Planning: Costume

These are my initial ideas for costume design for my music video. After casting certain actors to play the various roles, I will upload images depicting the exact outfits that they will wear in the various scenes. Until so, these are the sorts of styles and colours of outfits that I am planning on using. All colours and styles will be chosen to reflect certain stereotypes and symbols, through the use of colour and presentation.

Main Character: 

The main character is a male teacher. To capture the approachable, calm demure of the character, I will ensure that they wear a casual style suit. This encompasses both the smart nature of what a teacher is required to wear in their job role, as well as the protagonist view. I want to create a character that the audience with perceive as approachable, helpful and well-socialised in the school environment. This will then contrast with how he behaves in his own home and in his own company. In these scenes, his suit will become slightly less smart to categorise his loss of emotional control and lack of attention towards his appearance and more towards his deteriorating mental state. I will pair the suit jacket with either a jumper or t-shirt (as above). All of the components to this outfit should be easily accessible.

The most important part of this costume will be the staff lanyard. Including this will help to distinguish the difference between the various individuals in the scenes in the school location, as well as help to strengthen the narrative. Seeing this will inform the audience of the characters job role, and aid them in identifying their personality traits based upon their choice in career. The stereotypes of a teacher include: organised, work orientated and caring/considerate of others. I want to generate these presumptions to create contrast between his outward representation (in the school), and the reality of his troubled home life. This contrast should work to create an interesting and thought-provoking narrative.

The main character will also wear brown brogues. One reason why I have chosen to use these as opposed to plain black shoes is because they suggest a type of informality. In his profession, one would presume that he'd wear very formal black shoes, whereas the brown brogues suggests that he is comfortable in himself.


Another piece of costume that the main character will wear is a pair or glasses. Preferable, these will be a tortoiseshell design to compliment the brown brogues, although plain black glasses would be just as fitting. I have decided to include these as they help to develop the idea of the character being intellectual. In addition, the use of these could be symbolic of his tendency to over analyse life and the meaning of things, leading him to a state of depression and worry.

Overall, the costume of the main character has been chosen to capture both denotations and connotations of each colour and overall style. I am planning on using camera work to focus on certain parts of the characters clothing to draw the audiences attention towards them. For instance, one of the opening shots will be of his shoes, where he is walking down the corridor and into a classroom. Then there will be a deep focus shot of his torso where you can clearly see his staff lanyard.

Background Actors: 

The background actors will be wearing similar attire. All actors playing other members of staff will be supplied with a 'staff' lanyard to wear over shirts, blouses or any other smart clothing that fits the stereotypes of teachers.

Then, anybody playing the role of a student will be supplied with a uniform so that they can be distinguished from the 'teachers'. Hopefully, this should contribute to a successful representation of a schooling environment, through strengthening the aesthetic. I am planning on sourcing the uniforms from my schools spares cupboard and using my peers old uniforms.