Essay About Set Design And Era Of The Times

The Shining
“The Shining”        Costume and set design can either make or break a movie usually. Music and lighting set the tone and feel of the movie, but the costumes and set tell the rest. They introduce you to the character without anything be said. You see the backdrop, already knowing their settings and where they live, you see their costume and you already judge their occupation, attractive or not, and their economic status. Already alone, we are judging the character. They also, set the era of the times. We can assume the year or decade it took place based on the costumes and sets. As a fashion major, I typically look at clothes right away on a character.         From the opening scenes, we first meet Jack Torrence. Already, us as the viewers, judging the main character by how he dresses. The colors of the scene are warm and bright, and his clothes are professional colors while professionally dressed, already assuming occupations. Going through the job interview we find out, we meet Wendy and Danny. Since I was not around when this movie came out, I didn’t have any preexisting knowledge of who she was and what age she was around. She may or may not have been a big movie star of the time. She seemed very childish like, I almost assumed maybe a babysitter or girlfriend of Jacks. We come to find out Danny is their son together and that they’re married. After looking back on the film I put together that, we typically see Danny with the same color scheme throughout the movie, red and blue, which is vibrant colors typically seen on mostly kids. When on their way up to The Overlook Hotel, Jack and Wendy seem to almost blend together. They’re typical shades of greens, yellows, and browns at the time. We finally see their affection for each other in the scenes of their tour through the hotel. Wendy is pointing out to us for the viewers, to observe the setting and hotel, it has very Native American influence throughout. While his parents on a tour, Danny has his first interaction with the hotel. Two girls, who we can assume are similar in age and twins due to their looks and colors of their dresses (red and blue). Thinking back about the previous caretaker of the hotel had twin daughters and putting together what might happen. At the end, I did see it as more of a foreshadow to what was coming for the Torrence family.         As we move on, we can assume time has passed and we see that by the way Wendy is walking through the hotel. She doesn’t seem to be anxious or lost, as if she’s done it several times by now. She also seems to coordinate with the wing her room is in. When Danny and Wendy go through the maze, I like how they contrast with the greenery of the hedges. It sets the mood of the scene that they’re happy and everything is bright usually meaning good and warm. Eventually more time goes on as we can tell by the weather playing as almost another character in the movie. Especially towards the end of the movie does the weather play a role in how most of the things end out. Jack seems to still be wearing neutral, boring, adult colors. Wendy comes out in another scene wearing a bright yellow “tribal” jacket I would call it. Typically, we don’t see many people, especially adults wearing that bright of a color and even the color yellow at all.