Visual Storytelling through Costume Aesthetics: Comparing Coming 2 America and Living in Bondage: Breaking Free

Abstract

Costume is an element of film production, which compliments other elements to enhance a production. Costumes in films take an important role as it is the medium that the designer uses as a narrative and present it in visuals to tell the audience the story of the characters. The story of any film would easily be told through the costume, because one of the aims of costume is to characterize the wearer such that the audience could easily understand the kind of person that the action of the film is going to unfold, for instance, that period the character is in? What class division the character is in? The gender of the character, the occupation of the character, the characters age and so on. The definition of character using costume lies with the designer who must combine both artistic and intellectual creativity with common sense in other to find and help create the inner spirit of the character within the production. With the use of tools and techniques of make-up, accessories, fabric, color and line in costuming, the designer reveals the character role through their physical appearance. Costumes are the most visual aspect of the performing art, as they are the clothing that the character or actors wear to portray their roles. This paper explores the effective use of costume and also its beauty in coming 2 America and Living in bondage (breaking free). Aestheticism and Semiotic theories are used to investigate into how meaning is created and meaning is communicated through the use of costume. At the end of this work we will see the effective use of costumes from the two movies and how film makers, theatre practioners and playwrights should take the role of costuming seriously because they are information givers and the speak accurately to the viewer’s more than dialogue itself. And also, recommends that film makers should pay more attention to costume being a vital aspect of film making.