Black Swan is an American Psychological Thriller/Horror film based on the prestigious and world famous ballet Swan Lake and a young ballet dancer's descent into madness. The film stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.

 

For the Movie Moments project, I was given the choice between the films 300 and Black Swan. I enjoyed both films and think both have many memorable scenes that could be good to recreate either in a serious tone or in a more parody style. For Black Swan, I feel that this would be the better project for me to do. Unlike with 300, I could have better access to get all the props/makeup/outfits and the model to recreate a scene. I really like the dying scenes or the scenes with the reflection (although the duplicates of the same person is similar to the Trick Photography project).

I decided on choosing Black Swan as my Movie Moments choice. Having the choice between the two films for my project, I prefer Black Swan and class it as one of my favourite films, whereas I'm not too enthusiastic about 300. So in choosing Black Swan, I feel like I will make a project that is more my style.

 

Deciding on a scene is easy, the first thing that comes to mind is the scene where Nina (Natalie Portman) and Lily (Mila Kunis) fight in the changing room towards the end of the film. The scene is memorable to many fans due to the film's lead actresses getting into an aggresive and intense fight scene, resulting in the 'death' of 'lily' who turns out to be another one of Nina's hallucinations. The scene has a dramatic feel and is the moment in the film where the audience realises that Nina has gone completely insane when she sees the dead body of 'Lily/Herself'. This is also the scene that leads straight into the film's dramatic finale. I feel like this is the perfect scene for me to do. I hope to recreate the feel of the scene through my pictures, and go for a simple yet effective look.

 

 

Equpiment:
 
The Photography Studio
Nikon D90 Camera
Studio Lighting Equipment
 
Accessories:
 
Black Corset
A form of Fake Glass, if no substitute then maybe real Glass
Fancy Dress Makeup

Model:

Olivia Hine
 

My friend and housemate Olivia was a great model and a big thank you to her for taking time out of her day to help me with my shoot. We both applied the makeup to her face with a mixture of her own and fancy dress makeup, and she styled her hair into a ballerina style bun. She already owned a black sleeveless corset, which was very similar to the one worn by Nina/Lily in the film. As the pictures will be of her torso upwards, the tutu part of the outfit is unneeded.
 

This is what she looks like usually, before the photoshoot and the makeup/hair/outfit:

 

The below pictures are practice shots from the shoot. We tested out different camera angles and lighting. As you can see some pictures came out extremely bright and vibrant whilst others came out far too dark and with lots of shadow. My intent was to get a balance between the two.

 

 

The following pictures are the result of the shoot, many of which were taken from different angles with a lighting that I was satisfied with. Whilst I did find some angles that were virtually the same as the ones in the film, I also experimented with some shots at other angles, just to see how they would come out.

I am very pleased with how these have worked out. I did some very minor editing with the lighting on photoshop, getting rid of the ornage-amber tones for most of the pictures and adjusting the shadows/highlights, to balance them all out evenly. bring out the contrast between the whites and the blacks, to make the makeup look more dramatic.

I'll narrow these photos down to the few I might choose for my final.

 

 

Editing Attempt.

 

This particular picture I took looks extremely similar to this one below. To make the images look more similar and to test out my editing skills, I added a trail of blood coming from Olivia's mouth, like in the photo. Whilst it is only subtle, I think it makes a noticable difference and adds positively to the photo. I will only edit this photo with the blood, as for the others in my final it is not needed.

 

Potential Final Photos.

 

Out of the pictures above I cropped some of them down to the correct size, and adjusted the resolution to be higher. The ones I've selected to potentially be my final picture are:

I have decided that my final picture will be the one below this text. I feel it bares the most resemblance to the image of Nina's (Natalie Portman) 'death'. The pose is exactly right, the lighting is just what I wanted (compare it to the similar one right above this text and see that it is obviously superior) and i feel that it represents the scene chosen for Black Swan the best. The other two pictures work well also, but they work more towards Lily's 'death' (Mila Kunis), and I think the poses came out very well, but not as well as my chosen photo.