The Importance Of Costume In Character Introduction
In Scriptnotes episode 237 John August (@johnaugust) and Craig Mazin (@clmazin) discuss the importance of hair, makeup and wardrobe in character introduction and description. They don’t give much in the way of concrete examples, so here’s one that comes to mind from the DVD extras of Shakespeare in Love. Geoffrey Rush is interviewed and says that costume designer Sandy Powell told him, “I think your character is a one-outfit-kind-of-guy.” She issued him his costume and that’s what his character wore throughout the whole movie. Rush thought this was wonderful and credits the insight with helping him get a more perfect take on his character.
I’m sure the script by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard was excellent and helped Powell come up with this insight, but this could have easily been done by the screenwriters. Rush’s character could have been introduced as a “one outfit kind of guy,” and the reader (and costume department) would have been privy to this notion from the start. Of course, it is impossible for one person to have every idea, and this just proves how collaborative a medium film is, and how important all the departments are to the finished film.
