Enhancing Your Natural Beauty

It's no surprise to anyone in this class that I have an obsession with makeup, so when I learned that one of our projects was going to be a video essay, I immediately knew that was what I wanted the subject of the essay to be.  Out of all the medias we worked with for this class, doing a essay on makeup would be best fitting for a video format considering I could make it a tutorial styled video aided with sounds and video clips.  I had the focus selected awhile ago, but the actual story of the essay was one that required some thought.  I had to think of a way to incorporate makeup into a cohesive story.  I decided to take the angle of making an educational (thesis-driven) type video essay.  The purpose/storyline of the essay is giving three tips and tricks in enhancing one's natural beauty.  I touch on how to select the correct foundation shades pertaining to undertones, how to make one's eye color pop, and how to go about proper makeup placement according to one's eye shape. 

The main reason why I waited to do a project on makeup for the video essay is because like I mentioned previously, what I was envisioning would  go perfectly with the format.  I enjoy filming makeup videos on the regular, so I already had proper equipment for filming beauty videos.  This includes a high definition camera, ring light, and tripod.  Of course I did not need all this special equipment to film this video, but the fact that
I already owned it was exciting to me.
Beauty videos are trickier to film than one may think because lighting is key.  If the lighting is incorrect, then the makeup isn't going to pick up true to color and could also create weird unwanted shadows on the face.  Being in video format it worked out great because I was able to show the watchers exactly what I was doing and show them how the makeup turned out according to my tips and tricks.  It would be hard to describe to them how the final look turned out and even if I went the photo essay route it still wouldn't have been as effective as a video where I could provide a step by step tutorial.  The audio I chose for the duration of the video was a light carefree vibe playing softly in the background to compliment the nature of the topic.  I wanted the whole video essay to come across as fun because really that's what makeup is all about. 

I had way to much fun making this.  I was so excited to get to planning, filming, and editing.  My favorite part was of course the makeup applications, and I am grateful my roommates were able to help me out with that one.  Not only was I looking forward to the filming process, but also editing.  As I mentioned, I've dabbled in the art of film and editing before so I was not a stranger to it.  While some may have found this stage of the video essay intimidating, I still found it to be exciting.  I used iMovie to edit my video essay just because that is what I am most familiar with and what I use to edit my own videos.  The only thing I wish I could have done differently was the voiceovers.  I filmed them on my laptop using my built in microphone and the quality is just not up to my standards.  I should have just recorded them with my camera and removed the audio from the clip, using that instead of doing the voiceover approach.  The only benefit of doing a voiceover is being able to see what the clip is playing as I'm explaining what I'm doing so the timing is all correct.  If I would have went the other route I could for see myself running into issues with timing then.  I think the solution is I just need to buy a microphone. 

I knew when making this video essay that I wanted to really stress that fact that these tips I'm delivering are just that, and are not to be taken as strict rules by any means because there are no rules with makeup, that's the beauty of it.  Just because it is recommended for individuals with protruding eyes to use matte shades and non shimmery ones does not mean they need to abide by this statement.  It is simply just a suggestion.  I know I don't just follow these tips for my eye color and shape.  I feel as if I successfully got my point across clearly because I mentioned the disclaimer not only in the introduction but also in the conclusion.  The last thing I wanted my audience to feel after viewing this video essay is that they are doing their makeup all wrong. 

I also knew going into this that I wanted to touch upon how society views those who wear a lot of makeup.  One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone feels the need to comment on how I wear too much makeup.  I had this one acquaintance in particular who would always feel the need to comment on how I always show up to class with a full face on, or go to run errands with a lot of makeup on, etc . That whole viewpoint really gets on my nerves because I am perfectly capable of going out into the world with a bare face, I've done it many times.  The thing is I look forward to doing my makeup every morning because I think its really fun, and then I just proceed to leave it on throughout the day. It's not like I have no makeup on and have to go run a quick errand and think to myself, "oh man I need to put a full face of makeup on right now to go run to Walmart for fifteen minutes."  I wanted my viewers to understand that just because you wear a lot of makeup doesn't mean that you are an insecure person, and I think I executed that well.
The main thing I learned from this unit is that film is not black and white.  What I mean by this is there is not one correct way to create a video essay.  There are so many possibilities one could approach a video essay with, it's really open to your particular style of creativity.  This was my favorite project out of all the ones we did.