Following on from my thoughts on selecting a DoP for you film I thought I would move onto costume design. I won't be writing a blog about selecting a costume designer though but instead the first in a series where I will discuss each characters costume design in turn. There was a couple of big costume design scenes as well and those deserve blogs in their own right.
Costume Designer
Our costume designer for the project was Sophie Howard who came highly recommended to the production from another crew member. Sophie came on board without a lot of preparation time before the shoot and I can vividly remember our first meeting where I had rushed from meeting to meeting all day. I think I blabbed about the film non stop for about 45 minutes and Sophie probably wanted to run away!
Luckily I didn't scare her off and she came back to me within a few hours with some photo boards for the characters with her interpretation of my ramblings as well as adding her creative streak to the proceedings. Sophie was great to work.
Bryan's Thoughts
Now onto the main part of the blog, Jacob's costumes. For Jacob my high level description was something like - "An indie kid but nothing too fancy" but I think that does him a dis-service. I think that Jacob is someone that is very conscious of his appearance but doesn't have the confidence to wear any clothes that he would consider are too fancy or out there.
I think that he feels the way a lot of people do when they are trying to discover what their own style is and as a consequence dress within a certain genre but conservatively. I really wanted his vulnerability to come through in his clothing choices. So even when he makes a gesture for himself it doesn't feel like a big gesture to anyone but himself and those closest to him.
I had been trying to collect a set of images for each of the character from various internet sites and below are a couple that I took from a site called the The Sartorialist. The images there are way too fancy for Jacob but I wanted to be able to give Sophie some ideas even if I had to say afterwards "but not as fancy".
As you can see from the images these are variations on clothes that every man in the world must have. Jeans, Trainers, T-Shits and sweaters. This is basically all that Jacob would ever wear. I liked the idea of him always appearing the same throughout the film as I feel that it fitted his personality to always come across the same.
In some ways I wanted his costumes to not be noticed by the audience. If the audience had noticed the costumes then they would either have been because they didn't fit his character or that his character was making a statement through his clothing choices. Neither of which I wanted.
Sophie bought into who Jacob was straight away and she compiled a set of pictures which were mostly images from young indie bands where they were wearing jeans and t-shirts. Nothing fancy just things that make Jacob feel comfortable and at home in his own body.
A section of cuttings that Sophie prepared
Once we set out the initial context we had a few quick conversations around what suited Rollo as Jacob. In my head these were plain/dull colours such as blues, greys, browns and blacks. I also wasn't keen on any large or showy designs on his outfits.
Not sure why but I also didn't like Rollo in a v-neck t-shirt or jumper. I think this was down to the differences between Rollo as a person and Jacob. There was quite a few costumes that Rollo tried on and we had to scrap them because Rollo came across too cool in them.
The Outcome
I believe that the costumes that we chose for Jacob really suit his character and also made sure that Rollo understood the character that he was portraying. It is in this area that I feel costume design is really important. It contributes not just to the visual side of a film but to helping the actor get to the character that they want.
We chose two main jackets for Jacob to wear. A brown and orange one that he never seemed to have off his back during the filming. I like this fact as for any boy it is pretty normal to have your favourite jacket that you wear constantly.
The other was more of a jumper than a jacket but it was a grey wholly sweater. I think it even had a small hole in the elbow if I remember rightly. Not sure if that was there before or after Rollo got his hands on it. I think this jumper more than anything else said Jacob to me. It just felt like I was watching the person that I had dreamt up when reading the script.
Next up is Jacobs jeans. Too be completely honest I have no idea what Jacobs jeans where! It's funny but as a director I think you notice what is out of place and fix that so if things are perfect they don't your attention. This must be really hard for crew now I come to think of it.
They do lots of work to breakdown the script into different costumes, come up with a portfolio of images for each character, fit each character and provide me with the images which show the result of all this work and I say something like "not sure I like v-necks on him".
There was one night when Jacob gets asked to meet Ailidh and she takes him to a swing dance club. We wanted to make Jacob seem like he was making a little bit more of an effort for that night than in other scenes. We decided that we should get him a tartan shirt for the scene.
This might not seem a big change but for me it was him showing Ailidh that he wanted to impress her. I personally wear tartan shirts now (can never get them off me) but I can remember at first being wary that they suited me so I felt that Jacob would feel the same way too.
Finale
As always if you want to comment on this blog then it will be synchronized to the Booked Out Facebook fan page where you can comment and discuss the joys of Jacobs costumes.
If you want to read more about Sophie then check out the links below:
