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Behind the Scenes: Wardrobe
REVELATIONS filming began with an ambitious schedule -- three massive location shoots, each with a number of principals, squads of troopers and dozens of extras. The troopers were easy -- each member of the 501st has his or her own armor or uniform. Original costumes were designed for each principal character and tailored to them. But what to do with dozens and dozens of extras -- over 20 at the quarry, 40 at the nightclub, 80 at the museum -- volunteers of all shapes and sizes who had to be outfitted in Star Wars fashions from head to toe just for a few moments on screen?
Here the Costume Design team of Dawn Cowings and Sarah Yaworsky explains the tips, tricks and last-minute inspirations that give REVELATIONS its distinctive look.
The Mining Facility (pictures)
Most important consideration: Achieving a unified, plausible sci-fi look for two dozen prisoners in a mining facility
One of the first ideas floated was Tyvek jumpsuits. However, even if bought in bulk through the Internet or by catalog, the price was prohibitive. Could we ask the extras to bring their own clothing, guided by our suggestions? We abandoned this as too risky -- we wouldn't have enough control over the outcome and since the location would be very well lit, there would be no way of hiding inappropriate costume elements.
The final decision was made to go with "rags and wraps" -- Dawn purchased 100 yards of plain muslin on the Internet and cut them into 2-yard tunic lengths with rough neck holes. She then dyed them, using RIT dye and painters buckets. (Shane wouldn't let her dye in the new washing machine!) Earth tones had been ruled out as blending into the quarry walls too much and reds and blacks were reserved strictly for the use of our villains. That left just a few cool colors on the store shelf. Multiple washings faded the deep blues and purples to shades that really popped out against both the rocks and the stark white trooper armor. One downside we discovered of cutting the fabric before the dying/washing/drying process was that the tunics shrank and were a bit shorter than intended. On the plus side, the raw edges developed a ragged, distressed look that added to the overall look we wanted.
eBay and a local army surplus store provided additional accessories -- welders goggles, kneepads, gloves, and gaiters (leggings), much of which was spraypainted for a more industrial look. Fabric scraps from our personal collections of sale table finds were cut up for belts, obis, sashes, headwraps and leg wraps.
The day of the shoot, the extras were lined up and the various costume elements were handed out. We told them about the basic look we wanted then let them create their own version. They happily complied, layering the various pieces, sharing the limited number of accessories, and creating similar yet individual costumes. Many even went so far as to roll around in the mud puddles left by the previous day's rain. The overall effect was just what we wanted -- while there was a consistent prisoner look because of the tunics, the mix-and-match items made them look like they had made due with limited resources and scavenged amongst themselves over time.
One lesson we learned was to check the costumes through the camera. While to the naked eye the prisoners were utterly filthy and caked in mud, it didn't show up on screen.
The Corellian Bar (pictures)
Most important consideration: Because the bar would be dimly lit, the extras themselves were the set dressing and would have to convey the sense of place
The quarry had been everything we could have wanted in a location. But the Shark Club, site of our second shoot, was all too clearly a modern bar when the lights were up. Shane wanted what he termed a "sci-fi speakeasy": inspired by the bars and clubs of Attack of the Clones, A New Hope, Blade Runner and Johnny Mnemonic, he envisioned a place where the rich and beautiful thrill seekers of Corellia mingled with gangsters, bounty hunters, and CorSec officers.
Needless to say, that gave us a wide range of characters to costume -- a down on his luck smuggler might be rubbing elbows with an info-dealing crime lord or a senator's daughter might be dancing with a mercenary soldier. Makeup and hair could be extreme and glitter was key.
Unlike the quarry shoot, we decided that we had to trust the extras. They received the following direction:
Club wear, boots, spike heels, thigh high boots, clothing you never had a reason to wear before *G*, unusual jewelry and/or hair accessories, evening wear, lingerie, vests, formal wear, thigh high stockings, fishnet stockings, etc.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Many of you will be wearing temporary hair color (washes out in one to two washes), glitter gel on your skin, makeup, etc.
We did get some rough measurements from the extras and discovered that we'd have a number of petite women. Sarah turned some thrift store finds into club gear, including a skirt that was transformed into a dress. A few women were tapped to be go-go dancers and specific costumes were created for them. One, Rain Montes, volunteered to be painted from head to toe in white body make-up with black light orange spots and wear a black pleather and mesh outfit recycled from a Twi'lek dancer's costume donated by Karen Hammang (Zhanna).
