Battle for the Winds Show Day!

The day of the show! The atmosphere back stage - excited and convivial. With all the Breathe costumes finished there was little to do but check that the costumes were all accounted for and ready and then lend my services to Battle for the morning, drying costumes, ironing and generally helping as and when required.

With the procession about to start it was time for us to watch the first part of the days performance - the procession of the Wind machines as the Battle regions made their way down the Weymouth promenade. There were far more performers and costumes then I had anticipated, as it seems each region had brought extras of both with them but it all added to the overall carnival atmosphere.

For myself the highlights of the procession were the unexpected moments, the most startling of which was when Jake, one of the Swindon performers, climbed onto a traffic light pole to juggle with his juggling partner who was on stilts.

After watching the procession it was back to getting ready, making sure that all the costumes were prepared and in their rightful places before the dressing began, and the last minute task of sewing wadding into some of the headdresses to prevent any slipping - with head gear you can never be too careful - and making sure the elastic of said headdresses was the right length and in the right place.

The dressing itself was for the most part very relaxed, though always efficient, since the performers for the most part already had their base costume on when they arrived as they had been permitted to take them home after the dress and tech run.

This time, as myself and Jessica had been with the aerialists during the run we were allowed to watch the main performance. After spending the last few minutes with the performers before they were due to start the show for a very emotional and rousing speech from Director Jamie to get the performers going, and a few words of encouragement to our aerialists, we were through the barriers to the side of the stage and into the crowd.

For all of us who were part of the wardrobe team it was an incredibly moving and emotional experience, not just to see costumes that we had helped design, make and been involved in for so many months used and brought to life but also to see our Breathers, after working with them and getting to know them, get their time in the spotlight was incredibly moving. I am so very glad that I have gotten to work on Breathe, and getting to work with the team - both backstage and the performers - has been a once in a lifetime experience that I feel privileged to have been a part of.

Battle for the Winds - Dress and Tech Run!

With 2 days until the main performance, it was the day of the dress and tech run! Arriving in Weymouth at the Wardrobe tent on the beach it was all go - but very relaxed. We had managed to get almost everything done before the costumes were moved to Weymouth, the only things left to do to get the costumes ready were any extra embellishments and some last minute adjustments to the headdresses.

Due to this we were able to go and watch the Battle for the Winds regional performances on the promenade! This was a wonderful opportunity after seeing the costumes being made from last year and various fittings in the studio to finally getting to see them being used. There was some quintessential British

In the evening with the performers set to arrive, it was all ahead to get the groups dressed as they were stewarded to us. There was a change to the original plan - initially myself and Jessica Howard were meant to be dressing the Brazilians in their hotel, but it was decided that it would be easier and more efficient to dress them in the wardrobe tent on the live site where the rest of the Breathers were being dressed. This worked out so well that it was decided that we would do the same thing again for the main performance on Saturday. Myself, Jessica and Lois were the main Brazilian dressers, while dressing the other Breather groups as well as they came in. It was a relatively relaxed process but with the run open to the public, we had to be very firm on scheduling.

With the last of the Breathers dressed and ready to go, we collected the boxes of contingency materials and headed to the backstage tent where the Breathers were getting ready to go on - at which point myself and Jessica were asked if, as they had never seen the performance, if we could go with the Aerialist Breathers to get them into the last items of their costumes once they were in the harnesses. Where we were we could see the main screens from the inside of the performance space, but most of the action was hidden and there were the standard technical problems that come with any teck run. However it was still an incredible taster to the final performance!

Aeolis, begining his ascent

From where we were stationed across the road from the fenced off performance space Aeolus, Father of the Winds and one of the principal performers, was air lifted over the road and onto the stage. We had time while he was waiting to go over to have a small chat with him before the crane took him up and over. I think this was very reassuring to our Breather Aerialists as a couple of them were quite nervous about going up. Myself and Jessica kept them occupied and reassured them as best we could, watching the screens of the main performance and waiting for the call for them to go up.

With the last part of the show looming it was time to get the performers into their harnesses and the past parts of their costumes. This proved tricky with one of our performers as since the last time I had helped dress him his cloak had been altered so I was not sure initially which way round it was supposed to be! There was also the added nerve wracking aspect that we were attaching parts of costumes while at the same time being very aware that we were attaching them over the top of safety harnesses, however we kept reassuring the performers and encouraging them, and they were hoisted safely into the air and into their performance. They were incredible, performing somersaults and acrobatics with ease. After arriving back safely on the ground and being released from their harnesses, it was time to take them back to the backstage tent to get changed out of their outer costumes - but we allowed them to take their base costumes home with them.

