Importance of costumes and color?
Costumes are one the main elements in Film making and have a greater influence towards the audience. Costumes play a main role in describing a character, they may not directly tell the audience but always has a indirect effect towards the character. Film makers make use of color symbolism while deciding the costumes and colors of a film because colors influence our emotions and moods.
I researched about color symbolism because different colors create different emotions and moods on the audience and film makers make sure they use the appropriate color to create the emotion they want. However, there are also film makers who don't always follow the conventions of color for a particular scene. For example, sometimes scenes that portray a sad situation usually have soft and cold lighting with more of blues in them. But on the other side for the same situations there are film makers who may use of of warmer colors and clothing to deliver a completely different meaning. So there are conventions of color and costumes but it depends on what the film maker is trying to deliver.
Below are different color and the emotions that they create. It is known as color symbolism, however color symbolism varies between culture to culture, region to region, time and religion. For example, the color conventions in the west world may not be the same as in the east world. Below are the generalized color and the influencing emotions of them.
My costumes and color
P R E E T H I
Clothing - Chudidar/kameez (Tight trousers worn by Women/Men)
Color - Shades of Yellow or Blue
Preethi in the film becomes very nervous and scared. Choosing a blue color costume will allow the character connect more to the situation because the blue color relates to confidence, stability, Peace, cold, calm and security. She becomes unstable because she feels that her security is at risk and the blue color will bring a cold feeling to the scene and create the right emotion in the audience. Her costume will be in lighter shades of blue because the intensity of the color changes the whole meaning.
T H E B E G G A R / V I C K Y
Clothing - Baggy shirt & trousers
Color - Shirt (White) & Pant (darker color)
The cloths need to be dirty
The beggar actually tries to help Preethi but because of the miscommunication between them, Preethi assumes and judges the beggars behavior. Initially the beggar is shown as the antagonist but later as the story moves forward the truth is revealed. But I am going to give the audience an indirect hint about the beggar's personality at the begging itself through his costumes, I will dress him with a dirty white shirt and a darker color pant. The color white relates to purity, innocence, cleanliness and peace and thus it relates to his personality. The white color will indirectly tell the audience that the beggar is innocent and is a pure soul.
R I S H / R I S H A B
Clothing - T-shirt / shorts or trousers
Color - T-shirt (shades of Red) & shorts or trousers (Darker color)
Rish is a character, who misjudges the situation too and takes his anger out on The Beggar. Even though its hard to blame him because to what he saw and heard from his friend, that's the normal action someone would take. But Rish will wear a Red t-shirt with a darker color shorts or trousers. The t-shirt will indicate that he's a young adult and the color red would relate more to his actions that his personality. The red color relates to energy, passion, love, aggression, danger and violence. So my intend is to tell the audience that there is going to be some violence because of Rish and I am going to use the color red to do so.
K A R I / K A R I Y A P P A N
Clothing - Shirt & Pant or Jeans
Color - Shirt (Shades of Blue) & Pant (Any color)
Kari is the gentleman in the story, who is more experienced and older than the rest of the group. He comes into the screen, tries to analyse the situation before jumping into a conclusion and solves the problem sensibly. Since he's the mature person in the group so he will be wearing a shirt, that denotes his older than the rest of the group and the color of the shirt will be darker shades of blue. Dark blue symbolizes integrity, knowledge, power, and seriousness and which will suits his character.
G U Y 1 / T A M I L
Clothing - T-shirt / shorts or trousers
Color - T-shirt (Any darker color) & shorts or trousers (Darker color)
Tamil and the other two guys are young adults, who without understanding the whole situation, directly jump into the a conclusion and start beating the beggar. To show their immaturity and define their behavior, I have decided them to wear t-shirts that are in darker color and pants or shorts that are in darker color too.
L A D Y C U S T O M E R / K A V I T H A
Clothing - Saree
Color - Shades of Red or Black
The lady customer does not have a longer screen presence but she does have main role that influences the behavior of the beggar in the short film. Kavitha too misjudges the beggar in the flashback and almost slaps him and too make her role stand out. She will wear a Saree, which denotes that she's a mature and bold woman, and the color of the Saree will be in shades of red and Black. As mentioned the color red relates to aggression, danger, fire, love, passion and violence.
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