Coat
We need one of these coats as it fits with the theme of the film. Looking at the mood board, all the characters within the pictures have these coats, or something which resembles closely to these sort of coats. Any colour is good for filming as our film is going to be in black and white, however, beige, brown or grey looks better than black in any shot, as it won't merge with the long and drawn shadows that will be shown on the walls. In terms of detail and material of this coat, that doesn't matter either, However, more detail on the coat will draw more attention to it, as well as draw more shadows, this may over complicate the visuals within the scene though. We need to keep the scenes relatively simple, so our film is easy to follow even with the limited colour palette we have. Along with this coat, we are going to need a hat so it abides to the generic conventions within noir films. This will become mainly visible in the last scene where the actor walks out the door. Other than this, it may feature in the background on a coat rack, but that may be reserved for a hat placement instead. It may also appear in some of the scenes where it goes over the characters hand for a small part as the coat is large. No matter how little this costume and coat will feature though, it still needs to be taken in to consideration and still needs to be worn by the actor that will be performing for our film, otherwise if he just turned up on the day in normal clothes with no sort of resemblance from our chosen time period in which we wanted our film to be set, it will get rid of the quality of the film entirely.
Hat
The hat, as well as being a nice part of the costume which will ultimately finish the final defined look that we need, it can also serve it's purpose as a prop in the background of our scenes. I'm saying this because the character won't be wearing this throughout the rest of the film, until at the end when he takes the hate of the rack that is attached to the door, put's it on (adding some extreme shadows to the face), and then walks out the door. We can have this feature in the background to let the audience know it's there, and it will also add depth to the scenes with a blank space at the side. If a wall appears to be blank, chances are, there something we can put there to make it unique and stand out, as well as add more depth to the scenes that we shoot. In terms of colour and material, again that doesn't matter, just as long as the hats colour corresponds with the colour of the coat. In terms of detail and accessories, we don't need any for the hat, otherwise it will put too much of an emphasis on a small item of clothing that we don't want emphasis on.
Shoes
Just like the hat, the shoes won't feature much within our characters costume until the end where he walks out of the door with a long shot, however, it can feature in scenes within the film opening. Our main idea is to have a pair of shoes on the floor by the desk, so if we do end up panning over to the desk, the shoes will be visible, however, our character won't put these particular shoes on. This is mainly because they're dirty, and show a little bit of blood on them. Our character already has shoes on, so we need to take in to consideration what sort of shoes our character will be wearing. Our character needs to be wearing businesslike shoes, preferably brown as they will stick out against the long drawn shadows projected by the black and white filters and the lighting on set. We're going to add dirt on the shoes so they look dirty, so it fits with the scene.
Shirt and tie
We decided that we're going to have the actor wear a white shirt and a crimson red tie. This is mainly so that the black and white filters and long drawn shadow colours don't get mixed in with the colours of the shirt and tie. We need this character to stand out, and i'm starting to see a trend as i'm writing about these costumes, and that's that we need to take in to harsh consideration how the colours within the scene react with the filters and lighting of our scene, so our film is still readable and our characters are still visible within the shadows, even if it is mainly presented by a silhouette of the main actor, rather than the main actor himself. The crimson red tie is really important, as it presents itself as a certain shade when put against a black and white filter, so it won't mix with the colours of the coat, the colours of the hat, and the colours of the shirt.
Trousers and belt
The trousers are important as they need to be the same colour (or something similar to) the coat, as well as fir with the shirt and tie. The obvious colour here to meet this criteria would be a black or dark grey, but some other colours that would work, dependant on the coats colour, would be: brown, beige, light grey. If these colours don't correspond, the costume won't work, especially with the filters and colours of black and white. The belt for these trousers doesn't matter at all, as it will not be visible within any of the scenes as the coat will cover it up, This may need to be taken in to consideration though, so just for safe measure, i think the belt should be brown, grey or black, but it still needs to correspond with the trouser colour, and therefore correspond with the coat colour, and contrast with the shirt colour.
Accessories
Accessories can be useful, but are not required, and depends on what we have by the day of filming. For example, our character could be wearing glasses, he doesn't need to, but he possibly could for style reasons. the character could also have pens which he puts in his top pocket of his shirt before leaving, he doesn't have to, but it could lead to more scenes. However, it is a matter of obtaining these items that will become troublesome, as the accessories need to look from the desired time period otherwise it would look out of place within our set. Like i said though, we don't need to include these, it just may be a good idea to take some suggestions in to consideration
Conclusion
The consideration of the final costume is extremely important as it defines how our character will appear within the scenes of the film opening. Because of this, harsh consideration of the costume needs to be taken in to account so nothing looks out of the ordinary within our scenes, and sticks closel to the generic conventions within noir films, so our audience has the right interpretation about the style of movie they're about to be watching. Not only this, but we needed to take in to account how the colours would react with each other with a black and white filter.
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