With this done, we took the outer costumes back to the wardrobe tent to be sorted into their individual bags and sections.

It was a long and busy day but one that left with it a feeling of incredible pride in our performers, and anticipation for the main event to come.

The Mad Hatters Weekend

Entering the Madness

Friday

In getting ready for any performance there is always a good deal of last minute preparatory work, and this was no different. I arrived in Portsmouth on Friday evening, and immediately started working with Tanya Pye - costume designer and wardrobe mistress - and helper Jeremy Emery on finishing the last of the costumes.

This involved making more roses to complete the White Queen dress, slip stitching the sleeves of the Red Queen dress, adding zips and numerous other small tasks.This was a good chance to use a range of skills that I have learned from my course at the AUCB and to utilise new ones that I have learned from this production - being the making of fabric roses. The atmostphere of the crew was one that very much suited the production, and though it was a lot of work to finish the excitement for the production carried us through.

Jeremy Emery, helper, making roses

Tanya hard at work

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Saturday

Starting just after dawn, we were off finishing the tails of the White Rabbit and March Hare costumes, and then on to getting all the costumes, props and cakes ready to be transported to the show grounds. There was an additional task as well - finishing and painting a prop Tea Pot made of pappier mache. This was a task that required teamwork, especially when it came to painting and drying, and I can honestly recomend this as a team building activity for performance groups.

Wardrobe Team battling to dry the giant tea pot as the performance looms

This was a very time sensitive task, as we were dressing the actors at the performance grounds and would have very little time between arriving and the begining of the performance.

The performance itself was achieved brilliantly, the actors ready and excited. From the costuming side, the ears of the March Hare and the tail of the White Rabbit were issues that required problem solving during the performance. The March Hare had ears attached to hair clips and had unfortunately short hair. We used hair clips to hold the ears in place as best they could but in the end there was only so much that hair clips could do. The White Rabbit's tail kept becoming removed from the costume during the dances as his was one of the most lively characters of the performance. We fastened the tail on with safety pins, but in hindsight it might have been better to have tacked in the tail if only until the end of the show to hold it in place.

Entire cast 'on-stage'

Alice and the White Quees

The Tweedles

Thankfully due to the heatwave we did not have the problems I faced with outdoor performance before (in that it was cancelled due to bad weather) and the audience had a good time sat in the sun. We raised a very good amount for the charity Cystic Fybrosis Kids of Portsmouth.
I am glad I was involved, and hope to be involved again next year.

Breathe Week - day 4

Today Jess and myself finished dying the base costumes! This meant finishing the series of four dying stages, the remaining of which were all dip dying.

Stage 2

Dip dying 3/4 of shirt - collar first - and 3/4 of trousers or leggings - ankles first - into a mix of dylon dyes Scarlet red, Coffee, Golden Glow and Tangerine

Stage 3

Dip dying the shirt and trousers as above but to 1/2 in a mix of dylon dyes Madonna Blue and Arabian Nights

Stage 4

Finally the last stage was dying the shirt and trousers again as above but the shirts to the tops of the shoulders, and the trousers to 1/4 in a mix of Scarlet Red and Pagoda Red.

rinsing the dye out of the base costumes

In addition to this we were also set to breaking down belts and two of the 'hunter' tribe's cloaks. The belts we broke down with cheese graters, achieving a freyed, worn effect.

For the cloak (below) I used the remainder of the coffee dylon dye, heated in a saucepan, and sponged it on to get the below effect.

 

Pre - Breaking down



Post - Breaking down

I was also proud and happy to see the spades and rakes I made on the builders belts as we were breaking them down - photo below.

Breathe Week

In the Final Count Down
Battle for the Winds is in less then 2 weeks, and as such Breathe - the disabled and abled dance companys who are in the performance - is in its final stages!

