emilynield18

[emilynield18]

[emilynield18]

HOW CAN CREATIVE RESEARCH ENRICH DESIGN PRACTICE?

Sweeney Todd is a 2007 film directed by Tim Burton about a barber framed for a crime he didn’t commit. The cast behind the film, especially Colleen Atwood the costume designer, have used creative research to develop and enrich their design practice to create a film with a clear and distinctive aesthetic that is instantly recognisable to the audience. For my ‘design for moving image’ project I have decided to create a Gothic Victorian aesthetic throughout my work, this is a similar aesthetic to Sweeney Todd so my creative research into it will hopefully help me develop and enrich my own work.

To create her character designs Atwood initially looked at the music from the musical itself. It’s the starting point of all of it. She wanted the audience to be able to feel the texture of the costumes through the screen. The musical is very moody, and she considered textures a great way of showing this. Looking at the music for a musical before researching into anything else is a really exciting way of working, I think this would produce way more instinctual designs and encourage you as a designer to create new shapes and patterns with little influence from previous designer's ideas. The designs feel very natural and fit the moody and dark aesthetic very well. Tim Burton decided to set Sweeney Tod during the Victorian era, gothic influences were very popular in fashion during this time, so Atwood also had to design with this in mind. She also then distressed many of the costumes to indicate the class of the characters, since they would be walking around dirty streets and couldn’t afford many new clothes.

To create the desired aesthetic the crew, including Colleen Atwood, looked at neo-Victorian/ modern Victorian design. This is similar to the steam punk aesthetic yet more refined with sleeker silhouettes. I think I prefer this to steampunk, which seems overused at times and is harder to create original designs with since it has been done so many times. I think I could use this idea within my own work, I decided early on that I didn’t want to be influenced too much by steam punk however I did want to create Victorian designs since the corset I need to make is Victorian. Blending more modern designs and not being restrained by complete historical accuracy would be beneficial for my work. I might also investigate creating some initial sketches based off music that suits my production. This way I may be able to enrich my designs further and add more interesting textures.

Atwoods unique approach to using creative research to enrich her design has been very successful, as she created costumes that portrayed the initial ideas of the director and gained her huge respect across the industry. This is an approach that many other designers would be able to reproduce in their own creative research since it doesn’t take any extra resources or time that lower budgets wouldn’t have access to. From an audience's perspective this is very effective since the costumes are what creates a character, and the mood of the musical is expertly portrayed through the fabrics and surface design techniques used.

References

Fraydkin, D. (2022). “Sweeney Todd” cuts a fine figure, thanks to costume designer - USATODAY.com. [online] Usatoday.com. Available at: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-01-02-sweeney-todd-designer_N.htm [Accessed 4 Mar. 2022].

Lafleur, J. (2015). COSTUME DESIGN FOR SWEENEY TODD. [online] Available at: https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/03/81/74/00001/Costume%20Design%20for%20Sweeney%20Todd%20by%20Janae%20Lafleur.pdf [Accessed 7 Mar. 2022].

Sandoval, M. (2020). A Mid-Victorian Tale Of Madness: Sweeney Todd - The Art of Costume. [online] The Art of Costume. Available at: https://theartofcostume.com/2020/10/14/a-mid-victorian-tale-of-madness-sweeney-todd/ [Accessed 4 Mar. 2022].