Ant-Man Costume Designer Sammy Sheldon Differ
Sammy Sheldon Differ designed some of my favorite movie costumes in films like Stardust, Kinky Boots, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and has worked with comic book characters from Hellboy and Kick-Ass to the X-Men. Next year, you'll see her work in Assassin's Creed, from director Justin Kurzel (he directed this year's striking
Sandy Powell & Judy Becker on the Costumes & Sets Behind 1950’s Period Wonder Carol
Carol, a beautiful adaption of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, about the evolution and dissolution of a relationship between two women in New York in the early 1950’s, opens today. Cate Blanchett stars as the title character, a lovely housewife in a convenient marriage (Kyle Chandler is Blanchett’s cuckolded husband) who embarks on a relationship with a younger store clerk, Therese (Rooney Mara). The film was directed by Todd Haynes and shot on a tight budget,
Bridge of Spies Costume Designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone on Cold War Style
Bridge of Spies costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone, who previous work includes Moonrise Kingdom, discusses the logistics involved in dressing thousands of extras and her first time working with Steven Spielberg.
What are the challenges working on a period film, particularly when you're telling a true story?
I feel it's a very structured process, so my job is so much driven by the vision of the director and the script.
Costume Designer Kate Hawley Talks Crimson Peak
Costume Designer Kate Hawley knew what she was getting into when director Guillermo Del Toro hired her for his cheeky horror film Crimson Peak, which he described to her as just a little Victorian-era film. Having first worked with him on pre-production concept work when he was attached to direct The Hobbit series, Hawley and Del Toro connected over some of the 600 books she travels with,
Filmmaker Gillian Armstrong on her Doc Women He’s Undressed
Gillian Armstrong, whose now-classic My Brilliant Career (1979) was the first Australian feature length film to be directed by a woman for 46 years, has worked both inside and outside of Hollywood her entire career. Her latest film merges both worlds: Women He’s Undressed(it comes out on October 10 in select cities), a documentary about fellow Australian Orry George Kelly, the three-time Oscar-winning costume designer (for An American in Paris,
Downton Abbey Season Six Fashions: The Times They Are A Changin’
The Crawleys and their downstairs gang will be roaring into the ‘20s bedecked and bejeweled in the latest in 1925 fashions thanks to Downton Abbey costume designer Anna Mary Scott Robins. Robins’ fashions are a vital character in this period drama, and serve the crucial function of moving us along in time.
Gone are the conservative and quite restrictive gear, and slipping are the attitudes of Edwardian England in 1912,
Wardrobe Change! Costume Designer Catherine Marie Thomas’s Many Looks for Hot Pursuit
Catherine Marie Thomas has helped create some of the more memorable characters of the past two decades through her exquisite costume design. Look at the bright yellow fight suit she created for Uma Thurman’s The Bride in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. This look was so iconic it was included in the Hollywood Costume exhibit, which began at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, and traveled the world.
Going in a completely different direction,
From Mockingjay to Boardwalk Empire, Seamstress Lara A. Greene Has Dressed the Best
I Make Movies – Seamstress from WhereToWatch on Vimeo.
If clothes make the man or woman, than costumes often go a long way towards making a movie, particularly in historical dramas. Costumes are a major part of setting the tone of a film or a television show; they tell us so much, even before an actor utters his or her first word. We sat down with seamstress Lara A.
Sandy Powell Creates the Couture of Cinderella
Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator, and The Young Victoria. These are but a few titles on legendary costume designer Sandy Powell’s illustrious resume. It’s funny to think she’s from this modern day and age, because her designs perfectly represent the day, age, history, and emotion of each film she is a part of. It’s as if she travels back in time to design her many sartorial masterpieces.
The Return of Cinderella
Disney’s original animated Cinderella, an inescapable fact of most Western childhoods, won the Golden Bear in the musical film category at the very first Berlinale in 1951. A live-action contemporary version, nearly singing-free and also produced under Disney’s auspices, premiered at the most recent Berlinale, some 64-years after the original. Directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Lily James (best known as Rose in Downton Abbey) in the titular role,
Inside The Americans Costume Shop
"I knew going in that when people heard 1980s they’d automatically think neon, big hair, shoulder pads, and I also knew that was actually not true," costume designer Jenny Gering told us when we interviewed her about her work on The Americans. "1981 looks much more like the late 70s than what people associate with the 1980s. I knew it would be fun for me to reeducate the viewer to the way that time period actually looked.
