Discovering the project

I was approached by actor, Neal Williams, who I had worked with on a previous film with in my first year at AUB. He very briefly spoke to me about a film production that he was involved in that would be based on J.R.R. Tolkein's 'Lord of the Rings' and that was seeking a make-up artist.

'Lord of the Rings' was one of the films that first inspired me to become a make-up artist as I had always been fascinated in the way in which the orc characters were created using make-up and prosthetics. I was very keen to be part of a project that would enable me to design and create characters inspired by these very make-ups and therefore told Neal that he could put my name forward to the director. As the film was not being shot until the summer, and the exchange of messages between myself and Neal had been very informal I did not expect to hear anything back for some time. Surprisingly, however, I received a message from the director; Charlie Siveyer, a few hours later.

Forming a make-up team

Charlie had suggested that for the quantity and scale of make-ups that he wanted created, a team of 5 make-up artists would be suitable. He mentioned that because of the accommodation situation whilst filming on location this would be the maximum number of people I could use. I struggled at first with the decision of who to ask to be a part of my team.

I had read an article in Make-up Artist Magazine by the editor, Michael Key, that spoke of the responsibilities of a make-up designer when recruiting a team. The advice in this article that was most poignant to me was this;

'RECRUIT THE BEST PEOPLE POSSIBLE TO BE ON YOUR TEAM.
Don't hire people who are less talented than you are just to make you look like the most gifted person in the room. This one-chief-the-rest-are-Indians approach will undermine confidence in your team. Strive to find people who are as good as or better than you are. It is a challenge to lead people who are more talented, but as long as they're loyal, you'll accomplish great things and win the respect of others.'

With this advice in mind I decided to approach Paige Wilkey to see if she would be interested in being part of the production. In the first term I had witnessed first hand Paige's increasing confidence and skills in the area of prosthetics and knew that she would be a vital asset to the team. Being a good friend of mine and having worked together on collaborative work experiences previously also meant that I had the upmost confidence in our ability to work well as a team. Paige was equally as excited as I had been at the prospect of working on a 'Lord of the Rings' inspired film and instantly agreed to become the second member of the team.

The decision regarding the other 3 make-up artists proved to be slightly more difficult. I wanted somebody who showed great enthusiasm for prosthetic make-up and would therefore remain motivated and reliable over the 6 month period leading up to the scheduled filming dates.

In order to maintain a level of continuity throughout all of the characters; both human and orc, they all needed to be designed by the same person/people. Having 5 different people designing and making the prosthetics would not achieve this level of continuity, in my opinion. I felt that with Paige on board we could tackle the amount of design and production work between the 2 of us pre-production, however, during the filming stages the larger team would be necessary for application, final checks on set, maintenance of equipment and supplies, etc.

I felt that, although level 5 students would be appreciative of the opportunity to work on a larger scale film such as this, they may feel slightly undermined to be working at what could be termed 'assistant' level. Michael Key also comments on this in the article mentioned earlier, saying;

'NEVER REFER TO THE ARTISTS YOU HIRE AS ASSISTANTS.

...in the Hollywood community, you refer to fellow artists as coworkers or colleagues, but never assistants. One of the reasons for this is that it's common for two friends to interview for the same job. Whoever gets hired to be the department head may hire the other to be the second. On the next gig it could be the other way around.'

With this is mind, I decided against asking anybody from my level of the course and instead decided to approach some of the level 4 students. One of my disappointments from my time studying at level 4 was that I was never given the opportunity to work with and learn from more experienced students. I felt that students at level 4 would be able to be taught the same application process and adapt well to the environment of working as part of a team with a designer and supervisor. It was crucial, however, to seek out students who would benefit most from the experience; those who had expressed the most interest in this area of industry. 

Meeting #1 - 04/02/13

Now that I had another make-up artist on board it was time for a formal meeting with Charlie to discuss the details of the film. We scheduled to meet on on Monday 4th February, accompanied by Walter Mirks, an actor playing one of the principal characters.

Charlie outlined the ideas of the film; a sequel to 'The Hobbit' and a prequel to 'Lord of the Rings'. It obviously could not be a feature film made for any profit or the legal issues would be monumental, instead Charlie aimed to market it as a fan film. He suggested that we take a look at two other fan films that had been released called 'The Hunt for Gollum' (over 96 thousand views on youtube) and 'Born of Hope' (18.6 million views on youtube), the latter of which has also received a number of awards. Charlie felt confident that although these films had proven very popular with online fans, the make-up let both of them down a little and we could definitely aim to do better.

The costume department had already been arranged and was to be lead by Kim Pickering, Grace Noble and Yolanda Collins; level 6 costume students. We would be liaising with them to ensure costume and make-up worked appropriately together.

