Lesson video

Hello there, my name is Mr. Burt and welcome to your drama lesson.

This is the fourth of five drama lessons, looking at understanding the roles and responsibilities of the creative team.

Now, so far we've looked at the roles of the director, the set designer, the lighting designer.

And in today's lesson, we're going to look at the costume designer.

But first of all, let's just make sure we've got the right equipment before we make a start.

So, in this lesson, you will need the following things; you will need an exercise book or a piece of paper and you will need a pencil or a pen.

So, make sure you've got those pieces of equipment before we begin.

So, this is the rundown of our lesson today.

We're going to start with looking at the keywords we need to succeed in our lesson.

We're then going to learn about the role of the costume designer.

We're going to learn a little bit more about costume design itself before we create our own costume designs, then we're going to do a quiz at the end of the lesson.

So, some key words we're going to need in this lesson, we're going to start with the keyword of costume.

Now, costumes are outfits that actors wear when they are in character.

So, they help to add another layer of communication to the audience.

Stage makeup is what is applied to an actor's face to emphasise elements of their character, such as age or status.

And then production style.

Production style is the overall look and feel of the production as defined by the director in their directorial vision.

So, before we move on, let's just think about that directorial vision and what information is in the directorial vision.

Is it basic set design ideas? Basic costume ideas? The script? Or information of the style of the performance? Which of these do you think you would find in a directorial vision? Tell me now.

That's right, you'd find all those three except for the script.

The directorial vision is like a manual.

It's the book that everyone refers to.

The director sits down at the very beginning of the process and they think about what kind of performance they want to do, what they want to communicate to the audience and how they want that communicated.

So, they will set out ideas for the set, for the costumes, for the lights.

They will set out ideas for how they want the performance to be performed in terms of style, what they want their dramatic aims to be.

They will then set out ideas about the character and how the actors should perform it, so, that directorial vision becomes a manual for that production.

Something that all of the job roles within the production team will go back to and refer to, to make sure that the job they're doing is on the right track.

Now, the role of the costume designer is quite complex and it isn't just a case of simply going to the costume department and taking out some costumes that you think would be appropriate.

You need to take into consideration time and place, style and character.

Time and place refers to the way the costumes can communicate the time of day and the time of year and the location of the play.

The style refers to the fact that the costumes need to refer, fit the style of the play, whether it's naturalistic or abstract.

And then perhaps most importantly is character.

Costumes are a really efficient way of communicating information about the character's background, about their status, their age, their wealth, their social class or even their profession.

So, when we go about designing costumes, we need to think about these three things.

We also need to think about colour, materials and texture as a way of communicating time and place, style and character.

So, starting with colours.

The symbolism of colours are important to costume design.

It is a visual element that the audience can clearly understand.

Colours can also be used to show connections between groups of characters or to show individual character status.

What the character's costumes are made of the materials of costumes can also communicate a lot about a character too.

So expensive or decorative materials can communicate that a character are really wealthy, whereas worn or dirty materials could communicate a lower status character.

And texture as well, the way a piece of material feels, the texture of material can add realism and authenticity to a costume.

We're going to have a look at some examples of some costume, how they've been created and what they're communicating to us as an audience.

Now, we're going to look at this one first and I'm going to to take you through it to begin with.

So, this character here has short hair, they have no visible makeup on, they weren't in glasses, that might be a choice of the costume designer or that might be that the actor needs to wear glasses, they've got a fitted t-shirt, they've got a well-fitted unbuttoned textured shirt on, they've got fitted blue jeans and nice brown shoes.

Now, that's how the costume designer has worked and created that costume.

Now, what does that costume tell you as the audience about that character? Pause the video now and make some notes on what you think that character is as being communicated by what they are wearing in their costume and resume once you've finished.

Okay.

So for me it communicates that the character young and wealthy.

He is relaxed and comfortable.

Everything he is wearing is fitted, he hasn't just gone to any old shop to buy clothes or hasn't got clothes which are handed down from other people, they are purposefully bought to fit him.

So, he's quite wealthy.

He's also got quite a young fashionable taste.

The location where he is, it's quite warm but not too warm.

He's got a t-shirt on and a textured shirt over the top of it.

He likes to dress smartly, he looks smart, even though he is in casual clothes and he's chosen to wear nice brown brogues, brown shoes rather than trainers in this circumstance.

So, you see the choice of a costume for a character can communicate quite a lot about them before they've even started to act.

Let's have a go at this character here, perhaps a more challenging one I think as well.

So first of all, pause the video now and write down what elements of costume do you see and then resume once you've made that list.

Okay.

So this is what I see so far.

So, we've got a headscarf and a dark coloured cardigan, I think it might be purple quite hard to see in the night.

The headscarf that she's wearing falls down to form a scarf.

There's a reddish coloured top and everything she wears above her waist is quite fitted almost too small for her.

