Props II (Masks)

Originally we were looking through merchandise websites such as ‘ebay.com’ and ‘amazon.co.uk’ for the masks of our assailants. Whist there is an element of the ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Watchmen’ with the masks, we decided not to use fabrics, firstly due to expenses. But secondly a hard material dehumanises the assailants, making them, ultimately, scarier. The writer of B.B.C’s thriller ‘Hyde’, Steven Moffat, commented on what makes monsters scary is that they are human enough o relate to but something that distinct them from humanity at the same time. These masks aim to achieve that.
On the websites we found many different masks with varying patterns, one that particularly took our eye were replica’s of the masks worn by ‘V’ in ‘V for Vendetta’. However, despite that it was a striking design, the fact it was too recognisable would distract the viewer and take away the menace, as their minds wander.
Eventually we purchased our masks from ‘Crafty Arts’ on Brentwood High Street. We bought a pack of six masks in order to have spare copies if any were broken.
However we encountered many problems when we took the masks out of the bag. Firstly the masks were much smaller than they appeared and didn’t fit round the actor’s faces, it undermined the characters making them comical.
Next the design of the mask didn’t have menace; the mouth piece was a small slit and almost looked like a shocked face. The eyes on the mask didn’t align with our eyes adding to this unwanted effect.
However the biggest problem of all was the paint used, it chipped off a smallest touch so our original ideas of blank white masks were finished.
We quickly accommodated however, with a pair of scissors we planned and I cut out sections of the mask…