In terms of cast there would be seven principle actors, a number of additional supporting actors and potentially a larger group of extras for a crowd shot. Six of the principle actors would be playing human characters; inspired by the style of Aragorn in the 'Lord of the Rings' films. They would all be asked to grow their hair and facial hair in the lead up to filming, however, some of them may still require some pieces of postiche and potentially wigs. The strongest image that Charlie had for these characters in his head was that they needed to be "dark but detailed" and a little "grubby". The seventh actor would be playing the character of the 'Hunter Orc' and would require a lot of make-up and prosthetic work. A large percentage of the supporting actors would also require orc make-up, although not to the extent of the 'Hunter Orc'.

Charlie explained that the film was being funded by a production company formed especially for this film called Seven Stones Productions. The budget as it stood at the moment was £5,000 and was ever growing. He estimated that the budget for make-up would be about £800 but, should we need more than this, this could be requested.

Contracts were discussed from both sides. Charlie explained that a contract would be drawn up for all members of the cast, crew and production company, saying that if the film was a success with the online audiences and a second film was made, that we would be on board to continue our make-up work for this. In return, we explained that in order to ensure that we would be properly credited for out work on the film, we would draw up a contract of our own, which Charlie said he would be happy to sign.

'Born of Hope' and 'The Hunt for Gollum'

Charlie had mentioned the two Youtube hits that had already received a large number of views and, in some cases, awards. I decided to take a look at the films in parts and the type of make-up that had been applied for the Orc characters in each of them.

Although Charlie had said that the make-up in these films was a little unimpressive and he hoped to be able to achieve better, I personally thought that the make-up on 'Born of Hope' was very impressive. For somebody working on an independent film budget, and potentially not with much industry experience, I thought that the prosthetics were very convincing. This did make the prospect of creating Orcs for Charlie's film a little bit more intimidating as I wasn't certain that Paige and I would be able to create anything better than this.

The makeup for 'The Hunt for Gollum' however was not nearly as impressive and had clearly not been made to fit the actors faces as it hung strangely in places. It was also most likely made of a cheaper material like latex or foam as it did not have nearly as a good a surface texture as the make-up in 'Born of Hope'. I felt confident that as a team we could create a higher quality make-up than this, however, this film did have the upside of having a very large number of Orc characters in make-up which would be much harder for us to achieve. 

The Main Cast

Neal Williams - Roran

Matthew Jopling - Stanis

Walter Mirks - Reigna

Will Hobby - Cadoc

Jack Boswell - Halbarad

John Macdonald - The Hunter Orc

Liam Atton - Bill Ferny

(all images provided by Charlie Siveyer, Director)

Supporting Actors

A selection of supporting actors would also be needed for various scenes throughout the film as Rangers and Orc characters. In order to keep numbers down, Charlie had requested that actors could double up to play both characters. This proved a slight problem as originally we had intended to ask all of the actors playing rangers to grow natural beards out, however, if they were also playing Orcs it would be difficult to lay prosthetic pieces over facial hair. This would mean that each actor playing a double role would require both a collection of facial prosthetics, but also a pre-made beard and moustache.

Orc/Ranger - Josh Lonsdale

Orc/Ranger - Jay Warner Jones

Orc/Ranger - Josh Whorriskey

Analysing the Script

Following our first meeting with Charlie we were sent a copy of the script to look over to get a better feel for the story and the characters. This proved to be more enlightening that we first thought as it revealed a great number of areas where make-up would be needed but had not been previously discussed.

- The story opens with a character named 'Old Man' - is this an older actor or will it be a young actor that requires ageing and postiche?

- There is a market scene in which the main characters pick pocket members of the crowd - how many extras will there be? Will they all need make-up and hair work?

- Bill Ferny is introduced - what type of make-up and postiche is required for him?

- In the tavern scene there is mention of girls dancing and one sitting on Reigna's lap - how many girls will there be? What sort of hair and make-up is wanted for them - are they supposed to look like common girls?

- A barman and innkeeper are mentioned - are they the same person? What make-up is required?

- A burly man enters the tavern, the father of one of the girls - what make-up is required?

- In the initial fight with Stanis, Reigna is said to be 'nursing a blow to the head' - will this require a prosthetic wound and blood?

- Stanis receives a cut on his thigh - prosthetic wound will need making.

- Throughout the story when the orcs are killed - do they all require wounds? What colour is orc blood ; black or red?

- In a 'company of orcs' - how many orcs will there be?

- The Hunter Orc is shot in the chest with an arrow - director has already requested that Hunter Orc be bare chested - do we need to find a way to embed an arrow into a prosthetic wound?

- Same scenario when company of orcs are all shot in the back - they are wearing costumes, can arrow wounds be hidden beneath costume or do they need to be visible?

- Principle characters are said to be 'nursing their wounds from the fight' - specifically what wounds are needed?

