Case Study Analysis

For this case study, I have chosen to look at Kenneth Diaz, who specialises in make-up and visual effects. The title for my portfolio will be “The Evolution of Vampire Makeup in media over 30 years”, in which my primary focus will be the makeup that Diaz played a prominent role in creating in Fright Night (1985). I will compare this look with five different vampire looks from film and TV. When it comes to makeup and special effects, Diaz has a specialty in tattoo makeup, which has proved useful in several productions that he has worked on. Diaz has received two Oscar nominations for ‘Best Makeup’ for Dad (1989) and My Family, Mi Familia (1995). He however has won an Emmy for the makeup in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 – 1994).

Diaz has been active in the makeup faction of the film industry since 1980, and has done over eighty films and TV shows, including Passion of the Christ and The Pirates of the Caribbean films. Looking at Diaz’s filmography, his aesthetic can only be described as ‘unorthodox’, as his makeup goes beyond the mundane characters for the most part. For example, some of his more unusual makeup looks includes Blade (1998) and obviously Fright Night (1985). His influences appear to be from folklore, as many of the makeup looks are centered around creatures surrounded in mystery. Whilst this isn’t true for each individual production that Diaz has been a part of, as some of his works appear to be more on the normal side of the spectrum.

Bibliography

Ken Diaz – WebMii. 2019. Ken Diaz – WebMii. [ONLINE] Available at: http://webmii.com/people?n=%22Ken%20Diaz%22. [Accessed 12th May 2019].

IMDb. 2019. Ken Diaz – IMDb. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225004/. [Accessed 12th May 2019]

Memory Alpha. 2019. Ken Diaz | Memory Alpha | FANDOM powered by Wikia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ken_Diaz. [Accessed 12th May 2019].

Victoria Stansfield. 2019. MINI BIO: Ken Diaz | Victoria Stansfield. [ONLINE] Available at: https://victoriastansfield.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/bio-ken-diaz/. [Accessed 12th May 2019].

Reflective Report

Looking back on my portfolio I put together for the Production Design module, I was very happy with how the finished product turned out, as I was able to successfully replicate six individual vampire looks from film and TV history. That being said, I have taken note of areas that I need to improve on which in turn, would have made my portfolio more aesthetically pleasing. The first thing I should bring up is the fact that I had to change my original plan and who the focus would be for my case study last minute. Originally, my focus for the case study was Crist Ballas who was a makeup artist on From Dusk til Dawn (2016) which was a Netflix show. A big part of this look was the latex prosthetics which extended the gum and covered most of the human teeth. I absolutely loved this look however I did have some difficulties with replicating it. The latex pieces I made couldn’t be used, so last minute I decided to change my area of focus to Fright Night (1985) and one of its makeup artists, Kenneth Diaz. The next area of focus I will discuss is the replication of the creative process. As I said in my case study analysis, Diaz specialises in tattoo makeup however my area of focus was visual effects, so in hindsight, I should have focused 0n a makeup artist who also specialised in visual effects too. Whilst staying on the topic of creative process, I would made use of contacts and fangs to make the looks appear more realistic. The reasoning behind not using contacts was that it would drive the cost up too high, and on the day, I attempted to use a pair of vampire fangs on my model, however these didn’t work due to not staying in place and did not fit the aesthetic I was going for. When I was filming the makeup looks, I should’ve taken more care and time when filming the looks after they were applied. In post production, it proved too difficult to edit in fangs and alter the eye colour successfully as for the most part, it didn’t look realistic. In spite of this, I was able to use photoshop to add fangs and change the eye colour accordingly. This worked very well for me as it really brought the look together from my perspective, however looking back on it, I can see that some look more realistic and match the reference images more than others. I should have taken into account of the fact that I would have rather created a web page myself using coding, as this would’ve given me the opportunity to be more creative and showcase my work that I had planned in my head, however due to time restraints, I wasn’t able to do this. One area of improvement that would’ve made my makeup looks better is a more detailed look at costume, just to create the sense of realism better and make the images look more like their film and TV counterparts. Overall, I am very happy with my work but I know for future reference, I can make this a lot better by paying attention to the areas mentioned in this reflective report.