The work of a designer

Costume designers create the look of each character by designing clothes and accessories the actors will wear in performance. Depending on their style and complexity, costumes may be made, bought, revamped out of existing stock or rented. Their designs need to reflect faithfully the personalities of the characters in the script. The shapes, colours and textures that a costume designer chooses make an immediate and powerful visual statement to the audience. Creative collaboration among the costume designer, the director, the set and lighting designers ensures that the costumes are smoothly integrated into the production as a whole.

Stage costumes can provide audiences with information about a character's occupation, social status, gender, age, sense of style and tendencies towards conformity or individualism. As well costumes can:

- reinforce the mood and style of the production

- distinguish between major and minor characters

- suggest relationships between characters

- change an actor's appearance

- suggest changes in character development and age

- be objects of beauty in their own right.

Costume designs also need to include any accessories such as canes, hats, gloves, shoes, jewelry or masks. These costume props add a great deal of visual interest to the overall costume design. They are often the items that truly distinguish one character from another.

Costume designers begin their work by reading the script to be produced. If the production is set in a specific historical era the fashions of this period will need to be researched. To stimulate the flow of ideas at the first meeting with the director and the design team (set, costume, lighting and sound designers) the costume designer may present a few rough costume sketches. This is also an appropriate time to check with the director on the exact number of characters requiring costumes. It is the costume designer's responsibility to draw up the costume plot. The costume plot is a list or chart that shows which characters appear in each scene, what they are wearing and their overall movement throughout the play. This helps track the specific costume needs of every character. It can also identify any potential costume challenges, such as very quick changes between scenes. When the director and production team have approved the costume designer's preliminary sketches she or he can draw up the final costume designs. The final designs are done in full colour. They show the style, silhouette, textures, accessories and unique features of each costume. Once the show opens the designer's work is essentially complete. Now it's normally for the job of a wardrobe assistant to be sure that every aspect of the production runs just as the designer intended.

IV Answer the questions:

1. What is the essence of costume designer’s work?

2. What is the main task of a stage costume?

3. What can we get to know from the costume?

4. How do costume props help the overall design?

5. How does costume designer’s work start?

6. What is a costume plot?

7. How do final designs look?

V Complete the sentences with the words from the text:

1. … such as hats, masks, gloves, etc. are very important for costume design.

2. Before starting his work a designer should know the number of ….

3. … shows the overall movement throughout the play.

4. When the show opens the work of … starts.

VI Find the English equivalents to the words:

вистава, попередній, проблема, брати напрокат, забезпечувати, зовнішній вигляд, загальний, сценарій, придатний, інвентар.

VII Make up sentences with the terms:

costume designer, costume props, rough sketch, costume plot, lighting designer, visual statement, accessories.

VIII Give definitions to the words:

jewelry, sketch, accessory, to revamp, visual, to distinguish, fashion.

IX Translate the sentences into English:

1. Художник по костюмам працює разом з художником-декоратором, художником освітлення, групою акторів та режисером.

2. Аксесуари допомагають створити завершений образ акторів.

3. Художник по костюмам повинен передбачити всі можливі проблеми з костюмом.

4. З костюму ми можемо дізнатися про вік, соціальний статус, професію та смак героя.

5. Робота художника по костюмам починається з вивчення сценарію.

6. Після того як режисер схвалить попередні ескізи костюмів, художник по костюмам може створювати остаточний дизайн.

7. Остаточний дизайн відображає стиль, силует, аксесуари та особливості кожного костюму.

X Speak on the topic using the following words and word-combinations:

costume designer, rough sketch, accessory, creative collaboration, to provide, final design, costume challenges, performance, character, to integrate, to reflect, costume props, costume plot.

TEXT B

I Read and remember:

1. brand-new – абсолютно новий

2. niche – ніша

3. chainmail – кольчуга

4. rivet – зáклепка

5. pliers – щипці

6. audacity – сміливість

7. to expel – виключати (з якої-небудь організації)

8. “Chambre Syndicale” – _франц. профспілка підприємців

9. freelance – позаштатний

10. coup – вдалий хід

11. to succumb – піддаватися

12. mauve – рожево-бузковий

II Read the text and define the main idea of it:

Paco Rabanne

“Don’t seduce, shock!” was the motto of fashion designer Paco Rabanne. He radically broke with the past which Dior had so successfully revived. For Rabanne the future meant brand-new materials.

He found his niche when he began designing plastic jewelry. His next step led to independence: in February 1966 Rabanne showed 12 “unwearable dresses” made of plastic disks and in September he presented his first garments made of aluminum with leather and ostrich feather trimming.

In the 1960s his futuristic metal dresses became to show business celebrities what white satin dresses had been to the Hollywood sirens of the 1930s.

Every modern girl wore Paco Rabanne’s chainmail, which was stitched not with thread and needle but with hooks, rivets and pliers.

Paco Rabanne has never gave up his experiments with unusual materials.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16