- Hunter Orc climbs out of the river - can make-up stand up to getting wet?

- Both Hunter Orc and Roran are injured in their fight - specific injuries?

- Hunter Orc is axed in the back by Reigna and then Roran plunges a sword vertically down into his chest - do these wounds need to be shown? How will this be accomplished?

All of these questions will require definitive answers before we can begin designing and making a number of the prosthetics so a meeting will need to be arranged with Charlie as soon as possible to discuss this.

Dividing up character design

From experiences working on previous productions Paige and I were aware that it would probably be necessary to assign specific characters to each other. This will help to improve continuity during filming and also make the actors feel more comfortable in the knowledge that they will be working with the same make-up artist every morning of filming.

We divided the characters up at such:

My Characters:
- Roran played by Neal Williams
- Cadoc played by Will Hobby
- Bill Ferny played by Liam Atton

Paige's Characters:
- Reigna played by Walter Mirks
- Stanis played by Matthew Jopling
- Halbarad played by Jack Boswell

Both Paige and I would also create our own design for the Hunter Orc as this was a character that we were both excited to work on and have the chance to develop larger scale prosthetics. We would design separately and then incorporate our designs closer to the time of filming to finalise a character that we were both happy with, we would then apply the make-up together as it is such a large piece that will cover the actors head, neck, torso and arms. We would both also design a selection of orcs to ensure variety in the characters in the scenes were a number of orcs would be featured.

After reading the script I realised that my choice of characters would come with quite a substantial amount of prosthetic work as in the script Roran repeatedly suffers injuries throughout the fight scenes. I was also a little concerned about how ambiguous the information regarding the character of Bill Ferny had been and the fact that I had not yet been provided with a head shot of the actor.

Meeting #2 - 12/02/13

Following the script review I requested a meeting with Charlie to discuss any queries that we had about the characters and the make-up that would be required.

- The old man that introduces the story has changed from an on-screen character to a voice over, so now requires no make-up consideration.

- The market scene at the moment will incorporate about 12 extras, however, this number will be subject to change if more supporting artists are brought on board. All will need a little make-up and hair work, however, only about 4 will be shown in detail on screen.

- Bill Ferny is being depicted as a dark character with a pale/anemic skin complexion and an air of greasiness about him. The actor currently has dirty blonde hair, he would be willing to dye it, however, the director likes the idea of keeping the dirty blond colour to deviate slightly from the stereotypical image of a villain being dark haired. Uncertain whether postiche will be needed.

- The girls in the tavern are envisaged as more like farmer's daughters as opposed to 'working girl' types. The actress that will be featured prominently as the girl sitting on Reigna's lap will be played by Becky Burnett.

- The burly man/father character will be played by an older man, so no ageing make-up will be required.

- The bar man and the innkeeper are the same character and will be played by a man who is in his sixties.

- Reigna's 'blow to the head' will only be superficial and will require only a small bump perhaps, no prosthetic wound or blood as fight is supposed to be comical.

- Stanis will require a prosthetic wound on his leg and this will be needed in every scene chronologically after this point in the script - Charlie is aiming to film scenes as chronologically as possible.

- When orcs are slain there won't be (hopefully) any close up shots of wounds, main visual aspect will be a shot of the sword/weapon with blood on it. Charlie wants to stay clear of techniques used in previous fan videos and does not want to incorporate the idea of orcs having black blood coming from their mouths every time one of them gets killed.

- Initially Charlie envisaged a 'company of orcs' consisting of five actors, however, he would now like to increase that number to seven as he is bringing more actors on board and the budget is increasing.

-  Charlie is very keen on the idea of having an arrow coming out of the Hunter Orc's bare chest if it can be managed with make-up. He does not have a designated props department as of yet so we as make-up artists will probably have to make the light-weight arrows ourselves - need to finalise a design for all of the arrows used for continuity. When the other orcs are shot they will be wearing costumes so the arrows could be hidden beneath these.

- When the characters are said to be 'nursing their wounds' Charlie requested some simple bruising. I explained to him that this would not work in context as if the injuries had only just been sustained there would be no bruising visible yet. He remained a little vague but said that he did not want any cuts or blood on the majority of the characters, perhaps a bloody nose or lip but nothing substantial. The character of Roran may require a little bit more make-up work as he is the most severely injured, although Charlie is yet to reach a final decision on what he would like specifically.

- We raised the issue of the Hunter Orc character emerging from a river and expressed our worries that the make-up would not stand up to constant contact with water. Charlie reassured us that the shot will most likely be filmed in the evening so it will be darker and he may just have the character up to his legs in the water. If this was the case we could perhaps apply glycerine on the make-up to make it appear wet and just dampen down the hair. Test runs will perhaps have to be done for this.

