Did this experience open you some interesting doors?
Absolutely. I applied to a training course for Film and television that specialised in costume and during my interview the costume designer that was interviewing me was fascinated by my photos and stories from Hunt for Gollum.
She told me it was really amazing how we had created all the costumes and it sounded like a lot of fun. I got a place on the course and I like to think it was because of Hunt for Gollum.
What are you doing in real life? Are you already working in this matter (I'm beting on)?
I am still on my training course. What they do is they take someone like me who has some experience in costume and film (not necessarily professional productions) and they get us work on Feature films and television programmes.
I started it in october and I've worked as a costume trainee on 3 BBC television shows including Waking the Dead which is a long running drama series in the UK, I'm currently working on a childrens television show again for the BBC and I'm hopefully going to go and work on a feature film in July for BBC Films.
- How were you called to participate to such a project?
I joined the project in February 08 so a lot of the crew had already been working on it for about 4-5months when I joined. I saw an advert posted on an internet job site for costume makers and I decided to answer it. I was in contact with Gladys one of the co-producers who invited me to an informal interview with Chris, Gladys and Sophia. They invited me to work on it and I jumped at the chance to work on something inspired by Lord of the Rings.
- In what did consist your work?
To start with Chris wanted to have a few orcs for a fight scene. I had to design and then make an orc costume that could be easily changed to look like another orc. So I made a few bits that could turn inside out and made some extra bits of armour and costume that could be swapped between the orcs.
Because the actors were going to be fighting in the costumes they had to be easy to move in, they had to be safe if they fell over or banged into other people and they had to be really sturdy to last 4 days of fighting and running around! So there was lots to consider when making the costume. Plus it had to look good and look similar to the New Line trilogy orcs.
As we got closer and closer to the orc shoot Chris kept deciding he wanted more and more orcs so we just kept churning up these costumes. On the actual shoot he decided he wanted even more and so Sophia, Marta and myself were taking crew members and covering them in scraps of fabric and bin bags and all sorts making them look like orcs until eventually I think we had an army of about 20 orcs. It was hard work but good fun!
After the orc shoot Julianne (co-producer/costume supervisor) and Chris wanted to have a dream sequence and wanted Arwen to be in it and asked me if I would be interested in making some pretty costumes. I jumped at the chance to carry on working on the project and make a dress for Arwen! I ended up having a week to make both Aragorn's and Arwen's costumes so I was working very long hours to get them finished. I was still sewing on the train on the day of the shoot but I finished it just in time.
And then after that I did a few more bits and pieces I made some bodices for the villager scenes, a cap and shirt for the villager that Gollum steals the fish from, I made some of the Mirkwood elf costume and I made Arithir's horses blanket and face cover embroidering the white tree onto them.
- Did you work for a long time on this project?
I started in february 08 and I worked on the project right through to almost the end. The last bits I did were for the orc stunt day which I think was in April. So Just over a year working on this project and I loved every minute of it.
- Are you a group of friends who made this movie? or professionals attracted by such a project?
I didn't know anyone when I started on the project so it was quite nerve wracking but absolutely everyone involved on the project is so lovely and friendly and all really loved what we were working on that it was more like working with friends to create this fun film we could enjoy and hope others enjoy it too rather than working to create something just for the hell of it. I made some really good friends on this job and I'm keeping in contact with them!
- Do you want to tell us something particular concerning this experience?
It's a lot of hard work filming. The hours are really long, for the crew there is a lot of standing around and you have to concentrate a lot to make sure the continuity is the same and as part of the costume team you have to make sure that the actors are comfortable.
The weather can make it really tiring and uncomfortable too. You have to make sure the camera can't see you when you are filming and you have to stay really quite so the sound doesn't pick you up as well. But when you are working with so many people that love the project and all get along really well you really enjoy it and have a good laugh.
A few of my favourite moments include the first time I saw the orc army altogether. They looked fantastic with all the prosthetics and make up and weapons and costumes. It was great to see the 3 months of work complete and coming to life. Whenever Goblock (Gareth) was on set too was brilliant Gareth just got so into character and was really fantastic.
There were some children who were watching what was going on and there was a great moment when this gigantic orc was sat surrounded by all these children. There were so many good moments It's hard to say. I just enjoyed every moment!
- Can you tell us about your work as costume designer?
Hunt for Gollum was my first big designer role. I left university about 5 months before I started on it and I had done a few jobs here and there in costume for other things but nothing as big as this. Because the film had already started filming and the look of the film had already been set it was quite easy to see what Chris wanted. So when we had to design the orcs we looked at the New Line films and looked at the "Art of" books and saw how they had done theirs and I created my orcs to look similar but not exactly the same.
And because the budget was so small we had to consider what materials we had or could get for cheap and use to look effective. I had a massive collection of fabrics in my wardrobe from university that I raided quite a lot and I used pepsi cans and garden wire. It's hard to say how I made the costumes because I made it up as I went along if something worked it stayed and if it didn't I took it apart and started again. I didn't really use any sewing for the orcs just a lot of super glue!
The orcs needed a lot of breaking down as well, which is what we do to make the costumes look old, dirty and lived in. And again with the small budget we were using anything we could get our hands on. I used dust, varnish, talcum powder and paint to dirty them and then I would kick them around the floor or scratch them against the walls to make them all roughed up. It was a lot of fun!
As a costume designer you have to work closely with the director and the rest of the crew especially the other costume designers to see how each of them interpret what is going on. So for example if the props team had made really neat and clean weapons for the orcs and we had made these really filthy dirty creatures it wouldn't have worked. We had meetings every week to see what the rest of the costume team were up to and if we were on the right track. We had a lot of fittings too.
- Wich costume did you prefer to work on?
I loved all of them! I was particularly proud of my main orc because I had spent so long working on it and I was worried that Josh (the actor) wouldn't be able to move in it and it would all fall apart when he was fighting but luckily it didn't and I was really happy with it.
I really loved making the dream sequence costumes for Arwen and Aragorn because it was such a change from getting dirty making the orcs. I also got to do some embroidery on Aragorn's which I hadn't done a lot of before. But I loved absolutely all of them. I would quite happily keep making more and more costumes for this film if Chris could make it longer!
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