Uberfriendship.com's Show About Games Show - Ezio Cowl

David over at UberFriendship.com needed a costume piece for an upcoming segment on their Show About Games Show at The Escapist Magazine! The upcoming segment features a character based on Ezio from the Assassin's Creed video game series. I created a cowl based directly on the game version and I was happy with how it turned out. I wasn't sure how I wanted to do the closure initially but I ended up putting Velcro down the centre front and it is inconspicuous enough that it doesn't detract from the rest of the top-stitch detailing.

 All Photo Credits: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

UberFriendship.com's Little Big Planet! *UPDATE*

UPDATE 03/02/2011: Some shots from on set at the shoot!

UPDATE: The episode has been released! Check out the Little Big Planet portion in the second half. It looks absolutely amazing! I'm so happy I got to be a part of this :)

Show About Games Show : Kinectimals & Big Planets

My friend David over at UberFriendship.com asked for my help for project of theirs! For the upcoming release of LittleBigPlanet 2 they decided to make a live action Sackboy short so I created two props that would fit in two of the many landscapes they had planned out. I love LBP so much <3 

I created a plush Popsicle and a mushroom that were both bottom weighted and an inch deep so they would sit on their own. It's not too obvious here but the props are both around 7 inches at their highest. First I created a pattern which I used to created a frame out of and then cut it out again in fabric. This involved a substantial amount of hand sewing :) I can't wait to see the footage!



 

Photo Credits Above: TM 2010 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved.

Promo trailer for the upcoming release of LBP 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy_a3oCDzRA

Toronto Underground Cinema's Tales From the Underground

This was a project I was involved with back in July 2010. The Boys at Toronto Underground Cinema decided to create a three short films for Edgar Wright's The Wright Stuff which happened the first weekend of August 2010. For those of you that don't know what that is, Edgar frequently programs series of film screenings in various theatres around North America and the UK, films that have inspired him throughout his life. TUC hosted his latest Toronto event which was in honor of his newest film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World being released that same week.

I was the costume designer for this project which was so much fun! The second film was particularly costume intensive and the one  I spent all my time on. Part 2 was inspired by the 1980's film Flash Gordon, one that I love particularly because of the campy costumes and character design :) I was hoping to get some detailed construction shots but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet so I'm posting some shots the boys took on set!

For Alex's costume I was inspired by Prince Vultan, who was the prince of the bird-like Hawkmen in the film. I created a leather breastplate with shoulder guards and matching leather bracers. I don't have a shot of the back but there were two buckled straps going from the shoulders that created a harness with two horizontal buckled straps across the back. Additionally, I got a set of baby black angel wings that tied to the back harness and a viking hat.

Photo Credit: TM 2010 Toronto Underground Cinema. All Rights Reserved.

Evil Emperor Dark Nigellus was kept in the theme of Flash Gordon's villain, Emperor Ming the Merciless. I created a long hooded cloak from red satin and Nigel accessorized with copious amounts of eyeliner and faux facial hair! 

Photo Credit: TM 2010 Toronto Underground Cinema. All Rights Reserved.

The love interest in this mini-epic was Belinda played by Christine. I was inspired by Ming's daughter in the film, Princess Aura and her memorable gold costume. This costume was all about the bling so I picked up some vintage antique white lace with beading/sequins and repurposed it for the bra portion of the costume. I created gold beaded/sequined shoulder pads that had loops to attach them to the bra strap which I also added gold trim to. The skirt was a wrap with a thick gold elastic band (that was a really big pain to find!) and an interlocking metal buckle. I also picked up some strands of clear seed beads for a necklace and a Celtic knot elastic headband.  

Photo Credit: TM 2010 Toronto Underground Cinema. All Rights Reserved.