- The scene that was causing us the most worry in terms of make-up is the final fight scene where the Hunter Orc is axed in the back and then stabbed in the chest. Charlie assured us that these would not be action shots and that the Orc would probably not be in shot when the stabbing takes place. He did, however, request that a prosthetic axe wound could be made for the back that could be shown in shot once the weapon is removed from the body.


Additional considerations

Since our last meeting Charlie had had time to give make-up some further consideration and come up with any more ideas that he wanted to pitch to us. His first request was quite a shock and greatly increased the amount of work that we would be facing - he wanted a dismembered orc arm! He went on to say that he understands that this is a big task and would not be vital for the film but that it would be a 'luxury' element that he would really love to include. Although I was very daunted by the task at first, it would be a great opportunity to add another element to my portfolio and my skills base so I was willing to give it a go.

Charlie also gave us an indication of which actors he felt would be able to grow convincing beards and which would need postiche. We arranged dates to take beard measurements from all of the principle actors (just in case) and a second date to take head casts of all of the actors playing orcs.

Budget and Kit Requirements

The initial budget that Charlie told us we would have to work with would be £800, however, this would be subject to change (increase) if we felt that we needed more. With the addition of the dismembered arm and an increased number of orcs it was becoming likely that this would not be sufficient.

We drew up a provisional list of all the equipment and kit that we felt we would need:

General:                           Prosthetic Elements:                                    On Set Equipment:
- IPA                                - Silicone (Plat Gel A & B)                         - Tables
- Witch hazel                    - Gelatine                                                    - Stools
- Pro clean                        - Latex                                                        - Mirrors
- Rose water                     - Mac Wax                                                  - Protective gowns
- Vaseline                         - Sealer                                                        - Airbrush and Compressor
- Cleanser                         - Deadener                                                  - Brushes
- Face wipes                     - Baldiez
- Latex sponges                - Aqua Fix
- Cotton buds                   - Sculpting clay and wooden boards
- Couch roll                     - Fibre glass, alginate, plaster bandages, scrim - face casting
- Cotton wool                  - Red heads
- Bowls                           - Silicone Bathroom Sealant
- Hairspray                      - Palet Wipe/Lighter fluid/White Spirit (Naphther)
- Latex gloves                 - Oil paints / Silicone pigment
- Mixing palettes
- Mixing sticks
- Plastic/paper cups
- Old paint brushes

Make-up:                                                      Postiche:
- Skin illustrator                                            - Lace
- Tooth blackener                                         - Hair
- Plain's dust                                                 - Knotting hooks
- Glycerine
- Translucent powder
- Camera-ready foundations
- Contouring creme foundations
- Mascara
- Eyeshadow
- Fake blood (Red and Black)

Although Paige and I did already contain a lot of these items in our personal kit, the scale of the project would require large amounts of a lot of the products. Given that we have a budget for these products we will be ordering a lot of them specifically for the project, if there are any products that we feel we will not use enough of to warrant ordering new, we will charge for the use of our pre-owned kits.

Meeting #3 - 18/02/13

Following a chat with Pete and Sara, Paige and I began to realise that the amount of work that would be necessary to pull off a film of this scale would be much more to take on than we had initially anticipated. Therefore it became necessary to drop our other, larger credit projects that we had been intending to do alongside preparing for Men of the North and focus solely on preparations for the film.

With this in mind, it became crucial to meet with Charlie and explain the enormity of his expectations to him; not necessarily to say that we couldn't do it, but more to make him aware of the extra time and budget that would be needed. It was now also of the upmost importance to get a final answer regarding the number of actors that would require Orc make-ups and how many of these would be featured in detail on screen.

Charlie seemed quite shocked when we explained to him the amount of time that would need to be dedicated to the project and asked us if we were sure we were happy to take the project on before we assured him that we were. He told us that he had decided that he wanted 5 Orcs that would be shown in more detailed, close-up shots and another 2-3 extras that would be brought in for fight scenes that would require Orc make-up that would only be shown from a distance.

I set about trying to gain some more specific information from Charlie regarding the Orc characters. I had noticed in the Lord of the Rings films that in battle, the Orcs wear war paint in the form of a white hand print known as the 'Hand of Sauroman', indicating their allegiance. I was curious as to the specific time period that the film was set in; whether this would be before, after or during the reign of Sauroman as this would then influence the type of war paint that could be applied. Charlie said that he envisaged the time period being just at the very beginning of Sauroman's reign; just before the Lord of the Rings films begin their story. He was very interesting in having some form of tribal markings or war paint on the Orc characters, however, he did not want to use something previously seen like the white hand. Instead he requested that we perhaps come up with personalised tribal markings for each Orc, unspecified at this early stage, but something that he promised to consider more thoroughly.

