Judianna Makovsky The Hunger Games
Director Gary Ross had a very clear vision. We toned down the book and tried to work within the bounds of time, budget, labor, and weather. We were a little bold and tried to have some fun with it, but he was very clear that it not be sci-fi futuristic—that it had to be very relatable. That’s the charm of the story: that women can relate, that they can be in Katniss’ place, so it shouldn’t be so far in the future that it’s not recognizable. It’s a very retro book when you read it. It’s sort of Americana: there’s futuristic stuff in it, but it’s not very futuristic as a whole. You’ve got a girl with a bow and arrow. District 12 is in the future, but it’s a mining district that’s supplying coal to the Capital, so right there, it takes you back. It’s not very high tech, so there’s that whole feeling about the movie. It’s mid-20th century—a little before, a little after—from the description. When I read it, it was clear to me to not go very futuristic. It was a limited budget, that’s putting it nicely. It was terrifying trying to figure out how to do it and not call fashion designers. To have our own look was probably the biggest challenge. The other issue was the weather in North Carolina. It was 90 degrees with 90% humidity, so we also had to create a look that would stand up to that. ACD — Lisa Tomczeszyn © Universal Pictures. Photo: Alex Bailey
Colleen Atwood
Snow White and the Huntsman Well, I think that this show is interesting in the way that it was a slow boil. The first three months were really concentrated on what the two armies were going to look like, then we built up the rest of the worlds. One of my favorite things is the juxtaposition of texture, color, and layering. With the way that cameras have developed, even some of the shiny stuff, you can’t tell what it is. So, it’s fun to explore how technology changes the materials. I was inspired by some of the things I had never used before, like a parchment folded into an origami collar, which looked like bones. I found these beetle wings from Thailand, but they were super sharp and we had to drill them with a jeweler’s drill to make them sewable. I thought it was important that this queen is humanized. So, she started lighter, in a cloak of shimmering gold and then her wedding was portentous, because it had a kind of exoskeleton collar, which harkened to scarier times ahead. As she began to decay, her clothes were made out of more decaying matter. It was an opportunity that I hadn’t had before, to take a fairy tale to an unquestionably dark version of it. I had tremendous support from my producers and the studio as far as being able to make almost everything in the movie, so it was a massive undertaking. An Oscar®-nominated film. ACDs — Jane Clive, Lora E. Revitt
Pierre-Yves Gayraud and Kym Barrett Cloud Atlas
Barrett: The film had a really emotional storyline. A lot of the work the Wachowskis and I have done before was more action-based; we’d had really good technological challenges, but this was a very human script. The fact that we spent so much time with the actors as a result of them having to be different people, added a whole other dimension to the actual production. It really did have a very strong ensemble feeling, almost like a theatre troupe, the way a company might tour and have to do lots of different shows in the week. We were also running six units in different countries with different time periods. Gayraud: It was essential for Kym and I to stay connected with each other, so I think we worked very hand in hand. The challenge was to try to find bridges between the different segments, to find a good balance, to re-create the different worlds without isolating any of them. We tried to have a soft touch to make it easier for the editing to move between the different segments without too strong a cut. Also, because many of the characters are not so defined, it was important for the costumes to give some grounding and to help to build the character. I think it’s an amazing trip into a different world and I hope the audience is concentrated more on the emotional things than the Costume Design. ACDs — Serena Fiumi, Nuria Pascual-Andujar, Alice Wolfbauer
Winter 2013 The Costume Designer
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