Meet Andrea! + Costuming Options

            My main character is going to be Andrea Castro, a 16 year old high schooler who finds herself in a difficult situation when she has to take a pregnancy test. In the scene, she is incredibly anxious and shaky. She and her family are religious, which has an impact on her as she is taking the test and gets the positive results. 

So, how am I going to demonstrate this through mise-en-scene? More specifically, through her costume? 

            Andrea is going to be wearing a gray sweater to show depression, dullness, and frightfulness. Usually characters wear this article of clothing when they don’t really care about how they look because they have greater issues to worry about (such as being pregnant).  For example, Eddie Brock from Venom (2018) wears a gray hoodie, which helps illustrate the conflict and hardships he is going through: 

            For the audience to be able to see the accessory Andrea is going to be wearing, she’s going to use a zip up sweater instead of a hoodie. 

            The aforementioned accessory Andrea is going to be wearing is a cross necklace. This is to add conflict to the fact that she had premarital sex, which resulted in her getting pregnant. This contributes to the tension as Christianity disapproves of this, and since her parents are also religious (which can be inferred), she could be in even more trouble. As she is waiting for the results, she is going to be fiddling with the necklace, demonstrating the larger, internal conflict in her mind. I want it to be a subtle, casual necklace to indicate that she wears this cross everyday, meaning it holds significance to her. 

            Andrea is going to be wearing plain jeans without a design to contribute to the sense of her not putting a lot of effort into her outfit. 

 

            Her nails are going to be in a bad state; they’ll either be bitten because of nerves or have chipped nail polish to show she hasn’t bothered to take care of them. The audience will be able to see this when the shots focus on the pregnancy test in her hands. 

            All of this is going to help establish the serious tone of the film and aid the audience see that there is more conflict in the story than what meets the eye. 

Until my next blog post,

Michelle

References: 

Ferreira, Nicole Martins. “Color Psychology: How Color Meanings Affect You & Your Brand.” Oberlo, Oberlo, 4 Jan. 2022, https://www.oberlo.com/blog/color-psychology-color-meanings.