Costuming for Lame Swans
Dec. 19th, 2012 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11As I went through the images I'm using for my graphic novel Lame Swans, one thing I'm particularly pleased with was how the costuming turned out. The visuals of a comic book are as much a part of the storytelling as anything else, so I wanted things to have the right look. I chose models who could conceivably look like ballet dancers. I tried to utilize settings that added to the verisimilitude. And I cared very much about finding costuming that suited the characters, contributed to the visual communication, and suited the overall aesthetic.
As anyone who's worked with me as costumer before knows, colors having meaning is extremely important to me. In this project I decided each character would have a distinct color. This image from the audition scene illustrates things nicely. Around Halloween, Global Thrift Store in Waltham always puts out a special display of all sorts of unusual or interesting clothing items that could conceivably be used as Halloween costumes. I was incredibly luck to find that somebody had donated a whole bunch of solid color dance dresses in various hues. I liked them all being the same dress because it contributed them looking like they were all of a company, and the various colors allowed me to assign each character a different color. Even beyond my theatrical costuming preferences, color is extremely important in comics, it has a lot of symbolism and power to direct the eye. I had decided early to demonstrate the opposition between my two main rival characters Lise and Marina by dressing Carolyn always in something blue and Tziporah always in something red. Finding these costumes supported that nicely. And look how beautifully all the different colors pop against the blue wall and golden wood floor.
Of course, now I own more dance dresses than anybody could ever want. Two red, two pale blue, two purple, two dark blue. I wear them to ballet, I figure I should since I own them. Incidentally, if you never need outfit a team of dancers on the cheap, ring me up, I'll lend them to you.
I also wanted fancier costumes for Lise and Marina, as if they were rehearsing in what they'd wear for performance. Carolyn's background in dance has led her to accumulate a number of lovely costumes, and many of them fortunately in blue. She graciously lent her long dark blue gown with the four-paneled skirt, which she happens to look absolutely amazing in. I found Tziporah's fancy costume in the thrift store along with the solid dance dresses. It's a velour halter-back leotard with a long tulle skirt and a beautiful sort of tie-dye pattern, also quite lovely on her. Apparently a dance team had cleared out their costume closet, as there were many identical dresses just like it in the store. I was lucky to find something so nice in red.
I also wanted "performance costumes" for the male dancers. Unfortunately they only got into a few shots, but I dressed Ryan in the blue doublet my mother made, and Kindness in the green tunic from my Link costume. I liked the effect, although due to the craziness of getting the first photoshoot organized meant I confused when the ladies would what what costumes when. Ideally the "performances costumes" would all have been worn in the "dress rehearsal" scene, but I forgot Carolyn and Tziporah's that day. But because I wanted to use them anyway, I decided the two of them would have dress rehearsal in their one-on-one scene. I went to all the effort to arranging them, after all!
There was a little more color repetition than I'd like. Ryan's in blue here when ideally he should have been in white (I considered him "white" in the audition scene, where he first appeared) and Kindness in green when he wore black in the first scene, even though Caitlin's color was designated green in her scenes. But I think the shades were different enough that there wasn't that much of a conflict.
Even when they were out of the studio, I wanted the color themes to continue. Observe Lise and Marina in their street clothes, and how even when they were bundled up in their warm outerwear, which was in similar dark shades, I put them in scarves that maintained their signature color presence. My teacher really appreciated that, and thought I used it to good effect.
Bernie's character, the director Jason, I decided was one of those artists who always dressed more or less the same. Black slacks, black shoes, charcoal gray shirt. In the outdoor scenes he wore a black blazer over it. Very European.
The final character of note, played by Frances, was one I referred to as the Ballet Ideal. She's kind of a weird concept, not one I was sure totally read, but the theory behind it was that she was a mental construct of Lise's representing her getting into the zone when dancing-- the Ballet Ideal was her perception of being truly in tune with the art of the dance. When she appears, it represents Lise nailing it. So she wore two costumes, one a blue dance dress of Carolyn's to show her connect to Lise, and also that fabulous peachy-pink dress that I found in the thrift store last year. You may recognize it as the one in my profile picture on Facebook, and on Carolyn when she modeled for me the first time. It is probably just an eccentric prom dress or something, but it has a real ballet aesthetic to it, and demonstrates her as the concept of the platonic perfection of ballet. I just love this dress, and I want to use it as many
I also bought a couple of pairs of pointe shoes for aesthetic reasons. They take lots of training to be able to dance in, so ours were mostly for show. Nobody actually did much dancing in them, so unfortunately I ended up with a lot of shots where they appear to be wearing them in part of the scene, but inexplicably switch to slippers or barefoot in other parts. Frances was the only model I had who experience with them.
