Costumes & props Research

Costumes & props

We chose costumes and props depending on the description and characteristics of our characters. This is to further represent them a certain way to so that it creates stereotype and it engages the audience to understand how they are like, what they dress like and how they act as a person. Props and costumes complete the mise en scene completely due to how viewers identify and analyse each of them to then understand the story in depth.


Female character:
The female character is a quite classy, calm girl who is from a middle/upper class background. After thinking about what elements would give the impression of a female being posh and classy we came up with the following ideas.
Make up- simple eyeliner which represents simplicity but at the same time class and elegance due to how elongated and tidy the wing is. Red lipstick, which is typically worn by females coming from a rich family due to how bold the colour is. In addition because our genre is romance we thought that by making the character wear red lipstick that would identify the concept of love throughout the film opening. In terms of costumes we are going to keep it classy, girly and clean for the female character because girls from an educated family do not typically wear casual clothes. They are expected to dress formally due to their high stardards. We are going to make the character wear classy dresses and shoes to further emphasise her background. This will not only tell the audience about her background, but also show how she is on the inside; this type of dressing symbolises sophistication which is fundamental to represent this character. Jewellery and accessories such as handbags or sunglasses will be added to complete the dress and add a girly feel to it. However, that is only when she is outside because when she is indoors in her house, we decided that she will be wearing pink leopard print pyjamas. The colour is perfect because it is a soft colour and also fits into the romantic genre. The leopard print is rather girly.

Male character:
The male character will be quite the opposite to show the contrast in class. His clothes will be more casual and "gangster" like. He will mainly be wearing sport clothes due to how they are a good representation of a boy that is always on the streets. In fact, the UK or USA has stereotypical "roadmen" which are seen as a bad influence on society as they are not into education and always do drugs, smoke or drink alcohol. They always wear hoodies or baggy clothes in general. They are always found with trainers on, such as Nike. We might also add accessories like hats, earrings or chains which reinforce the idea of him being a bad boy. He is going to be wearing dark colours, which would represent danger instead of happiness. Not going to show his hair as bad boys are always seen with hoods on, covering their head. In addition the stereotype of these boys from East London shows that they often wear baggy jeans and more lower down than usual. No make up and haircut will be needed for this character as the boys from these troubled backgrounds do not wear make up and seem to pay a lot of attention on their hair.

HOW WE GOT OUR COSTUMES AND PROPS:

For the girl we needed needed pink leopard print pyjamas which Fabiha had at home. She made her actress wear these clothes. we specifically went for the this type of clothing because we wanted her to look all comfortable. We thought that if we get her pyjamas at the very beginning shots of her then we would really portray her as a typical teenage girl who is living in her own bubble. As we have a scene of her getting out the house we knew that we had to have her wearing a dress. At first we thought that a red dress would be ideal, we wanted the colour red because we wanted to portray her as a girl who is trying to be a woman. Also, I had a red dress which would have been easy for us to get. However, we thought that if she wears a red dress then we might give the storyline away too much. We were trying to reinforce her as this innocent teenage girl with a passion for fashion. Fabiha had a stripy dress at home, I then came to a conclusion and we thought that would be our ideal dress. The dress we got our actor to wear was a white and navy blue dress. It made her look preppy which we thought would go with her image. In order to portray her fashionable side we used certain props such as the plum colour handbag, the black heels and the red lipstick. The lipstick was bright red and in our film we showed her put the lipstick on and we thought that this would give the idea of her being a girly character. I borrowed one of my friends bag and shoes and Fabiha had the lipstick at home therefore used those props.

For the boy we wanted to make him look as 'gangsta' as possible, we knew exactly what we wanted. We got our actor to wear a bomber jacket but then we were unable to get hold of that jacket therefore we settled for a black cardigan a costume which our actor already had. On the day we filmed we told our actor to wear his black cardigan. We wanted him to wear dull colours because we wanted to explicitly show the difference of her and him. It added to the whole idea of him being a 'gangsta'. We wanted our actor to wear baggy jeans, preferably dark. However, we were unable to get hold of them therefore settled with denim. We told our actor to wear those his denim jeans on the day. Moreover, we wanted his shoe to be from a high brand. Our actor had a pair of Ralph Lauren shoes. We thought that it would be good to have him wear a well known elite brand of shoes because it would give the impression of him being a drug dealer. The audience would question his shoes and it would persuade them to think this therefore it adds on the impression of him being a bad boy.