The first two and a half hours on location were intense as we scrambled to get everyone ready. First came Wardrobe where Sarah, aided by some of the PA's, met with every extra and scrutinized what he or she had brought. She picked out what they would wear and added various costuming elements that we had already gathered -- jewelry, belts, wigs, shawls, gloves, etc. The extras were then passed along to Hair and Makeup. Our Makeup designer, Eileen Hammang-Yaworsky, had created makeup templates -- eye designs, face paint, color combinations, etc. -- so that the volunteer makeup artists had some place to start as they stared at each new face. In keeping with Shane's speakeasy theme, colored hair gels, glitter spray, sequins, leather, lace and more were used on both men and women with abandon -- no look was considered too outrageous and more was definitely more.
Once fully dressed and made up, the extras then proceeded to the Props area, where they were issued what every Corellian barfly needs: guns and bar supplies. Let me tell you, it's hard these days to find a plastic gun that looks like a gun! Our Props guys worked overtime modifying and painting the "blasters" and "laser guns" and "soaker pistols" they had collected. We had also stripped our own kitchens and dining rooms of every interesting looking piece of glassware (and hit a Wal-Mart or two) to fill with water colored with UV dye. The extras were cautioned not to drink the stuff but one of the CorSec officers got caught on camera taking a sip!
Neatness wasn't much of an issue. The nightclub was lit to be dim and atmospheric (a smoke machine was used), with colored gels over the lights and even a black light bulb added to intensify the UV makeup and dyes used on some of the extras and in the cocktails. We also had a number of wonderful aliens courtesy of The Spatcave, which will be featured in a future issue of REVELATIONS: The Official Fanzine.
The Ambassadorial Reception (pictures)
Most important consideration: Associate the movie firmly with the opulent Republic look of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, rather than the drab, restrained Imperial look typified by Mon Mothma and Princess Leia in A New Hope
When the scene was first conceived, Dawn dreamed of having a hundred ambassadors but knew that it was just a fantasy. But when Shane found the perfect location, we knew that we had to fill it with extras to do it justice. And due to scheduling constraints, we'd have to come up with equally impressive costumes in just three weeks.
Our original goal was thirty ambassadors. As prospective extras kept contacting us, the number went up to forty. Then sixty. In the end, eighty costumes were prepared and almost seventy were actually used. In addition, we were making Zhanna's gown, a true piece of haute couture that had to exemplify her power and position in addition to looking good against Darth Vader.
Of course, we couldn't have done it all from scratch. The PanicStruck crew had a major head start: The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Some of us are members and have made or bought clothing for SCA events. We also love to attend local Renaissance fairs. Studying TPM and AOTC showed that many of the clothing designs are based on medieval and renaissance designs in non-traditional fabrics and layered in atypical combinations. We were able to use many pieces of our existing "garb", as it is called, as the basis for our new costumes.
We consulted the various picture dictionaries, art books and character guides to get a good feel for the Republic look. A major element of the most formal outfits is the absence of trousers. Males and females alike wear gowns and tunics. If the legs are seen, the footwear is almost always boots. We could not provide the proper riding or motorcycle boots for everyone so we decided that most outfits had to reach the floor. Skirts and evening gowns to be worn as the bottom layer were an easy find for the women but the men were much more difficult to dress. We hit upon the idea of "tube skirts" -- a length of fabric sewn together to make a skirt but left without a hem or waistband. These tube skirts were pinned or tucked into the tops of pants and were very adjustable as to length.
Since we had little time for new sewing, we developed a host of no-sew or edged-only items. These included what we called a Mothma robe, a long piece of fabric hemmed only along the edges, folded in half the long way, then cut up on one side to the middle of the fabric to form an open-sided tunic. There was the Commodus cloak (after the character in Gladiator), an uncut piece of fabric draped at the shoulders and fastened there by large brooches. Veils, sashes, shawls, hats, chains, necklaces -- accessorization became everything as we added layer upon layer to the base garments.
This was the first time we recruited other working costumers -- not just for the loan of existing costumes but to actually construct new ones to our specifications. This involved design meetings, construction assignments, and fitting/accessorizing sessions with eight models of varied body types who tried on every one of the eighty costumes. We filled six rolling laundry racks with the completed costumes, each with a wardrobe sheet attached detailing every piece of the costume, how to put it on, and what size range it would fit. Every extra was required to send in their measurements so we could assign costumes in advance. (We also found out the hard way -- Dawn and Shane need much better lights in their basement!)
Creating these costumes was a tense, tiring effort (there was one long weekend where we never saw the light of day!), but thanks to the dedication of everyone involved, the Ambassadorial Reception is a stunning and sumptuous scene sure to impress.
Photos courtesy of Brian Sarcinelli and Dale Henry
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