Film Styling, Costume Design, Makeup Design, Production Photography: First Class

Year Learning Objective: “To introduce a basic understanding of the effective process through the styling design of fictional character dress that aims to be affective for an identified target film viewing market.”

Workshop Learning Objective: “The workshop is focused on the introduction of concepts paramount in understanding the aim and process of a CMSP designer to effectively affect a target viewing audience.”

Otherwise known as CMSP (Costume, Makeup, Styling, Photography), this class is not as ‘easy’ as it’s stereotype. It demands a large amount of concentration and terrific listening skills. I rate this is because it requires so much psychological research into a character/(s).

I admire the way Mr Ivy teaches because it actually makes you think and self-reflect. This workshop revealed how easy it is for us to be psychologically manipulated. It happens daily, all around us. In other words, “…If someone manipulates your thoughts and emotions, messing with your head, you naturally feel resentment: he or she has distorted your perceptions, disturbed your feelings, maybe even usurped your self” (McGinn, 2008:1).

Research into the styling of a character is so absolutely imperative in order for them to be relevant in the story and believable by the audience. One doesn’t understand this fully until they actually have to research a character and link their psychology (value systems, personality) to create emotional relevance for the script/story.

I must admit, sometimes I struggle to understand all the different concepts presented in class, but after time I begin to understand them as they all revolve and work together.

Production Design: First Class

Production Design really interests me in the sense that you can decipher A LOT from the aesthetics of a film.

I learnt that everything (everything) placed on a set has to have meaning. (Isn’t that the purpose of film anyway? Man’s unending search for meaning). Everything placed in a scene has to have some form of a purpose that is not solely for practicality reasons.

I learnt more about the ‘hierarchy’ of jobs within the film industry currently, and I definitely agree with Miss E that it should rather be a group effort – a collaboration of rich ideas and new perspectives from every crew member in the team. It reminded me about the mini experiment in a Production Course lecture: two groups of people had to be creative with plastic white cups. The one group, led by a single leader, produced a simple and straight-forward cup tower. The other group, with input from everyone, produced a very artistic cup tower. Enough said.

The assignments for Production Design seem creatively challenging, which I love. The one that seems the most challenging to me is the ‘Reinvention of a Fairytale’ assignment. I think it will become ‘easier’ once I actually have an idea of what modern day societal issue I want to confront.

Upon being reminded of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I learnt that this is a useful tool to help define one’s target audience. To have the ability to directly influence a specific audience is a great opportunity.

Below is a rough draft of my ideas and inspiration for my project group’s term 2 film.

Producing Experience

Starting the term with producing definitely equipped me with basic knowledge about organisation in film.

Like all things in life, Producing had its pros and cons. At first, I really enjoyed discovering what a producer actually does. I was very interested in target market research, coz you gotta get “bums on seats” after all, ya know?

Producing also consisted a lot (A LOT) of trips to the printer, which I wish I had been aware of beforehand. The student struggle is real.

The bulk of the work was done in pre-production, so yes, it can get quite boring on set. Especially on 5 sets. But juggling 5 groups was definitely tough and even though you are only getting marked for your main group, the workload of 5 groups still remains.

All in all, I cannot claim to have a full experience of producing, as the financial side (no budget) and location release (only allowed to shoot on campus) side were not ‘properly’ experienced due to being in first year.

Producing is great if you are research-savvy, organised and able to cope with people and changes easily.