SDP: Final Evaluation

I said in my learning agreement, at the start of this project, that I hoped to gain a better understanding of styling for the camera and the responsibilities involved upon taking up the role of costume designer.  I have certainly achieved these, and the experience on this project has been entirely new and rewarding.  I found the idea of blogging quite hard to get used to at the start of the project but I soon settled into a routine with it and I think it utilised it well and it allowed me to reflect constantly, enabling me to evaluate and improve myself and my work.  For the first part of SDP I undertook a styling project and I feel that I defiantly improved my understanding of how to style a costume ready for camera and the difference it makes.  I am proud that I managed this half of the project without collaboration and that I can say the outcome is entirely my own, which again was something I specified in my learning agreement.  I was lucky in my sourcing and managed to find some really excellent garments, which I then manipulated to create the look I sought, and overall I think it is successful in re-creating ‘A Dead Soldier’ while completely changing the contextualisation but maintaining the main themes that drew me to the painting in the first instance.  I had to learn to see the potential in everything I did instead of seeking the finished product; for example in my sourcing I had to see what I could do with the garment, and even when taking the photo I couldn’t look to take the final image as it needed editing.  I was worried that this would be a big challenge for me as I can get caught up in finding the perfect finished product straight away but I managed to overcome this and I really think it paid off.  I am extremely happy with the overall result of the styling project, I think the photo looks really effective, and my editing skills have certainly improved.   My time management could have been better and if I could go back I would have tried harder to finish this part of SDP so that I could have spent longer on part 2.  I think I did do ‘A Dead Soldier’ justice and as an interpretation I think it works well against the original painting and I am very happy with the final photo.

Part 2 of SDP was a steep learning curve for me; the pressure of having to design creatively and also practically, knowing that my designs had to work, was a challenge for me.  The time frame for this project was also difficult to contend with; we didn’t meet the director until 2 weeks before our hand in and I didn’t feel as though I could properly begin designing until I knew we were on the same line as the director.  I could research and formulate a concept but I didn’t want to get too attached to any one idea incase he had something totally different in mind.  As it turns out he was very happy with the way we were going, which raised my confidence and allowed me to carry on, confident in what I was doing.  I found fabric shopping tough also, as I wasn’t just gathering samples as I would on a hypothetical project, I really had to consider the fabrics I chose to make sure they were in keeping with the medieval period and also think carefully about how the finished costume would look.  The medieval period was not one I had ever designed for before and this was a new and exciting challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I struggled at first to get inspired but once I found my colour palette I felt a lot more confident and my ideas developed from this.  I enjoy researching and really getting to grips with the era I am working in and I feel I did research well and this helped my ideas.  I could have perhaps developed my ideas further but I had ideas for many of the characters from my very initial research and they didn’t change much from my first thought to the final designs.  I am happy with my final designs; I think they stay true to the period and that I have created a good feel for the piece.  I worked very closely with set designer Rhiannon, to make sure our ideas worked together and I think this helped both of us immensely and the visual design aspects of the play to work really well together.  I enjoyed the collaborative process and it was a good contrast to part 1.  I am confident that my designs will work well and I cannot wait to get on and bring them to life.  I think my SDP was successful and I have achieved what I wanted from this project and more, which I think will help me in my future aspirations.  I am proud of what I have achieved and while there are a few elements I would tweak I think overall, my work was successful and I produced the results I wanted to.

Final Designs

Final Design - Peter Abelard - 'In Extremis'

Final Design - Heloise - 'In Extremis'

Final Design - Heloise - 'In Extremis'

Final Design - Denise - 'In Extremis'

Final Design - Bernard - 'In Extremis'

These are a selection of my final designs for 'In Extremis'; I am happy with them overall and I think they work well together.  I think they have a medieval quality to them that I am pleased with and I think they do show what I set out to achieve.  The contrasts between colour and black and white will work out well on stage I think especially Abelard and Heloise who go from bold colours to monochrome will be particularly effective in visually showing how their relationship has changed over the course of the play.  I am very pleased with the result and I cannot wait to bring them to life and see them on stage.

