Initial Ideas For Costume

As referred to in previous posts, from very early on in our thought process our group decided that the main characters in our film needed to be interesting with particular quirks, rather than bland and repetitive – something seen in most Sixth Form produced short films. As ideas propped up and our main idea began to take shape, so did the look and feel of our two main characters – the patient and the psychiatrist. Though still currently nameless, all of us have quite a clear image of what these people will look like and how they will act. This post will focus on the potential costume and look of the two characters, and how we intend to use particular items to manipulate a designated audience reaction.

Our protagonist, who will be referred as ‘the patient’, has gone through many incarnations throughout pre-production, starting off as a basic man with typical problems that therapy would usually help with. He has developed into a complex person with some interesting hidden agendas. After the patient grew into the character we wanted him to be, our group had a long discussion about how he should look and why. After a couple of generic ideas, we thought of some clothing that would work very well with a particular scene that had already been storyboarded. The scene involves the patient slowly getting dressed, as the clock in the room is ticking backwards, and gaining momentum while getting louder and louder. The patient will get very stressed before finally lashing out. Our group had decided early that the patient has inner problems but desperately craves to be ‘normal’ on the outside. Because of this, we decided that he would want to dress smart most of the time, as if by doing that he would seem important to the outside world. But the patient can’t quite get as smart as he would like, as he has a distinct scruffy look about him, and his ‘smartness ‘will never be as elegant as he wants. So in the scene mentioned above, the patient will be getting dressed into particular smart items, such as stylish trouser and a shirt and tie. But as the clock ticks backwards and the pulsating sound invades his mind deeper and deeper, he will become agitated and rip his shirt or tie, perhaps signalling that he has had enough and just wants to get out of his diseased conscience and explore his fragile inner world.

Our group agreed that this idea for costume was very interesting and would raise a lot of enigmas among audiences, so we decided that the patient would be wearing smart clothes in every scene he is in. A selection of shirts and ties will give the impression that the patient tries to work hard on his appearance and has various outfits, as if that he feels that’s what most ‘successful’ people do, and desperately wants to be like them. This can be compared to one of my favourite films ‘American Psycho’ (Dir. Mary Harron, 2000), where the protagonist Patrick Bateman always has to look his best and be seen in the most expensive restaurants to show his power and how successful he is. Patrick can never stand to be second best, and when fellow co-worker Paul Allen shows off his impressive new business card, something with as little meaning as that to the rest of the world is the kind of thing that puts Patrick in dismay, and he happily kills Paul with an axe shortly after. Our character has similar feelings, though not quite as extravagant. He feels inadequate that he has to be in therapy, as all he wants is to be seen as normal with no distinct problems. By being in therapy this is ruining his idea of an ordinary life, and he feels the psychiatrist is standing in the way of his happiness.

Overall, our group feels that the character of the patient is a very interesting one that audiences will be intrigued by and will maybe see a small part of themselves in him.

Our other main character in our film is the psychiatrist. Our group has not developed this character nearly as much as the patient, as the psychiatrist will not have that much screen time, but will still play a major role in our film. The main scene that he will command will be when he is talking to the patient in his office during a therapy session. This will likely be the scene with the most dialogue, and we feel this scene needs to show the psychiatrists hold over the patient.

The psychiatrists costume will look basic, but we hope that by choosing the correct colours and general look, he will have a dark undertone about him. Most psychiatrists wear normal clothes, usually smart-casual. As a group we thought that either a pair of jeans or semi-smart trousers would be adequate, along with a casual shirt underneath a dark jumper. The psychiatrist wants to make his patients feel calm around him, so doesn’t dress over the top. The jumper could be the colour of brown, as that usually symbolizes friendliness and trust, which the psychiatrist wants to establish with his patients. The trousers will also be dark, most likely black.

This costume may seem generic to some, but we as a group feel that by dressing like this, the psychiatrist also wants to be ‘normal’, or what he believes being normal is. After doing his job for quite some time, he feels like he has connected too much to his patients over the years and is now just as damaged as they are. He wants to act as regular as possible, since he doesn’t have many friends and perhaps by dressing in a ‘friendly’ way, his patients might befriend him and he will be able to have a typical relationship that stereotypical ‘normal’ people have. Our group feels that by having this similar connection hidden inside both main characters, the final outcome will have almost an ironic feel to it, as the other person is what each of them have been looking for, they just didn’t know it because they were both too afraid to share such deep emotions with others.