The Importance of Continuity.

Within TV and film continuity is very important in order to create the illusion of real life reflected in a program. The reason for this is that not all films are shot in a day, the scenes can often be broken up over months or even shot in separate locations pretending to be the same one. This means that the clothing, makeup, hair and background have to look exactly the same in every scene. When the continuity of a character or the background scene is compromised it effectively ruins the illusion and therefore stops the viewer becoming enveloped in the story, and believing it is real.
Common continuity issues include:

• Makeup - if a character has a wound or fake tattoo that moves around this shows the lack of care and continuity the makeup artist has.
• Hair - If an actor or actress shaves their beard or cuts the hair short, a fake beard or a wig may have to be put in place to keep up the continuity of a scene.
• Clothing - If clothes have been hired from a costume agency but need to have certain stains on them after being washed such as mud or blood these have to look exactly the same or very similar.
• Background - For example if a character is eating something and as the scene jumps back and forward between her/ his face and another character and the plate is full of food, half full, and then full again, it shows the lack of continuity between scene changes and the film set crew.    

To solve these problems it is advised that anyone on a film set should take pictures of every aspect of the makeup, hair and clothing in order to recreate the look as close to the original as possible. It is also advisable to take continuity notes when creating a look, explaining how much of certain products you used and whether anything was mixed together to create a certain colouring. 

http://www.delamaracademy.co.uk/blog/2009/06/an-introduction-to-continuity-for-the-make-up-artist

This research has definitely helped in my thoughts on my project. I want to keep the look fairly simple in order to recreate it as best as I possibly can, while still including special effects that are easy to replicate.