Costumes

Written by Emma Taylor

Characters often express themselves using clothing just as we do in real life. For example, if you like a particular band you may wear a band t shirt. If you like punk rock music you more common than not see people with long hair, black skinny jeans, a black band t shirt and boots with a leather jacket. Whilst these are stereotypes, they are very useful in films to quickly establish a character's identity using non verbal codes, and the audience doesn't even notice. This can make characters more relatable and appealing, or we could see a middle aged man, wearing a big coat with blue jeans and greasy hair walking down a street and establish him as a character you wouldn't particularly want to meet. Having all your characters in a film well dressed, doesn't replicate real life, making it seem false and not realistic, which is ultimately what we're aiming for, even if it is an animation or sci-fi film.

Whilst costumes have clearly been shown in the character profiles we have made for each of the actors, there are some elements of costume which cannot be used. For example checkered shirts. You never seen them in films or in TV because of 'moire patterns'. Moire patterns happens because there is two patterns interacting with another, which actually creates a third pattern and moves with the light in that particular shot. This causes the audience to become disorientated and can really ruin a film if you are noticing costume and camera techniques rather than focusing on the story.

Example one of 'moire'

example two of 'moire' on screen

Another element of costume we have to think about is continuity. As out character of Grace gets abducted, she cannot change clothes half way through, and her clothing gets progressively more ripped and ruined through the trailer. As were not filming these scenes in order however, we can't ruin the clothing as we go along. In order for this to work on screen, we are buying three different sets of the same outfit and will ruin them progressively, ranging from perfect condition, to quite destroyed. They do this on films such as Harry Potter and the TV show 'By Any Means' where he has several different outfits to show the progression in the film.

Character of Tom Tom in 'By Any Means'

Tom Tom in 'By Any Means'

Above is a behind the scenes shot and example of different costumes showing progression in the new British drama from the BBC 'By Any Means' showing the character of 'Tom Tom'.