Fabric Shopping

I have been to local shops in Bournemouth and Shepherd's Bush in London to do fabric sourcing and I have found some really excellent fabrics that have great potential to lend themselves to my designs.  I tried hard to look for fabrics that were all natural and avoided nylons and polyesters as much as possible, I mainly looked for silks, wool, linen, and velvet; this way I could also dye the fabrics to make the colours I wanted.  I found some truly beautiful fabrics and it was an interesting experience shopping for fabrics that are actually going to be used.  In my previous projects they have all been hypothetical so the pressure to really consider fabrics and whether they would really work as the designs was less, so this was a challenge.  I had to consider the drape and weight of the fabrics as to how they would sit on the figure and hang as depicted by my designs, this was a really interesting experience and it was very exciting seeing the potential the fabrics could offer me.  Now I have my fabrics I can finish my designs and accurately show what I want the costumes to look like, both in colour and style.  I am satisfied that my fabric choices will work well and they stay relatively true to the medieval period while working with my colour palette to create the visual effects that I wanted.

 

31/05/11 - Meeting with the Director

The meeting with the director was quite successful; he seemed to be pleased with the direction Rhiannon and I had been going with our ideas and designs.  His main notes to me was that he didn't want the play to end up looking comical as the medieval period can sometimes look a bit gimmicky with the pointy hats and excessively large headdresses.  I was keen to avoid this myself and I had already decided that I didn't really want to use such head accessories but I was keen to use hood for a softer, sometimes more sinister silhouette and the director said this was fine.  He also emphasised the importance of Bernard having a staff as Rhiannon was keen on him putting himself on a crucifix and the staff could help create this image if he held it across his back with his hands on either end.  An important note to remember is that the actor playing Lotholf is also playing Louis VI and the director was keen that his appearance should be totally different.  A fat suit could be used to alter his appearance and this would work well historically as Louis VI was known as 'le gros' (the fat king) so this would help create a change of body and also would make Louis VI seem bigger than others perhaps emphasising his position as king.  As Rhiannon's set is based upon scaffolding and construction the director suggested that there could be an opening scene with people working on the set and that they would need cloaks or hoods to look like medieval construction workers and then to easily remove them for the first scene, which is something I should research and remember in my designs.  Overall I am happy with the way the meeting went, it is reassuring to know that the director is happy with the way we have taken the play and that we can continue on our ideas.  He has also given me some interesting things to research and look into which I shall enjoy doing while continuing to develop my ideas.

Idea Development and Inspirations

Two medieval paintings that helped inspire my colour palette

 

My chosen colour palette

One of my initial ideas

  

These are some of my key inspirations for the project; I think the paintings at the top are perfect for the colour scheme I want to encapsulate in my work.  They have wonderful earthy, natural colours that also look fiery and could resemble hellfire.  I think the idea of the colour palette being earthy but bringing in the colours of lust, anger, passion and danger will work really successfully.  It is also the colour of blood which is very relevant to the plot of 'In Extremis'.  I am pleased with the initial drawing I have done as I feel it works well against the colour scheme and the simplicity of the dress allows the colour to speak for itself.  I am very happy with the colour palette I have created and I think it will work really well with the play and also the set that Rhiannon is working on.  I need to find fabrics that work as well as the paint does and use texture and colour to create a beautiful array of costumes that have little pattern (I only really want the king to have pattern to show his affluence) and allow the colours and textures to speak for themselves and not distract from the action and script.

