application of my prosthetic was going to be one of the last things to do as I wanted big hair and I was planning on creating the ‘figure of 8’ crimp to the whole head. This is what I did therefore I made sure to give myself enough time afterwards to apply the prosthetic. The hair was set moving onto application was the next step. I followed all the steps shown to me by my tutor in the application tutorial and I was happy with the way my piece had stuck down and moved with my models face naturally. To make my creation pop I added costume and make-up for a polished overall professional look.

Evaluation.

What was good about the experience? The good points from this experience were that my foam latex piece could be fully painted before application this saved me time and also the pressure that may have come with getting it all finished in the time frame I had.

What was bad about the experience? The only bad point I have picked up from this experience was my nerves. They can stand in the way of me getting hands on in an assessment, this is something I have learnt to control better over the past two years but can still creep up on me time to time.

Analysis.

Overall I look back on this experience extremely proud, knowing that I have created a foam latex prosthetic from my own design and completely from scratch. Looking at the final images allows me to compare my first year work to my final year and seeing how much I have developed in such a short space of time is fantastic.

Conclusion.

What else could I have done? I was extremely happy with my final look and thought that the diversity within the class meant that every prosthetic piece looked individual. To make my character stand out from the rest more, I could have taken the foam latex piece down onto the shoulder but as this was my first time creating a prosthetic piece from scratch I feel that I had to stick to the basics to stay within the time frame given to me.

Action Plan.

As I have touched on previously in this reflection I hope to go into the fashion industry once graduated, this does not mean I will be leaving my special effects knowledge at the door. I am extremely proud of what I have learnt and created over the last two years in this sector and if an opportunity arose for me to show my special effects knowledge I would jump at the offer.