When writing a script, you pick pertinent character details to exposit: grizzled or baby-faced, 26 or 62, stubborn or cowardly, bald or brunette, short or Elizabeth Debickian.
When characters appear on screen, some attributes are immediately obvious, while personality traits, relationships, ethos, etc. are often more shown than told.
This is part our iconic character introductions, about what that first-all-important-impression tells us.
Myrtle ‘Tilly’ Dunnage - The Dressmaker
The opening shots of the film show a bus pulling into a remote town, and from the bus steps a woman, played by Kate Winslet, who delivers the first line . . .
exhales smoke “I’m back you bastards.”
The traveling shots are not ‘incidental’ to Tilly’s arrival. Her introduction also involves looking left, looking right, lighting a cigarette, all intercut with shots of the few 'central town buildings.
Put together with the bus shots, passage of time from day to late-late night, and the fact Tilly and the bus driver are the only two left when they drive in, conveys how remote the town is.
And the first shot of Tilly is in context of the big, empty town.
Before we see Tilly’s face, we meet her shoes, contrasting with the red dirt. Then she sets her SINGER into shot, making sure we note how important this is to her.
Self-explanatory.
“I’m back” tells us Tilly was raised in this remote place, while her clothes tell us she not only left, she erased every trace of the town, as drastically as she could.
The second time we are introduced to Myrtle (as she says, she prefers Tilly, but it’s a running theme how the townspeople insist on calling her by the name they knew her as when she was a child), she makes an entrance at a footy game.
There is, of course, a history of meeting characters via pan-up from feet to face.
Because we’ve already met Myrtle, we don’t need to see her face to know exactly who has stepped into frame.
The way Tilly’s first entrance showed us the town, Myrtle’s entrance shows us the townspeople, giving us information about who they are via how they react to Myrtle, and each other.
The scene also tells us plenty about Myrtle’s insistence on defying their judgements, what with the smoking, the posing, and of course the ass-wriggling.
The scene also signals that Teddy (Liam Hemsworth) and Tilly (as Teddy immediately begins to call her) are going to have some sort of relationship.
Just look at the way these shots are cut so it insinuates Teddy is lying prostrate at Tilly’s high-heeled feet:
Though Tilly’s mood and sartorial senses are the same, almost everything about her surroundings changes: from night to day; from alone to with a crowd of observers; even her cigarette goes from between her fingers to a cigarette holder.
Tilly’s first introduction is to us, the audience.
Her second entrance is a re-introduction to townspeople who knew her years ago.
The imagery tells us who Tilly is, and what is important to her, and what everyone thinks of her, even before she says anything . . . though her introductory words pack a punch, too.
Through her, we meet to the town and the townspeople.
Turns out quite a lot of character can be packed into an introduction (or two).
The Dressmaker (2015)
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Cinematographer: Donald McAlpine
Draft Zero — we dive deep into how Tilly represents a ‘steadfast’ character arc . . . or whether she does at all! Chas and Mel hash it all out.
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