Tuesday 3 April 2012

A Little Trip To The Hospital

Last week I was lucky enough to make a trip to Strathmartine Hospital with Khaled Hurby as part of his 3 man (well 2 men and a lady) crew to film his latest short horror entitled “LEAVE ME ALONE" for the Reed Film Competition 2012.

 

Strathmartine Hospital makes me both happy and sad and it’s so interesting that I snap up any chance I get to go there. The Hospital used to be called Baldovan Institution, then Baldovan Asylum until it was finally changed to Strathmartine Hospital. According to some sources on the internet the hospital started as an orphanage then changed to provide care and education to mentally handicapped children. I don’t know all of the in’s and out’s but eventually it closed down and has been falling apart ever since.

Anyway I’m running away from the point here. Before we went to the hospital Khaled and Matt Aubrey (the actor) came over to my house for make-up. Khaled told me that he wanted a dark character that looked super creepy and has his eyes covered. 

 

In order to achieve a covered eye effect that would still allow the actor to see I decided to use a thin black see through material. I cut out two circled and glued them around Matt’s eyes, then used some wax to blend the edges. Next I applied some gelatine to his skin to give it a textured effect and painted it black with stippled lighter colours. I also applied some paste and runny blood to create the effect that his eyes were bleeding.

 

Here are a few pictures of the finished look and a link to the short film on you tube. It is amazing and shows just how talented Khaled and his team are!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54rI5xHKlrQ&feature=youtu.be

 


 

Monday 2 April 2012

Autism Awareness Day!


Well readers today is National Autism Awareness day and as this is a cause that is very dear to my heart I have to write a little bit about it.  According to the CDC’s latest report 1 in 88 US children are affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder. Now there is a word... Children. However people often forget that these children soon grow up to be adults, and amazing adults at that!

There are many people that do not understand Autism, and I can hold my hands up and say that after working with children and adults with Special Needs for 6 years I still don’t understand it, however the difference is I am willing to try. It pains me that in this world, after everything we have been through, slavery, wars, women’s rights and everything else there are still individuals who find it funny to mock or laugh at people with special needs! However I then remember the amazing people who are trying to make a difference, like the amazing ongoing community or councillors at Camp Huntington and the amazing team at Spectrum Designs. I doubt there is enough time in the world for me to write about Camp Huntington, so for now I will write a little bit about Spectrum Designs.

Spectrum designs is a non profit foundation founded by Stella Spanakos, Nicole Sugrue and Patrick Bardsley. It is an apparel design and printing business with a difference as it employs individuals with Autism and similar conditions. This employment, although it may seem such a small thing offers so much to a young person with Autism. There are approximately 90% of individuals with autism who are unemployed in the United States today, and this foundation is doing all it can to change this and make a difference! 

Have a little look at their website here and pick up one of their amazing Tshirts, Bags or badges today!

http://www.spectrumdesigns.org/index.html

Well there you are just a small post today but I hope it helps to make a difference!

To finish here is a picture of me on a photo shoot with my Spectrum Designs Bag, taken by the amazing Big Andy!