In terms of the Hunter Orc character, I had previously found myself envisaging a character with a large amount of long, matted black hair. When I raised the subject of Orc hair with Charlie he instantly mentioned a desire for dreadlocks, before I had even mentioned my own ideas. It appeared that we were in agreement on this element of the character.

Finally we wanted to tackle the issue of eyes and teeth on the Orc characters. Whilst watching the films both Paige and I had commented that both of these elements formed a crucial part of the character, and were something that could potentially ruin the look of an Orc if ignored or not done properly. The issue was, however, that we were unable to do anything regarding teeth or eyes ourselves due to health and safety issues and a lack of proper training. Charlie seemed very keen on the idea of getting contact lenses if the budget would allow it, and to include a variety of both yellow and red lenses. We explained that we should be able to find something online for a reasonable price, but shot down his idea of using one set of lenses to be rotated throughout different cast members as this would be a health and safety no-no! Although we would be unable to make a set of teeth for each cast member we were aware that pre-made teeth could be bought from companies like Charles Fox for a reasonable price. Charlie, again, seemed keen on this idea so we agreed to research the possibilities and also explore the range of speech that an actor would have whilst wearing false teeth.

We had previously arranged dates and times to take beard measurements from the human cast members and face casts from the Orc cast members, however, there was still a little uncertainty as to when we would be able to meet with John; the actor playing the Hunter Orc, to take the necessary casts and measurements from him. This time, however, Charlie had more firm dates agreed and told us that John would be back in the country on the 14th March, which would mean that we could meet with him after the Easter break, though unfortunately not before.

Although the amount of make-up necessary for the Orc characters had increased, we were pleased to discover that the amount of knotting and postiche work that we would need to tackle had actually decreased. We had previously been told by Charlie that the actor playing Cadoc (Matt) would be unable to grow a beard and had therefore assumed that a beard would need to be made for him. In this meeting, however, Charlie went on to say that he had decided to leave the character as clean shaven to add a little variety to the overall look of the group. This meant that the only human character would be requiring a pre-made beard would be Reigna (Walter) as Charlie had previously requested that he look like a character from Rohan in the Lord of the Rings films and have a longer, plaited beard.

Dividing roles in the make-up team.

After our various meetings with Charlie it became apparent that different roles within the project would need to be divided up between myself and Paige in order for us to focus our full attention on certain aspects and to avoid spreading our time too thinly.

We had already divided up the key cast members to each take three characters:
Paige:
- Stanis (Matt Jopling)
- Reigna (Walter Mirkss)
- Halbarad (Jack Boswell)
Myself:
- Roran (Neal Williams)
- Bill (Liam Atton)
- Cadoc (Will Hobby)

Although we had agreed to work on the character of the Hunter Orc (John McDonald) together, we decided to divide this role up further to prevent us both making designs and prototypes when only one would eventually be used. Instead we arranged that I would design and create the facial prosthetics and wig and Paige would take on the task of working on the chest, back, hands and feet. We would also each both take 2-3 Orcs who would not be featured as heavily, however, we hoped that we would be able to get some second year students on board to help with the sculpting of these characters.

As well as the designing and making processes there were also a lot of job roles to be undertaken as a make-up designer and supervisor.

Time scheduling: Myself
- Organising meetings, planning and scheduling making of products, setting deadlines, organising call sheets for shooting dates with producer.
Kit and Budget: Paige
- Ordering products, controlling budgets, storing templates and measurements for actors.
Health and Safety: Both
- Patch testing, health and safety considerations on set; cleaning of equipment and brushes; creating a safe working environment, etc.
Continuity: Both
- Taking photos of all test make-up, creating cohesive and detailed final designs, informing on set assistants of roles in continuity.
Beard maintenance: Paige
- Ensuring that beards are thoroughly cleaned at the end of each filming day, correctly stored and labelled, etc.
Communicating with assistants and makeup team: Myself
Communicating with actors: Paige

Following this discussion a message was sent out to six first year students asking them provisionally if they would be interested in coming on board for the project. Having this many assistants will enable us to have a large enough team to tackle all of the knotting, sculpting and moulding pre-production and for them to rotate roles over the dates of shooting.

Meeting #4 - 01/03/13

We decided that it would be best to arrange a meeting where both Charlie and Pete could be present so that the process of making prosthetic pieces could be explained to Charlie in detail in order for him to understand the time and budget needed for this type of project.

