When people hear the word filmmaking, they immediately picture film sets with large complex cameras and do not always take into consideration the smaller things that make up these huge productions.
The importance of costumes is often overlooked, because it is a small factor that everyone takes for granted but the implications can be phenomenal if the costume is wrong in any shape or form. This is also the case for props within film.
Multinational film producers have teams of people to produce and check over any props and costumes that are made and included within the film making sure that the continuity is perfect when actors have breaks and come back to a scene with an extra button done up on their jacket. However we do not have these teams to look out for us so we will do this ourselves but just to give you an idea of the amount of effort and work that goes behind these unseen necessities of films here are some lists below of the people that would be present on set:
-Props Master
The property master, more commonly known as the props master, is in charge of finding and managing all the props that appear in the film. The props master usually has several assistants.
-Props builder
The props builder, or more frequently prop maker, as the name implies, builds the props that are used for the film. Props builders are often technicians skilled in construction, plastics casting, machining, and electronics.
-Armourer or Weapons master
The armourer is a specialized props technician who deals with firearms. In most jurisdictions this requires special training and licenses.
-Costume designer
The costume designer is responsible for all the clothing and costumes worn by all the actors that appear on screen. They are also responsible for designing, planning, and organizing the construction of the garments down to the fabric, colours, and sizes. The costume designer works closely with the director to understand and interpret "character", and counsels with the production designer to achieve an overall tone of the film. In large productions, the costume designer will usually have one or more assistant costume designers.
-Costume supervisor
The costume supervisor works closely with the designer. In addition to helping with the design of the costumes, they manage the wardrobe workspace. They supervise construction or sourcing of garments, hiring and firing of support staff, budget, paperwork, and department logistics. Also called the wardrobe supervisor. This term is used less and less.
-Key costumer
The key costumer is employed on larger productions to manage the set costumers, and to handle the Star's wardrobe needs.
-Costume standby
The Costume standby is present on set at all times. It is his/her responsibility to monitor the quality and continuity of the actors and actresses costumes before and during takes. (S)he will also assist the actors and actresses with dressing.
-Art finisher or Breakdown artist
An Art finisher may be employed during the pre-production setup to "break down" garments. This specialized job includes making new clothing appear dirty, faded and worn. They are also known as breakdown artists.
-Costume Buyer
On large productions a buyer may be employed to source and purchase fabrics and garments. A buyer might also be referred to as a shopper. This distinction is often made when the lead actor in a production has control over their wardrobe, and they may personally hire this person.
-Cutter/fitter
A costume technician who fits or tailors costumes, usually on-set. They can also be called cutters, seamstresses or tailors. Some celebrity actors have favourite cutters, and larger productions may hire several and have them on set at the same time, particularly in period film projects that might have complicated or extremely expensive extras wardrobe.
I would like to say that both myself and Blaine played the role of all of the above minus the weapons adviser, costume designer, costume buyer, and costume fitter. so overall we researched the clothes that our actors had and asked them to wear a specified costume. The main protagonist was the most important to get the look and representation of him correct. We wanted the audience to be curious why a well dressed man is laying, asleep in a graveyard clueless to how he got there. This uncertainty within the audience is what the main protagonist is experiencing and this empathy is what will engage the audience with the film and make them want to keep watching.
We told him to dress in smart casual so: Jeans, he had some converse shoes, a shirt which can be seen within the scene under a black smart coat. We also wanted him to have a bag which was a contrast to his jacket and jeans. Overall he looks very good and within the scene that we have filmed the costume has worked perfectly, every time we have filmed we have asked him to remember what he is wearing due to the fact that the narrative of our film happens all in one day which means we need him to look the same to have good continuity.
The Main props we are using are; a red rose with thorns which the young girl will touch and bleed which leads us to the other main prop, blood. I researched into how to make blood and there where many different ways to do so, I tested lots of different formulas but thought that treacle and food colouring worked the best.
Apart from these main props which we have already bought or made there are no other purchases that need to be made. In terms of costume we need to make sure that the teacher looks like a teacher and the girl is presentable and creates the correct representation of her character, we also need to keep making sure that Toby, our main protagonist keep wearing the same attire to keep continuity in check. Overall we have learnt through many discussions and research how to represent characters through costumes and Mise-en-scene to the extent that we want them to be interpreted by the audience.
After both Blaine and I had a discussion involving their comments we made any necessary changes and here is the final review page below:
