Props and Costumes

Props
After choosing our locations for Blackmail we moved on to look for props and costumes. We took into account that the film is set in the 1950's so we couldn't really have anything modern and get away with it. We chose pretty simple but yet effective props, including old teapots, drinks glasses (antique) photographs and text that looks old and gives a vintage feel and last of all an old telephone, which would have been used in the 1950's.
The teapot and breakfast set up was used in scene two when Clark is seen in the kitchen with his wife Martha. The teapot is also used when Martha reads Clark's draft and plan against Nancy in scene five. The vintage pouring glass is in Clark's office when Nancy walks in and is offered a drink by him. The next load of props were all placed at Clarks desk in his office. We used a 1950's telephone which can be seen in the image below the desk, but also Beth printed out photograph's which were used at Clark's draft notes. Lastly we had an old-school camera which was placed on his desk. This was borrowed from the photography department at the school, meanwhile all of the other props were borrowed from the school drama department.

Costumes

The suit I wore was quite plain and simple, yet very typical of something worn in the 1950's. I wore this with a trilby hat and a plain white shirt, everything fitted perfectly and was very comfortable. In certain scenes I wasn't seen to be wearing my jacket or hat, this is because of Clark's nature, which is quite layed back and relaxed. I also wore glasses, which stereo-typically made me seem more intelligent. This felt like a key feature to the outfit, as it contrasts from Clark's relaxed and layed back look on things to his intelligent and hard working side, which can be seen in various scenes through out the film.

Martha's personality as described was relaxed and quite reserved, so choosing the costumes for Martha was a challenge. The outfits are all quite similar and aren't too flamboyant or loud, this matches with her personality quite well as she is a typical housewife of the era. The black dress was the outfit used for the last scene, and it is quite different to all of her other outfits. Instead of using typical film noir colours of red and white, we chose black to add a sense of mystery to who the actual femme fatale is.







Nancy's outfits were a lot more loud and in your face, much like her personality. Each costume is different and this represents her glamorous lifestyle as a celebrity (being able to afford things) We also chose to use each outfit for a different scene, and the last scene features Nancy wearing a fur coat. Again there are no typical colours of a femme fatale (red/white) this is because we wanted to add a sense of mystery and surprise to the viewer when they watch the final scene.