Your favorite literary work is being adapted into a film! After your tremendous success with your design for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a big Hollywood producer approached you to assist in the production design for a book-to-film adaptation. For the preliminary meetings with the director, they’ve asked you to come up with costume designs and style boards for 3 characters, as well as 1 set, and 2 props.
For the meeting (critique) please bring in 3 completed (in color) drawings of costumes for characters from the book, a complete (color) drawing of a set, and complete (color) drawings for 2 props.
Critique guidelines
- Because some of us might not be familiar with the story, please give us a brief (3-5 sentences) background/summary to the story. (For example, The Great Gatsby is a story told from the point of view of Nick, a young man who moves to Long Island. He meets Gatsby, a newly rich man who throws lavish parties trying to find and impress Daisy, the rich girl he fell in love with when he was poor. The book makes a lot of commentary on rich and poor, and the roaring 20s. Daisy decides that she wants to stay with her husband instead of marry Gatsby. Gatsby ultimately is chasing an impossible dream and nobody really ends up happy at the end.)
- Let us know which characters, scenes and props you are designing….who are they? What role do they play in the book/play?
- Share any challenges/anything new or different things you learned while working on this project.
- What inspired you to make each costume/set? Was there a mood? Reference Image? Etc.
Reviewers, you are the play’s producers. What do you think of the design? Be sure to say at least 1 positive and 1 improvement for each of your classmates presenting. Things to consider:
1. How do the designs match the concept? If the designer’s idea was to make a spooky (mood) production set in today’s New York City…do the costumes and sets convey spookiness? Do they seem as if they’d fit in today’s New York City? In other words, are the successful in executing the artist’s intent?
2. What do you think is unique? Cool? Nice? Beautiful? Successful? Creative? Etc. about this design, and WHY ***** The why is super important. It’s great to hear “It’s nice” Or “I like it!” But being more specific is even better because it helps us to grow and to really understand how you feel about the work.
- ••••••••Every student/group must present. Every student must “review” at least once.
Examples: Costume Designs from The Great Gatsby
Theatrical Design 