Context

For the short film ‘How To Bury Your Sins’, I was the resident costume designer and make-up artist. This film follows the characters Alice, an upbeat employee at ‘Mr Angel’s Eradication Emporium’, which is a shop for fast funeral services. Venus, a contrastingly emotional woman who appears at the Emporium, grieves the loss of her father in a world desensitized to death. This film is a dark drama/comedy set within a shallow, disease-ridden society where personal success is valued over human connection.

In my coursework 1 report, I wrote about my initial aim; to find a way to make 80’s style clothing look futuristic as the entire production design look was aiming for a retro-futuristic aesthetic. The reasoning behind the use of this design style was that our film was to be set in the not-too-distant future of the 2080’s, letting us use retro styles and mix them with future technology. My main influence in developing this style was ‘Back to the Future Part 2’. After collaborating with the Production designer and the Director, we decided that the visual style we initially wanted to create was not working well alongside the story the Scriptwriter had written. Collectively we decided to not use the retro-futuristic style as our main goal. Instead, we decided to make it seem more like an altered, more eccentric version of our own real world.

I aimed to create this new altered world by making a clear contrast between those from within the city where the Emporium is set, and those from outside the cities where the Mr Angel and his business aren’t such a large presence. Within my vlog I explain in more detail how I designed this contrast. The basic idea was for the people within the city to be dressed rather basic and practical, with unusually bright makeup for business people. I decided to also have the men in the city wear makeup. The only person from outside the city we see is Venus, and I wanted her style to be very eclectic, quite mix and match of different colours and clothing styles. A different makeup style was used for Venus; a more abstract style compared to those from the city. I wanted to use these different styles to make it obvious to the audience about how out of place Venus is in the city.

For those seen working in the Emporium (Alice and her rival), these designs differ from the others within the city. This is because I wanted them to match the bright retro yellow theme that had been chosen by the Director. The uniform I designed is rather like a fast food uniform, most notably McDonald’s. I just adapted the styling and colouring of typical fast food uniform to match the fast funeral service.

Overall, I think I did well in incorporating some of the originally intended 80’s styles and colours into our new altered future. Taking elements from both the past, the present and anticipated future, I created designs to help solidify who the characters are and what they represent through their on screen looks.