FROM CHARACTER TO CLOTH: Analysing Costume Design on Screen

Abstract

From Character to Cloth: Analysing Costume Design on Screen examines five key components in costume design for screen. The five chapters include: Observation: Analyses how designers make appropriate and balanced design choices by utilising accurate and curious observation methods. It explores how rigorous observation can enrich research outcomes, textual comprehension and design interpretation. Collaboration: Considers and evaluates director and designer practices and relationships. The study focuses on four internationally recognised creative partnerships including: Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, Luchino Visconti and Piero Tosi, Tim Burton and Colleen Atwood, Martin Scorsese and Sandy Powell. Character and Function: Investigates how the performer’s physicality, their individualism and character interpretation are supported by costume and how the costume impacts on the performer’s dramatic arc. It considers the process of how performers and designers collaborate when developing a costume, and measures how colour influences the audience’s understanding of character. Design Styles and Themes: Examines how unique design styles are created utilising layered and ambiguous design choices. Four films are analysed, including: Death in Venice, Brazil, The Wizard of Oz and Mildred Pierce. The study looks to identify the different style elements and how they are combined creating each film’s individual style and character. Mise-­‐En-­‐Scène and the Costume: Observes the costume’s emotional and visual impact within the moving screen composition. It explores how costume can manipulate emphasis and focus and how it has the ability to underscore storytelling and communicate subliminally. The research and analysis in screen costume design is cross-­‐referenced with the writer’s 28-­‐year career as a designer for live performance.