Reaserch - Mise En Scene:Costume, hair and makeup, body language and facial expressions- Miss Begum

What are costumes, hair and makeup, body language and facial expressions and why is it an important convention? How can it help with character representation and understanding?

 

Costumes- costume helps the audience understand more about the character, as it can guide the audience attention to particular personalities or traits, different costumes have different representations, for example if you see a girl wearing  jeans and a casual top you will instantly portrait her as the victim.

Hair and makeup- Hair and makeup is used to represent the persona of a character, it can help the characters representation as the hair and makeup will give the character the physical look that’s expected from the audience.

Body language- A characters action their movement and the way they present their selves, the body language of a character can help the audience understand what the intentions of the character really are.

Facial expression- How a characters emotion is portrayed to the audience. The look on their face and the meaning this creates to the audience.

All these aspects of Mise en scene are all an important convention because they allow the character to be understood by the viewers; also they add mystery and life to the character.

Costume, Hair and makeup: connotation and stereotypes of characters and clothing

Many characters are stereotyped due to what they are wearing and also the hair and makeup. When thinking of an innocent person you will associate them with a child or a female who dresses in a casual manner and has natural makeup and tidy hair, but then when thinking of someone bad you will think of someone who wears dark colours and has dark makeup and messy kind of hair.

Stereotypical Victim/protagonist

This character is the character of Lucy who is played by the actress Scarlett Johansson, the costumes of Lucy is very casual as she's wearing a simple white tee and jeans, the colour white represent the innocence.  Her hair is in a messy state and her makeup Is very natural which shows that she's an ordinary girl.

Stereotypical antagonist

The Joker is a very well knows antagonist, his costume is not as dark as people would expect, but the colours in his costume have a contrast, purple and green are not usually put together, but the joker seems to be wearing those colours, the green represents envy whilst the purple represents the mystery. Also the joker seems to have makeup that will not be taken very seriously amongst the audience as he has the look of a clown on his face with the white face the red lips and the black outlined eyes.

Body language: representation and meaning to the audience and expectations

The body language of a character can be very easy to identify at the start of the movie because you can see the antagonist as big, confident and pride, but then when looking at the protagonist you can sometimes see the opposite you can see them as fragile, petite over all less confident than the antagonist.

Stereotypical protagonist-

you can see in the body language of Lucy her confidence and can tell that she is she is sleek and fast.

Stereotypical antagonist-

from looking at the joker you can see the confidence in his body language the way he hold the gun with such assurance and relaxation like nothing can beat him.

Facial expressions: representation and meaning to the audience and expectations

Normally the facial expressions of a character allows you to judge the character as they are able to tell from the emotion the character is portraying at the start of the film, what kind of persona he or she has got. When the audience is expecting a protagonist they expect someone with delicate facial expressions and always genuinely happy but when thinking of an antagonist they think of someone with a forced smile, and the look of mischief in their eyes.

Stereotypical protagonist -

the facial expressions of Lucy shows the calmness but when looking in her eyes you can see her determination to get what she wants

Stereotypical antagonist-

The jokers facial expression is very serious you can see the determination and the mischief.

Thriller scene analysis of SE7EN

 In this clip you can tell who the protagonist and who the antagonist is the costumer, hair and makeup of the protagonist who is this case is brad pitt make it clear that he is the victim, as he is dressed in a smart way but also he is wearing black which shows importance, but he has a white shirt on which shows innocence. his hair and make up is very settle and natural, his body language throughout the clip shows his nervousness as he keeps fidgeting, which will portrait him as vulnerable and apprehensive.

 

 

 

Conclusion: what type of costume, hair and makeup, body language and facial expressions are you planning to use and why?

When doing my movie I am planning to use a simple casual costume for my protagonist because I want the audience to feel like the events that are going to occur in my film really do happen to innocent people, I’m also going to make sure that the makeup is not too much so the innocence of the protagonist is really portrayed, but instead of going with the stereotypical body language for my protagonist I want to go for a different approach and give my protagonist a confident look when it comes to body language so that it will make the audience think.