Initial Designs - Sleep

Well its been an interesting day drafting out some initial concept designs for Ruth! After my discussion with director Iona Smith in our meeting, I have gone through the first 6 scenes of the film, following the characters progression and the progression of time and circumstance. As the characters insomnia progresses so too does her tired and weakened state - following what happens with I imagine the majority of people, the more tired people are the less they tend to care about their appearance and the more likely they are to be a bit more rumpled, take a little less care, and this needs to be reflected in the costumes. These are conceptual designs for the initial 6 scenes.

I was taught that when needing to create a lot of designs quickly it was a good tool to make a template and to sketch idea's onto, that can be changed or expanded on. As these are conceptual designs with the idea more of getting the idea produced and communicated quickly, I felt that this was the best method to use.

I had a thought today about the best way to generate a set of costumes for a character in a film following the progression of time that wasn't years or months apart but only days, and realised especially in looking at my own wardrobe that, through knowing and analysing the character I needed to generate an idea to myself of what she would have in her wardrobe to draw on in order to work out what she would pull on in different moods. With this concept, combined with the visuals discussed with Iona, I feel I have found a good idea of the character.

Scene Breakdowns and Costume Bibles - Being Prepared!

Well, as the title would suggest the script was sent through to me last night and I have spent the morning creating a (very) rough script breakdown by costume and started the costume bible for the three characters!

Beginnings of the Costume Bible

In terms of Seduction this was very simple and quick, there is very little that needs sourcing for her and the main bulk of the work will be breaking down the costume.

Ruth's costumes are more complex, as for Ruth there will be quite a few costumes through the passage of time in the film. For one of her costumes multiples are required as she spills tea down her front - this will mean a clean version, a pre-stained version and at least one that she can ruin on camera, which means that the continuity will hold no matter what order the scenes are filmed in on the day.

For Puppet, he will also need multiples of his shirt as it will be broken down in stages because of the action in one of the scenes. Other then this he has several costume pieces but other then the multiples, no costume changes.

Now its time to get started on the designs! For Seduction myself and the designer are already decided on what is needed, for Puppet we also have a fairly clear idea, but for Ruth its more contemporary, 'darker colours that someone would wear when doing/going to-' so its more coming up with a wardrobe for the character, and different outfits from said wardrobe.

Sleep! First Meeting

Yesterday was my first meeting with director Iona Smith about her filming project Sleep, and I have to say especially from a costuming perspective its a pretty good one! Three main characters need costuming; the main character with changing costumes over the course of  days passing in the film, one character remaining the same throughout, and one with minor changes,  as the last two are (excitingly enough) hallucinations!

 

Yes, this is a film that would probably give me nightmares, definitely a go-to for horror fans, working on it is going to be a great one, and there are going to be a wide range of people to work with including make-up people creating prosthetics - I am very much looking forward to this after the work I did with Louise Ashton who was our head of make-up for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' back when I was at University, who did some beautiful prosthetics and designs for us, and can't wait to see prosthetics used again for something so different as I have to say I find prosthetics fascinating.

The main characters are our central hub character Ruth, Seduction (visually really not what the name implies), and Puppet. Seduction is the same costume throughout, and Ruth is going to be fairly standard contemporary clothing, Puppet is the one that I can see needing the most sourcing. As a nightmare character, he is fascinating, from a character and costume perspective I am going to have a lot of fun making the 'wooden crossbar' to hold him up, I'm going to be drawing on the model making and costume-prop experience. Yes, this is indeed a puppet with strings and for those who now have 'got no strings' in their heads I really don't blame you I was exactly the same! During the filming there is going to be continuity to factor in, and a scene breakdown for costume to come. With the filming next month, and my next meeting with the director within the next couple of weeks, its an exciting time.

 

Again for more information, please follow the links to the facebook and Indiegogo pages;

https://www.facebook.com/sleepdrama?fref=nf

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sleep

 

'Sleep'

'Because staying awake is the real nightmare.'

Good news, I have been asked to be the costumer for the pilot episode of a 13 part post-watershed horror series, 'Sleep'! This is a student horror series by Bournemouth University students, written by Ross Webber and directed by Iona Smith.

A bit about it - this is a dramatic horror focussing on insomnia, in particular focussing on the effects of Fatal Familial Insomnia, and its effects on the human psyche, following one character as she struggles with the breakdown of her mind and body. For the facebook page with images and more information please follow the link here; https://www.facebook.com/sleepdrama/timeline

I am very excited about the costumes for this, especially during the 'hallucination' scenes as this will be my first time doing costumes for a horror, and have my first meeting with the director in just a few days!

As a student production, the director and all involved are fundraising for the project through their Indiegogo page which also provides a lot more information on the project and more of the plot here; https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sleep

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, it is now 2015! Apologies for no posts sooner, busy time of year but it is now 2015 and I am delighted to say that I have now reached 4400 views! Thank you to everyone who's been reading, should hopefully have something interesting to post for you soon, hope you are all having a fantastic and productive New Year!