Research: Costume- Ms Heath

Learning objectives of this lesson were to:

• Identify how costume is used to represent different characters.
• Evaluate how costume is used to create meaning and responses.

Purpose of a Costume

Costumes are used to establish a time period and enhance characters.

Some costumes are made deliberately to tell the audience something for example they could be made to tell the audience what time period the film is set in, the economic status of the character or even it could tell us a lot about the characters personality. An example of a very good costume design would be the Joker in the film "Batman- the dark knight" in this the audience may feel as if this man is somewhat crazy or supposedly funny but at the same time a main character as he stands out from all other character costumes.

                                                  

Costumes & relationships:

costumes create relationships between characters and the audience. For example the scene below is a scene from the film "300" which shows you a  spartan warrior fighting his enemies alone. By wearing a red cape and little armor it suggests that this person is strong and the protagonist in this scene, this is because super heroes usually wear capes. This in turn makes the other fighters the antagonists attacking the protagonist. In addition, the audience see three protagonist characters attacking one antagonist which makes it easier for them to identify the protagonist and the antagonist.

I am Legend Costume analysis

The costume used in this scene shows a casual man wearing casual clothing walking his dog, however he has a gun on him. This suggests that this character (Robert Neville) may be protecting himself from something or someone; however this could also suggest that this character is not as casual as he looks.

Furthermore from this costume we are able to tell that this film is set in the modern day due to his costume consisting of a leather jacket, a grey shirt and combat trousers which would be worn in modern times.

Conclusion:

Conclusively i have seen and been able to analyze a range of different costumes. This has helped me as I now know how a costume in my thriller film can effect the audiences interpretation of each character.