Female Costumes

                                

Costumes are important in both film and music videos, as it is a strong indication of genre.
In our music video, we decided to have a strong contrast between costumes to highlight the difference between the characters: the man would be dressed in normal, everyday clothes, whereas the woman would wear elaborate evening clothes. The GIF to the left summarizes the ideas we were thinking of: flowery, elegant, simple. These images are either from clothing companies, fashion photoshoots or art pieces. Ophelia is typically associated with flowers- after going insane, she hands out flowers and herbs to guests at a banquet and eventually drowns herself in a river with flowers floating around her. Below is the dress we will most likely use.
Flowers typically bear the connotations of innocence and childishness (which Ophelia has in abundance) but as our music video will be quite a dark and dramatic film, we decided that the dress should reflect this atmosphere too.
We had debated whether or not to use a dress with flowers, or to say simple with a plain white dress. We decided to do both- we put a spin on the typical 'girly' flower dress, choosing this black and white one.

                                                  The necklace is very important- it symbolizes danger and adventure, while remaining calm. It is the object which identifies her in this video, in contrast to the flowers of the original play.






















As this character is running through a forest, this dress may not be ideal- the thin chiffon could easily tear on twigs and branches. The length may also pose a problem when running- it could be a trip hazard. However, its long skirt allows a lot of movement, making it more suitable for running and the stark black and white pattern is fits well with the atmosphere we are attempting to create in the video. Another issue would be the dress getting dirty- although I am prepared to get dirty, I would prefer it if my clothes remained clean. I'm not sure about being bearfoot- the ground in some locations we are considering is quite sharp/disgusting. To solve this I might wear flip-flops. Jewellery should be kept to a minimum- I think the ship necklace goes well with the title: 'Closer To You', it emphasizes distance, and alludes to Ophelia's drowning.
In the end, we opted for this outfit

It's a lot less dramatic and more subtle. The dress above was quite loud and statement like, whereas this one is calmer and offers a more ghostly aspect. It also has a timeless aspect to it and appears more innocent- the direction we were going for. I didn't want my legs to be bare, so I decided to wear white stockings. This would also be useful in making Ophelia look more 'dead' and transcendental if she was pale. 
I also used make-up to create the Ophelia look.
I decided to create a short make-up tutorial showing how Ophelia's subtle look was made. It was very simple- we decided to 'go for a natural look' (as they say). Have a look below.