Evaluation- production role costume
For our FMP of ‘Great Expectations’ I was given the
production role of costume for act 2 along with Ella and Chloe. In our first
meeting together we all discussed our individual ideas for how we wanted the
costume in the show as well as how we wanted to achieve it, moving forward from
this we looked at compromises between ideas and developments on them. I believe
this was a very good way to start our production role as it allowed us to all
be on the same page as we went forward. However to have improved this first
meeting I think we should have made contact with departments such as make up,
finance and props quicker to allow us to know what kind of budget we were
working with as well as telling other design team departments our ideas and
hearing theirs.
Whilst being in this production role I believe I have used
listening, artistic and compromising skills as well as having developed skills
in areas such as design, IT and teamwork. I believe I have used all of these I believe I have used all these skills
whilst being in the production role as I have had to communicate effectively
between departments as well as in my own. If I was to continue the production
role further I would hope to develop my IT and design skills as I feel these
are some of my weakest skills.
In my production role I am most proud of our
ability to have got costume for the show without having a budget as our limited
time frame made it very hard to fundraise we instead went to the costume department
in school and sourced costumes for characters with the help of Miss Niven and Miss
Goodall. These costumes ended up and as there were a limited number of bold
costumes it made them stand out even more. Another way we sourced costumes was
with the help of our great expectations Facebook page which all cast members
were a part of. We were able to post a list for each part/gender saying what we
needed them to supply themselves and we were also immediately made aware if
anyone couldn't supply something by their comments.
Over all I think the costume for the show
turned out extremely well as we were able to dress everyone in costumes that
effectively showed their character to the audience as well as stuck closely to
the description of the characters that are given in the script. It also looked
very bold on stage and showed the contrasts between classes, ages and areas. However
there were some weaknesses as I feel not all actors costumes were properly dressed
on stage and some shirts looked scruffy making them look out of place for some
peoples roles, as well as this I feel some characters costumes were so bare
that they didn’t show clearly who they were, for example chorus in our act didn’t
have a single piece, such as a hat, that tied them all together like act one
did. And if we had had more time I would have tried to source a piece that made
them look more like a unit and more connected to pip.
Below I have done an individual evaluation of
some of the key characters costumes in the play:
CHORUS
For the performance
we dressed chorus in:
Black smart trousers
A white shirt
Traditional flat cap (act 1)
I believe this effectively
communicated to the audience their link with pip as they were dressed very much
like pip with the exception of pips waistcoat. The costumes were also flexible
and comfortable enough for the chorus to move easily on stage as this was a
point they had brought up in class mentioning they had lots of physically
demanding blocking that their costumes needed to allow them to do.
The use of the flat cap in act 1
and the lack of it in act 2 was used to show the transformation of pip from the
country to London, it also showed how he had matured and left parts of his
childhood behind.
To have improved the chorus’
costumes I would have tried to get a piece, such as a coat or top hat, for the
act 2 chorus to communicate further to the audience that he has become a
gentleman.
PIP
For act 1 we dressed pip in:
Black smart trousers
White shirt
Black waistcoat
Traditional flat cap
This allowed the audience to see
the lack of money pip had as well as the fact that he was just an everyday boy
and the contrast between him and the characters of a higher class. This costume
was also very similar to chorus’ which allowed the audience to make the link
between the two parts.
For act 2 we dressed pip in:
Smart black trousers
White shirt
Smart blue coat
Top hat
This costume showed clearly the
transformation of pip and him becoming a gentleman, it also showed a much more
mature side to him which meant the audience saw the development in time and
that pip was now much older. This costume also contrasted with the ones of his
family, such as Joe, and made it clear that he wasn’t like them anymore and
that he had possibly lost touch with them. The costume also fitted much better
with Estella’s showing that pip had worked his way up to her class and was more
eligible to her now.
ESTELLA & MISS
HAVISHAM
Estella and Miss Havisham’s
costumes stayed the same throughout the piece. We dressed Miss Havisham in:
White wedding dress
White veil
This costume was given in the
script and was often described by characters so we tried to make the costume
fit its descriptions. The bright white of the dress was very effective as
against the black background it really stood out and showed the ghost like
figure of the character. As the costume was very bold this helped in showing it
was still the same character when actors switched.
We dressed Estella in:
Black tights
Pale pink dress
This dress effectively communicated
her class to the audience as well as her relationship to Miss Havisham as they
were the only too characters dressed in dresses like these. It was also
extremely important for Estella to be easily recognisable during the play as 3
different actresses played her.
