Workshop 2: Interview with Miggy Cheng

“Subjectivity and objectivity”

Hae Jin: I am interested in hearing your further elaboration on this transition from both primary and secondary resources you coined as black and white to the production that adheres to color: Are the translation instinctive and discretionary, or objective and still fully research-based? 

Miggy: “What black and white are would be open to interpretation, right? My job is always about this character — I must draw this inspiration from the person and spend enough time [with him or her]. [Creating the character’s costume] is about visualizing the script, the dialogue, the background, or even the actor who is playing the role. During my thought process, the actor would also share his dilemma of this very character to me, and we debate about our interpretations. So, sometimes color is a preference, where I think “oh, this color will work for our consensus of interpretations; I think this will invigorate this person’s warm personality”, or “this color might slightly be melancholic”.

“Color is also a perception because it really depends on how you see it. During the production of Floating City, my process is to collect as many samples as possible of the numerous characters. If you see my earlier slides, I have stacks of these samples in a room. Sometimes [color] does jump onto you; it is not like you follow them step by step: I am going to pick up this color at this stage, and I use this color for next stage, it does not work this way. You walk into a room with all these fabrics, and suddenly see this color and you recall those characters you are working on. For film you also have to step out of it, looking at it as a third-person, and then you will have to predict what your fewer perception is.”

“I am not certain about how this may relate to architecture, but I believe that when you walk into that building, it is almost like you walking into a piece of garment. You feel it, and you may be persuaded by the atmosphere to move inside.”

“Signature”

Hae Jin: Thank you, I have a follow-up question regarding the role of an art director. As you must have a signature in your costume designs, how do you compromise with the general director or the board of directors?

Miggy: “Some bosses would trust you entirely. When I began my design profession, which was 12 years ago, I used to design fashion. Fashion allows you to have a signature; to have a style where everybody can tell “oh this is Miggy’s”, where anyone can relate to it and ultimately purchase it. In the film, however, sometimes you must put your signature away because you are serving a different purpose: you are serving the story, not yourself. You can say that sometimes you must throw away your ego in this industry.”

“The less noticeable a costume is in a film, the more successful it is. It must become a part of the story; you may not remember what the characters have worn, but you clearly recall the narrative, and that is the magic of costume in the film.”

 

Color is created by the research on these black and white sources: script, history, photographs, documentation. This also applies to architects, in which their contextual research before designing would be a stack of these black and white resources ready for interpretation. The research adds more credibility, reasons, to the concept, making the architectural decision less discretionary and arbitrary. I concur with Miggy that there is no particular “steps-to-take” to come up with the costume. However, I am still convinced that a film that is historical should reference more to objective.

 

By: Lee Hae Jin (3035444176)

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