Monday
Monday began with fittings at 8:30 - 12 for the Brazillians who have come over to be in the performance! They are the Navigator tribe of the Breathers. There was a lot to get through in a short space of time, and it could be a little difficult to communicate due to the language barrier but we found that thumbs up, thumbs down and a big smile can go a long way in getting things done - and 'OKAY' is universal. After the Brazillian fittings in the morning we had the fittings for the Hunters, Jesters and Collectors during the rehearsals. Again the fittings went very well, and on the majority of the costumes there were very few alterations to be made. The main difficulty was getting the performers who were a little less willing to want to wear their costumes, and for the majority after being told how amazing they would look in their costumes and being encouraged to try them on and see themselves wearing them, and the other performers wearing costumes similar, they became more attached to the costumes and were willing to wear them - to the point where a few were hesitant to take them off!

Tuesday
Tuesday was for the last of the fittings, and the Builders, Rebels and Elders - and I got to see the rest of the props I had made in action! The miniature spades and rakes that I had made from plastazote and broken down have been attached to the belts of some of the builders. I must say I was very proud. The fittings went well again, and one of my responsibilities was to take photographs of the costumes after the fittings. This is mainly for the dressers for a visible record of how the costume is to be worn for the performance.

Wednesday (today)
Today we began on the alterations, and myself and Jess Knight began to dye three spare base costumes. We have completed the first of a four stage dying process used for all the base costumes - though for these the fifth stage used on the rest of the base costumes which consists of adding paint spatters and puff binder to the surface for texture and breaking down will not be used. The first stage was to spatter the costumes with four specific colours of hot water dylon dyes.
- Tangerine
- Golden Glow
- Madonna Blue
- Green

As the lightest we started with golden glow, mixing the dye as per the instructions we were given - 1/2 teaspoons per saucepan with salt - and spattered on the dye alternating using a spoon and a wide paintbrush for a variety of marks. We then moved on to Tangerine as the next darkest, then Madonna Blue and Green.

These were the results. This is the first of the four stages, which we - myself and felow helper Jess -  hope to complete tomorrow. It is good to be back in the dye room I have missed it, and I find using different dyes and techniques incredibly beneficial and rewarding as I watch the costumes take shape.

In the end...Final Evaluation

Evaluation
When I began this project it was for the chance to work on a large scale live production and for the opportunity to work with carnival. I think at the beginning, even seeing the work of the previous years students it seemed did not seem as large a task as what it grew to be but with every new session the project grew and evolved into the final product. I formed a set of carnival designs for children and my dance leaders. Through progressing and developing a prototype I gained experience in working with a wide variety of materials and techniques. There was a good amount of problem solving and trouble shooting to this project, when issues arose and required swift and decisive action to resolve them. I went on to form a budget, and develop a set of lesson plans for four school sessions working with my tutors and teachers to make sure that the tasks were well suited to the children involved. I gained experience in sourcing large amounts of materials for creating the costumes and my 3 dance leader costumes.

Session preparation was a mammoth but manageable task only achievable through strict time management. The sessions themselves were an intensive learning curve in the children's working speed and capabilities but rewarding watching the children learning new artistic skills and watching the costumes beginning to form. It was good to learn how to, in some small way, teach and give the children interesting information and engaging them in a project that they would never have been able to undertake without Moving Tides. I wanted the children to be able to make as much of the costumes as possible, and while I was restricted by the rules and regulations of the school in what the children were allowed to work with I believe I achieved this.

In any form of performance, everything can change in a moment and you have to be constantly prepared for any eventuality. In this case, the performance was cancelled but it was the journey to this point that made this project so special and I would like to work on outdoor events again as it has been an incredible and rewarding experience. I was able to use materials that I had no experience with and may not have ever used otherwise which I have since become proficient with. It has helped me grow and develop as a designer and taught me making skills by experimentation and the advice and experience of my tutors and peers. The school sessions and working with the children helped me to develop organisational skills that are far more in depth then I possessed before and that I will take with me in my future projects and into my career.

For me the most rewarding part of this project has been meeting and working with so many different groups of people, from Kinetika and my peers to the teachers and children at the school. I feel this has helped my confidence in my skills improve, in all aspects of my professional life and in communicating my ideas to different groups of people.

Last of the Props Complete

After having the production team decide at the last minute to leave the coffee grinder plain instead of having it decorated and broken down, I moved on to and have at last finished the final prop for the Bournemouth University film Burning Kingdom, a map of the fantasy land in which it is set. The guildelines I was given for the map were very loose - it had to be large, aged, have a hill and some ruins, and needed to be done in a caligraphy style.