We began by coming to a final, concrete decision regarding the number of Orcs needed, the actors who would be playing them and the numbers needed for close-up camera-ready shots and background shots. The decision was as such:

• -        Hunter Orc – John McDonald
• -       Featured Orcs – Josh Lonsdale, Josh Whorriskey, Liam Atton
• -       Background Orcs – Ben O’Shea, Jay Warner-Jones, Ethan Brewer

Although Paige and I were very relieved to finally have this decision made, we had our concerns about the choice of one of the actors. Although a lot of the Orc actors would be doubling up as main or ranger characters and would be growing out their hair to a certain extent, Ethan has a large amount of very long, very curly hair. Paige and I did not feel that hair of this length and volume would be suitable to put under a bald cap as an Orc and felt that this would be making our applications on the days of shooting unnecessarily lengthened. We put this point to Charlie, however, he was initially unwilling to change his mind as he felt that if he began asking any other actors to fill the role he would be using people that he could no longer rely on for their dedication and time keeping. The only option that he considered was for himself to play a small cameo in the film and act as an Orc character himself. No final decision was made, though Charlie did agree to give it his consideration.

Next we moved onto the time considerations for creating prosthetic make-ups to the standard and scale that Charlie had requested. Pete broke the process down as such:

• -       Life casting (head, neck and shoulders) – 2 hours
• -       Making head cast ready for sculpt – plaster cast, sanding, silicone, fibre glassing – 2/2 ½ weeks
• -       Sculpting and making fibre glass mould – 2-4 days
• -       Injecting silicone – 1 day
• -       Removing piece, cleaning, painting – approx 1 week
• -       Hair punching (optional) – approx. 1 week

-       Total time for 1 full head silicone piece = approx. 4-5 weeks

Charlie seemed very shocked at this information and began to understand the magnitude of what he had asked us to create, especially when we reminded him that each make-up would need to be recreated every day that the character was on screen as the edges would be ruined after each wear. This interfered with his initial plan of shooting the film chronologically to allow the actors to get into character better.

Finally Pete broke down the expenditure for a single full head silicone piece, including the casting and mould making process:

• -       Head casting materials - £35
• -       Casting Silicone - £55
• -       Silicone - £60
• -       Other materials to consider: paint materials, illustrator, aqua fix, hair, etc

-       Total cost for 1 full head silicone piece = £200-300

This realization brought us onto the subject of budget as the numbers had changed from the initial estimation we had been given of £800. The budget that Charlie was currently working with across the departments was £2500, although with further sponsorship and fundraising he was certain that this would increase, he estimated to £4500-£5000. The current budget would be broken down into:

• -       £1000 to make-up
• -       £1000 to costume
• -       £500 to production design

With the figures that Pete had provisionally calculated it was clear that this would not be enough to create everything that Charlie had asked for, however, he assured us that the next load of money to come in would be given to the development of the make-up department. For now though, we would have to budget to the limit of £1000.

The final topic that was discussed was the location for filming as there had been some significant changes. Charlie had decided that it would make more sense logistically and economically to scrap the idea of filming on the farm in Devon where all cast and crew would have to camp on location, and change instead to shooting in the New Forest. Although some cast/crew members would be camping it would not be necessary for everybody to as most of us had houses close by in Bournemouth . The only reservations that Paige and I had was regarding the storage of the make-up and the space for the application process. It was not logistically sensible to be transporting the large amounts of make-up equipment and prosthetic pieces to location everyday, however, neither was it feasible to store delicate and expensive equipment outside on location. Paige and I suggested that it would make more sense for the more complex make-ups to be applied at our house prior to filming and the actors transported to site once these were complete. Charlie did not seem particularly keen on this idea and provided a few alternative ideas, however, none that all parties were currently happy with. This is an issue that will need further discussion. 

Designing - Roran

As I was struggling to get a clear picture in my head of what Charlie wanted exactly for each of the characters, I decided that the best thing to do would be to draw up a very basic idea of what I had in my head and then give it to him to critique and add elements too. I did not want to go too heavy with any theatrical elements like dirtying of the skin or wounds so I stuck to focussing on hair and facial hair/postiche. I took influence from the character of Aragorn in the original Lord of the Rings films as this was the type of style that I had gathered that Charlie was looking for.

I began with the character of Roran and spoke with the actor, Neal, about the type of growth pattern for his facial hair. He was unable to help me very much as he said that he doesn't usually let much of his facial hair grow out, but promised to remain unshaven for a few days so that I could come and have a look at some point. It was a similar situation with his hair as I asked him if he had naturally straight hair or if it had a wave to it. He said that he had never let his hair grow long enough to notice.
Given my time constraints and the amount of work that needed to be undertaken for this project I was hoping to avoid having to make a wig for any of the characters. Reconstructing a synthetic, pre-made wig and knotting in a lace front would save time but would be far from ideal as it would not, in my opinion, look realistic enough. Hand knotting a wig would take a massive amount of time and I was not sure if I was confident enough with knotting and wig construction to tackle a full wig at this point. I therefore requested that Neal did not cut his hair again and we would review it at the end of March. If his hair was growing at a reasonable rate and could fit the look that the director was hoping for, we would stay with his natural hair, if however, his hair was not growing fast enough or did not suit the character I would commence making a wig at the start of April.

