pinkleopard posts
Well, thank you ladies for your interest, I will try to post my pink leopard blog here. if i can figure out how to get it to automatically post it here that would be great. but I am technologically inept so for now it will be copy and paste:
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2009
A beginning; Heddy and Hedda
blog.
what a taboo word these days. web 2.0 is already getting a lot of flack. And here I am eons behind the rest of the world starting my blog. Typical.
The truth is I am just starting my adventures in this great wide world, and its comforting to know that out there in the tangled net that is inter, there will be a record of my travels, trials, tribulations, comments, questions...sea chanties.
That said, this is a blog about a costume designer. Not just a costume designer, a 23 year old costume designer from New York City who moved to the deep south to study her craft, (that could have been a blog all by itself) and is moving back "home" to begin the race against time to find a job that will support her living habits (you know, eating, feeding the dog, those sorts of luxuries). Did I mention I'm terrified?
I'm terrified of moving to New York City. Living in Savannah, Georgia for so long, that stigma that other people attach to "the big city" has somehow glommed itself onto my own perception of what was once "home" and is now "the big city" in my mind. Tragic, really. I feel somehow that growing up in the city, I took it for granted. I never really lived there, I never really understood what it was, how hard it was to live there, or imagined living anywhere else. Now that I know what it's like elsewhere, comparisons are almost comical. Rent, groceries, parking, electric bills. These things I just took for granted as a part of life until I came here and realized that people in other parts of the world don't have to deal with these things the way New Yorkers do. Do you know there are places where you dont have to pay 600 dollars a month for electricity?? Do you know that there are places where you can find a parking space in under an hour?? AND it might even be close to where you live! We park outside our apartment all the time. Astonishing.
Okay enough blah blah here's the deal: 2 costume projects:
1: Hedda Gabler for Armstrong Atlantic University. It gets cast next week. there are 7 actors, each averaging 2 costumes apiece. The play takes place in the 1890's a VERY expensive time period to put together and the kicker is that the project's entire budget comes to 2000 dollars. I cant imagine what the set designer is going to spend on creating a giant cage out of the stage, (yes, giant bars will hang from the rafters, OY) so I get whatever is leftover from this prison extravaganza to support a Victorian dressing habit. Yes dressing habit. It was like an addiction with these people; "oh I must change its time for tea" "oh i must change its time for a walk" "oh i must change, its time for supper" how did they ever get anything done??? The advantage is that in the 1970s there happened to be a big trend for this stuff, so I get to shop a bit in the vintage stores and cheat a bit but mostly I'd like the thing to look authentic, OK? I've found some absolutely fabulous things online, which I am very excited about, as well as a book full of authentic patterns from the 1890s. Of course they're about the size of paper dolls, but I believe I can manage to draft a skirt or two out of it if need be. Any suggestions are very welcome. Goes up the last weekend in September.
2: Hedwig and the Angry Inch for Club One, the local gay club where the famous Lady Chablis does her drag act every once in a blue moon. Basically, we're putting on a drag show for people who know their drag shows. EEK. intimidating much? I've done the Rocky Horror Show twice already but nothing in those productions ever came close to impressing my need for drag-fabulous. this needs to be drag-fabulous. My co-designer and I have already sketched up some fabulousness, full of sequined, rhinestoned, punked out glammed out amazingness and some Berlin Wall Punk thrown into the gamut. Auditions were yesterday and today, and I am ridiculously excited to see how this thing gets cast. Goes up the second to last weekend in September.
The projects are farther away from each other as they can be, which delights me to no end. September of Heddy and Hedda is going to be exciting, intimidating and overwhelming, and all the while I'll be on the job hunt. So far, its 2, no, 3 emails to my boss from the Metropolitan Opera and 0 responses back. I'll be updating on that situation too. Hey if anyone has any good leads on a costume job in new york let me know!
Off to my "real job" a gig at Urban Outfitters. It hardly pays and is NOT worth the money, but I can assure you the discount is worth it. and boy do they know it. I think Urban considers it a gift to shopoholics to be hired there. WILL WORK FOR CLOTHES.
fin.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2009
The Money Game
I had a Hedda meeting on Friday, at which I was informed of my budget. Its just enough to do what I want to do, spend a bit of money, but also pinch pennies here and there so I can spend where it's really important.
As a costumer, it is imperative that you know how to fake it where you have to. For example, instead of buying 200 dollar Victorian frock coats, I can find a satin collar tailcoat at goodwill for 6 dollars. Yup, that'll do. This way, I get to buy the 150 dollar visiting dress, as well as a 50 dollar victorian vest that'll really make the look work. Why buy 60 dollar mens shirts when I could buy them for 3 dollars and change out the collars for 8 dollars? with the 50 odd dollars I saved I could buy a pair of women's shoes, or I could add dress gloves to the outfit for 6.50; now thats really classy. I know designers who don't think with their wallets. I saw it at the Metropolitan Opera, even there you have to save as much as you can so you can spend elsewhere. My colleague and I are designing Hedwig together, and while it was hard, we had to reign our sights in and redirect our attention from the pretty Swarovski book and to the 3 dollar plastic rhinestone bags from Michaels. Sure, it'll take forever to sort through the colors, sure they wont have that glitzy crystal shine, but it will save us money and this will make our producers happy.
Making producers and directors happy is important too. You don't want to sacrifice your point of view of course, but I always find having a positive relationship with the person holding the checkbook and the one holding the creative reins is a good thing. My professor at SCAD did not have this idea. She spent money every which way, treated directors like ignorant, stupid losers with no original ideas or any knowledge of time period. In fact, many directors are exactly the opposite. While they don't always know which cravat is tied correctly or whether the New Look was invented by Dior or Balenciaga, I think they do their research. In fact, the director for Hedda Gabler is a dramaturg, and has a vast knowledge of, well, everything. He also has sewing experience and so I can talk to him about this kind of hem or that kind of collar. If you are not so lucky, you must educate your director so you can have these conversations with one another and so he or she can better understand your choices.
Ultimately however here is my feeling on the subject: it all comes down to what the director wants. If you're designing a 16th Century Shakespearean drama and the director sees his actor in a newsboy cap, he must have that cap. If you've explained why its not accurate to the period and the director wants it anyway, he must have it. A costumer must not be an accuracy nazi. The costumer is there to serve the director, even if the director is a moron and you know it. Hopefully thats not the case, but even so...you know what I'm saying.
Going over budget is tacky, and I try not to do it, unless there are extenuating circumstances and the budget really is unrealistic. Costumers who go over bother me because it shows a certain disregard for the people for whom they are working. You are being paid to perform a service with certain parameters and to ignore them is an insult to the job being done. A little bit around the edges is fine-- 20 dollars over a 300 dollar budget, 100 over a 1000 dollar budget. Fine. but to spend willy nilly without thinking about pinching here and there is worrisome to me. It suggests a certain recklessness in character.
So now we play the money game. Waiting for money, disabled from performing my craft until I am provided with the monetary assistance needed to carry out tasks necessary to create the finished product. Its not fun, it requires a certain amount of poking and prodding and begging for checks or credit card numbers or petty cash (which is my favorite).
I cant wait to really get started, I've already got my sights set on a number of wonderful things for Hedda Gabler, and my colleague and I have lots of tricks up our sleeves for Hedwig.
More to come soon!
Fin
well thats all for now, let me know what you think, gals!! is it interesting at all? i have no idea. lol.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2009
A beginning; Heddy and Hedda
blog.
what a taboo word these days. web 2.0 is already getting a lot of flack. And here I am eons behind the rest of the world starting my blog. Typical.
The truth is I am just starting my adventures in this great wide world, and its comforting to know that out there in the tangled net that is inter, there will be a record of my travels, trials, tribulations, comments, questions...sea chanties.
That said, this is a blog about a costume designer. Not just a costume designer, a 23 year old costume designer from New York City who moved to the deep south to study her craft, (that could have been a blog all by itself) and is moving back "home" to begin the race against time to find a job that will support her living habits (you know, eating, feeding the dog, those sorts of luxuries). Did I mention I'm terrified?
I'm terrified of moving to New York City. Living in Savannah, Georgia for so long, that stigma that other people attach to "the big city" has somehow glommed itself onto my own perception of what was once "home" and is now "the big city" in my mind. Tragic, really. I feel somehow that growing up in the city, I took it for granted. I never really lived there, I never really understood what it was, how hard it was to live there, or imagined living anywhere else. Now that I know what it's like elsewhere, comparisons are almost comical. Rent, groceries, parking, electric bills. These things I just took for granted as a part of life until I came here and realized that people in other parts of the world don't have to deal with these things the way New Yorkers do. Do you know there are places where you dont have to pay 600 dollars a month for electricity?? Do you know that there are places where you can find a parking space in under an hour?? AND it might even be close to where you live! We park outside our apartment all the time. Astonishing.
Okay enough blah blah here's the deal: 2 costume projects:
1: Hedda Gabler for Armstrong Atlantic University. It gets cast next week. there are 7 actors, each averaging 2 costumes apiece. The play takes place in the 1890's a VERY expensive time period to put together and the kicker is that the project's entire budget comes to 2000 dollars. I cant imagine what the set designer is going to spend on creating a giant cage out of the stage, (yes, giant bars will hang from the rafters, OY) so I get whatever is leftover from this prison extravaganza to support a Victorian dressing habit. Yes dressing habit. It was like an addiction with these people; "oh I must change its time for tea" "oh i must change its time for a walk" "oh i must change, its time for supper" how did they ever get anything done??? The advantage is that in the 1970s there happened to be a big trend for this stuff, so I get to shop a bit in the vintage stores and cheat a bit but mostly I'd like the thing to look authentic, OK? I've found some absolutely fabulous things online, which I am very excited about, as well as a book full of authentic patterns from the 1890s. Of course they're about the size of paper dolls, but I believe I can manage to draft a skirt or two out of it if need be. Any suggestions are very welcome. Goes up the last weekend in September.
2: Hedwig and the Angry Inch for Club One, the local gay club where the famous Lady Chablis does her drag act every once in a blue moon. Basically, we're putting on a drag show for people who know their drag shows. EEK. intimidating much? I've done the Rocky Horror Show twice already but nothing in those productions ever came close to impressing my need for drag-fabulous. this needs to be drag-fabulous. My co-designer and I have already sketched up some fabulousness, full of sequined, rhinestoned, punked out glammed out amazingness and some Berlin Wall Punk thrown into the gamut. Auditions were yesterday and today, and I am ridiculously excited to see how this thing gets cast. Goes up the second to last weekend in September.
The projects are farther away from each other as they can be, which delights me to no end. September of Heddy and Hedda is going to be exciting, intimidating and overwhelming, and all the while I'll be on the job hunt. So far, its 2, no, 3 emails to my boss from the Metropolitan Opera and 0 responses back. I'll be updating on that situation too. Hey if anyone has any good leads on a costume job in new york let me know!
Off to my "real job" a gig at Urban Outfitters. It hardly pays and is NOT worth the money, but I can assure you the discount is worth it. and boy do they know it. I think Urban considers it a gift to shopoholics to be hired there. WILL WORK FOR CLOTHES.
fin.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2009
The Money Game
I had a Hedda meeting on Friday, at which I was informed of my budget. Its just enough to do what I want to do, spend a bit of money, but also pinch pennies here and there so I can spend where it's really important.
As a costumer, it is imperative that you know how to fake it where you have to. For example, instead of buying 200 dollar Victorian frock coats, I can find a satin collar tailcoat at goodwill for 6 dollars. Yup, that'll do. This way, I get to buy the 150 dollar visiting dress, as well as a 50 dollar victorian vest that'll really make the look work. Why buy 60 dollar mens shirts when I could buy them for 3 dollars and change out the collars for 8 dollars? with the 50 odd dollars I saved I could buy a pair of women's shoes, or I could add dress gloves to the outfit for 6.50; now thats really classy. I know designers who don't think with their wallets. I saw it at the Metropolitan Opera, even there you have to save as much as you can so you can spend elsewhere. My colleague and I are designing Hedwig together, and while it was hard, we had to reign our sights in and redirect our attention from the pretty Swarovski book and to the 3 dollar plastic rhinestone bags from Michaels. Sure, it'll take forever to sort through the colors, sure they wont have that glitzy crystal shine, but it will save us money and this will make our producers happy.
Making producers and directors happy is important too. You don't want to sacrifice your point of view of course, but I always find having a positive relationship with the person holding the checkbook and the one holding the creative reins is a good thing. My professor at SCAD did not have this idea. She spent money every which way, treated directors like ignorant, stupid losers with no original ideas or any knowledge of time period. In fact, many directors are exactly the opposite. While they don't always know which cravat is tied correctly or whether the New Look was invented by Dior or Balenciaga, I think they do their research. In fact, the director for Hedda Gabler is a dramaturg, and has a vast knowledge of, well, everything. He also has sewing experience and so I can talk to him about this kind of hem or that kind of collar. If you are not so lucky, you must educate your director so you can have these conversations with one another and so he or she can better understand your choices.
Ultimately however here is my feeling on the subject: it all comes down to what the director wants. If you're designing a 16th Century Shakespearean drama and the director sees his actor in a newsboy cap, he must have that cap. If you've explained why its not accurate to the period and the director wants it anyway, he must have it. A costumer must not be an accuracy nazi. The costumer is there to serve the director, even if the director is a moron and you know it. Hopefully thats not the case, but even so...you know what I'm saying.
Going over budget is tacky, and I try not to do it, unless there are extenuating circumstances and the budget really is unrealistic. Costumers who go over bother me because it shows a certain disregard for the people for whom they are working. You are being paid to perform a service with certain parameters and to ignore them is an insult to the job being done. A little bit around the edges is fine-- 20 dollars over a 300 dollar budget, 100 over a 1000 dollar budget. Fine. but to spend willy nilly without thinking about pinching here and there is worrisome to me. It suggests a certain recklessness in character.
So now we play the money game. Waiting for money, disabled from performing my craft until I am provided with the monetary assistance needed to carry out tasks necessary to create the finished product. Its not fun, it requires a certain amount of poking and prodding and begging for checks or credit card numbers or petty cash (which is my favorite).
I cant wait to really get started, I've already got my sights set on a number of wonderful things for Hedda Gabler, and my colleague and I have lots of tricks up our sleeves for Hedwig.
More to come soon!
Fin
well thats all for now, let me know what you think, gals!! is it interesting at all? i have no idea. lol.