Costume Planning

Before undertaking our filming we decided to plan out what costumes our actors should be wearing to portray their role within the trailer. Therefore Nicole and I started to gather our ideas on our first actor that we were going to film which was the husband. We thought that seeing as he is a wealthy and affluent man, we thought that the best way to portray his character is by having him wear a suit. This is significant as he has just come back from his business trip. The suit is intentionally black to show that even though he is one of the victim’s in the trailer, he also has a dark past that will be discovered within our trailer. This is due to his dreaded and dark past in which the suit could represent him hiding beneath his wealth. The symbolism or iconography of the suit could represent an armour almost to signify that later on in the trailer, the symbolism of the suit will soon act as a defence mechanism to guard and protect his wife from the killer on the loose.

After having deciding on what the husband is going to wear, we started to discuss what costume the killer would wear to enforce her characteristics and the symbolism behind it. A typical killer is stereotyped to be wearing black or red, as these colours signify death, blood and darkness. Even though these stereotypes are true, Nicole and I decided that it was too common and it gives the story away in the sense if the killer was to wear black and red. Therefore we decided for our killer to be wearing white, in which signifies purity and lightness. Hence the lightness will contrast her dark past. Although this is also true, it is too obvious so we wanted to non-conform and switch the looks of the killer and the husband, which would challenge the audience’s expectations. Therefore we wanted our killer to wear everything white, and we also came up with the idea that the killer would wear a doll’s outfit to portray innocence to juxtapose the audience expectations. This was inspired by the Woman in Black trailer, because within the trailer there are dolls and toys that are signified in a subjective manner, also challenging our expectations. The make-up of the killer would also be pure white with a hint of black eye make-up, emphasising the hint of darkness, but not hinting too much away.

We then thought of what the wife would signify by her choice of costume. We initially thought that because she is the victim, she should be wearing white or vibrant colours to underline her shy and timid characteristics. Seeing as she is just married, she is excited to see her husband for the first time since their wedding day, as he had other commitments concerning his work. Therefore the wife is obviously content, but the event of the trailer is to prove that her content nature is to be destroyed in a matter of minutes. As a result of this, Nicole and I thought that it would be effective if the wife was to wear black in addition to her husband, as they are both on the same boat. She is to have no make-up on to show her innocence and purity from her face rather than through her costume.