Dramaturgical Connections: Round 2

The beginning…

What stood out for me the most and very ‘dramatically’, from this round of assignment videos, was the use of make-up and costume. These elements have compelled me to think about the female body, it being covered-hidden, uncovered-revealed and how the body can be ‘othered’ by wearing a garb and make-up like in Cynthia’s work. It was very interesting to see how the act of putting on make-up became more like that of wearing a mask and the choice of costume added another layer of meaning to a persona being created. The choice of the costume and its use, like in Sandra and Cynthia’s work helped me re-look at the saree and the conventional male attire respectively and read new meaning into them. The way Shyamala used her kohled eyes, Anjali juxtaposed the decorative feminine costume and the masculine movements, all lead me to think about these two elements very strongly.

I feel this episode could be a prequel to the episode thought of earlier, for round 1. Here we could individually shoot sections of everyone dressing up but only certain parts of the body being revealed at a time. The episode however could start with a series of images that are a collection of snapshots of symbols, objects/props that can be linked with terms like ‘exotic’, ‘feminine’, ‘masculine’ and etc. So the episode could start with the image of the matchstick being lit and the block being burnt for soot, maybe something like a white powder can or a skin tanning spray can being opened. We can think of more images that can later be intercut with the images of putting on make-up and creating a new identity.

Next we see all 4 performers with bare faces and bare shoulders, placed on a screen, two on top and two below. We see their profiles and different colours are sprayed on to that side of their face, so as to change their skin-tones. Or the images could also be of the performers doing make-up very unconventionally, like Cynthia putting soot on her face. The idea here is to compare the action to that of putting a base layer of make-up but then not to use conventional base make-up for it. However, whether spray-painting the face or using different materials to do a base, the colours being put on the skin could be ranging from white/fair and going to black/dark.

All performers should be placed in front of a white background, with their facial profiles facing the camera on which we see the colouring of the skin, taking place. So if we spray paint on their faces we see the extra colour hitting/collecting on the background wall and spreading unevenly while spraying. Then we all four performers supporting thick layers of paint on half of their faces. The colours put on their faces should be so dense that it appears as though they are wearing half-masks. So here we again go back to our idea of using a split screen and see all the performers first in profile and then facing the camera frontally, so that we see their half coloured half bare (original sink-tone) faces clearly.

It will be very interesting if the extra paint from the spraying lands on the background wall and forms a silhouette of everyone’s face, so that their facial features become prominent. This collection of their silhouettes could then come as a separate shot, rather one image could dissolve into another and this could stay on the screen for a few seconds before we moved into the next round of images. 

Then we could have each performer focus on one facial feature or body part and capture them while in the act of doing make-up or dressing up a bit more conventionally. Like we could focus on only Shyamala’s eyes and her putting kohl, Cynthia’s lips and putting on the red lipstick, Anjali’s hands and her maybe wearing a pair of net gloves or some bangles or some middle eastern jewellery on her hand and Sandra could be dressing her feet or stretch a pair of fishnet stockings over her bare legs.

The next shot could then be of pieces of costume flying around, like a men’s shirt being flung, a gloved had putting on a large ostrich feather on a waist band or a small one on a bun on the head, an animal print material being stretched across the screen, and a top hat being placed on a head. We could probably end this section with an image of Shyamala’s eye blinking once at the audience, through her fingers. From here the next section can start and we see the camera focused on Sandra’s legs.