Symbolism and Meaning
A great deal of time is spent crafting story during preproduction, shots during production, and rhythm during postproduction. But what about symbolism? When and how should teams pause to examine the deeper meaning coming from their creative design work? In this blog entry, author Amaris Manning gives us a glimpse at her team’s process of creating meaning through costume choices, inspired by Vivian Sobchack’s article, Beyond Visual Aids: American Film as American Culture.
Symbolic Costumes
by Amaris Manning
The pilot episode of our miniseries, Dad Named Donor, is a contemporary drama that tells the story of a teenage boy raised by two moms who becomes obsessed with finding his biological father. The episode focuses on many contemporary themes, including identity, culture/race, representation of genders and orientations, and mental health awareness.
Sobchack (1980) explores how ideology is present in film, even when it is not overtly apparent in the narrative. She examines American films as products of American culture. Commonly, especially within American studies, when it comes to film analysis, content overshadows “the force of cinematic language and form” (Sobchack, 1980, p. 283). In other words, audiences focus more on what they see and what is simplified to them rather than the more profound significance of the presentation. This means that audiences will talk about the story of a film, but may ignore the importance of how it was put together, including the ideology inherent in creative production decisions. Sobchack goes on to explain that within American studies, American films, compared to American literature, “…have not enjoyed the status awarded those arts, artifacts, and documents most easily ‘read’ and illuminated by scholars trained in the complexities of verbal language but untutored in the equivalent complexities of cinematic language.” (Sobchack, 1980, p. 283).
With this in mind, I would like to discuss an aspect of Dad Named Donor that might otherwise be overlooked: Clothing and its symbolism. For the protagonist, Daniel, clothing reflects the stages of his character development. In each scene, despite the settings of the pilot taking place on different occasions, Daniel wears the same outfit. However, when Daniel meets his biological father, his appearance somewhat changes. This strategy has to do with the implication of character growth, as Daniel’s obsession to know his biological father impacts his maturity and acceptance of reality. By wearing the same clothing early on, Daniel remains “stuck” in his world, remaining in the same mind space while the world continues around him. It is not until Daniel meets his biological father that he changes his attire, indicating that he is embracing reality and is ready to move onward with the world rather than remaining stuck on his own.
As we continue working on Dad Named Donor, we have plans to continue utilizing certain elements that are a part of each characters’ aesthetics to reflect their archetypes and growth. Integrating the theoretical strategy for meanings and symbols will add more depth to the context and significance of the story and its characters. From the audience’s perspective, finding connections between the character aesthetics and their archetypes creates a deeper meaning behind the story through the characters, elaborating on their behaviors and mindset.
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References:
Sobchack, V. C. (1980). Beyond Visual Aids: American Film as American Culture. American Quarterly, 32(3), 280–300.
Image credit:
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko, courtesy of Pexels