I think it looks good, really. Pink is your color.
Two 11 hour days of working made for a LONG weekend on this film. Fortunately I did not have to be there at 5AM and instead got there at 8. But then Nate was in town so I’d be home late and then go out to dinner with him and his friends and finally get to bed around midnight and do it all again the next day. Needless to say, I'm tired today. But one highly amusing thing was how much of a kick Nate got out of this job. I told him I’d call him from “the set” so he could say things like “I’m sorry, I need to take this. It’s my sister calling from the film set.” Then we’d both sound important. :)
But you don’t care about that! You want to know about my glamorous film job on “the set!” What did I do exactly? Well, I did a LOT of shopping and learned a fair amount about film costume design in the process. The main problem with designing for film, I say after 4 whole days in this business, is that there are too many people who have a say in the process. In theatre the main costume decisions are made by the designer and the director and then the actor only if the actor is famous and has a fair amount of pull. In film, the actor seems to have a lot more pull, even when they aren’t a “household name” (that’s the PC term, no one uses the word “famous”). So on this film, we have one problematic actress who has a lot of opinions about her clothes, opinions that are diametrically opposite to the director’s wishes. Somehow Lori, the designer, has to find an option they can both live with AND that fits the character AND that goes with the rest of the clothes in the scene AND looks good on camera.
And then there’s the Set and the Lighting who also get a say. Case in point was a particular scene that they filmed outside. The scene had to have the swimming pool in it because the subtext was about how much money one of these characters had, which means the pool had to be visible in the shot. However, the actors standing by a pool meant that the lighting guy was extremely limited in his lighting options since he can’t put the lights in the pool and surround the actors. That means that he has to bounce the light off the water, in some complicated way that I know nothing about, in order to light the actor’s faces. However, the lighting was making one of the actresses look “weird” so the costume solution was to give her a hat to bring the light back down. Ergo, Lori has to find a hat.
Well, we had several straw hats, few of which fit and then the one that did fit, and that the actress loved, made the actress look “witchy” according to the director. Something about the crown and her nose, I don’t know. My eyes started to glaze over after a certain point because I started hearing about this hat on Wednesday, moved hats around for storage and fitting possibilities on Thursday and then shopped for hats all day Saturday and Sunday. Given the time we’ve taken on this costume point and adding up my salary, Lori’s salary, the director and actress’s salaries and the money we’ve spent on hat options, it’s now the most expensive scene in the whole film. And all because of a pool… Think about that the next time you notice a weird costume choice in a movie.
This is only one small instance of costuming and the need for a variety of options. This means that for every costume decision you need a minimum of two options – for the basics of color and fit and character – and then you get into people’s opinions, necessitating more options so you can satisfy everyone. Then once you have the decision made, you may need duplicate costumes for body doubles – camera shots that don’t show the actor’s face so you can use a cheaper body double actor dressed like the main character and save some money. And you don’t share costumes between the principal actors and anyone else. So you have to buy a complete duplicate set of costume stuff down to the jewelry, shoes, watches, hats etc. for the double to wear.
Naturally you then end up with a multitude of clothes and accessories that you want to return to the store after you’ve decided on the one you like. And when you haven’t found that perfect shirt, someone needs to go find it. So who does all that shopping? Well, that would be me this weekend. Both days consisted almost entirely of a marathon shopping fest, 11 hours per day of driving around all over Tucson returning things we aren’t using and buying more stuff we may use and then returning some of that stuff because the designer takes one look at it and knows we won’t be using it. Which reminds me that I'm really happy Not to be a designer. My job was exhausting but when I got on set Lori was there and when I left the set she was there and even the day that everyone else had off, she was working. She has definitely earned her name on the credits...
I have a couple more small film things but I’ll post them later as I really should be working right now.
Busy busy busy!
But you don’t care about that! You want to know about my glamorous film job on “the set!” What did I do exactly? Well, I did a LOT of shopping and learned a fair amount about film costume design in the process. The main problem with designing for film, I say after 4 whole days in this business, is that there are too many people who have a say in the process. In theatre the main costume decisions are made by the designer and the director and then the actor only if the actor is famous and has a fair amount of pull. In film, the actor seems to have a lot more pull, even when they aren’t a “household name” (that’s the PC term, no one uses the word “famous”). So on this film, we have one problematic actress who has a lot of opinions about her clothes, opinions that are diametrically opposite to the director’s wishes. Somehow Lori, the designer, has to find an option they can both live with AND that fits the character AND that goes with the rest of the clothes in the scene AND looks good on camera.
And then there’s the Set and the Lighting who also get a say. Case in point was a particular scene that they filmed outside. The scene had to have the swimming pool in it because the subtext was about how much money one of these characters had, which means the pool had to be visible in the shot. However, the actors standing by a pool meant that the lighting guy was extremely limited in his lighting options since he can’t put the lights in the pool and surround the actors. That means that he has to bounce the light off the water, in some complicated way that I know nothing about, in order to light the actor’s faces. However, the lighting was making one of the actresses look “weird” so the costume solution was to give her a hat to bring the light back down. Ergo, Lori has to find a hat.
Well, we had several straw hats, few of which fit and then the one that did fit, and that the actress loved, made the actress look “witchy” according to the director. Something about the crown and her nose, I don’t know. My eyes started to glaze over after a certain point because I started hearing about this hat on Wednesday, moved hats around for storage and fitting possibilities on Thursday and then shopped for hats all day Saturday and Sunday. Given the time we’ve taken on this costume point and adding up my salary, Lori’s salary, the director and actress’s salaries and the money we’ve spent on hat options, it’s now the most expensive scene in the whole film. And all because of a pool… Think about that the next time you notice a weird costume choice in a movie.
This is only one small instance of costuming and the need for a variety of options. This means that for every costume decision you need a minimum of two options – for the basics of color and fit and character – and then you get into people’s opinions, necessitating more options so you can satisfy everyone. Then once you have the decision made, you may need duplicate costumes for body doubles – camera shots that don’t show the actor’s face so you can use a cheaper body double actor dressed like the main character and save some money. And you don’t share costumes between the principal actors and anyone else. So you have to buy a complete duplicate set of costume stuff down to the jewelry, shoes, watches, hats etc. for the double to wear.
Naturally you then end up with a multitude of clothes and accessories that you want to return to the store after you’ve decided on the one you like. And when you haven’t found that perfect shirt, someone needs to go find it. So who does all that shopping? Well, that would be me this weekend. Both days consisted almost entirely of a marathon shopping fest, 11 hours per day of driving around all over Tucson returning things we aren’t using and buying more stuff we may use and then returning some of that stuff because the designer takes one look at it and knows we won’t be using it. Which reminds me that I'm really happy Not to be a designer. My job was exhausting but when I got on set Lori was there and when I left the set she was there and even the day that everyone else had off, she was working. She has definitely earned her name on the credits...
I have a couple more small film things but I’ll post them later as I really should be working right now.
Busy busy busy!
posted by KBARRETT at 11:23 AM
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