I'm going to take inspiration from drag queens and gender queer celebrities. Some of the main people I'll be taking inspiration from are Mykki Blanco (an American rapper, performance artist, poet and activist) and drag queens, mainly Willam Belli (American actor, drag queen, model, reality television personality & recording artist)
I chose these two people as my inspiration as they are both successful and both 'gender queer' ("denoting or relating to a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders."). Willam (left photos) is a drag queen, with success as an actor, model and singer) and Mykki (right photos) is successful as a poet, rapper and singer.
One example of a Mykki Blanco video that I've taken a lot of inspiration from is Wavvy, a video where he features as both male and female. Both of the below gifs are of the same person in the same music video, but with two different gender identities. This is something I'm taking inspiration from. The full music video is below.
I also chose Willam because of his drag asthetic. Although you can just about tell he's a man, he doesn't dress and do makeup like queens such as Divine (photo below, taken from Pink Flamingos (1972)). I want the aesthetic of my main character to be low key and almost realistic.
To create my artist, I needed to purchase some products. Here's a list of just a few of the things I had to attain.
The Wig
The actor I decided I was going to use for my video was going to be dark haired, so naturally I used a dark haired wig for verisimilitude. I liked the red highlights on this wig as red symbolises sexuality and femininity, and I felt would work well with the red dress and red lipstick. During production, I decided there was too much red on the wig, so using a bottle of black coloured hairspray, I removed this colour.
The Makeup
The makeup we used was very important as it was the main focus of the video, I wanted the actor to look good, but obviously to fit the storyline and context, not too good because he probably wouldn't have had much practice, The makeup we used included (but was not limited to):
Luke tried on many different dresses from 5 different charity shop while we tried to find the exact one that fit the vision I had for the character. During this an old lady actually stopped him and asked him to take a picture because she thought it was so funny.
I chose these two people as my inspiration as they are both successful and both 'gender queer' ("denoting or relating to a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders."). Willam (left photos) is a drag queen, with success as an actor, model and singer) and Mykki (right photos) is successful as a poet, rapper and singer.
One example of a Mykki Blanco video that I've taken a lot of inspiration from is Wavvy, a video where he features as both male and female. Both of the below gifs are of the same person in the same music video, but with two different gender identities. This is something I'm taking inspiration from. The full music video is below.
I also chose Willam because of his drag asthetic. Although you can just about tell he's a man, he doesn't dress and do makeup like queens such as Divine (photo below, taken from Pink Flamingos (1972)). I want the aesthetic of my main character to be low key and almost realistic.
To create my artist, I needed to purchase some products. Here's a list of just a few of the things I had to attain.
The Wig
The actor I decided I was going to use for my video was going to be dark haired, so naturally I used a dark haired wig for verisimilitude. I liked the red highlights on this wig as red symbolises sexuality and femininity, and I felt would work well with the red dress and red lipstick. During production, I decided there was too much red on the wig, so using a bottle of black coloured hairspray, I removed this colour.
The Makeup
The makeup we used was very important as it was the main focus of the video, I wanted the actor to look good, but obviously to fit the storyline and context, not too good because he probably wouldn't have had much practice, The makeup we used included (but was not limited to):
- Anastasia Beverley Hills Modern Renaissance eyeshadow palette
I chose to use this palette of eyeshadow because of it's range of colour and combination of 11 matte and 3 metallic shadows, this was important as I wanted to give my makeup designer freedom to create a look that fit my vision for the character. The main reason I chose this palette over similar palettes was because it offered versatility between day-time makeup and night-time makeup, I wanted my character to look like they were going out, but I wanted ambiguity between if they were going out at night or during the day. - Huda Beauty Liquid Matte Lipstick Heartbreaker
I chose to use Huda Beauty liquid Matte as it's a Non-drying, featherweight, densely-pigmented lipstick, this was important because I wanted it to stand out in the video and be very prominent. In my opinion the connotations that come from bright re lipstick are that of female sexuality, which is what I wanted my character to express, so I chose the colour HeartBreaker, as it was the exact colour that I wanted.
