What Does a Costume Designer Actually Do?
38sThe hook explains a niche film role in relatable terms, sparking curiosity about how character outfits are created.
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Lane McGovern, costume designer for VGHS and Rocket Jump productions, explains the role of a costume designer in bringing characters to life through clothing. She details the process of creating zombie costumes, collaborating with directors, and clarifies the different roles within a costume department.
Chapters
[00:00]
Introduction
Lane McGovern introduces herself as the costume designer for VGHS seasons, Rocket Jump shorts, and School One Take.
[00:12]
Role of a costume designer
Costume designers bring characters on paper to life, dressing them for their daily activities like going to school or work.
[00:25]
Character quirks in wardrobe
Designers incorporate small personal habits (e.g., holding a shirt sleeve) into costumes to add realism and character depth.
[00:39]
Zombie costume creation
For the one-take, they created four zombie costumes using cheap natural-fiber clothes from thrift stores, dyed them, and shredded them with tools for a distressed look.
[01:17]
Director collaboration
The designer researches, brings options to the director, and both collaborate to decide on the final look, either choosing from prepared options or discussing preferences.
[01:30]
Costume department breakdown
The video aims to break down the different roles within the costume department to help fans understand the team's responsibilities.
Mentioned in this Video
Tutorial Checklist
1
00:00
Understand the character's background, personality, and daily life to inform costume design.
💡 Key Takeaways
💡
Role definition
Clear definition helps viewers understand the core responsibility of the costume designer.
00:12
🔧
Quirks in costumes
Practical tip to incorporate human habits into character design for deeper realism.
00:25
🔧
Zombie costume creation
Step-by-step example shows a cost-effective and creative DIY approach.
00:39
💡
Director collaboration
Reveals the iterative process between creative professionals in production.
01:17
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Department breakdown
Sheds light on the assumed but often misunderstood world of costume departments.
01:30Full Transcript
[00:00] Hi, I'm Lane McGovern. I was the costume designer for all three seasons of VGHS, a bunch of the Rocket Jump shorts, and also the Rocket Jump film, School One Take.
[00:12] The job of a costume designer is the characters that you read on paper, to bring that to life and make that into a person living their life and doing everything. Going to school, going to their job, going to work, whatever.
[00:25] People just in their regular life have things that they do in their clothes that they may not even realize. A friend of mine just had like a nervous thing where he would hold the sleeve of his shirt. So all of his shirts have a little worn out spot right there. And that's something that a character would also do.
[00:39] So you have to put love into their clothes that little isms that people have putting those isms into their wardrobe. For the one take, we had four zombies. So the four zombies, I mean, zombies is a pretty it's a it's a fun process.
[00:54] But you just kind of go to Goodwill, get whatever's on sale, get whatever's cheap. but you need to look for things that are cotton and natural fiber so you can dye them and you throw everything in a dye bath and then just take scissors and knives and shredders and shred everything up and then you can add blood as you go along For a relationship with a director and me is find out all the info do as much research on my end get options bring options
[01:17] to the director. Sometimes they have their heart set on exactly what they want so they'll choose from those and other times they're like, I don't know, what do you think? And then they'll kind of get my input and see which one I prefer and then we'll go from there. A lot of the tweets and emails
[01:30] that I get from the fans is they don't necessarily understand the different roles of the costume departments. I do want to kind of break down the different departments within the costume team and help everyone understand what those roles mean. So I am super excited for the Rocket Jump Film
[01:44] School and all the departments and then the costume department but as we are going along if there are things that I'm not covering that you guys want to hear about for costumes, design, or even VGHS shoot me a tweet or you can email the Rocket Jump Film School and find out and let me
[01:58] know. Thanks guys! .
