Geek costume

After attending the Media conference with Pete Fraser and watching several examples of previous work we now understand how important characterisation is and what you can do to define the differences between characters. The first step in characterisation is costume to achieve this successfully we had to look at the stereotypes of the character we're trying to portray, then include appropriate colouring and styles. We decided our protagonist is to be seen as an unpopular geek like girl .

 

Dictionary Definition:
Geek- a peculiar or otherwise dis-likable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
Nerd-   1. a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person. 2. an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nerd

 

Here are a few of the classic images which appeared when researching generic images of "Geeks/Nerds" into google. The common trends in this stereotype, think framed glasses;with a pristine dressed attire although with a cringe, old-fashioned look to it e.g. bow-ties, sweaters, shirts all worn buttoned to the top/tucked in to trousers worn appropriately above the hips

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

From this extreme stereotype we have taken certain influences to create our own stereotypical Geek/Nerd outfit consisting of:

• Home made blue and white woolen knitted Christmas jumper
• Black skirt
• Bright yellow tights
• Converse shoes
• Rucksack
• Thin rimmed large thick glasses

 

Costume from behind

Costume from the front

      

 

        If you look at these images you can see the complete costume. I feel the costume works really well to portray the stereotype for this character and the colour scheme is relevant mimicking the chosen colours for her as the superhero character. I'm also proud of the fine detail within costume e.g hair.

 

Anne Hathaway- The Princess Diaries

 

     One film which automatically came to mind when creating this stereotype was the outstanding performance by Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries (2001). This film abides by the same type of storyline as our film: A young unpopular 'Geek' girl who later learns she has to deal with a large amount of responsibility. In her 'Geek' stereotype look Anne Hathaway's hair is styled large, bushy and frizzy. Me and Mel both decided that this would be a perfect hairstyle for her and also would be a great way to show a clear contrast when we turn her into a superhero and we're able to straighten and flatten her hair portraying a strong hidden identity.   

Styling Bella's hair

       We attempted this with Bella's hair. We were careful to cast the protagonist with long hair with which we could experiment different styles with, because her hair is so long we felt the best way to go around this was back-combing and crimping. Although the crimpers were made in the 90's and took an extortinate amount of time to heat up the end result was pretty much perfect for what we were trying to achieve.