For my costumes I wanted to fit the mood of each film, and for the tone and atmosphere to be represented through the costumes. Costume is an important component of film, and can play a huge part in how the audience perceives a character. Although I don’t have any dialogue or narrative scripting, I want the audience to have a strong perception of these characters, so because I don’t have anything like dialogue or backstory to help me along, I have to rely solely on performance and costume. Costume can give a lot of information on a character. For example, a character who wears lots of jewels and extravagant costumes can be seen as socially superior to a character who wears plain, ordinary clothes. However, on the other side of the coin, this character can be seen as morally inferior as they are materialistic and narcissistic, whereas the plainer character can be seen as more humble. Of course, without dialogue or backstory, we don’t know for certain and the characters could in fact be completely different personality wise. However, costume and fashion, particularly in film, television, and stage is seen widely as an extension of a character’s personality and who they are inside.
This video by YouTube film and TV essayist, Super Eyepatch Wolf is a good example of what makes character design and costume so important. Although this video explores more into animations, the points still stand in live action.
Poem 1 – The Trembling of the Veil by Allen Ginsberg
For this poem there is a theme of entering a new world, and looking outside and experiencing the beauty of the world for the first time. I also wanted all of the figures in my film to look very similar, like they all an extension of one person. For this I decided to use predominantly the colour white. The colour white represents purity and innocence. I wanted to use this because of the innocence of entering a new world seeing the world and nature as some alien planet and landscape. I was largely inspired by the costumes of The Virgin Suicides (dir. Sofia Coppola; costumes: Nancy Steiner) and Picnic At Hanging Rock (dir. Peter Weir; costumes: Judith Dorsman). Both of these films deal with themes of innocence and purity, which can often transcend into naivety which can lead to danger and harm.
For this costume, I used a dress that I own. I wanted to use only clothes that I owned so I that I wouldn’t be having to spend my own money on costumes. I really like the silhouette of this dress, it would be my ideal dress to use for the production. I like how it’s so simple and conservative, but also playful and innocent. It’s also lightweight and easy to move around in, so it’s practical to be wearing on a film set for a production where the actors will need to be moving around quite a bit. However, I don’t have a dress like this in the colour white, only a light shade of grey. As I mentioned before, I really wanted to emphasise the white in the costumes for this film. As I see it, I have two options: either I stick with this and compromise with a pale grey instead of white, or I could spend some of my own money to buy some cheap white dresses in this style.
This outfit is slightly more suitable, because it’s a while colour, in a simple silhouette that fits the themes of innocence and purity in this film. The colourful threading on the top initially I wasn’t sold on, because I wanted just a block colour dress, however, it quickly grew on me and I think it adds a playful nature to the dress, and fits with the spring/summer theme of the poem and my film.
This is another dress that would be quite suitable, but ultimately runs into similar problems as the first dress shown in this post. Although I like the silhouette and this it’s both innocent and playful at the same time, it’s still not white. It is also a different neck line and sleeve length than the other two. In an ideal world I would have all the dresses have long sleeves, to match the silhouette and style of the first dress. However, I’m happy to settle with sleeve length differences. However, the first two dresses both have similar necklines, whereas this one is completely different because it’s a halter neckline. I will use this if I can’t find or purchase anything else but I don’t think it’s a good fit for this poem or film.
City Dusk by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The theme of this poem, as I interpreted, is how the poet/narrator has been feeling lost and depressed in their life and thought that their life was never going to amount to anything, however, in one night that all changes, as they meet the love of their life that gives them a new reason to leave, and causes their world to grow in brightness and vibrancy. For the costumes for this film I just wanted to create a natural vibe of friends out together having fun and feeling freedom. I wasn’t really inspired by any film for the costumes for this poem. I used my own clothes for this film, and didn’t really have any problems finding garments for the characters to wear, as a lot of it came from my own personal style.
This shirt is one of my favourite items of clothing I own, originally I had a belt with it which I feel would have made the look more fashionable, however I seem to have misplaced it somewhere so I couldn’t use it. This will make the figure wearing it seem both sophisticated because of the shirt aspect, and laid back because of the looseness of the garment.
For this outfit I put together a monochrome patterned shirt, and a black miniskirt with a zip up the front. Black as a colour represents a lot of things. It’s represents evil, moral dissary, choas, but it also represents sophistication, and paired with the shirt tucked into the skirt, makes my character look very smart and sophisticated.
This outfit actually didn’t end up in my final film. This is because I had orginally planned outfits for five people, but only three could make it to the filming. This wasn’t a huge issue however, but I wanted to have options for costumes, and more than just three. I didn’t photography a back view of this dress as it was little revealing, so if I had used it it would have had to have been worn with a jacket. Again, the silhouette and length of the dress suggests playfulness, which contrasts the sophisticated colour.
This is another outfit that I planned for but didn’t ultimately use in my film for this poem. However, I think that this dress wouldn’t be suitable for the tone of the film because it’s too long and formal. Also, for a more personal reason, this is a favourite dress of mine that I wouldn’t want to get damaged during filming. Although I’m not filming an rough scenes, and I’m using all my own clothes, there are some that are much more durable than the others and can cope with what the elements may throw at them; and then there are some (like this one) which are more delicate which I would be more upset about if they got ripped or muddied.
This is perhaps my favourite costume from my film based on Fitzgerald’s City Dusk. I just think that it fits the tone and atmosphere of the film really well. The dress has quite a 70s style to it, and it’s black and gold stripes indicate that it’s a dress designed for special occasions. It also looks sophisticated and captures the freedom feel that I wanted for this film.
Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye
For these costumes I was heavily inspired by the film Respire (dir. Melanie Laurent; costumes: Maira Ramedhan Levi). This poem, similar to The Trembling of the Veil, has a definite tone of freedom in it. It’s about a passed lover, family member, or friend (I interpreted it as lover, but the poem doesn’t specify) telling their loved one not to grieve for them, as they are not dead but have merely moved on, and that their soul is within every essence of life – the birds in the sky, the glistens of snow, the wheat in the fields.
I chose this dress because I thought it would really suit the tone and atmosphere of the film. It’s a very fluid dress, and is summery and light, with soft colours and a very free vibe to it. However, it is made of scuba material which makes it very robust and difficult to tear. I thought that was good because I wouldn’t want any of my clothes to get messed up during filming.
This is another dress I chose. I think the pattern on it is really playful and fun and matches the shots of being in love very well.
Creative Media 