A long time ago in a classroom far far away…

A long time ago in a classroom far far away, Star Wars visited the PLP Exhibition of 2017. For weeks the classroom was filled with hard work, stress, movies and excitement as the students prepared for the big day on December 14.

All of us were assigned a Inquiry project based off of the all so popular Star Wars film series. I immediately took a great interest in the making of the film’s costumes so decided to base my question off of this. I then came up with the question: “How do costumes influence our understanding of the character?” I also wanted to relate the question to real life situations so then added “Do outfits we wear influence other people’s understanding of us?” After choosing my question, I spent weeks researching info to help me answer my question.

All students were also required to do either a live or online interview with someone who would help us further answer our questions and expand our knowledge. I was in great luck to get the chance to interview costume designer Jeniffer Hofmann who happened to be Anika’s mom. Jeniffer replied back with very detailed and descriptive answers. She used both personal experiences and quotes to answer my questions.

Along with the type ups and slide show portion of my project, I also made a miniature model of Padmé Amidala’s costume as a small example of how a costume can greatly enhance the movie. Below is a link to a time lapse video of me making the costume ⤵️.

7006A64C-6458-4487-959F-81F99E620812-1b1a87s

once the board was put together, the whole class including the grade 9s did a large revision and debugging process. Below is my first draft and second draft. You can really tell the decrease in words and the addition of more photos.

Draft #1 LOTS of text, very few images and very plain

Final More photos, less text, still room for improvement

During the weeks it took to create this project, I learned that costumes not only add visual elements to the film, but aid the audience and their understanding of the movie, setting, character and plot line. I also read many different studies on how fashion and different clothes can influence our feel for one another. Like many people say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” also applies to costumes and clothing. Costumes help add visuals which in a way is like a picture. The image created by costumes can be very powerful as they can give the audience a lot of information not only about the character, but also the story. Tap on the following links below to learn more about costumes and my research!

Importance of Costumes -15zbl6g

How Outfits Influence Us-u45sld

Star Wars Costumes-2eydamu

Padmé Amidala -27grslc.

Finally, the day of the exhibition came and it was time to set up the room. But before getting all stressed about the actual exhibition, everyone was treated to pizza. After, we continued work on the room getting the final touches in before the big night. The walls were lined with tables and projects and the room was decided into three sections. The first was decorated like Hoth and the other two were the inside of the rebel base. The room had a snack bar for audience members to enjoy as well as short skits playing every fifteen minutes. My set up was simple with nothing more then my poster board, model and some lights as the room was somewhat dark. The night felt truly magical and the world of Star Wars came to life.