Setting And Costume

Setting




'Harmony In Green', 1997, Oil On Canvas, Dan Hays



Of the piece the artist has said,  'Monet chose 'Harmony in Green' as a sub-title for a water-lily painting. I was reminded of impressionism as I was filling in the spaces between the bars of the cage. Green is the colour of nature. I wanted to show the cage as a desirable place to occupy. The painted cage is confined within the rectangle of the canvas. I find the notion of harmony interesting. In a classical sense there is discord in the painting. Harmony is to be found in the play between surface and the illusion of depth. There is a feeling of hope that these opposing domains may be united.'

From seeing this piece exhibited in the Walker Art Gallery I found myself thinking about spatial awareness within art works, especially for my final piece. I've realised that with the work I've produced so far this year I have focused alot on the way it is presented and the space around it. I am interested in confined spaces and the sense of control that comes with creating them, no matter how sparse the subject. This gave me the idea for my final piece to film deliberately keeping the backdrop in the frame, creating a specific location and control. Thus exaggerating the idea that the models/actors are placed there with no sense of freedom or self decision. An unescapable cycle and idea. 

I want the setting to be in black and white colours only, juxtaposing the characters from their background and helping them stand out.

Costume

For my short film I have decided I want my actors/models to be wearing all black, tight clothing for a professional finish; tight clothes to define the actors shapes and movements, and black to prevent distractions for the viewer. I want the actors to represent universally, and not just to a single stereotype of person. The colour black will work as a blank canvas in front of the white backdrop from the studio. As I am trying to represent the animalistic chracteristics of both genders I want my actors to be wearing some form of mask to hide their indentities, so we see them for simply just their genders and not who they are as individual people. The idea of wearing a mask also hides the actors emotions and facial expressions. Something that I think is relevant for my work and the idea I want to communicate. It takes the humanity away from the characters and portrays them as a 'species'.

At first I covered the actors masks in newspaper cuttings of the media. Focusing on the idea of them being covered/hidden/represented by the world/locations surrounding them. After a while of thought I realised this wouldn't be the best way of communicating my piece as it takes away the primitave nature of my work and modernises the idea of human communication a bit too much. 

I decided after experimenting with costume that my fmp piece would be more successful if the actors/models, just simply wore animal masks. Relevent to my idea and subtle enough to hide their identities.