JARLINC'S Costume Research

COSTUME RESEARCH By Myself and Cameron H

Now my group has completely come up with our film idea, production name and treatment it's time to move onto the research of the costume, props and locations used in our 2 minute opening of our films. The upcoming post my group will be working on is the location research and post :) 

Costume design is used in films to fabricate the overall appearence of a character. Certain clothing is specific to a nation, a class, or a period of time - in which case they are important to get across certain elements of the films and information about the characters. Simple designs can denote status (such as Kings, Queens), provide protection (Armour) or modesty, or simply decorate the protagonist etc. The correct piece of costume in a film can prove very effective - even if it is just the simplest of things. 

SETH by Deanna

Antagonist: Attacker/Shadow Figure

 
The idea behind the character of Seth is that he is very much the typical, sinister looking killer who keeps to the shadows and darker elements of the a setting. With this in mind myself and my group (consisting of Cameron H and Daniel S) have chosen to make Seth's costume match the idea of a scary figure and to say something about the characters personality etc.

  TOP HALF OF BODY CLOTHING

We decided to put Seth in a dark black hooded jacket for the very reason of that item of clothing makes people connect the dark colour and hood and think stereotype: dangerous person or `chav`. It also straight away gives off the idea that the character is a male almost at once as the hoodie tends to be a male item of clothing. It was important the jacket had a hood as we wanted to obscure Seth's face from camera; giving the thriller genre an edge because its `fear of the unknown`; representing to the audience that perhaps he may not be human or that he is disfigured. Also we want the jacket to be plain to show the audience see that Seth is simple and perhaps not very wealthy; making some believe he is in either working or middle class.

This is the type of hoodie we are aiming to use in our film - but maybe with a few changes if needed.

An example of a black hooded jacket in real films today is in Mission Impossible 4 when Tom Cruise wears a black leather hoodie to give him a sinister and serious look - a lot like what we want our character to look like:

The way the hood is used in this image is exactly how we want to use the hood in our film; straight away it gives off a serious, dangerous vibe from the character wearing it.

FOOTWEAR

The footwear Seth will be wearing is some proper walking type boots; Timberlands. This is to subvert the whole idea of Seth being a `chav` like character because Timberlands are rather expensive and hard wearing shoes; therefore he must have the money to buy them - representing him to be either middle or higher class.
Also most killers or people dressed in black are put in black walking boots because they give off a sense of aggressiveness and are good for any sort of terrain. We picked the boots for Seth to show he's a skilled expert because a killer in trainers depicts they are normally a teenager, bit sloppy on the attack etc = but an adult in walking boots seems to give off the idea he is planned and skilled because boots are also rather hard to damage unlike trainers. 

In our film we will be using footwear similar to this.

An example of this type of footwear being used in films today is in Friday the 13th where they are worn by the murderer, Jason. They act as stronger protection for his feet and allow him to run after his victims in the wet or on slippy mud.

Friday the 13th - Jason

LOWER HALF OF BODY CLOTHING

The black jeans have been chosen for Seth's costume because, like the black hoodie, they give off a more deadly look when they go hand in hand with black jackets. When lads wear black jeans some people assume goth or something along those lines because the normal jean colour is denim. Also with all the black gear, Seth is allowed to blend in with the shadows easier then with colours - this representing his hostility and creepiness.

Casual Jeans that are easily replaced and are simple and plain. 

CONNOR by Cameron

Protagonist: Victim/Scientist

   Connor is the protagonist, the character which will be fully featured in the film. He works at a science lab, so his costume is clean and formal, somewhat stereotypical of a scientist.

Head:

Glasses

For the character's head, we've been thinking of some glasses. This is stereotypical of scientists and people working in science, as it shows intelligence and knowledge.

 Upper Body:

For the upper body, my group and I have chose a formal/lab wear, maybe a buttoned shirt underneath a white lab coat. We've chosen this to make it clear that the character works in a lab, and the colour white is generic for a scientist to wear and also shows Connor as the protagonist, because the connotations of white are good and peace related.

Shirt

Above and below, I've included some pictures to give you a look at what the costume will look like.

Lab coat

 Lower Body

Our protagonist, Connor, will be dressed in black trousers. These show a generic sense of order and work, a formal feeling. This will, along with the shirt and lab coat, show that the protagonist is just an innocent scientist. Below is a picture of what they'll look like in our film:

Trousers

JARLINC'S Prop Research

PROP RESEARCH By Daniel

The next step after researching Costume and Location was to research props in films. This post expains why props are used in films and which props will be using in our film and why:

Next week I will be posting my storyboard and along with research :)

Props are used in two different ways and both of these are necessary to make the connection between the prop and the character work properly, for example you wouldn't have a cowboy with a banana for a gun. The first being that they are used to represent certain things like a gun showing they are either a criminal and going to shoot somebody or that they are a peace keeper if they are wearing a polices uniform; therefore different props and combinations of costumes with props can change the presentation and look of a person completely. The second use of props would be a prop plan which are used to remind the actors who has what prop, when they have it and in which scene.