The last costume was for Charlie and inspired by Flash Gordon himself. I created a t-shirt from scratch, adding the contrasting red arm and sleeve ribbing. I then screened the FLASH logo on the chest and the lightning bold on the back. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it but you can check it out in the film below! :) 

Indie Film "Death and Space"

The great thing about doing costume design is the variety of projects you can have that allow you try experiment will all kinds of techniques and materials. Working on 'Death and Space' has been particularly interesting because it actually takes place in space. Or as close as we mortals can get, the green screen :)

There were going to be alot of tight shots and close-ups so the space suit worn by the astronauts had to have as much realistic detail as possible. The creators ordered an NASA replica space suit modelled after those worn in the Apollo mission which ended up looking pretty simple and needed tweaking.

The helmet had to have extra fabric added to the neck in order to cover up the bottom lip of the visor. Hand sewing Velcro on to thick glued canvas is painful, let me tell you. Though, we didn't have to worry about making our first blood sacrifice for the film after that.. haha

The front pack base was usable but the 'hardware' it originally came with made it look like a toy. I got to install all kinds of fun gadgets and dials so that it more resembled the real thing. The grey piece on the front was originally bright silver so I repainted it and added distressing and darkened the edges. The backpack was pretty plain so I added more fabric overlay pieces and held them in with screws that were the closest I could find to the original.

 

PETER JORGESEN, DEATH AND SPACE

Photo Credit: 2010 Trevor Kai. All Rights Reserved.

Photo Credits Above: TM 2010 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved.

The snoopy cap that came with the suit was pretty unusable so I ended up drafting and entirely new pattern. From here, they look fairly simple but the ear pads were a bit more complicated. I also had to worry about them starting to droop so I actually filled them with polar fleece so they would keep their shape.

ERICA LEUNG, DEATH AND SPACE

Photo Credit: 2010 Trevor Kai. All Rights Reserved.

The most frustrating and time consuming piece of this project was definitely the gloves. I had to start over from scratch with those and the stitch lines were so close together, working on my machine became very complicated. I ended up having to hand sew a few small parts in the end. But all in all, they worked out and looked exactly as I had envisioned.

Photo Credits Above: TM 2010 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved.

They are still working on post-production but I have some stills from the film and it looks pretty cool :)

2009 RECAP - James Bond Promo Trailer "Maximum Bondage"

Last year I worked on a promotional trailer for The Bloor Cinema's James Bond Retr007spective that ran January 21st - February 4th, 2009. I was the costume designer as well starring in the role of 'Bond Girl #257' which required me to I spend the majority of shooting over two days tied to my Bond co-star in the Bloor's extremely filthy dungeon-like basement. 

As 'new Bond (ie. Daniel Craig)' and 'old Bond (ie. Sean Connery)' are intrinsically different and the retrospective included both versions, the promo reflected this by switching between the two. In order to properly illustrate this, I needed to create two disctinct looks for all the cast. The first set were a retro more campy, perfectly coiffed style and the second was a harder grittier modernised version.

This description better describes the dastardly plot of the trailer:
"James Bond, the worlds most sexually active super-spy, may finally have to give up and meet the Reaper. Hes trapped in an asthmatic unfriendly basement, hes surrounded by sleep deprived goons armed to the teeth, and the greatest foe hes ever faced, the dread Megaplex, happens to be wielding the most terrifying weapon Bond has ever faced: A machine that is capable of completely changing reality! If the machine is activated, James Bonds world of campiness and wise-cracks will get replaced by a darker universe filled with grit, darkness and an unhealthy dollop of excessive violence. Can James Bond keep things nostalgic? Do audiences actually prefer all that shaky camerawork as a substitute for actual excitement? Are we finally going to get a bewb shot in a Bond film?"

You can view the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOFg4xZPLGM

Unfortunately, I didn't get any photographs of the costume details but here are some shots taken on set.

MIKE WOOD AS JAMES BOND CURRENT (PICTURED FIRST) AND JAMES BOND RETRO (PICTURED SECOND)

Photo Credit: 2009 Charles Smith. All Rights Reserved.

CONALL PENDERGAST AS MEGAPLEX

Photo Credit: 2009 Charles Smith. All Rights Reserved.

BOND GIRL #257
Photo Credit: 2009 John Atkin. All Rights Reserved.