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Evaluation – Just Business

Synopsis

Just Business was a dark comedy film.  It featured multiple candidates at a strange job interview led by an eccentric interviewer. After various tasks were completed during the course of the day, the interviewer offered each candidate, apart from one, a job, which was ironic as she was the most qualified.

My role in the production - costuming

Initially, I was a little disappointed because I did not feel that I would have much input into the creative process and also, I did not know much about costuming.  Then I remembered an interview that I had seen years ago with Judi Dench. In explaining how she started to develop her character, she stated that when she donned her costume she became the person that she was portraying.

This made me think more deeply about the importance of how a character is dressed.  It is obvious in, for example, a period drama to see at a glance that what the actor is wearing indicates the time that the film is set in, his social standing, his job etc.  Costume can include both makeup or wardrobe choices used to convey a character’s personality or status, and to signify these differences between characters. Costume is an important part of signifying the era in which the film is set and advertising that era’s fashions.

‘Costumes can be described as aids by which film makers tell their stories. Although costume designers play a crucial role in making characters realistic, they are less celebrated and recognized as actors and directors.’ Indie Film hustle

However, I wondered how many clues a costume in a modern piece gave to the audience about the character.  This led to the train of thought about the messages that we consciously or subconsciously send out to other people on a daily basis, i.e. non-verbal communication.

Non-verbal Communication

We, partly due to our shared knowledge and experience, can immediately recognise and identify semiotic clues in the way people dress.

“Semiotics is a way to explain how an audience makes meaning from codes ….. decoded meaning wasn’t created by the person decoding it, in a vacuum; instead, the meaning already existed. They merely took the signs and applied their pre-existing knowledge.”  Reeper M, Film Inquiry.

A circus clown wears clothing that is put together in a way that is intended to promote a comedic effect.  The Queen wears full royal regalia on state occasions, to show the pomp and ceremony of the event.  These two examples are exaggerated in their appearance and design, however, we are surrounded by ‘clothing clues’ and the first impressions that they give us about the individual; we can identify religions, musical interests, cultures, group affiliations amongst other things, by the way people are dressed.)

‘the type of clothing a person wears can also serve as a form of body language. People often use clothing to signify their age, gender, political views, and economic class. ….’ Pelham L

Before you even hear them speak or know anything about them, you probably make certain assumptions about a person based on their clothing. This form of non-verbal communication has been used in semiotics in film, television and the theatre since their inception.  Once I had firmly established this thought process in my mind, I felt completely invested in the characters that I would help to ‘dress’ and portray in the way that the writer and director had envisaged them.

Working with the character – character/costume development

When the actors were working on their character biographies for a character development exercise, they did exercises such as looking through their wardrobe and selecting items they thought the character would wear. It was important to listen to the actors’ opinions and collaborate with them, as the producer and director wanted the film to be collaborative and for the actors to have an input into the overall creative process.

Characters’ costume selection

There were five interviewees, all with very different and distinct personalities.  After the initial production meeting, the producer and director changed the characters quite a lot from the original script, as they felt, after consultation with the actors, that the new personae worked better for the film.  The interviewees were, Pippa, Mark, Amanda, Charlie and Shona.  The other characters were unnamed, i.e. a receptionist and the interviewer.  I will not go into too much detail about the colours/styles of the items of clothing worn in this evaluation, as the full description and photographs are included in the blog entries.  Also, there is not room to itemise the costumes for all of the characters, so I have only listed a few below, the rest are in the blog entries.

Pippa

A recent graduate who felt that she was better than the other candidates because of her education level and her slightly middle-class roots.  I felt that she would be dressed in business/casual clothing, however, the director and the actor felt that she should be wearing jeans and a jacket.  In retrospect this could be put down to the fact that Pippa overthinks everything and tries to second guess what the interviewer wants, so she may have talked herself out of wearing ‘traditional’ interview attire.  Her final outfit was quite smart and up-to-date.

Mark

The team wanted to portray Mark as a bit of a ‘mummy’s boy, and his interview outfit, which was sourced from the costume department, was quite dated and looked as though it had been selected by someone older, i.e. his mum.  Mark also had a scene in his house, where we saw him dressed in a ‘onesie’, again this was an attempt to put into the viewer’s mind that he was quite immature and childlike.

Shona

It is implied that Shona is only attending the job interview because she has to in order to keep her benefits, this was discussed with the director and the actor.  To try and convey this disinterest in the job, Shona is seen wearing totally unsuitable clothes for the occasion.  We sourced some tracksuit bottoms, a tight tank top, a hoodie and some garish chains during a shopping expedition.

How would the costume choices look on screen?

In costuming the characters, we had to think about what looked good on screen. We avoided checked and striped clothing and busy prints, where possible, one exception to this was the check jacket worn by ‘Mark’, which we felt was ideal for his persona, and stuck with bold colours. It was important to Tom, the director, that the characters wore some brightly coloured clothing, he wanted a splash of colour to make the aesthetic of the film more visually appealing and eye catching.

Conclusion

I felt that I learnt quite a lot about the process of ‘dressing’ a character from the research that I did, and by thinking more closely about the signals/visual clues that what we wear conveys.  I found that I was looking at people around me and thinking about clothing choices.  This helped me to invest in the process of costuming.  The budget was fine for what we needed, some items were available in costuming, and most of the actors brought in items from home.  The only thing that I feel could have been done differently is that Saorise and myself could have been more involved, in an observational capacity, when the actors were talking about their characters.

Word Count – 1,086

Reaper M, www.filminquiry.com/analyse-movies-signs

Indie Film Hustle https://indiefilmhustle.com/costume-design/

Pelham L, http://www.bodylanguageexpert.co.uk/clothing-form-non-verbal-communication.html

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Pink Polo shirt requested by producer who wanted character to be a silicon valley app developer 'wannabe' in Salford.

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Amanda final costume. Amanda's character is an instagram model and influencer. Iona provided her costume and makeup herself

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Amanda first draft of costume

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During the filming process our job was simple, take the costumes to set each day, take them back to the lockers in the evenings. I also took the boys shirts and trousers home each night to iron the trousers and wash and iron the shirts- for continuity. Roisin and I took turns taking responsibility for the locker key.

See Below; Charlie Costume

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For the first film ‘Just Business’ I was given the role as ‘Design Team’ with Saoirse and Roisin. Saoirse wanted to do props alone. Roisin and I were left with costume design and hair/makeup. Costuming could mean making costumes, maintaining costumes, dressing actors, designing costumes or supervising the costumes while being worn on set or on stage. I found this definition online;

‘The costume department is responsible for finding, creating or hiring the costumes for every character on screen.’ ScreenSkills 2019

We spoke to the director and producer about their visions for the costumes in the film, we also spoke to the cast about what they felt would be worn by their characters.

On the first day of pre-production we made a costume list; see below. We also booked an appointment at Costuming. On the second day, we had the fitting at costuming where we found some items- Marked on list below. For the few days following we went to Manchester to buy clothes in Primark and looked in thrift shops, vintage stores and sample sales, we looked at costume our actors had brought in themselves and narrowed down choices, and we discussed makeup with the actors. By the last day we had the costumes all sorted, for most female actors we also decided they would do their own makeup for the sake of timing and the products they owned at home.

On the last day we were given the additional task of making the electronic props/advertisements to be shown on the Ipads. I made the advertisement for the job interview; and the interview form.

See below. Shona costume.