Have You Ever Been Tied Up?

Have you ever been tied up?  Not in the 50 Shades of Grey kinda way but in the fly me to the moon kinda way?

Maybe not, although… you may have felt the pinch of a climbing harness in your past.:)

D is for duct tape.

Click here are get some instruction on how to make a” Judy” of yourself with duct tape!

I love duct tape or as I have always called it “Gaffer’s tape”. I grew up in the film industry so we always had silver rolls of duct tape around the house that we used to close, hold or fix just about anything. I didn’t even know that it was called ‘duct tape’ until I went to buy some after I moved away from home.

Always Wear Clean Underwear: Golden Rules are Golden for a Reason!

During the Digital Days Conference that I attended in February at the Electronic Arts Campus in Burnaby, British Columbia, Claùde Parè was the opening speaker on the first day… and let me tell you; he helped start the conference off with a bang!

His talk was called, The Rules of Cinema: Rated ‘R’… and he was just amazing!

Now, as you may have gleaned in previous posts, I’m a big fan of Jessica Sitomer‘s seminars that she gives here in Vancouver each year.  She travels everywhere, so take a look and see if she is coming to talk in your area.  One of the things Jessica says when going for a job interview is, “When some one asks, ‘How do you feel you excel at your job?’, find a way to tell them by using a story about you doing your job.”  Draw the people in around you with more than just an, ‘Oh, I think I am great organizer’.  You could say, “On Tron I had the challenge of bringing multiple departments together each morning before the cast arrived to start the process of getting dressed.  The specialty costume took an hour or longer from start to finish to dress the cast and once on, they were a challenge to remove quickly. A Sound Assist was needed to wire the suit before we started testing of the lighting systems and a costume tech was needed to asst sound…”

#Future Proofing… Are you ready for the future?

Last weekend I attended the Digital Days; The Future is Now seminar, at the Electronic Arts Campus in Burnaby, British Columbia.  It was enlightening, eye opening and wonderful.  When I signed up I wasn’t sure if all the talks were going to be about something I was involved in; meaning did this have anything to do with costumes?  As I sat through each talk, I realized that even when it was completely focused on other departments there are still so many little bits that directly relate to many aspects of our department.

Walkie Talking Around

“Yeah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck; you got a copy on me, Pigpen? C’mon.”

C. W. McCall, Convoy

There are quite a few film blogs on walkie-talkies.  So I why am I writing another?  Well, it was shown to me the other night by one of my day calls that we need to have just one more… one that maybe just us costumers are reading.

We don’t use trucker talk on the walkies.  But I do think it would be tons of fun to say:

“Breaker-Breaker, this here’s Costume Chick, you got your ears on Camera Dude?”

Logic is the beginning of wisdom…

“Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.  I am so looking forward to the next step.”  Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek

Okay, I admit it; I love to watch Star Trek!   I don’t watch as often as I used to… work gets in the way a little.  I did go to the latest movie, “Into Darkness”, and called Michael Kaplan, the costume designer, and told him I loved it!  I saw it in 3D and the fabrics used in the costumes just popped!

Aside from the imaginative costumes that great sci-fi movies show, I love to go to movies like “Star Trek” and see what the filmmakers have imagined for future technology and gadgets.

I remember watching the original series and loving all the gadgets that were developed as props for the show… that now we are actually using today.  Like flip phones… oh those are so 20 years ago! 

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.

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.

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!

Zombies Anyone?

Starting the day! Zombie’s ahoy!

Whenever I teach, whether it be at Capilano University or any other spot, I tell the students to keep an eye on their local message boards. There are always people that need help with their film projects. It could be a director, a producer or a costume designer trying to establish themselves with an independent feature, a short or a music video. Whatever the reason and whatever the project, these are great opportunities to learn and hone the many different skills we use in our jobs… and to build your resume.