Detailed Extensive, Creative and Analytical Research Into Costume: Research Into Costume, Props and Makeup

Costume

Costume are one of the most important and most influential parts to cinema. Good costume design immediately makes the character individual and ties them in more easily with the plot. Costumes may give an impact, but the most important feature of a costume is to ensure it develops the character and makes them believable. A bad costume design will remove the audience from the film and distract them from the plot, and also make the film a lot less believable.

Fashion trends usually are followed by; and even sometimes set by people who are notorious at the time. For example, Twiggy is the face of sixties fashion and everything about her even down to her make up is used still today to influence rebirth of sixties fashion. Another example of trend setting is Will Smith in Fresh Prince Of Bell Air, in which he reflects nineties fashion in the style of bright colours and baggy clothes.

Costume subtly reveals information about the plot. You can usually tell the time period of the film by what the characters are wearing. Clothing trends and fashions develop through the years and as a result film makers can use previous trends to ensure their film fits the time period in which the film is set. For example, in the 60’s trends involved bright, swirling colours. Psychedelic, tie-dye shirts and long hair and beards were commonplace. Woman wore unbelievably short skirts and men wore tunics and capes. Also, part of costume is also hair styles which in the sixties involved long hair for men and bobbed hair for women.

One example of a film set in the sixties is Blowup, which was made to formally explore the fissured psyche and instability of image in the decade of free will. It’s obvious that this film is set in the sixties because of the significant fashion.

If everyone in the film is wearing the same theme of clothing then it is obvious that the film is set in this time period, however to make an obvious impact the clothing needs to be consistent throughout the film. Keeping the realism of the film is vital because it’s important not to throw the audience off. Another example of where this technique is used is Grease which is set in the fifties but was made in the seventies. The use of leather jackets and hair grease for the boys and significant fifties dresses and bomber jackets for the girls makes it obvious which time period it is set in.

Not only does costume display the time period, but also the character development in a film. In the film Inception the main costume designer, Jeffrey Kurland, decided that the purpose of the costume was to "serve the emotional and physical needs of each of the characters".  Costume design reflects greatly on the movement of the plot Costume design reflects greatly on the movement of the plot, most significantly through character development. Character development is at the forefront of costume design. The characters move the story along and with the director and the actor the costume designer helps to set the film’s emotional tone in a visual way. In a more physical sense the costumes’ style and colour help to keep the story on track, keeping a check on time and place.  Picking a costume that reflects the tone of the film is key as without it confusion could be caused.

Costume design is so important mainly because it can reflect the characters personality. For example in Shutter Island the protagonist is wearing a typical detectives uniform which isn't particularly different to the accompanying detective, apart from the fact that his costume is that it is more untidy. His top button on his shirt is undone and his tie is off centre and his jacket around the collar is also worn. The connotation of this suggests that this character is struggling in someway or is just lazy, which is an idea which would become clearer and develop as the plot continues. The idea of perceiving the characters personality through their clothing and make up is great for thriller films as the personalities of characters are sometimes not fully explored. Doing this will give the characters more depth without taking up any more screen time than they need to, and ensures that it can cut straight to the storyline. 

 In many thriller films, the female roles are dressed in dresses and skirts with exception of films like the Hunger Games where there is a powerful female role who breaks the moulds of society. Dresses are the typical outfit for damsels in distress, and are portrayed to be glamorous and always dressed up which reflects the traditional sexist view that women are elegant yet fragile and that looks are the most important feature of them.

Makeup

Makeup is used in many different ways in films. It is used on men and women either to make them look better or worse than they usually would. To make them look better, especially the women, the make up artists on the film set use make up to fix the actors blemishes and inperfections to try and make them seem like the perfect role model/idol. The protagonists and heroins of a typical thriller are usually made to look better than they actually do whereas an antoginist would usually be made to look worse so that they do not appeal in any way to the audience.  A personal favourite use of makeup within films is when it is used to show injury to the skin. This is called injury fx, one way of doing this is using a latex based paint. The paint is build up and dried on different levels to create the effect and texture of an open wound, and usually different shades of red are used to paint on it to make it more realistic. An example of a film which uses this is Saw, which is about a serial killer so naturally many victims are gravely injured and nearly always killed in a gruesome way, which means the director had to use a lot of injury make up. 

Props 

Props are an aspect of normal daily life so in order to make a film realistic directors use props. If a film is a thriller, every day items are usually used for props along with non every day items such as weapons which are used for the dramatic impact of the film. An example of a film where props are used frequently is District 9. This is a sci-fi thriller where weapons and parts of spaceships are carried around frequently by characters. By using props like this the director is creating new pathways which the storyline could follow. Without props, there's only focus on the characters and nothing to maybe lead off into a more in depth storyline. Also within district 9 CGI technology is used to build up the look of the aliens, which is a technique widely used in thrillers. It also opens new windows into the effectiveness of characters on the audience, as CGI can make a character look more scary than maybe makeup would. 

Ideas for Costume, Makeup and Props Within Our Film

In our film we will be using plain costume. As we only have one character shown, the protagonist, we only have one outfit to consider. Our character will have on a black pair of leggings, some black shoes, a grey jumper and a scarf. The make-up and hairstyle of the protagonist will also be plain; with hardly any make up and hair that is simply brushed and not styled. This plain outfit and plain make up reflects that she is just a normal person, in order to help the audience relate to the character. It also shows that she is not concerned about her appearance; she has just lost her sister and her only worry is finding out what happened to her, not looking good for the camera.  She is nothing special, just a plain and normal person which highlights that these events could happen to anyone, which would hopefully build more tension and make the film more real and therefore more scary, making the film more popular and relatable.

We will only have one prop within our two minute film, which will be a silver bracelet which belonged to the protagonists sister. The focus on this prop will be key within the film, because it is a very important opportunity for the film to have a twist. The idea is that it gets the audience thinking and helps to build tension, and shows that the killer wants the protagonist to know she is being followed and he knew she was going to go back to where her sister was murdered.