Yesterday I took my first foray into costuming for film - and, unfortunately, failed to take any pictures. :( Taneka, however, was taking stills throughout the process, so I hope I can steal some from her. The aforementioned film was a second-year film student project - a ten minute scene from Ibsen's A Doll's House. We were in a black-box studio, shooting from 12:30-7PM. After the original actors bailed on the director, I got Louis to cast Mione and Ciaran - fantastic for me, as I got to do fittings in the Halls, much more convenient than its been for Sally and Aleks, who are just getting started and just about ready to pull their hair out over actors in lectures all day.
Both dress and suit were pulled from costume storage - I simply had to go shopping for shirt, vest, and tie for Korgstaad and did some heavy alteration on the bodice and skirt for Nora (while the various skirts/underskirts/petticoats had to be taken up 6 inches, the bodice needed some interesting alterations to accommodate Mione's short-waist-edness.
I then built a bonnet with false hair built right in - the original bonnet, complete with blonde braids and flapping corners, ended up placing me dead square in Holland, rather than the intended Norway. Whoops.
I got rather a kick out of the filming process - it was nothing more than tech week in the theatre, only instead of coming out of this "tech week" with a finished show, ready for an audience, you come out and go home, dropping the footage off with editing. We (actors and I) showed up a little after noon, I proceeded to get them into costume, hair, and make-up, then let them loose onto the "stage". I stood around a lot, occasionally popping in to poke hair either back up into the bun or back into a center part, but mostly just stood around watching and each digestives out in the hallway. The actors would be put into position, fed their lines, the lights would be adjusted, everyone would get back of the camera. "Sound ready?", "Ready", "Camera ready?", "Camera ready", "Sound rolling", "Check", "Camera rolling?" "Camera rolling" ... (a pause as we waited for the room to become completely silent) "Action". The scene would roll until the director would call cut, at which point everyone would scurry about - AD would check lines with the actors, Louis the director would start talking with the cinematographer in Portuguese, while I'd either go fix hair/hemlines/etc or chat with someone else on the crew. Lots and lots of hanging around, talking, and the general rule of tech week - 40 minutes of boredom, for every 2 minutes of sheer panic and frantic runaround.
Around 1500, Mione had to go to a class, so we had to race her out the door (as we had filmed up to nearly the last minute before she had to leave) still in costume; as it was raining, she held an umbrella aloft, while I followed behind her, holding up her train. A short bit later, we broke for lunch and the group of us wandered over to the canteen, Ciaran still in late Victorian wear, which simply made him look more dressed up than normal.
By the end of the day, I remembered the strain hell weeks put on the body - despite the fact that it hadn't even been a full day by any standards and despite the fact that I hadn't really done anything, I bundled up the costumes and hauled them home, absolutely exhausted. I think the film will turn out quite nice, but I will be so glad to hand the costumes back in tomorrow - I've been hanging them on the outer hook of my closet, meaning I have to heave them up and off the hook, then throw them over onto my bed if I want to get into my closet. I have bobby pins, plastic stands of blonde hair, and hangers lying about everywhere, and - while I'm excited to see the final product - I'm glad to move on to the next project. :)
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