27/05/11 - Tutorial with Adele

I arranged a tutorial with Adele as I was struggling to find inspiration and I felt as though I had hit a bit of a wall in my development.  It was an extremely useful tutorial that allowed me to leave feeling inspired and like I was back on track.  I showed Adele my sketch book and she recommended that I look at paintings from the medieval period to really get my colour palette accurate.  She said that currently the colours I am using and some of the images I have used as inspiration are too 'electric' for the period; in some examples she showed me I saw that the colour palette was much duller than that which I had been using.  The colours were muted, with deep, rich tones but not particularly bright and I need to bare that in mind when designing.  We also discussed the fabrics I should use and that they should be natural; silks, wool, leather linen and also perhaps velvet as it started to become popular a bit after the period of the play but I think it would look very effective, especially silk velvet.   I feel more confident in where I need to take my research and development following this tutorial and I now need to go fabric shopping and try to find some fabric to inspire my designs.  I also need to do some more research into medieval paintings and the sort of colour palette that they had and the colours that I should be using.

Discussion with the Set Designer

Following our tutorial with Will, Rhiannon and I decided to get together to discuss what our inspiration had been so far and work out a concept together.  We both wanted the set and costume to work really well together visually so we shared our ideas to create unity between our designs.  We had similar feeling about the script and how we wanted it to look which made the collaborative process quite rewarding and we were both able to bounce ideas off each other and develop our initial ideas further.  The two of us both felt that religion should be extremely prominent in our designs and the symbol of the cross was in important image to both of us.  Also we both really liked the idea of using earthy tones to show the grounded nature of the characters and freshness of ideas expressed within the piece.  We both wanted to look at fairytales and bring in a more fantasy element to the piece without making it look too 'floaty' and 'light' and the subject matter is hard and will perhaps be quite difficult to watch at times.  It was rewarding to know that we were both on the right track and we have decided that our research should be collaborative so that our ideas really stay in tune with one another, to make sure the set and costumes harmonise well and one does not overpower or detract from the other.

11/05/11 - Tutorial with Will

Rhiannon and I met with Will to find out a few more details about how this project will work and what the director wants.  We discussed where our inspiration needs to some from and we decided that for the script to work the play has to be kept within the medieval period from a design point of view.  If we changed the context of the play the contemporary references in the dialogue would be lost; I am pleased that we are keeping it, medieval as my research so far has excited me about the period and I hope to bring in some more fantasy elements and fairytale inspiration to give the piece a medieval feel but with new conceptual design elements.  It was mentioned that I need to bare in mind that some of the cast are younger than the characters they will be portraying and this should be considered in my designs.  It was said that while the medieval silhouette is soft I need to keep some hard lines in there to match the themes in the play and that simplicity of line would be effective.  I have found through my research that the garments at this time were very simple which I love about the period because they won't detract from the dialogue. It was mentioned that earthy tones would work well, both with the themes and characters in the play and also visually; this is a very exciting idea and one that Rhiannon and myself need it discuss further.  From here I need to look at the context of the author and find out what his intentions were when writing the script and also looking at other visual representations of the period and seeing how I can bring something new into my designs.  I think most importantly I need to stay within the medieval context and make sure I design something that is recognisable as being medieval but perhaps with some more modern influences.

It was also during this tutorial that Will informed me that our show will be the second show of the autumn term and therefore there will be time for some of the costumes to be made.  This is really exciting for me as it allows me to have a bit more creative freedom in my designs as only some of the character will be being sourced.  This means I can really let my creativity flow and create designs that will fulfil a maker’s role and portray what I want without the restrictions of actually having to be able to find them.  This information has made me even more excited about the project and I cannot wait to really begin designing and getting ideas together.
 

06/04/11 - SDP Part 2 - Script Meeting

Rhiannon, Zoe and myself met with Will, our tutor on this project, to assign the scripts we would be designing.  The scripts we 'Top Girls' (written by Caryl Churchill) and 'In Extremis' (written by Howard Brenton); I had to read both scripts before the meeting and honestly I initially preferred the script for 'Top Girls'.  However, during the course of the meeting it was decided that 'In Extremis' would need two designers, one for set and one for costume, whereas 'Top Girls' would have one designer doing both set and costume design.  I was eager to focus fully on costume design, as I feel I am stronger in this area and I have less of an interest in set design.  It all worked out quite nicely as Rhiannon was keen to just focus on set design and Zoe said she worked well by doing set and costume together, so the result was that Rhiannon and I would work together on 'In Extremis' while Zoe designed 'Top Girls'. 