For the shot of the actor actually applying the lipstick, I wanted to use the iconic close up of hard red lipstick being twisted out of the case and being applied, for this I used MAC's iconic Ruby Woo Lipstick. This lipstick is what made MAC famous, and is one of the most common red lipsticks. I was inspired by the lipstick used in the opening credits of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as this was also worn by a man. - Urban Decay Perversion Mascara
I chose to use this mascara for its true black pigment that would stand out on camera, its long lasting effects that add volume to the eyelashes, which would allow them to stand out from a distance, and after testing different mascaras, it runs down the face the best, which is something I wanted it to do for the shower scene. - Kat Von D Light and Shade Contour Palette
I chose this contour palette for its easy blend-ability. - Benefit Hoola Bronzer
I chose this bronzer for its tan look and non shiny, matte appearance. - Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation
I chose to use this foundation as it is famous for 'staying in place'. Knowing that the filming day would be hours long, and the actor would be changing clothing, putting on and taking off their wig and moving around a lot, I didn't want the makeup to go patchy and have to be re-applied. - Mac Mineralise Skinfinish face powder
I chose to use the skinfinish face powder to make the actors skin none-reflective and none-shiny. this was important as I was using a lot of light, and I didn't want the actors skin to look shiny or greasy in the light. It also helps to keep the makeup in place, as I explained above this is important as the filming day would be hours long, and the actor would be changing clothing, putting on and taking off their wig and moving around a lot, and I didn't want to have to get the makeup reapplied. - Anastasia Beverley Hills Dipbrow Ebony
I used the Ebony shade as it matched the hair colour of my actor, and I chose the eyebrow liner because (in the words of Cult Beauty): "DipBrow Pomade is the easy-to-use, long-lasting answer to eyebrow perfection, whatever the natural state of your arches. This tinted, creamy formula is waterproof, smudgeproof and ideal for creating defined, natural-looking brows that won’t run down your face if you’re caught in a torrent, or melt in a hot clime. The gel-mousse consistency glides on seamlessly and adheres to each individual hair, so the final result is an enviable pair of uber-flattering eyebrows, which will stay put ‘til you dictate otherwise… This also doubles as a budge-resistant eyeliner, so you can save some pennies, and look a million dollars as you do so!". - Laura Geller Baked Gellato Highlighter
I used the highlighter to create a shine on the actors upper cheek bones, this glimmer added to the look I was going for, it was 'low key' and went well with the ambiguous makeup I was trying to use.
In order to find a dress for my actor, we looked around numerous charity shops until we found one that was dark and black and red. I wanted a red dress for many reasons, firstly it matched the red lipstick, but there was also a huge amount of reasons for choosing red. In my opinion red dresses also connote femininity, which fit with the storyline of the video. The root chackra is red, and I felt this most closely related to my artist as it represents truth and belonging, and the character in the video feels like they don't belong in their body, and they're not their true self. I also liked to link it with the financial phrase "In the Red" which means a financial loss; this is derived from the career discrimination that transexual people face when applying for jobs, and the quote means 'economic loss'. On of the main reasons I chose the use the colour red was for intertextuality. Curley's Wife from the famous novel Of Mice and Men was a woman in a situation she'd been forced into, who wanted to be someone else. I wanted my character to represent this. In the book, Curley's Wife is introduced by:
She had full, roughed lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress an red mules, on the instep of which were little bouquet of red ostrich feathers.
This focus on the colour red is why I have focused on the colour red for my character. He has red highlights in his hair, which is curly (Curley's Wife), and my actors lips are red, his eyes are 'heavily made up'. The connections go on.
My actor tried on numerous dresses in 5 different charity shops (bellow is just a couple), before I purchased the one I decided to use in my video for £10.
Luke tried on many different dresses from 5 different charity shop while we tried to find the exact one that fit the vision I had for the character. During this an old lady actually stopped him and asked him to take a picture because she thought it was so funny.
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