How to make someone look UGLY!!

[Daniel Porto]

Everyone always wants to know how to light for beauty... I want to know the opposite!

 

So as it is the opposite I am asking for I am guessing that we light pretty much exactly the opposite of what we would do for beauty...

 

...by using a hard light, placed below the lens (to create some ugly nose shadows, eye socket shadows, cheekbone shadows etc). I guess it depends on the structure of the actors face. But what is a good general approach? Would underexposing the face work to a certain extent?

 

I would also like to keep it quite natural as the scene I am lighting for is going to be during the day in a girl's bedroom (So that might take the option away of using ugly nose shadows coming from below).

 

If you wanted to make someone look 'ugly' and the lighting setup you used wasn't necessarily considered 'good cinematography' (ie. a nice edge light etc), would this be OK??? Considering you wanted the person to look 'ugly' and 'good cinematography' in this instance might make this person half decent thus 'not-so-good looking cinematography' is the better option. NOTE: I realize that this question and 'good' and 'not-so-good' cinematography is subjective.

 

I guess it would be fine as long as everyone else was lit nice... ANYWAY ENOUGH OF ME TALKING...

 

WHAT DOES EVERYONE ELSE THINK?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Hard light, slightly skewed camera angles, Toppy light (like right over their heads to racoon eye them) come to mind here.

Also, no make up, and bad wardrobe help a lot as well.

[Daniel Porto]

Hard light, slightly skewed camera angles, Toppy light (like right over their heads to racoon eye them) come to mind here.

Also, no make up, and bad wardrobe help a lot as well.

 

This is a section of the script, describing the character:

 

"CARMEL, wearing green high heels the size of tree trunks, leopard pants so silky that they look like they just came off a cheetah, golden curly hair that would cause goldilocks to get jealous and make-up that would put ?Mimi? from the ?Drew Carey Show? to shame, stops and looks at her daughter."

 

SO the bad wardrobe is pretty much covered. Although I am using make-up it is going to be used to the extreme like 'Mimi,' which will in turn bring out the ugliness.

 

 

For those who forget what 'Mimi' looks like... don't fall in love...

 

http://multiplepersonalitess.files.wordpre...obeck_mimi2.jpg

[Michael LaVoie]

Ugly lighting is pretty simple really. Place your key light just above the lens and front light everyone. It doesn't get much worse than that. You will take a hit though as the DP for creating pretty awful cinematography so be prepared. It's really up to hair & makeup to make someone look ugly.

[Philip Ulanowsky]

Front lighting. however, may not appear natural in that setting, while the toppy light might, depending on time of day,existence of windows, etc. Without daylight, a small table lamp could motivate hard, lowish sidelight. I would pick up on the wardrobe/skewing aspect posted above, and add the composition as a whole: carefully designed clash and clutter in the background.

[Brad Grimmett]

Seinfeld did this in an episode. Jerry called the girl he was dating "two face" because sometimes she looked good and sometimes she looked bad depending on the lighting.

Here's a link:

two face

They did it with toppy hard light mostly.

[Daniel Porto]

Seinfeld did this in an episode. Jerry called the girl he was dating "two face" because sometimes she looked good and sometimes she looked bad depending on the lighting.

Here's a link:

two face

They did it with toppy hard light mostly.

 

BRAD THAT IS GOLDEN!

 

I think that hard top light will work best as it keeps it looking natural.

 

Thanks