Question #1: Attributes? Enthusiasm. Question #2: Experience? See Question #1

Hey, let’s talk rèsumès!

Me, I have four.  Really I do!  I have the one you can see here on the blog.  I have a full one that has every bit of info listed for all the shows I have ever done, and my full education and skills history.  (This one is for sending in with work permit or work visa requests for international shows that may require government cooperation.)  I also have a one pager; it is like a calling card or a large business card with show names and a photo layout.  And lastly, I have the good old standard two-pager.  It gives a quick overview of what I have been working on lately and some key education and skill elements.

And yes, I do change them up regularly…

Get a job, Sha na na na, sha na na na na! Get a job, Sha na na na, sha na na na na!

The Silhouettes

I am back home! I love to work on location. Shooting a movie wherever, whenever… it’s always a challenge and a lot of work and I really enjoy that! But, (I think) like everyone else, I also love returning back to my wonderful home.

Having said that, the end of a show means that it’s time to get another job.

As I said in my blog, “Fears are Paper Tigers”, one of the challenges of working in the film industry is the number of times we are laid of in a year… well not really laid off, I guess… each show is a contract, contract ends; job over.

So here I am out looking for the next fabulous, exciting and challenging job!

While I was packing up during the final days of my last show, some of the newer costumers were asking questions, like: How do you find another job? How do you know where to look for what’s happening? Do productions just call and offer you a job? Do you have to keep trying to find the next show yourself?

Oh, did I say thank you… I ment to say THANK YOU!!!

How do I say ‘Thank You’ and really mean it… this is a question I have thought on, a lot, and here’s what I’ve come up with!

Before I wrote my very first blog, one piece of tutorial advice that I received was to read the comments on the posts to see what they have to say. You might say, ‘yeah, well duh obviously’, but what the tutorial was saying is, don’t just read the comments, assess them to see if they are genuine. If the information in the comment is correct… if it mentions specifics within the article, if it offers thoughts related to the content… then the comment is probably genuine.

But if it’s just a general, ‘hey, nice blog’ and ‘ by the way, check out this link to my discount shoe emporium’, it’s definitely spam.

Thank You’s work exactly the same way. People can smell the spam a mile away.

Very Superstitious, Writing’s on the Wall!

Stevie Wonder

I thought I would continue my thoughts on working with actors… this time with some good old fashioned wives’ tales involved!

Am I superstitious, sure, aren’t we all in a little way.  I always follow the rules of:

Don’t open an umbrella in the house (or the costume truck)! (by the way this isn’t a superstition in Korea!).

SHIT FIRE AND SAVE THE MATCHES!

The other day on set, our actress yelled, ‘Shit fire and save the matches!’ in the middle of a scene.  Nope, that wasn’t her line… she had fumbled her actual line a few times in a row and was getting frustrated with herself.

It was funny!  I almost cracked up in my hiding place behind a lighting flag.

I was reminded of this yesterday after reading a blog by the Anonymous Production Assistant.  Kendra wrote in and asked the Anonymous PA about how to talk to and deal with actors on set.  Anonymous wrote a great response about how a production assistant could approach dealing with cast.

WATCH WHERE YOU STICK THAT PIN!

The amazing Edith Head!

Let’s talk cast and background fittings.

As a Set Supervisor/Key On-Set Costumer I normally help the Designer with fittings on the main cast before we go to camera. This allows the actors and myself to meet before shooting starts. I get to hear some of their concerns and desires to do with the costumes, and figure out how to best work with them on set.

I was talking with our Designer and Coordinator/Supervisor the other day and we came up with a few things that would be very helpful for everyone to know when given the opportunity to help out in a fitting.

These are some little tips that will make the fittings go easier and help with figuring out all the pieces… sorting, labeling and such… when the fitting is over.

FROM THE KNICKERS OUT

by guest blogger Michael Bruce Adams

Identify… Embellish… Transform… Transcend

Breaking Bad 1

Every decision we make, from the construct of the largest set piece to the addition of the tiniest of details, has a psychological impact on our audience. Every decision we make either brings our audience deeper into the story or pushes them away.

This means whether we are costumers, directors or writers… we are all storytellers. Storytellers connect human beings by creating universal experiences that we can all relate to… soul to soul.

Dawn Leigh Climie very graciously allowed me to be guest blogger this week, I suspect primarily because she is up to her armpits in mud and bug spray on her current show. But as a screenwriter, I hope to take up the challenge and do her proud.

All Tied Up!

Tracey Graham learning how to lace a corset up at lunch!

What a great, albeit, busy week, and I am on still the run and not sitting down!

Thus… a short blog!

This week we called the union dispatch to get a day-call costumer to come in to help and Tracey Graham join us!

First day on set ever and she rocked it!

I thought I would throw in a photo of our lunch hour lessons with Tracey. We have 5 women that need to be laced back into a corset after lunch, and we threw Tracey into the deep end of our western town pool.

Having a laugh and learning at lunch! Even if it is just sitting with your plate of food and asking those burning questions, it will help to get you to the next step.

Getting all tied up can be fun if you are asking the right question while you do it!

Click here for a great blog on Corsets and Crinolines from the V&A, take a look!

“Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world.”

Andersson & Ulvaeus

I was taking a class a few years ago and someone asked me what I did for a living. When I told them I worked in the film industry the response was, “Oh, did you fly to class in your helicopter?”

It is a misconception that film industry people make a ton of money. I tried to explain that my hourly wage is actually comparable to most any skilled labor rate, but average workday is fifteen hours long, I can regularly work up to 18 hrs a day and, yes, my individual pay checks will all the overtime can be large… especially after I have worked a hundred hours in a week!

Hey, are you looking for Me?!?

I often take a look at the ‘Search Engine Terms’ that are posted on my blog site. This is something that let’s me know what things people were searching for when they chose to visit my site. It’s really interesting to see what combination of words will lead you to “Don’t Shoot the Costumer”.

A large number of hits have been things I have talked about or I plan to chat about, and a few are things I don’t think relate to costuming… but then who knows, I did blog about peeing!

One of the searches was ‘in pinnas venti’ which in Latin means ‘Wings of the Wind’ (according to the translate program on my computer)… very nice… but it also came up with some, well… shall I say interesting web sites when I googled it myself!!