Maria Pattison
Costume Designer

Limitations = Creativity

Costuming Summer Coda presented us with 100+ costume changes, 10 script days and over 30 characters.  With a big cast and a modest budget, we just couldn’t say no to the challenge!

From the beginning Sarah Parr (Costume Supervisor) and I put our heads together to figure out how we could build these characters’ costumes. We spent 5 weeks of pre-production juggling a balance between creating a look and finding what we needed to get it together. While I scrapbooked looks, colour palettes and designs, Sarah went on a nationwide hunt for generous sponsors that fit out brief, finding invaluable local designers to contribute unique pieces that we couldn’t live without. Amongst endless emails and hours of research, we spent days and days searching through private costume collections, the lofts and  dens of secret vintage wholesalers, department stores, city and suburban op shops, ebay stores, and even had far-off colleagues purchasing one off pieces from the UK.

As with any film, you need to pull together about 5 times what is required then narrow it down when the characters’ looks are developed, refining the look according to the direction of the director and the actor.

So began a stream of buying, returning, swapping, altering, dyeing, dipping, breaking down, mending and re-dyeing, in an attempt to make it real, as well as aesthetically pleasing. Shifting tones up and down to compliment locations and skin tones.

Sometimes the simplest t-shirt or the right coloured socks can be impossible to find. And with a limited budget there is little room for error.

As we begin our second last week of shoot, most of the looks have been established. There are only four more characters to sign off and we are almost there! Yes, it feels good! The sleepless nights emailing and discoloured hands from dye pots have paid off ! The oranges up here ain’t bad either.