It contains castles, forests, rivers and lakes, 3 mountain ranges, hills, settlements and a port, a set of ruins and a tower that came out resembling Sway tower in the New Forest. I put in as much detail as I could without overfilling, and overall think I have produced a good effect. I used tea to age the paper and create a bigger distinction between the water and the land. I dropped it round to the head of wardrobe and costume designer Natalie this morning allong with some pieces of aged 'parchment' aged with the same techniques as the map.

Reflection:

This was my first specific props role! It was an interesting project to be involved in, full as most productions are of last minute changes. Having only a small role in the production I have been able to come on board and finish very quickly, in a short burst of work, but it has helped me expand my skills. I had barely used the blue foam and hot wire before this project but am now (relatively) proficient in using it. With every project I grow as a practitioner, and while this was very busy what with having so many things on the go at once, I am glad that I took it on as it alowed me to see that I can multi-task to extreme levels though I do not think I will take on this many projects again at one time.

Outdoor events and Evaluation

Today, mere hours after our final briefing came a devastating blow. The carnival has been cancelled. After 7 months of intensive work, this project has pushed us to create, to grow as designers, makers and proffessionals to unpredicted heights, and after all that to have it not actually come to fruition is indescribable. It is no one's fault, at the end of the day it is just something that is always a possibility at outdoor events. The weather will always be the deciding factor, and with a severe weather warning the safety of the children is paramount and with most of Weymouth currently flooded there is nothing to be done.

This is a possibility we always knew would be there, but one that I think we all set to the side as out of our hands and ultimately unlikely. But then, that is the main problem of outdoor events. It is not the audience, or funding, or location, the main problem will always be the weather as you can have every single other aspect of a performance planned and perfect and it will still come crashing down if the weather takes a turn. As costumers there is only so much we can do, we can make the costumes as waterproof as possible and give them umbrella's (or in this case poncho's) but with the possibility of a flood there is nothing we can do to quite litterally hold back the tide.

To quote a famous film - 'Everything will be alright in the end... so if it is not alright, it is not yet the end' (The Marigold Hotel for the elderly and beautiful)
There is now talk of a 'celebrations' event in September to give the children the chance to wear their costumes and celebrate their amazing achievement this year. The costumes are still in the schools, with the exception of the dance leaders which I am currently in possession of, and with that in mind all the costumes are being kept and carefully stored away in anticipation.

Despite the cancellation, and even if the celebrations event does not happen, I am still glad that I have taken on this project. If I knew at the beggining that this would happen, I still would have chosen it. This project has helped me to push myself and my designing and become a much better proffessional, and a much better designer then I would have been able to become otherwise. I have been able to meet and work with some incredible people, amazingly dedicated teachers and a wonderful school.

Extra Headresses!

In an unexpected turn of events, today myself and Andrew were asked to come in and make 3 extra headresses, to go with the dance leader costumes of one of the schools for Moving Tides. After being given photographs of the costume, I had time to do a couple of (VERY vague) design idea's ...

before Andrew arrived and we began making, loosely basing them on the designs and below is what we came up with!

We were aiming for colour, texture and height while still being in keeping with the seaweed look of the costume.

Moving Tides!

Here they are - a sneaky peak at the Wyke Regis dance leader headresses for Moving Tides!

At 58 cm tall, with flourescent yellow stripes, they are definitely set to stand out as the procession moves on. The carnival itself is looming - Thursday in Weymouth, with the final meeting set for Wednesday, and thankfully I now finally have a camera again so you wont miss a moment of the action ahead! We will have 700 children to facepaint and organise, not to mention getting ourselves in costume and sorted, the day promises to be magnificent.

A-roving we will go - Costume Bible Begins

For anyone not familiar with costuming terminology, a costume bible is a file of everything costume in any production - with all the sections of the performers, the designs for each and every character, the performers measurements, the costume breakdown and where each and every piece of the costume is coming from. If it is being sourced, the source is documented and all reciepts are filed. If it is being made, the process is filed along with on some occassions the makers notes. If the notes are extensive there may well be a separate file of making notes for the individual costumes rather then being in the full cast file.

Today I started the costume bible for the Bournemouth Arts By The Sea Festival I am costume supervising for, the performance name is - A-roving We Will Go!

The Saga of the Crystals, and the Map...

For those of you new to my blog - being that it has been an incredibly busy few weeks I have been remis in keeping things up to date!