Whereas she's wearing a light coloured long and flowing skirt.

Let's think about what that costume is communicating to us as an audience now.

So, pause the video again and write down a list of things that you think this character was communicating to you as the audience and resume once you've finished.

So, from my perspective I think these costumes is communicating that she's quite a low status character, perhaps a maid or a servant.

Her clothes are clean but they are not fitted.

Everything above the waist looks quite tight, everything below the waist is long and flowing.

She looks after them because they're clean but they might not be hers originally they might be handed down from older generations or from somewhere else.

Her clothes also are not special material.

That again gives the sense that perhaps she is of a lower status character.

Working as part of the backstage team in theatre can be very dangerous.

And there are some really important health and safety rules we need to follow.

And although today we are looking at the design element of things at some point in the future, you may go on to do some stage design and be working on the stage.

So, we need to be aware of the health and safety regulations we need to follow.

The first and most important one is that you shouldn't work at height using ladders or scaffolding unless you are trained.

You should be careful lifting heavy equipment, not to injure yourself.

You should wear protective shoes and gloves and falling objects can be a risk.

So, never work on stage when someone else is using a ladder or a scaffold.

So, we are going to be doing some design work.

Now, when we're preparing for design work, we need to think how our designs are going to meet these four requirements, content, style, dramatic aims, and atmosphere.

Now, all of these will be detailed to you in the director's vision.

But content is making sure your designs match the time period the play is set in and the details of the scene, such as what time of day it is and where they are.

Style is making sure you are aware of the style of production, whether it is naturalistic or minimalist.

And make sure that your design meets the dramatic aims as well.

Make sure your designs reflect the aim of the performance, how the audience will enjoy the performance and what they will gain from it.

And atmosphere, make sure you're designs reflect the atmosphere of the piece of theatre.

So, it's over to you now as a costume designer, so here is your commission.

You have been commissioned as a costume designer to design the costumes for the forthcoming production of Romeo and Juliet.

Now, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and is a tragic love story between Romeo and Juliet.

Sworn enemies who fall in love.

Their tragic deaths at the end of the play are the lovers' attempts to save themselves from being parted due to their families ongoing conflict.

Now, in this particular production, it's going to be set in 2050, so in the future.

In an age where technology has become even more important to the day he running of our lives.

The two families are divided by technology.

One family who can afford to have access to everything and one family who can only afford the most basic technology.

Now, the style of the production is going to be naturalistic for the time period.

The mood and atmosphere is moody, tense and indeed threatening.

The production aims to entertain the audience through the tension to the story and to educate the audience on the dangers of technology and the divide they can create when you can't access it.

You are going to design both the costume and makeup for Romeo and for Juliet.

So, I'm going to take you through the two characters.

We've got Juliet, who is 18 in this version, comes from a wealthy background.

Her family has access to money and has bought her all the most up-to-date technology.

She rarely sees the outside world, making most of our connections and interactions online instead.

She is drawn to Romeo because he's not excited by technology.

The actor playing Juliet is 25 years old.

Then we go to Romeo.

So, Romeo who is 20 in this version, comes from a lower economic background.

He has grown up without access to new technologies when they were developed and he rarely gets things secondhand either.

He's trying to break away from technology to find human connections and interactions instead.

Now, the actor playing Romeo is 32 years old.

So, this brings us up to your task.

And your task is to meet my costume design commission.

So, complete your commission to design a costume for the characters of Romeo and Juliet in the upcoming production.

Make sure that you aim to achieve communicating the context, aims, style and atmosphere of the production to the audience.

Once you've done the two designs, resume once you've finished.

So, how did that activity go? How were you able to use costume and makeup to communicate the context, style, aims and atmosphere of the production.

Costume and makeup design isn't as easy as you first think.

Now in this particular director's vision, it was set in the future in 2050.

So, how did you interpret that? How were you able to communicate the context of that to the audience? And that technology divide between Romeo and Juliet, how were you able to communicate that with your costume? Did you feel that your costumes were moody and threatening as the atmosphere of the production demanded? What about that tension between the two characters? Think about makeup for a moment.

Remember Romeo was an actor who was 32 playing a character 20 years old.

So, were you able to use makeup to age the actor? Maybe you need to just reflect over the work you've created so far and change and develop some of it so that it meets the directorial vision of the production.

Well done on your work today.

Costume design can be really tricky and really tough to be able to communicate all those different aims in the directorial vision.

So, well done in your work today, you should be proud of what you've done.

Before we finish let's just check our understanding of costume design.

Which of these can costume not communicate to the audience? Time, location, character's motivation or character's status.

Point to which one costumes cannot communicate to the audience.

That's right, character's motivation.

That comes from at the character the actor is understanding of the character and how they deliver and say the lines and movement.

Whereas time, location and status can all be communicated through the character's costume.

Why not share your costume designs with Oak National? If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter tagging @OakNational or #LearnwithOak.