Dressing a film

One of the things that often bothers me about the Oscar for Best Costume Design is that it so often seems to go to the big showy costume dramas or period pieces. While obviously all theses designers are doing great work, I always feel like it is too easy to award these movies this award because 1) they kinda have to go all out--- no one is going to take a period film to seriously if it has low production values and 2) they have SO MUCH room to experiment and create. I mean, in Marie Antoinette, they actually HAD those massive giant wigs and gowns to play with. In Changeling not so much.

Also Changeling or An Education could probably have saved some money, blood, sweat, and tears but doing a less fantabulous job on the costumes. But they did it anyway, even though it was hard and there were much stricter lines, outside of which they could not color. They really couldn't put these characters in feather-plumed hats or neon ribbons or engraved armor.

This brings me to another point, I don't think people really appreciate the dedication and work art directors and costume designers and their staff put into this "background" element of a film. But it is a lot of high-quality, dedicated, and difficult work. But if they don't do this work, the world of the film and the essence of the characters exist less and less.

I recently came across the music video Drew Barrymore directed for Our Deal which I think is a nice microcosm of art direction and costume design that demonstrates what I'm talking about. The storyline is not stellar, but the world of the film and the ambiance of the gangs is really vivid--- most of it comes down the art direction and the costume design.

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The style and set dressing is great right? MTV provides two additional behind the scenes videos about developing the look of the film and shows just how much work, by many people, went into getting it right.

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They get more into the details of the costumes in this video. It is amazing to realize all of this stuff is conceptualized, planned, and choreographed. And it is also so cool to see how enthusiastic and familiar the director and stylists are with each piece.

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As, Barrymore says "These people will have put time into making themselves individuals." When you are making a film or designing any space or outfit for any character, you have to remember this, and making this come alive for a fictional character is a lot of work and a lot of creativity. And this is just for a music video; imagine the forces that have to get rolling to do a stellar job on a film or tv show!

And when you've seen it done right, you often don't notice. What you do notice is how great the film is as an experience and how present and real the characters are. These elements are a key piece of making that happen, and when they are that seamless, you are seeing some excellent excellent work. Which is why I'd like to see one of those types of film win the Oscar sometime soon.

P.S.
1) How rad do Alia Shawkat and Miranda Cosgrove look?
2) How cool is Drew Barrymore?
3) I want a Night Creeper jacket.