With this in mind I began drawing up a design with hair at the length that I thought we could easily achieve with natural growth and a beard. Obviously if Neal's natural facial hair growth pattern was significantly different to the design, this could be altered later. I used the actor's head shots as a reference as I wanted to make designs that would actually look like the characters to see how the look would fit their face, as opposed to drawing onto a generic face template.

This is the initial design that I came up with and submitted to Charlie, I would base the following designs on the feedback that I received for the first one. 

Charlie loved the overall feel of the design and how the beard worked, however, he felt that he wanted the hair to be a little bit longer. This may prove a problem when using Neal's natural hair, however, I stuck by my decision to review the situation at the end of March. Charlie also requested that the character be a little more weather-beaten to make him appear slightly older than the other characters. I was unsure at first how to achieve this and decided that more research into this would be necessary. As agreed before, Charlie also wanted a little bit of dirtying on the face. This was all positive feedback that I could take forward to further my research and alter my design as appropriate. 

Designing - Cadoc

When I began designing this character I was still working on the basis that the actor, Will, would be playing Stanis as Charlie had initially specified. As Will had a really good natural curl to his hair I decided to keep this quite natural in the design as it would create quite a rugged and tousled look. As with a number of the other actors, Will had agreed to grow his hair longer than he would normally wear it, however, I did not want to go as long as I had in the hair design for Roran, to add a little contrast between the characters. When the design was nearly finished and I was yet to show it to Charlie, he mentioned to me that he had envisaged Stanis as having his hair sleeked back so that he would look a little more polished than the other characters as he was supposed to be a travelling performer. I was disappointed that Will's curly hair would be somewhat lost in a style like this, but agreed to draw out a design that matched Charlie's specifications. Before I had a chance to begin drawing a new design, however, Charlie saw my initial drawing and decided that it made him rethink his decision regarding not only Will's hairstyle, but also the character that he would be playing. 

Paige, Charlie and I had been discussing the character of Cadoc, for some time; more specifically discussing Matt, the actor playing him. Matt had a lot of very, very curly hair which Charlie had requested be tamed in some way. Paige and I did have our concerns however that should the humidity be at a certain level, or we were rained on, Matt's hair would return to it's natural curly form. This would prove to be a continuity nightmare. Having seen my initial design for Will as Stanis, Charlie made the decision to switch the actors and have Will now playing Cadoc, and Matt playing Stanis. This would mean that the idea of sleeking the hair back for the character of Stanis would work very well to control Matt's hair. Charlie also felt that Matt may portray the character of a travelling performer a little better. 

The genre of Fantasy

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is often regarded by many film fanatics as the quintessential fantasy films of the genre. Although the genre of fantasy is, in itself, quite elusive, it is difficult to reach a concrete decision as to what constitutes a fantasy film.
Unlike Sci-Fi films which are based on some degree of scientific truth, fantasy takes the audience to a place where things are unlikely occur in real life, often the case with a number of despotic films. Fantasy films are also often in the form of imaginations/dreams/hallucinations of the story teller and usually including elements of myth, magic and the extraordinary. The characters of fantasy films, as can be seen in areas of Tolkien's work, are often supernatural and stemming from religion (angels, lesser gods, fairies) and legends/folklore (elves, gnomes, dwarves).

There are many iconic fantasy films that have in some way, contributed to the definition of the genre:

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- Voyage Dans La Lune (1902)
- Metropolis (1927)
-  Things to Come (1936)
- King Kong (1933)
- Lost Horizon (1937)
- Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars (1938)
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)






These fantasy films have paved the way for a modern generation of the genre, often incorporating modern retelling of the very films listed above. Others include:

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- Pan's Labyrinth
- Star Wars
- The Butterfly Effect
- Jacob's Ladder
- Harry Potter
- Hellboy
- Blade: Trinity
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Beetle Juice
- Bridge to Terebithia
- X-Men

Modern Interpretations of LOTR: LARPing

LARPing stands for Live Action Role-Playing and is a craze that has spread across the world since it's origins in the late 1970's. It is a game where participants physically act out the actions and dialogue of their designated characters in a fictional setting created from real surroundings. These events are organised by 'gamemasters' who control play, decide setting, lay out rules of play and act as a sort of referee during play. The outcomes of the characters' actions are controlled by game rules or previously agreed amongst the players.

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LARPing evolved from table-top role playing games with the first LARP group called 'Dagorhir' being founded in America in 1977. The craze expanded rapidly in the 1980s and the decades to come and have been transformed into what can now be very large scale events lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days with up to tens of thousands of participants. There is usually no audience for a LARP event and is performed purely for the enjoyment of the participants. 

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Simulated weapons are often used such as foam weapons or airsoft guns in order to mark hits in combat. Alternatively play can be paused to negotiate hits by the rolling of dice, rock paper scissors or calculated by comparing characters' attributes. 

