Research and Planning Galore

The first thing I wanted to do was visualize my characters when solidifying my storyline this week. Just to elaborate on the main idea: a theater student, Iris, comes home from school and we see her come home with a poster for her school's show in her hand. She then works up the courage to ask her mom to come see her show even though she's aware of her mother's work priorities. I wanted to visualize both of their characters through moodboards so that I know how I want them to look on screen. When I thought of Iris, I had a feeling she was a down-to-earth artistic girl that always seemed to have a soft smile on her face. Here's what I came up with:

The clothing examples are just an idea of what kind of colors or clothing pieces I see her wearing because, I unfortunately, do not have purple courdoroy jeans. As for the color palette, I do want to incorporate the color purple into Iris' costume design somehow because I wanted it to correlate with her name's background. I was thinking of adding a jewelry piece that would be shown at some point in the film and for some reason, I really liked the idea of an anklet. It's often associated with beachy settings and things, but I'd want it to be a thing Iris wears on a daily basis to school and anywhere she goes. The backstage theater picture along with the posters are again just examples for me to visualize the type of vibe she has as a character, but I think it would be cool to hang up some fake playbill posters in her room for production design. Ultimately, I saw Iris as a calm and collected type of daughter that raidates an artistic vibe through her fashion expression, so I'm hoping to perhaps make or buy some things down the line to contribute to that idea I have for her character. 

I decided to make a moodboard for her mother as well, even though she'll have much less screentime:

If there's one character stereotype I see a lot in film, it's the rich mom that's usually overly sassy towards anyone and everyone in her life. Although this moodboard may give off rich businesswomen vibes, I want Iris' mom to show some characteristics of her daughter because it would make sense for them to have similar behavioral tendencies. Rest assured, her mom won't be a sassy character, I instead want her to also have a collected demeanor, but her mother gets stressed easily. She's not a great multitasker, which I want to portray through her having a phone call, but perhaps being interrupted by Iris' request at the end to invite her to the play. I chose some photos to put together a possible outfit we'll see her with, like a blazer and turtleneck, gold accent jewelry, black boots, maybe a handbag, and some black heeled boots. These are all things I already own, so I think I could definitely make an outfit like this on my own. I added the type of hairdo I see her mother with, and I immediately knew it would be a low, but sleek bun, and I wanted it to be symbolism for how guarded her mother acts around Iris. Her hair being up is akin to her defenses being held up, whereas Iris will have her hair down, and is willing to take the risk of facing rejection from her mother. My favorite part about production design has to be thinking of costumes for characters, because you can tell a whole character's personality from the things they wear. Fashion is supposed to be a personal expression of who we are as people and over the years, I've enjoyed developing my own fashion sense and I hope to put my knowledge to good use for my film opening's characters.