Make Up and Costumes in Film
 |
| Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands. All the marks on his face are done by professional make-up artists with prosthetic make-up |
*Makeup and costumes are part of the "mise-en-scene," or the aspects of movies that form the composition of the shot. Other elements of mise en scene include the set design, the lighting, the position of the camera and the movement of the actors.
*Makeup and costumes are an extremely important aspect of that because they help establish the film's overall look, which in term contributes to the mood and tone the filmmakers hope to establish.
* Different techniques of applying make-up are used depending on what genre of film you're going for, for example, Sci-Fi movies will rely heavily on prosthetic makeup and/or CGI to create a realistic representation of any alien life present.
Here's an example: The character Mystique from X Men 2 (X2)
Here's an example: The character Mystique from X Men 2 (X2)
 |
| Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort. Here, A lot of prosthetic make-up was used, as well as computer generated effects to remove his actual nose and replace with a snake's. |
* Prosthetic Make-up, or FX Prothesis is the process of sculpting,moulding and casting to create advanced cosmetic effects
*Moulds of a face or a body part are normally made with "Ultra-Cal30". A negative mould is also made to ensure that the outcome is realistic as possible
*One of the hardest parts of prosthetic make-up is keeping the edges as thin as possible. They should be tissue thin so they are easy to blend and cover giving a flawless look.
 |
| Lily James as Cinderella (2015). In her iconic blue dress, the audience can assume that this is the moment where she becomes like a princess; from rags to riches |
*Good costumes are not only good to look at, but allow the audience to make judgements about certain characters very quickly, and identify and solidify the genre the movie is portraying.
*The novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which is a few hundred pages long, was adapted into a film format of only 149 minutes. Costumes play a major role in making this possible because viewers of the film make assumptions about the virtue of characters according to their cultural assumption.
* The costumes give the audience visual clues as to what kind of character they will be portraying, for example in a typical horror movie, the final girl for example will be dressed modestly, in jeans, a simple t-shirt, hair possibly tied back, in order to make the audience believe that she is innocent, in comparison to a female victim, who'll be dressed provocatively, red lipstick, high heels, and the audience is less inclined to sympathise with her.
*Costumes can also be used to present false assumptions, for example in A Clockwork Orange, Alex, is dressed in mainly white clothing, which leads the audience to believe that he's an innocent character, which is not the case.
* Bad costumes can cheapen the movie as well as unbelievable. If the audience can recognise that the costumes aren't matching to the genre, or too stereotypical, it can become a bad representation of the genre.
 |
| Two people playing characters from the movie Castaway. |
No comments:
Post a Comment