Costume Drama Adaptation: From Fantasy to Film

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I believe the best performance area for this text to be adapted to is film. I feel this way as the film industry has made so many technical advances over the years and I would like to use this technology to help create the fantasy world I have imagined. The use of CGI would really enhance my transformation scene of the princes turning into swans. Disney's Beauty and the Beast (2017) used this technique, when the Beast was turning back into his human form.

Seeing the princes turning into swans in the same way will improve the cinematic experience for the audience, as the transformation happens seamlessly which makes watching it more magical. As more people have access to watching films, producing for film means it will reach a wider audience. Streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are becoming the most common way for people to see new things as you can watch the films/ tv shows in the comfort of your own home.

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Many of the films on these sites come with the option of subtitles for those hard of hearing and audio descriptions for people who are visually impaired. These added features gives the disabled community the same chance to watch films and television shows as everyone else. Live action fairy tales have become very popular over the past few years Disney's (2015) Cinderella and Relativity Media's (2012) Mirror Mirror were very successful as they appeal to a wide audience. The costumes in both of these films don't have a particular time period, the designers have taken inspiration from many different eras.

This works well for fantasy as it makes the world more believable when we see familiar shapes of the clothes. For my take of the wild swans it will be set in 1770 France. Not many fairy tales have a specific time period for their costumes, but the design for the costumes in my version will be historically accurate to make the fantasy world more realistic. Making for film means the textiles within the costumes can be more detailed but I will have to think how to hide my machine stitches and other modern fastening as the camera will be able to pick up this detail. Once I start to make I will sample a few different techniques of how to finish my costume whether that be hand stitching or exploring other historic techniques of sewing.

To make the audience feel like they are in 1770's France every part of the costume will have to be historically accurate, this will also include the undergarments. Choosing to make even the corsets historically correct means that the shape of the costume will be more credible. I believe that by making the undergarments exactly how they use to be made will help the actors get into character and make their movements on screen more authentic. Here the costume designer for Victoria, Rosalind Ebbutt speaks about how the corsets got the actresses into character. "She just looked amazing in it. She was always perfectly dressed and just really keen to look right as Victoria. All the females wore a corset, even the servants, because it makes them stand and walk like a Victorian - not that Jenna wouldn't have been able to do that - but it just helps." (Ebbutt, 2016)

The first setting in the story is a grand palace, so the most suitable fabric for my characters in this scene will be rich velvets and silks that are heavily embroidered. I have included a lot of gold in the costumes, so they tie in with the d?cor of an 18th century palace this is also one of my themes for my costume. The settings in the film will have to be chosen carefully, as they need to mirror what is happening in the story. For example the film will start in an extravagant palace which is home to Elisa's family, but once the king marries the evil queen the setting will change to darker colours. This small change in tone will be foreshadowing the misfortune the family will soon experience. By changing the lighting the costumes appearance will change, they will lose their glimmer and the colours will have dulled down. Once Elisa and her brother get banished we follow her on a trail to find her brothers through a deep and dark forest to the coastline. Filming on location will help with the movements of the costume and we will be able to see the struggles women would have had to endure whilst wearing these clothes. When Elisa and her Brothers fly to the new land all the colour will slowly get brighter signifying a better life for them. This will also help the audience to distinguish the different countries the characters are from. The last scene in the film will be of the prince picking a white flower for Elisa and them walking to their castle in a wedding procession like no one has seen before. I want this scene to start off dark like we saw in the palace at the beginning of the film, and as the film gets closer to ending and everything is going back to how it should be the lighting will change to warmer and brighter tones.

The use of colours will play a very important role in the creative process to reflect the mood of each scene. Wes Anderson is one of the most famous auteurs to use this technique. 'But when watching any of Anderson's oeuvre, it's not just these aesthetic signposts I notice, but also the director's acute sense of relationship between colour and emotion. In fact, colour in Anderson's work has become almost shorthand for interpreting the themes and feelings of his characters and their circumstance.' (Harding, 2017) Here Harding explains Anderson uses colour to foretell the future of his characters. Using Anderson's concept of colour in my own work will make the Wild Swan a more alluring and engaging film to watch. The use of colour will support the films theme of fantasy fairy tale making it more enchanting

This survey was created on the site surveymonkey.com and was titled Costume in film. By creating this survey I will get a better understanding of what people enjoy and notice in films. The survey was shared on multiple social media sights so that one may get varied results from a wide variety of people. I was very surprised at some of the answers given in the survey. I didn't expect as many people to be able to recognise when a film is set from the costumes worn. But this support my reasoning for choosing a memorable time in history, so that the audience will be able to tell the era it is set.

As I have designed my costumes to have contemporary textiles I set the question 'Would it bother you if a costume wasn't historically accurate?' to see if this design aspect would ruin the costumes for the audience. Luckily 47 people out of 74 said No, which supports the design choices. For the rest of the survey results see Appendices

SIX REVIEWS

Finding six suitable reviews was my next step to helping me understand how other companies interpreted the story and how I could take inspiration from their work to help develop my characters and plot. Looking at the reviews will also help me to understand what the audience enjoys seeing and I can learn from past productions mistakes.

