Costume is very important in the film industry. This is because what a character wears needs to coincide with the stereotypes and behaviour of that character otherwise the audience will become confused and will not be able to follow the plot line.
Because of these specifications we wanted for our female character it was rather hard when it came to picking certain costumes for them. We started with the bar scene as this is the scene which we knew most about when it came to cinematography and mise en scene.
Costume is also part of mise en scene, other parts of mise en scene consist of props, set design and make up. All these point help the audience understand and follow plot lines, so with our film having several plot twists we found it very important to get the costumes right.
The man needs to be seen as a successful and rich young professional who spends a lot of time on his appearance and clothing is no exception.
As a group we decided the best way to show that the man was successful and powerful was to put him in a suit or some form smart attire, backing up the stereotype of a rich successful man. This costume would be used in the bar scene to show the man authority.
We tried this costume out but felt it was to formal so by removing the blazer and tie found that this suited the character better.
The first time you seen the protagonist he is at the pool, then in the next scene he arrives at his house. In this scene we want to make a suggestion to the audience that he has come from the gym/pool and gone home. To show this to the audience we have chosen a costume like this, jogging bottoms and a hoody. The use of a gym bag also reinforces this point.
The other costume we have chosen for the man will be sued in the scene when he is walking with either one of the girls along the high street and for the last shots of him entering the house. We have chosen a casual style like this one as we feel it is fashionable and would suit the man lifestyle well, also its fitting for the weather seen in the shots and the time of year.
When we were planning our film there were certain stereotype’s we wanted to avoid and some we wanted to attract with our female characters. We wanted to avoid the cliché of 6th form “romantic” or “seductive” clothing. The stereotypes we wanted to attract were that of glamour girls, high heels, make up etc. but we wanted our female character to be tasteful not “slutty”.
Because of these specifications we wanted for our female character it was rather hard when it came to picking certain costumes for them. We started with the bar scene as this is the scene which we knew most about when it came to cinematography and mise en scene.Because we wanted a tasteful glamour girl look we knew it had to be a dress and heels but this still left quite a large style of clothing for us to choose from. It was finally decided that we dress the female character in a cocktail dress.
We found this style of dress was appropriate as it showed enough skin to show the girls were “interested” in the protagonist without moving towards the promiscuous stereotype.
We chose black as the colour for the dresses as it is associated with elegance and mystery which will tie in well with our plot twist at the end of our film.
Like the male we also need a casual costume for the female characters, we have decided to go for jeans and a winter coat. We have chosen this as, like the male costume, it suits the weather and time of year. Another reason for choosing this style of costume is because many people wear this style so when filming the high street scene with people in the background our character will blend in and make the footage seem more real than set up.
The reason for choosing a dark coloured coat is for the same reasons as the colour of the cocktail dress, the bark colours represent mystery, a great tool to be using for making the twist even more effective.