The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular themes for these LARP events with it's range of different characters; elves, men, dwarves, orcs, etc. There are many Lord of the Rings LARP events organised across the world, however, one of the most accessible for UK fans is 'Festival In The Shire' which held a LARP event from 13th-15th August 2010 at it's venue in Wales organised by LARP experts Andy Rimmer and Gideon Lawrence. 

The life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (affectionately known as Ronald) was born on the 3rd January 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa to English parents Arthur Reuel Tolkien and Mabel Suffield. Although Ronald only lived in S.A. for approximately 3 years until the death of his father in 1896, it is thought that his time in the country, encountering creatures like massive spiders, has influenced his writing to some extent.
When Ronald, his sister, Hilary and mother returned to England they moved into a modest home that backed onto a railway line. It is said that this location sparked his linguistic imagination as he saw trains going past with destinations such as "Nantyglo", "Penrhiwceiber" and "Senghendd". In 1900 a significant event estranged Ronald's immediate family from the rest of their relatives and they were received by the Roman Catholic Church and visited regularly by the parish priest, Francis Morgan. Both Ronald and Hilary remained devout Catholics throughout their lives.
Ronald's mother died in 1904 from diabetes and he and Hilary were left orphaned. They spent a lot of time in the care of distant relatives and then in a boarding house run by a Mrs Faulkner.

From a very early age Ronald showed a natural talent for languages and quickly learned both Latin and Greek. He later also mastered both modern and ancient languages like Gothic and Finnish and even began to make up his own languages purely for fun.

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When Ronald was 16 years old he met a 19 year old girl, Edith Bratt; another resident of Mrs Faulkner's boarding house. The two became friends and their relationship deepened very quickly, something which caused Father Francis great concern that forced him to forbid Ronald from contact Edith until he was 21. To distract himself, Ronald buried himself in his learning; studying Classics at Oxford University before receiving a disappointing second class honours and switching to study English Literature and Language which he eventually achieved a first class honours degree in in June 1915. Following this achievement, Ronald enlisted in the army and married Edith on the 22nd March 1916 just before his posting to France. After spending 4 months in the trenches, Ronald succumbed to "trench fever" and was sent back to England where he spent a further month in hospital. Having lost a number of his closest friends from university in the war, Ronald put together a book of stories with the fallen men as inspiration. These stories included his own languages of Qenya and Goldogrin.

On 16th November 1917, Edith bore Ronald's first son; John Francis Reuel. Ronald applied for a senior position of Reader of English Language at the University of Leeds, for which he was possibly under qualified, however, he was quickly accepted. During his time at Leeds Ronald began to develop an Elvish language. Following this acceptance, the couple's second son, Michael Hilary Reuel was born in October 1920. After spending some time at Leeds, Ronald returned to Oxford University as a professor and was granted a third son, Christopher Reuel in 1924 and a daughter, Priscilla in 1929. He retired from his professorship at Oxford in 1959.

Ronald also had a very active social life outside of the university and became a founding member of a group of men from around Oxford with similar interests in writing, they called themselves "The Inklings". A notable member of this society was C.S. Lewis, who went on to become one of Ronald's closest friends.

The story of Ronald's most famous words began one day when he was marking examination papers and discovered that one student had left one of the pages completely blank and had simply written,

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit."

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This sparked an interest in Ronald as he became intensely curious as to what a Hobbit was, and what sort of hole it lived in. The character of the Hobbit became central to a tale that he told to his children, and eventually began to circulate. In 1936 an incomplete typescript came to Susan Dagnall of a publishing firm that would eventually become HarperCollins in 1990. She asked him to finish it and "The Hobbit" was published in 1937. Following the success of "The Hobbit", Ronald was asked to submit more written work to the publishing company, however, a lot of this was sadly rejected until he was eventually asked to write a sequel; "The New Hobbit". This soon developed into something much more complex than a children's story; a 16-year history that became "The Lord of the Rings". Rayner Urwin of the publishing company took a big risk on the publication of these books as they were expected to make a loss of over £1000, however, upon their release between 1954 and 1955 it became apparent that they had been greatly underestimated. "Lord of the Rings" received a wide variety of reviews; some very negative, and others from writers like C.S. Lewis and W.H. Auden, incredibly positive. The books continued to grow in popularity when pirate copies were released in paper back and by 1968 "Lord of the Rings" had come to be thought of as the Bible of the "alternative society". The publicity surrounding Ronald eventually became so great that he was forced to move with Edith to Bournemouth to find some form of escape. It was here that Edith came to pass away in 1971 and following her death, Ronald returned to Oxford before his death on 2nd September 1973. The couple are buried together in a single grave in a Catholic section of Wolvercote cemetery.