So I am pretty happy with how the costuming came out. It was a lot of work, and I invested quite a bit of cash into it, but I think I accomplished what I set out to. And I think it ultimately made the book that much richer.
As anyone who's worked with me as costumer before knows, colors having meaning is extremely important to me. In this project I decided each character would have a distinct color. This image from the audition scene illustrates things nicely. Around Halloween, Global Thrift Store in Waltham always puts out a special display of all sorts of unusual or interesting clothing items that could conceivably be used as Halloween costumes. I was incredibly luck to find that somebody had donated a whole bunch of solid color dance dresses in various hues. I liked them all being the same dress because it contributed them looking like they were all of a company, and the various colors allowed me to assign each character a different color. Even beyond my theatrical costuming preferences, color is extremely important in comics, it has a lot of symbolism and power to direct the eye. I had decided early to demonstrate the opposition between my two main rival characters Lise and Marina by dressing Carolyn always in something blue and Tziporah always in something red. Finding these costumes supported that nicely. And look how beautifully all the different colors pop against the blue wall and golden wood floor.
Of course, now I own more dance dresses than anybody could ever want. Two red, two pale blue, two purple, two dark blue. I wear them to ballet, I figure I should since I own them. Incidentally, if you never need outfit a team of dancers on the cheap, ring me up, I'll lend them to you.
I also wanted fancier costumes for Lise and Marina, as if they were rehearsing in what they'd wear for performance. Carolyn's background in dance has led her to accumulate a number of lovely costumes, and many of them fortunately in blue. She graciously lent her long dark blue gown with the four-paneled skirt, which she happens to look absolutely amazing in. I found Tziporah's fancy costume in the thrift store along with the solid dance dresses. It's a velour halter-back leotard with a long tulle skirt and a beautiful sort of tie-dye pattern, also quite lovely on her. Apparently a dance team had cleared out their costume closet, as there were many identical dresses just like it in the store. I was lucky to find something so nice in red.
I also wanted "performance costumes" for the male dancers. Unfortunately they only got into a few shots, but I dressed Ryan in the blue doublet my mother made, and Kindness in the green tunic from my Link costume. I liked the effect, although due to the craziness of getting the first photoshoot organized meant I confused when the ladies would what what costumes when. Ideally the "performances costumes" would all have been worn in the "dress rehearsal" scene, but I forgot Carolyn and Tziporah's that day. But because I wanted to use them anyway, I decided the two of them would have dress rehearsal in their one-on-one scene. I went to all the effort to arranging them, after all!
There was a little more color repetition than I'd like. Ryan's in blue here when ideally he should have been in white (I considered him "white" in the audition scene, where he first appeared) and Kindness in green when he wore black in the first scene, even though Caitlin's color was designated green in her scenes. But I think the shades were different enough that there wasn't that much of a conflict.
Even when they were out of the studio, I wanted the color themes to continue. Observe Lise and Marina in their street clothes, and how even when they were bundled up in their warm outerwear, which was in similar dark shades, I put them in scarves that maintained their signature color presence. My teacher really appreciated that, and thought I used it to good effect.
Bernie's character, the director Jason, I decided was one of those artists who always dressed more or less the same. Black slacks, black shoes, charcoal gray shirt. In the outdoor scenes he wore a black blazer over it. Very European.
The final character of note, played by Frances, was one I referred to as the Ballet Ideal. She's kind of a weird concept, not one I was sure totally read, but the theory behind it was that she was a mental construct of Lise's representing her getting into the zone when dancing-- the Ballet Ideal was her perception of being truly in tune with the art of the dance. When she appears, it represents Lise nailing it. So she wore two costumes, one a blue dance dress of Carolyn's to show her connect to Lise, and also that fabulous peachy-pink dress that I found in the thrift store last year. You may recognize it as the one in my profile picture on Facebook, and on Carolyn when she modeled for me the first time. It is probably just an eccentric prom dress or something, but it has a real ballet aesthetic to it, and demonstrates her as the concept of the platonic perfection of ballet. I just love this dress, and I want to use it as many
I also bought a couple of pairs of pointe shoes for aesthetic reasons. They take lots of training to be able to dance in, so ours were mostly for show. Nobody actually did much dancing in them, so unfortunately I ended up with a lot of shots where they appear to be wearing them in part of the scene, but inexplicably switch to slippers or barefoot in other parts. Frances was the only model I had who experience with them.
So I am pretty happy with how the costuming came out. It was a lot of work, and I invested quite a bit of cash into it, but I think I accomplished what I set out to. And I think it ultimately made the book that much richer.
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