Abstract:
Many film and television productions rely on the use of special effects makeup to
portray a character, creature, or injury. Often these makeups reflect a strong relationship
to culture and society, as many ideas are derived from mythology, what people fear, or a
society's fascination with a subject. How individual artists see and experience the world
around them and interact with other artists within the community is also likely to
contribute to the overall design of these makeups. However, these ideas must then be
translated into something to evoke emotion into a modern audience. In order to gain
insight into these factors, vampire makeups will be analyzed to understand how these
beings are created from a sketch on paper to the final on-screen product. Interviews with
a sample of amateur and professional makeup artists, as well as participant observation
studies in formal and informal workshops and classes will provide details regarding the
origin of these creature designs in the literature and the imagination. I hypothesize that
the data will show a strong link between the artists' own experiences and ideas about a
creature, while the specific cultural origins may be largely unconsciously derived through
these experiences as well as modern conceptions and stories regarding the idea. The
social structures present in the entertainment industry also are critical to these designs,
and will be analyzed in this study.
