Mask Research

In our film, our main male character 'Jack' wears a mask in the latter half of the film to cover his identity whilst chasing/attacking the girl character 'Deb'. We decided that we would make a mask ourselves rather than use an existing mask design - so before we did this we chose to research existing masks in movies to get a better idea of what sort of design we would choose and what looked best for the type of effect we want to create.

We researched two types of masks: full face masks, and half face masks. This is to get a wide idea of masks and so we could decide which style would work best for our film.

FULL FACE MASKS

1) 'Saw' Pig Mask

The first mask we looked at was the iconic pig mask from the film series 'Saw'. This mask is quite symbolic as it shows the villains as having stereotypical piggish characteristics. However, it is unnerving because of the human qualities it has, such as long hair and human-like eyes, which create an uneasy sense for an audience. We could interpret this in our own mask idea by using a representative animal to act as a symbol for our antagonist, however on further thought creating an animal-looking mask would be difficult to do on our budget and time scale.

2) 'Scream' Ghostface Mask

Secondly, we looked at the mask of Ghostface from the film series 'Scream'. Ghostface's mask and it's design have become an icon of horror and a popular budget Halloween costume, which would make it easy to purchase but not easy to make unique enough for our film to stand out from the crowd. However, the plainness and simplicity of the mask is something we could easily recreate - and the empty hollow eyes and exaggerated facial features (based off the 'Scream' painting) could be quite unnerving for an audience as it shows just enough humanity whilst being different enough to seem unnatural. 

3) 'The Purge' Purger Masks

After this, we looked at the masks worn by the purgers in 'The Purge'. These masks are all similar and feature black empty eyes and large fake smiles, which contrast with the mood of the characters and the film. Other than this, the masks are very realistic which is something we didn't overly want our mask to be like - as we wanted it to be a surreal representation of our character.

CURRENT ASSESSMENT: The masks we looked at so far all have the eyes covered with mesh or black. On assessment, this would make it very difficult for our actor to see through, and we ideally wanted the eyes to be seen on camera. As eyes being obstructed is a classic symbol of 'horror' genre films, we decided we would develop our research onto existing masks that have hollow eyes/the eyes cut out.

4) 'Friday The 13th' Jason Voorhees' Hockey Mask

We then looked at a mask with hollow eyes, which firstly led us to Jason Voorhees from the 'Friday The 13th' series. This mask is essentially a hockey mask that has been battered and broken over time. We liked the simplicity of the mask and the idea that a mask could be something you could find easily, which for our film would make more sense than a mask that would be very difficult to find in a store, for example. As well as this, the idea of hollow eyes which allow you to see the emotions and expressions of the actor is more useful to us than a mask that covers the eyes.

5) 'Halloween' Michael Myers Mask

We then looked at a slightly different mask, one that covers the whole head rather than just the face. For this we looked at Michael Myers' mask from the 'Halloween' series. This mask also incorporates the hollow eyes that we wanted to use in our mask ideas. Although this mask idea is more useful in covering the character's identity completely, we think a full face mask would be restrictive for the actor during running/action scenes and could make it harder for them to breathe which is something we want to avoid.

CURRENT ASSESSMENT: After looking at full face masks, we decided to stick with the hollow/visible eye theme. However on further reflection we decided a mask covering the full face would be too restrictive for the actor during action sequences, and to avoid restricting the actor's breathing we would look into half face masks instead; whilst taking on board the themes and general ideas of the masks previously looked at.

HALF FACE MASKS

1) 'Silence Of The Lambs' Hannibal Lecter Mask

Firstly, we chose to look at masks that cover the bottom half of the face, based on our idea to keep the eyes visible. The first choice to look at was Hannibal Lecter's iconic mask from 'Silence Of The Lambs'. This mask covers the main features of the face whilst still leaving the eyes visible, and the mouth open - which would allow our actor to breathe and also talk clearly. It also still leaves us plenty of space to be creative and come up with a unique design - however it presents problems in how we would manufacture a mask of this sort of shape.

2) 'The Dark Knight Rises' Bane Mask

Secondly, we chose to look at a mask that covers slightly more of the face in a different manner whilst still focusing mainly on the mouth/nose area. For this we looked at Bane's mask in 'The Dark Knight Rises'. This mask once again leaves the eyes visible so we can still show emotion through the eyes. However a mask like this would again be hard for us to make on our budget and also make look unique and unlike the two masks of this style we have looked at.

CURRENT ASSESSMENT: At this point, we decided to put aside the idea of a lower half face mask, and look at masks that covered the upper half of the face; using masquerade-style masks as an inspiration. 

3) 'American Psycho' Patrick Bateman Mask

This mask is not a mask technically, however it is an eye-mask based on masquerade masks that in the film 'American Psycho' is worn by Patrick Bateman as a symbolic item more than anything else. We liked the idea of our mask being symbolic, like 'hiding another part of yourself', and in the film that is what this mask symbolises. This mask also leaves the eyes hollow so the actor's eyes are visible, whilst also showing the nose and mouth - making it easy for our actor to breathe and speak.

4) 'A Clockwork Orange' Alexander DeLarge Mask

Secondly, we looked at a half-face mask with slightly more detail. For this we looked at Alex DeLarge's mask in 'A Clockwork Orange'. This mask is very similar to the one above in style, only really covering the face around the eyes, however this one also features a nose cover as well. This adds to give a larger sense of unease and distortion to the face than a simple eye mask, which would make our audience more 'fearful' of the character.

FINAL ASSESSMENT:

After we thoroughly researched different types of masks, we weighed up which we prefer for our film. Although the half masks would make it easier for our actor to breathe and speak, on reflection we realised our actor has no dialogue whilst wearing his mask therefore this would not cause complications during filming. We also decided we prefer the look of full face masks and the fact that this means the character's identity will be fully covered; as a half face mask leaves too much of the face on show meaning an audience would recognise the character therefore getting rid of any plot twists. 

We plan on purchasing a plain full face mask and customising it ourselves to make a unique design.