Main Task- Costumes

I chose to have Farah wear a long white blouse as he main outfit in Compulsion, the look is inspired by Angelina Jolie in Mr and Mrs Smith. The long white blouse outfit is often used in such films, not only because it creates a sexy, effortless look but because it suggests power and dominance. Giving the actress the appearance of wearing a mans shirt suggests a lot about her character to the audience, why is she wearing it? What was she doing before she was wearing it? Whose shirt is it? The look has a slightly comical edge to it; taking something often symbolising success, work, business and male dominated corporate professionalism and turning it into the opposite- a laid back, sexy outfit worn by a powerful, confidant and domineering woman. 

The purpose of the costume was to suggest that Farah had been in the hotel room some time before John arrived, she had made herself comfortable. It also creates the question- where did she get the shirt from? Setting up for the twist at the end of the film. 
Farah also wears a black dress in the film, I decided to have her wear the dress in the flashback of her killing a businessman as it suggests that she uses her sexuality as a weapon. The dress is dainty but dark- this reflects Farah as a character.


I made the decision for all the men in the film to wear suits. Suits are commonly used in thriller films as they suggest that the men are powerful and take things seriously. 
John is the owner of a large criminal organisation- he wears a suit as a sign of wealth, status and power. Nate wears a suit without a tie- this suggests that although he is powerful, his work is hands on, he is of lesser rank than John. The business man wears a suit to quickly connote his profession, and suggests a reason as to why he is Farah's target.

The blood stained shirts were important for the characterisation in the film, they also posed questions for the audience.
At first the audience assumes that Farah's wounds are from John as he is the only person in the room at he time she is introduced, making the twist at the end more of a shock. Farah ignores her bloody wound, suggesting that she is used to pain or she has accepted she is going to die. This says a lot about her as a character, as well as suggesting her line of work.
The blood shirt is important when revealing Nate- not only does it show that Farah has killed him but that he caused the wound to Farah.


The shirts were both mens shirts bought for the purpose of the film. I cut a a straight line through the sides of both the shirts to show a knife wound, I then used the back of a spoon to apply fake blood to the shirts and let it dry over night to ensure as little mess as possible when it came to filming.