The first review that was selected was the 'Successful adventure film with scenography by Queen Margrethe II' by Morten Bagger (2009). This review has been translated from Danish and is about the Danish film De Vilder Svaner and how Queen Margrethe involvement in the design process made the film more interesting. De Vilder Svaner is a low budget hour long Danish film that was only shown at a few cinemas across Denmark. In this review we get an overview of the plot, how the Queen was involved and the film process. Bagger explains how the Queens input helped to create the magical world the film is set in seen in quote, "The queen's decoupage is the colourful and beautiful background". The acting in the film isn't very memorable but the background for the film is very interesting as it is one of the most artistic and imaginative ways I have seen animation used. This technique has helped to bridge together the limitless worlds of fairy tale illustrations and the realism of live action. These two very different techniques work seamlessly together as they have combined traditional and modern techniques together to make something that makes this film standout from the others.

My second review is about the same film but with a different opinion. As this is the only version of my story made into my chosen performance area I wanted to read as many reviews as possible, so I could get a better understanding of how to set my film and how I can develop my characters. My second review is titled, 'A beautiful but stagnant swan' by Ann Lind Andersen 2009 for Berlingske, this review has also been translated from Danish. In this review Andersen writes see in quote "Unfortunately, there is a fall on the tail over the technique alone. And it is allowed to overshadow what is still the most important: history" (Andersen, 2009) This review gives an in-depth examination of the plot of the film and explains how the focus of the film is not where it should be. "Technology and form overshadow the history and film in 'The Wild Swans', which are most interesting because of the Queen." (Andersen, 2009) Anderson's clear opinion of the film is that although the queens work is beautiful it is to elaborate and takes us away from the story and the history.

Overall both reviews remark on how captivating the Queen's work is as her use of decoupage makes for a beautifully interesting backdrop. But this detail overshadows the acting and costumes in the production, as the audience attention is on the ever changing background. The two reviews don't once mention the costumes in the film and that is a clear sign that the costumes weren't memorable. This was noted down so when the author comes to designing and making the costumes they won't make the same mistake In order to gain a greater understanding of different performance areas two more reviews were found on ballet production. The first review was, 'Wild Swans' by The Sydney Morning Herold (2003). This performance area is different to my last reviews as this version of the story has been made into a ballet by Meryl Tankard. The Wild Swans was the work of Australian Ballet and was performed at the Sydney Opera House, so the budget for this production would have been larger than standard ballets. The costumes, settings and effects for this show were more elaborate because of the budget size. This is very apparent when compared to other production of The Wild Swan, the quality of the costumes don't even compare. The visual design for Wild Swans was inspired by the eccentric paper cut-outs of Hans Christian Andersen's book illustrations. The costumes are unconventional as the Wild Swans isn't a classic ballet, so the designer had the chance to play around with silhouettes and see in quote "It is both a witty dig at ballet classicism" (The Morning Herold, 2003). See in quote "Stephen Baynes, begins the action by introducing elaborate, paper cut-out figures

The second ballet review is by Zo? Anderson for the Independent on the London Royal Opera houses 2018 Swan Lake. Producing a new swan lake is a huge undertaking as it is such a well-known ballet. The Opera house haven't changed the storyline at all just modernised the dancing. The costumes are still very traditional with Anderson saying, see in quote. "His costumes have sculptural weight while moving beautifully, with the swans in delicate high tutus." The costumes still have that magical element to them that make them seem bird like. As this is an age-old ballet the lack of change throughout it goes to show that the storyline, dance and costumes don't need to change with the times. As it has been directed so brilliantly throughout the years, change would ruin it.

I have pulled from these two reviews that as the wild swans is not a popular story, I can take the production in any direction I would like, as there would only be one other film to compare it too and not many people watched that film.

Looking into other historical period dramas was the next step in gaining more information on what makes a costume drama successful. The first film reviewed was the 2008 Biopic called The Duchess. The review on the film is called 'All she needs is love' and is by Deborah Ross for The Spectator (2008). The film is set in 1774 and follows the life of Georgiana Spencer later known as the Duchess of Devonshire. The Duchess was a fashion icon in her day, so the costumes in the film were very regal and extravagant. When reading Ross' review, she says see in quote "This isn't a ground-breaking film in any way whatsoever, but it does give good costume drama, and that's always enough to swing it for me." After watching the film for myself I took from the quote that the film was too well mannered and didn't show what life was truly like at this point in history. The costumes are the only pleasing thing to watch on the screen, as that was the only way to see how the Duchess and her fellow counterparts lived. The costume in this film won the Academy Awards for Best Costume Design in 2008.

Another film set in the same period with a female character as the lead is the 2006 biopic 'Marie Antoinette'. This film takes a quirky approach to depicting Antoinette's life at French court. Though this is a period drama it is filmed more like a chick flick. The review by Ian Freer for Empire (2006) gives a similar response to mine by saying, see in quote. "Giving the finger to period-drama conventions, Coppola re-spins Marie's young life as an exuberant teen flick." As Marie Antoinette lived a very extravagant life, the energetic way of filming works well for depicting the early stages of her life. The beginning of the film is filled with fashion and parties but as the inevitable is going to happen the films starts to lose its energetic momentum. "Once Marie finally settles into motherhood and the arrival of the baying mob brings down her luxuriant lifestyle, Coppola can't muster the interest or cinematic brio that marked the first half" (Freer,2006). From this review I have gathered that the film started like Antoinette's life with lots of promise of being successful but as it goes on the films slowly starts to decline. This could have been directed purposefully but if so I personally don't think it works.

In both the films (The Duchess and Marie Antoinette) the costumes outshone the acting and story lines. Both took very different approaches at depicting these historical figures lives. In order to make The wild swan successful both the costumes and the story lines have to be equal to each other. Making the shapes of the costumes historically accurate with modern fabrics or embroidery worked well for these films and I will be taking that idea through to my textiles.