Question and Response
Dong:
Thank you so much for the sharing! When introducing the costume designing process of Floating City (2009), you mentioned that the costume team would search and select appropriate textile and patterns as raw materials and make the costume by yourselves. The process of making clothes especially for the movie shooting is impressive and creative. However, handmaking the costume will unavoidably become a time and labor consuming process. In other movies and TV series producing, the costume team usually prefer to directly purchase or rent needed costumes from vintage stores or costume vendors, which could save time, labor and monetary costs. Thus, compared to directly obtaining the finished costume, why would you prefer to design and make the costume on your own?
Miggy:
Thank you! It is a good question. I want to point out that both of the methods you mentioned, namely buying costumes and making costumes, will be implied in practicing. During the shooting of Floating City (2009), apart from making the costumes by ourselves, we also visit vintage stores and costume vendors to find suitable pieces. I even borrowed one of my mother’s old garment as I saw that piece of cloth suits the film’s scene well. Sources of costumes are multiple and various. We will acquire costumes through several different sources to enhance the process’s efficiency and costumes’ variety.
As I said, I studied fashion designing when I was in London. I am always interested in designing clothes and also especially enjoy the process of making clothes. Making clothes for a film is an enjoyable journey full of surprises for me. I can add my ideas and thoughts to the costumes I designed. Nevertheless, preparing costumes for the shooting of particular realistic themes films is entirely different from fashion designing—-costumes should fit into the cultural context created in the script and also adapt to the requirement of film shooting. We spent time on analyzing the clothing culture features of Tankas people through existing photos and research materials.
Additionally, all the costumes we get, whatever how we acquired them, will be specially processed to make them better fit into the film’s context. In Floating City (2009), we washed the costumes for more than 20 times to make these clothes seemed to be worn and crinkle, as poor Tankas people may not wear neat suits on their fishing boats. We also modified the color and pattern of costumes to create the sense of blending in or stepping out to the film’s sets. For example, we use floral pattern on children’s clothes to construct the homeliness atmosphere on the boat where characters lived.
Reflection
During the sharing, Ms. Miggy Chen kept on mentioning that the costume is the “skin” of the characters. The costume can not only reflect the personality and experiences of characters but also can enrich the overall historical, natural and cultural context constructed in the script. Designing the costumes require superior designing techniques and precise acknowledge of the film’s story and style.
Dong Yuchen 3035448859