Miss Havisham Ideas

For my first idea for my Miss Havisham character I wanted to focus on ageing the skin, making the character look old and withered. Although its hard to portray in a face chart my idea is to use theatrical ageing techniques and old age stipple to create wrinkles in the skin and then shade the face so the character looks as if her face is sunken from malnutrition.
My first thoughts on this idea is that as the character is for television and not theatre, I'm not sure if theatrical ageing of the skin may be too much for TV. Also ageing the whole face may take quite a bit of time and I only have 2 hours for the assessment, including styling the hair, so this is something I will have to consider and practise to see how long it takes me and whether its viable. For the hair I would make it completely grey from age and stress over her past using dry shampoo and the supracolour palette and style it in a bun at the nape of her neck with strands coming out everywhere where they've fallen out of the style over the  years.

For my second idea for Miss Havisham's character I wanted to focus more on the literal descriptions of her character found in the book. For example a number of her portrayals in film adaptations have been played by old women but in actual fact she was around 27 when she was jilted at the alter so in actual fact when it comes to the time the film was set she began around the age of 45 and by the end was around 54 so in actual fact she would not have been as old as she was portrayed. Out of all the adaptations of her character Helena Bonham Carter's portrayal in 2012 was my favourite as this was one of the factors she also considered. Therefore this idea for my character is less focussed on the techniques of ageing but more what a woman who hadn't left the house for 20 years would look like. Therefore I've designed a look that shows dark bags under her eyes from her exhaustion of holding on to what happened on her wedding day. Her lips will be dark and dry from staying in the same room full of dust and lack of moisture and her skin is peeling and cracked on the top of her head and around her lips from biting them and scratching her head in distress. As she is only middle aged I wouldn't make her hair completely grey but I would do some streaks of grey and perhaps use some dry shampoo to look like it's covered in dust from years of sitting in the same place for so many years. I may url the hair for this and then pull the curls so they fall out and look loose as if they have dropped over the years. I don't think I would struggle with timing for this particular look as it doesn't have any very complicated processes involved, however recreating the dry skin around the lips and at the top of the head to look exactly the same for the continuity assessment may be a struggle, but again, this would just be a case of detailed photos and notes as well as practise.

For my final idea for the character I was inspired by the film adaptation in 2011 where Miss Havisham was portrayed by Gillian Anderson. I like the idea of making her character appear more ghost like, with pasty white skin and hints of blue on the lips and around the eyes. This would help to represent how Miss Havisham has been affected by her past and how she has become a ghost of the woman she once was. I like the idea of her appearance having a deeper meaning that the audience would have to think about and consider. If I were to do this I would prefer to find a model or have a wig that makes the hair a whitish-blonde colour and quite long in length. I would then straighten it so its completely straight, falling either side of her face, helping to emphasise the ghost theme. As another reference to her characters past I would also like to dress the model in a perfectly white lace veil and top/dress highlighting how in the novel it describes how Miss Havisham never changed out of her wedding outfit when she heard she had been abandoned on her wedding day. I do quite like this idea for my character the only issue I have is that it may be too similar too Gillian Anderson's portrayal and I would like my design to be fresh and a new take on the character. Also this design doesn't include any of the new special effect techniques we have learnt this term (i.e. peeling skin, bruising etc.) which I would quite like to be able to portray and experiment with in this part of the unit).