Been there and done that. A worse scean is when the costumes get voted on by the Mother's Aux. for the production...and the Director accepts their critique as the standard. Or the whole cast gets to decide which costumes make the cut.
Between the movies and the major two Costume companies, the visual expectation is very limited for the Popular theater of a general public. The idea of style interpretation sometimes extends to matching colors, prints, assessories and such to the exact picture on the Pattern cover or to a particular garment from the film. Very frustrating. Making Cartoon costumes is not fun for one who may have a better view of the historical aspects of how the style (generic) clothes and compliments the character being costumed. It took me several years to learn to "pick my battles" and to try to maintain an integrity of Design for a particular production. In working with some cast members, I fought for their trust by reminding them that my name Too would be on the program; if they didn't look good or the character was inappropriatly clothed, I would get the criticism first. We spend a fair bit of time on this List with personal critiques of the movies and other productions re Costume; it is often pointed out that directors and actors live in a kind of fantasy world and that Design integrity is least in their expectation. For myself, in agreeing to do a production, I stressed Interpretation as a major starting point for the Design development. With some duds and a larger number of successes, I managed to get my own share of plaudits that gave me courage to move forward for the "next" time. (And there were many times when in the company of tech staff it was said that I "saved the show".) Guess one might remind the Director that theye can always Rent from a 'professional' theater supply house , Cost and Style be @#$&^%. Funny, when paying the Rental company how few complaints are given re Desigh and Fit! KSM ----- Original Message ----- From: "AVCHASE" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "h-costume posts" <h-costume@mail.indra.com> Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 10:46 PM Subject: [h-cost] DESIGNER PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS > Hi, All. The most recent show on which I worked opened last last > Thursday. And over all its a good show. But some of the fallout has been > very upsetting to me. > The director invited me to do this show for her, her last show (she's said > that for for the last three years), and I've done them. Each time some > cast members have been down right vicious. This time was the worst. > It occurred to me we expected different things as/from a designer. I'd > just assumed they all understood that I only did these shows to practice > my craft, keep my abilities in shape, and explore my ideas. Maybe her > agenda was different? > So I sent an email and asked what she had expected when she engaged a > designer. She wrote back to me a very complimentary (damned by > praise-forget faint) note about my design capabilities; but-said I was > overbearing, didn't listen to the actress's ideas and was not willing to > take suggestions form the actresses. The ideas and suggestions were put > forth a few days before dress and production had gotten me no help for a > small musical with 48 changes in it. Some very small; most changes are > full costume though. I found I was being difficult when I said there just > wasn't time. > The worst part is that the changes weakened the visual dramatic impact but > were more conventional. > Now I want to write a little paper setting forth designer's professional > standards. It isn't that I don't know what most are but I don't know if > they are enumerated anywhere. Are they? Please help, both scholars and > practitioners. Audy > > in the high boonies of Central Texas > > ________________________________________ > PeoplePC Online > A better way to Internet > http://www.peoplepc.com > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
