Right, after the group meeting I have been thinking more about the period drama, as that will be the beginning. I might have hold of a dress already for the female main character (if we do decide on having one, which I think we will) but the group will decide when I get it. I just watched Pride and Prejudice, listening to the music and really checking out all the aspects of a period drama.
With their costumes I found that the women wore plain dresses that were either white (especially at balls or parties) or Earth colours such as browns and greys. They wore hats in the summer, carried dainty pouches or purses with shawls over their shoulders if the weather desired it. Women, especially young women, liked to collect and make ribbons of all colours, wearing them most of the time interwoven in simple hairstyles. Both sexes wore boots, men over their trousers and women under their dresses. Men dressed in entirely dark colours, the only light colours being their ruffled white shirts under their waistcoat. If they were outside, or even indoors they tended to wear overcoats, the longer ones during the winter. Sideburns and longish hair seemed to be appropriate on guys so that could possibly be made with a wig if our guy has short hair.
The houses were stately, surrounded by fields, something that would be hard to find in Ipswich so I think we would settle for fields or forests as they were a common theme and place for the characters to be in Pride and Prejudice. A lot of farmyard animals were all over the place such as pigs, horses, sheep etc. There were many festivities like balls and parties for women and men alike to attend and socialise or find their partner or patriotic events such as watching the soldiers march through town.
Music was all string or piano for background music, reflecting the nature of the scene in which it is placed. However, I’ve already posted a video of the best song on the soundtrack in my post before and talked about it, so I won’t go into that.
Now, language is the main area I am concerned about. Watching Pride and Prejudice, I quickly discovered that even though a man and woman are married, the mother of the girls still called her husband by Mr Bennett. All females tended to call the men by their surnames (Mr Darcy) but men were allowed to call females by their title and first name (Miss Elizabeth). They spoke formally with everyone, a little more informally with their siblings but respected their parental figures also.
I feel after watching this, I am more than ready to write the costume drama part, but first we will need to sort out what will exactly be happening and what we want to get out of it. So, we need to find a range of locations, possible props, costumes, music and any special effects before I can really get cracking on with things! I know I’ve said this before but…now I really can’t wait to get things on the roll so we can plan the script and I can start writing!
