Notes On Costume, Make-up and Props

Costume

The type of outfits that would be worn is very different for protagonists and the antagonist. The protagonists are mercenaries so they would be wearing clothing that is suitable for their range of work, however, because they are not actually working for the military they are not going to be wearing military grade clothing. They would be wearing clothes that are similar to military clothing, however, it is required that the protagonists add a mix of casual style clothing to make them separate from the military. The style of clothing we have chosen is suited for a mix of warm and mild weather so it is important that we choose to film on a day that has our desired weather. For example, a basic shirt and work pants is one way to dress up a hired mercenary. The antagonist is in charge of their own group of people so it’s important they all dress up in a uniform , this is important so that the audience can easily identify who belongs to which group in the film. Although, it is required that we not only show the audience who the leader of the group is by how he acts alone, we need to present him to the audience that he is superior to his henchmen by making his uniform stand out more and more presentable. For example, the henchmen could wear a dress shirt, tie, suit trousers and smart shoes, whereas, the leader should wear this but also include a blazer to make him stand out more. One of the inspirations for how we wanted the mercenaries to look is from the film Sicario and also we took some inspiration from characters in the game Battlefield 4.

Make-up

Our group will not be using make-up for the duration of our film, although we will be showing people getting shot in our film we will not be using make-up instead we will try to make it so that the camera doesn't focus on areas where they would have been shot.

Props

The props are a key factor in my film as it is about criminals and corrupt police. Weapons such as guns and knives are important to help reinforce to the audience the themes of danger and perhaps insanity about characters. For example, the antagonist has a preference of knives which shows the audience that he is insane and has complete disregard for his life as he would rather get up close and personal to kill anyone who stands in his way. Whereas, I have chosen to give the henchmen and the protagonists guns, the reason I have done this is because I wished to have the henchmen be completely different than their boss as this would help make him stand out more as a character and also to show a contrast in their attitudes as the henchmen are not as fearless compared to their boss. The protagonists have guns as they are also not as fearless when it comes to death, furthermore, I felt that it would be important to give the antagonist a motif to help the audience identify him by.

Overall

I feel that we successfully created the look that we need our characters to look in the opening to our film as we managed to get the right type of clothing for the protagonists which are consistent of mainly work trousers and one of us even needed had a tactical vest for the opening, however, if I were to improve their looks anymore it would probably be getting another tactical vest for the other character to wear, although that may go against the representation of that specific character that we wanted.When it comes to the antagonist I feel that we got the look we wanted him to be like as I said the antagonist that is a leader of an organised criminal gang needed to have a smart look to him that presented him to be quite powerful and influential to his men and the suit really that he is wearing really helped bring across that point that we were looking for. Props chosen for the opening I feel was quite successful as we had given an assault and carbine rile to the protagonists which can be used to interpret that they are more trained compared to the henchmen which are only carrying just pistols to fight back with, the antagonist uses knives and this was successful for helping create the style of character that we wanted for the film as the suit helps show the audience his influence and his status among his men however the knife can be used to represent his insane tendencies and that he is more feared among men than respected.