To fill you in on the last few days - one of the 3 sets of props I was asked to make is done, and already filming has started! After being given 4 crystals on thursday (3 rough cut amethysts and a citrine, sizes between 3 and 5 inches long) I was tasked to create 'holders' for them that would make them stand an inch off the ground, and leaving a hole in the bottom to allow for the possible use of an LED to shine a light up through the crystal - all before the end of the day on Friday as filming was starting on Saturday and the crystals were in the first set of scenes to be shot. The actual look and materials used for the holders was left up to me.

I chose to make them look like roungh 'cut' metal, specifically aged gold. For this I used blue foam, which I cut at fine jagged angles and points in opposing directions using a hot wire. I formed 2 main halves for the crystals to sit in the centre of in a circle I cut to allow the crystal to sit on top and the LED to be inserted underneath. I then formed small pieces and off-cuts to be added to make it look as though the crystal had been inserted into melted gold and then had the gold cut away around it. To fix the casings together and add the extra pieces I used a hot glue gun, which was very effective in holding it together and creating a solid prop.

I began painting them using gold metalic acrylic, with acrylic payne's grey sparingly over the top so that the grey only touched the lines and angles sticking out, to add to the aged effect. I was aided in the painting by wardrobe mistress and costume designer Natalie Oakley, and costume maker Louise Tring.

Now the task is to create the map! I have begun by getting 3 sheets of large paper = donated = and I am in the process of tea staining them for an aged, worn effect. I am achieving this by quite litterally pouring water with tea bags soaked in it over the paper, and then hanging it up to dry, and then repeating the process - for which I am having to use my shower due to messiness of the task. Here's to tea!

Mad Hatters

On to Mad Hatters - I am currently making fabric roses for the White Queen costume. The photo shoot is this weekend so their isn't much time left to get everything sorted. Making the roses is a relatively fiddly job and time consuming, but they are coming on well. I am making them out of lace fabric, and white and silver organsa.

The performance itself is in 2 weeks - so there is plenty left to do! Thankfully Tanya Pye - Costume Designer and chief costume maker - has been cleared to use a sewing machine after breaking her arm a couple of months ago and is running up the costumes in record time.

(Images to be provided later, as soon as I have a camera again!)

Burning Kingdom

On to Burning Kingdom! Burning Kingdom is a BU film student's vision, a fantasy kindom in the grips of a technological revolution. I have been asked by Natalie Oakley, the costume designer and wardrobe mistress, to come on board as props designer and maker.

From me this requires 3 main props that feature prominently in the filming. A map, 4 crystals with casings to make them stand upright, and - the big one - a coffee grinder that I need to make look like a technological/magical device of torture and death for an execution scene.

I had my first meeting with the Director yesterday, and everything is on track for filming to start - on the 7th. I am currently waiting on the crystals and coffee grinder to start work on those but I have already started mock ups of the map.

Breathe - Props

On to Breathe once more! Alongside helping with the costumes I have been making spyglasses for them, out of card and paper, and painting them with breaking down techniques to make them look aged. They are now almost complete!
Today I also helped make some compasses - jar lids painted to look aged, with compass faces scaled, printed, and glued into the centre well of the lids, aged with tea and then glazed.

Here are some images of the spyglasses in various stages of development!

I feel that I am getting much more proficient at prop making, and I am learing new techniques with every new experience.

Bournemouth Arts By the Sea Festival

Amazing News : I have been taken on for what started as Costume Supervising for a performance for the Arts By the Sea Festival, to take place on the 29th of September in Bournemouth Gardens, with two extra performances on the 12th and 13th of October as part of the Paper Cinema event. I started out coming on board as Costume Supervisor but have now become costume designer as well! It is mainly working on sourcing rather then making costumes, the budget isn't large but it is the largest I have worked to on a live project.

It is working to the theme of Sea Shanties. Without giving too much away of the performance, we have groups of travellers (this years festival theme is 'Journey') who have all come from different places. As they travel, they slowly begin to come together and a performance is formed!

I have been designing for this for the last 2 weeks, so I have all but one of the costume designs finished and approved with the exception of one performer who only joined on Monday and was confirmed officially today.

I am now in my third week of the project, and I am starting to source parts of the costumes this week! I will keep you updated as we go!

(Designs to be added shortly, as soon as I can get to a scanner!)

Filling in the Gap!

I have been shockingly remiss in posting for a while, so I am going to fill you in on the amazing developments since the 19th when I last posted! And there have been many!