The American’s Costume Designer Jenny Gering
If you haven’t seen FX’s hit series The Americans yet, you are missing out on the one of the most relentlessly entertaining, thoughtfully produced dramas on television. What’s more, for those of you who have any memory of the 1980s, The Americans is also one of the most gorgeously shot and costumed shows on TV, at once nailing it’s era and milieu and simultaneously subverting what you think the 80s looked like.
Made in Maryland: Hanging With the Crew on the Set of Veep
It was a cold, blustery Tuesday in December when we were on the set of HBO’s Veep in downtown Baltimore. On the production front, however, It was a relatively calm day of filming by Veep standards, but a calm day on the set of this show still requires dozens of crew members to work their butts off. Whether it was Kim Bogues in craft services, costumer Constance Harris or assistant property managers Jamie Bishop and John Bert,
A Q&A with James Dever, Military Advisor on American Sniper
James Dever was just following orders. In 1986, Clint Eastwood arrived at Camp Pendleton, the Southern California Marine Corps base, to direct, and star in, Heartbreak Ridge. Dever, a gunnery sergeant with more than 13 years in the Corps under his belt at the time, was assigned by his Colonel to work with Eastwood — whose character, Thomas Highway, is also a gunnery sergeant.
The experience proved intoxicating. “I said to myself,
2014 in Review: Lensers, Designers, Makeup Artists & More – PART II
The end of the year brings a few reliable reactions; promises to do x, y and z more consistently in the new year, reflection on all that you accomplished (and failed at, and regretted) this past year, and 'Year in Review' lists. Yesterday we published Part I of our look back at some of the filmmakers we interviewed in 2014. On Monday, we published an interview with cinematographer Robert Yeoman, looking back on his work in Wes Anderson's
Costume Designer Mark Bridges Makes Inherent Vice Look Nice
“She came along the alley and up the back steps the way she always used to. Doc hadn’t seen her for over a year. Nobody had. Back then it was always sandals, bottom half of a flower-print bikini, faded Country Joe & the Fish T-shirt. Tonight she was all in flatland gear, hair a lot shorter than he remembered, looking just like she swore she’d never look.”
So begins Thomas Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice,” five quick sentences that describes a change in the air and atmosphere of Los Angeles,
Ridley Scott’s 10 Commandments Making Exodus: Gods and Kings Part II
Yesterday we published part I of "Ridley Scott's 10 Commandments Making Exodus: Gods and Kings," looking at how the director and his team of hundreds of talented filmmakers managed to film God's wrath realistically, on location, and without losing the very human story at the Biblical epic's core. Here, then, is Part II, beginning with Scott's 6th commandment:
6. Thou Shalt Wear Tunics, lots and lots of Tunics.
Ridley Scott turned to his longtime
Harsh Conditions Bring out the Best in The Homesman‘s Crew
When we interviewed Marco Beltrami, he was particularly jazzed up about the work he did for Tommy Lee Jones’ upcoming film The Homesman. Beltrami is the type of composer who seeks out directors (as he did with Joon-ho Bong for Snowpiercer) and he was excited about Jones’ second directorial effort. The film’s set in the punishing Nebraska frontier in the middle of the 19th century. This inspired Beltrami to record a lot of his score outdoors,
Three-time Academy Award Winning Costume Designer Colleen Atwood Talks Shop
Colleen Atwood is one of the most prolific costume designers of her generation. She has never gone more than four years without a Oscar nomination, beginning with her work on Little Women in 1994 and leading up to her nomination for Snow White and the Huntsman in 2012. Atwood is responsible for one of the most iconic pieces of a costume in film history (more on this later), and has had her hand in some of Tim Burton’s greatest creations.
The Middleburg Film Festival to Honor Two Below-the-Line Giants
The Middleburg Film Festival, at just two years old, offers a strong program of films and an appreciation for the many talented craftsmen and women who make them. This year, the festival is honoring two below-the-line filmmakers, our raison d'être, who are both giants in their field. The Credits is heading down to Virginia today to get in on the action.
The honorees are costume designer Colleen Atwood and composer Marco Beltrami. The Distinguished Costume Designer Award will be presented to Atwood on Friday night with a retrospective of her most memorable costumes, followed by a masquerade ball in her honor.
