Research: Mise En Scene: Costume, hair and make-up - Mrs. Quinlan

Costume, hair and make-up

What is costume hair and make-up? Why is it an important convention How can it help with character representation and understand?

Creating a thriller film, the director alongside with the head of mise en scene must both decide on the characters specific characteristics that include unique individual differences such as their costume, hair and make-up in order to portray them in a particular way by also giving them particular roles to follow for example the protagonist, antagonist and victim.

A characters costume is one of the most crucial factors when making a thriller film or any type of film in fact. The costume determines the characters role in the particular film by their clothes that they're wearing in the whole film or just a scene. The costume immediately allows the audience to identify whether they are the protagonist, antagonist or victim. For example, a common conventional protagonist would be wearing bright colours to show that they're good and not afraid to show they're identity or in some cases they might be wearing black and covering their identity but this doesn't mean their the protagonist. Certain key characteristics you want to point out are if you're struggling to make a judgement on a character whether the protagonist or antagonist is if they're look a certain way i.e scary, revolting and intimidating, they are most likely the antagonist. If however they look cool and heroic than chances are they are the protagonist. For a female victim, they conventionally always look vulnerable, innocent and pure which is why they always wear warm, bright colours such as white.

Hair and make-up is used to create an image of a characters appearance. It is also very important convention as these key elements also make up the characters suitable role in the movie. For example, if a character plays a role if an antagonist who usually hides their identity, they usually have make-up that does this job. The hair of the character also adds an extra characteristic to their character as it also adds to their particular persona. 

Examples of stereotypical clothing:

Se7en - Antagonist

Stereotypical clothing for a psychotic antagonist could possibly wear the color orange. Just like from the film 'Se7en', the antaognist wears an orange jump suit which denotes that he has been in prion making him already a dangerous person. In this scene, he is led by two detectives wearing the opposite colours. The colour orange is combined with the colour red that we all know too well connotes danger. It is also mixed with the colour yellow which connotes the opposite. The colour and red combining with the colour yellow making the colour orange associates with joy and sunshine telling that this antagonist is happy with what he is done. In addition, he is quite proud and confident with the choices he has made by murdering those many people. However mixed with the colour red, it also tells the audience he is psychotically creative with his murders and determined to kill anyone in his way including the detectives.

Blade - Protagonist

The protagonist from Blade is portrayed with a superior and dominant look through the use of his cool costume. He wears dark clothing which is quite ambiguous and can connote dark and evil intentions however the leather material clothing makes him look very cool and superior which tell the audience he is the protagonist. There are many protagonist which also wear dark clothing such as 'Ethan Hunt'. The protagonist is able to fight the antagonist and overcome any particular issues he has with the villain with confidence reassuring the audience. The protagonist has no makeup but wears black shades to hide his identity so it is not revealed to the antagonist as it could put his normal life in danger.

Scream 1996 - Victim

This would be a conventional victim as she shows her vulnerability through her brightly coloured clothes. We know she's not a protagonist, instead she's a victim because they're aren't key characters that show her heroicism such as a costume she would usually fight her antagonist with - instead she is wearing everyday clothes to show that she is in fact a normal person and not a hero.

Hair and make-up

The Dark Knight - Joker (Antagonist)

This is a great example of hair and make-up. The joker from the dark knight clearly presents himself to the audience that he's the antagonist. He looks much more frightful with scary and disturbing make-up on - the red and white that connotes danger. His hair that is messed up and green illustrate envy and deceit.

The Hunger Games - Katniss (Protagonist)

Katniss from the action thriller 'Huger Games' shows that she is an independent and strong character which the audience are allowed to guess that she is the protagonist. We know this as her make-up is quite simple and is not overdone which shows that she is mature and independent. The minimum make-up she has on is neatly put on making her look harmful to others and as a result wont make the audience afraid of her instead, happy to see her.

Scream 1996 - Casey Becker (Victim)

Casey Becker the character from Scream 1996 is clearly seen as a victim as she is a conventional character who plays a victim. She has neat blonde hair, pretty make-up on which demonstrates her vulnerability to danger. Sometimes the victim and protagonist can get mixed up as they are very similar in many ways because of their harmful persona. To differentiate the victim and protagonist between each other, the victim always wears slightly more make-up than the protagonist as they have more time to do this and less responsibility. It also shows that the majority of the victims are teenagers which make them more vulnerable.

In this scene from the dark knight, the antagonist makes his grand appearance scaring everyone at the Wayne Party. We know that he is the antagonist because of his costume that are coloured deep purple and green. It symbolises jealousy and envy that straight away we as the audience can infer. He's hair and make-up also looks frightful as the dark black around his eyes cover his true identity.
Soon-after the antagonist is confronted by a brave citizen that shortly after becomes a victim, we know shes the victim as she is stereotypically beautiful, her hair and make-up is neatly done that connote that she has nothing to do with fighting against a protagonist or antagonist.
Then after we are pleasantly introduced to the protagonist of the scene who attacks the antagonist. He wears an amour to show that he fights, in this case, fights against the antagonist to save the people around him. He wears a cape to show he is a hero and looks brave with the muscles we can see from his suit.

Conclusion:

I have learnt that the micro-element Mise en scene that involve the costume, hair and make-up of a certain character is important because it helps the audience infer who they are and what they're role portrays for example dark coloured clothing is conventionally associated with antagonists as brightly coloured clothing associate with protagonists or sometimes even victims.
After doing this research, I now know clearly about how to represent my characters appropiately with the use of hair, makeup and costume. When representing the antagonist, I know that I should use dark coloured costumes to allow the audience infer their evil inentions however i can also be creative and use colours like green and orange which show psychotic intentions and envy. The antagonist can either have messy hair or neat hair depending how psychotic he is that can synmbolise if he's wealthy or not.
If I want to present my protaognist, I know that I can use dark clothing but I need to make sure that this type of dark clothing is leather to show his/hers superior and dominance. I can also use light coloured clothing to present an antagonist to inform the audience that he/she has good intentions however I must be careful when I present the victim as they both have similar types of costume. To differentiate these two different characters, I can use props such as fake blood to use for the victim as it tells the audience that the victim has been hurt due to the lack of strength the have to defend themselves unlike the protagonist.