On reflection I am actually quite happy with the outcome of the tutorials, I didn't dislike the script for 'In Extremis', and now I have read it a few more times I am beginning to appreciate the nature of the play and the intricacies in the dialogue and dialectical exchanges.  I have never designed for this period before and I think it will be a new exciting challenge for me.  I said in my learning agreement that I wanted to keep part 1 of SDP away from collaboration but that part 2 would involve a lot of collaboration and I am happy to be working with Rhiannon on this project and hopefully we can work together closely to keep our ideas linked to make sure there isn't a visual separation in our designs.  The next step for me now is to begin researching the context of the play and the lives of Peter Abelard and Heloise and discussing initial ideas with Rhiannon.

SDP: Part 1 - Painting for Inspiration Styling Project Evaluation

Overall I am very happy with the result of this project; I think the final photo is a success and closely resembles the original image while changing the context and making it more contemporary.  I am pleased with my styling skills and the way the costume looks, I set out to keep the militant look and combine it with punk and I think it works well.  I think the photo is a success interpretation of 'A Dead Soldier' and I think I edited it well to make it look better and enhance certain aspects to make it work.  If I were to re-do this project I would perhaps wait to take the photo a bit later in the day and if I had more time I would have waited for weather that would have created a similar look to the original.  I think there are a few things I could have done better, the badges should have been on the other side of the jacket so you can see them and the handcuffs are a little bit lost when the model lies down.  I am pleased with location I found and I think it works really well and the positioning of the model is exactly what I wanted.  I think my research really helped me create this look and I believe I managed to recreate the punk style and do it justice.  I am happy with my final image, and while there are a few things I would tweak, I think I achieved what I wanted to from this project, gained experience in styling for the camera and have a result that I am proud of.

The Final Photo

My final photo

'A Dead Soldier' The original image I chose

The final photo before editing

As you can see the photo I took needed quite a lot of editing to get it looking how I wanted; I knew my location meant I would have to mirror the image to get the same positioning as 'A Dead Soldier'.  Once I did this I could get a clearer idea of what else needed to be adjusted.  I got rid of the wind surfers in the background and then I also wanted to edit the edge of the cliff so that the model's feet looked more on the edge as they do in 'A Dead Soldier'.  I flattened out the horizon line as I didn't like the slanted angle it had in the original and I think the straighter line sets the photo up better.  I couldn't get the cigarette to light up on the location as it was too windy, but the smoke was important, as I wanted it to resemble the lamp in 'A Dead Soldier' and the symbolism it has relating to the temporary nature of life and how easily it can be extinguished.  I therefore had to put the smoke into the picture myself, and I think it works quite well and adds to the photo. I had to digitally enhance the makeup as it didn't show up very well in the light, but I wanted to maintain a subtly about it, without making it look too clownish, as punk sometimes did.  I like the way the skull seems to be looking at the figure, symbolic of death waiting for all of us and we will all be claimed it at some stage, I painted it silver to give it a shine, based on Damien Hirst's work, which was a statement on mankind's materialistic nature which I thought fitted well with the themes common in 'vitas' paintings.  I was a little disappointed with how bright the overall image was and I darkened the sky a little in an attempt to edit this, but the location would have been almost impossible to get to in the dark.  The moody sky in 'A Dead Soldier' was partly what drew me to it and I would have liked to have been able to reproduce this effect.  However, I do feel that the brightness of the setting makes the model look darker and creates quite an interesting contrast.  My aim in this shoot was to have influences from the original painting combined with a more contemporary style; I think I did achieve this by using punk and the Vietnam war as my influence I think they come through well and maybe the brightness suggests that punk was revolutionary and still is today, so it lives on and people can still relate to it.  I am happy with the final image as I think it works well against the original painting while providing a more contemporary context of a movement that fought its own war against social fashions and ideology.