Connor's gun

Connor's gun is silver and the typical, old fashioned, six-shooter type that he keeps either tucked in his waist line or kept hidden somewhere in his science lab for protection. Connors gun will be used in the scenes from the point he enters the interior location to the end of the film.

We thought a silver gun would suit the protagonist better than Seth because for a scientist the colour silver appeals more than a black gun or a brown gun. One thought as to why was the crazy idea of Silver is an element on the Periodic Table - which we thought gave it a hidden reason as to why Connor would pick to have a silver gun.
The idea of the gun being an old fashioned revolver was because we wanted the audience to think that Connor wasn't quite the modern scientist where everything is always top of the range. We wanted him to still have that old fashioned look - hence the building and the revolver. It gives him a professor type look; maybe even the fact that he likes history.

The gun prop we will be using in a our film we hopefully look a lot like this (without the stars).

Seth's Gun

Seth's gun is the opposite to Connor but exactly the same type. This he keeps either in his wasit line or in his jacket pocket. The colour is black - to match the colour of the rest of his costume. Seth will be using this prop in roughly the end scene of our film.

The decision of Seth having a black gun was because we thought black guns more evil looking than the traditional silver guns. It also blends in more with the shadow effect we want Seth to have. We want the audience to pick up from Seth's gun that he means busineness rather than the fact that he must just like the colour black. Where as silver is more of an earthly, humane colour - symbolising Connor; black is thought to be out-of-this world, scary and full of nightmares - which we want to symbolise Seth.

The reason we have kept the two guns the same type of gun is because Seth and Connor are meant to be the same person - only Seth isn't actually real; it just resembles Connor's dark side. The same gun type shows they are the same person in a very subtle way = you will only know thats the reason if your looking for it/know it. 

Hopefully our gun wil look simlar to this is in most aspects. (apart from the fact that ours will be fake) :)

Props Research List

JARLINC's Location Research

LOCATION RESEARCH By Myself

After doing the Costume Research for our film characters I have now moved onto researching our location - explaining why we have picked the areas we have chosen to shoot in. The next post after this will be the prop research :)

A filming location is, as you may already know, the place where parts of or all of a film/television series is produced in replacement or addition to using sets set up in studios or green screen. The location can be any place suitable for the film where filming crew can film the actors and record dialog easily and where the film will look great - meaning the location must have a sense of realism in it. Most film crew tend to shoot exterior scenes on a location and interior scenes on a sound stage in the studio. 

A location where dialog isn't recorded is considered to be a second unit photography site. 

Exterior 

The exterior of my production team's film is meant to resemble either a field or the science labs grounds and the building itself to be a big impressive type of building with many windows. 

The idea of a vast building full of windows to be our main location came from the thoughts that a science building is often depicted as light and spacious yet sometimes either old-looking or new = in this case we opted for the old fashioned look to give our thriller that extra `gothic` look which will add to the dark setting we will be filming in. The look of the building allows the audience to get the understanding that the building may have a lot of history or that straight away they can tell something strange is going to happen; relating to real films where they are used in sci-fi, horror or some thriller genres.

1) Our original Location

2) The preferred exterior look for our Science location

We decided to try out the 2 location instead of location 1 because the first location didn't give off the same science look - it appeared more dull and less intriguing due to being smaller and flatter which is the opposite to what most people think of science buildings, which is that they are meant to be on the big side.

The open area at the beginning of our film where our protagonist is running is simply to ease the audience into the film. Being a vast open area the audience can take from it what they will; most likely that there is no where to hide from whatever Connor is running from. 

INTERIOR 

The interior of our location is where the fresh, new look of a science building comes in; resembling the character of Connor to be somebody who's neat, tidy and professional and that he may have a top end job - therefore either middle or higher class. The corridor is long and simple but effective in the dark where shadows are formed = which is the exact image we want in our film. Films on the television use large corridors in the above genres because it drags out the suspense; allows more things to happen - like moving shadows and less room to move etc. The images and pictures on the wall show previous experiments and work done by the scientists while the simple colours help to make the science corridor look more professional.

The Location we will be using for our science corridor.

In Resident Evil - a common setting is long science corridors and labs - often because of the scientist's involvement in the zombie academic.

One scene is a science Lab. The idea of the science lab was thought up to further show where the characters are but after a while my group decided that the room will be significant - meaning although the room will be slightly dark you will see the neatness and professional standard of it AND that will be when the audience see's the `shadow` (Seth) for the first time. The science lab mainly represents Connor's job and class and used to give more suspense to the film.