My experience as an extra in a film! 'Everest' OUT in 2015

Last  Monday I attended my costume fitting for my role as an extra. Being a costume designer this was really exciting for me as it gave me a chance to see how it's done by a professional. Well, in this case, the assistant of the professional. I was dressed by the assistant designer but I managed to catch a glimpse of  the real costumista as he strode into the room, looked at me, exclaimed "Urgh that's horrible - take it off" and went off out again.

I couldn't help but smile to myself a little as he left the room, I found his mannerisms slightly amusing, the offence he felt from my miss-matched outfit was almost too much for him to look at. 

It made me wonder if things change once you move up to higher ranks. It seems it becomes more deciding 'yes' and 'no' to other peoples decisions than making your own - depending on how many people you have working for you.

There were shelves of mountains boots, boxes of gloves, hats, scarves and earmuffs and finally rails of old school 90's ski and mountain wear. The colours were great, I love the magenta, teal and purple combo's that were so popular for that fashion. 

Wooley hats, scarves, gloves, ear muffs - the lot!

Mountain boots.. I was one of the last so the shelves were a little bare

Rails of 90's ski wear

Colourful body warmers

Ski wear is super super comfy

To the left is my first costume and, as comfy as the blue sweats were, they weren't working as part of costume. We needed to go less pyjama, more mountaineer-er. The solution was a pair of original high waisted Levi's, that if I may add, fitted ever so perfectly - it's a shame they couldn't come home with me!

I returned to Cine Citta on Thursday for my first day of shooting. The producer briefed us before we headed off to get changed. We had an assistant to help us and off with our clothes and on with the costume - I was not expecting such treatment as an extra! We then waited in turn for hair and make up - something else I wasn't expecting. I sat in front of a Hollywood vanity mirror and had my cheeks dirtied and reddened, then my hair fashioned into a very cute Norwegian style low plait. 

It seems as a red-head I was a target of serious face-reddening
in the make-up department

I was really really lucky to have this experience. Not only did I get an idea of how costume works for a film, I got to see how the action on set worked. Unfortunately I could not get any other photo's as phones were forbidden on set (as expected). We went through the process of retaking scenes, hearing the clacker and then the directors words: Rolling, Background action, and then finally Action. Background action was our cue, and with that I tried my best to immerse myself in the scene and act as naturally as possible. I would not have had the confidence to do this a year ago, however after a combination of being at University and most importantly, moving to Rome independently, I was comfortable enough to do it. 

Seeing filming in action and the way the costumes, hair, make-up and set is all designed really enthused me about film making. It gave me an idea for my final year project to integrate video into my branding. I want to create a promotional video and I now have lots of skills from my year in Rome to help me along with it. I will be able to use my lighting skills to set an effective ambience, I have learnt from the Everest filming how important it is to ensure that costumes of extra and actors do not clash with each other - nor can they clash or blend in with the set. This is a useful note that I will take from this experience - the image being shot on camera must work as a whole, every aspect an part of the shot needs to be considered and they must all be in visual harmony with one another. 

Information on the film Everest due for release in 2015 is on IMDB so check it out! I will most certainly be going to the cinema for this one!

Another cheeky photo - I hope I'm allowed to share these..

Upcycling and Re-cycling - How to furnish your whole home with 'garbage'

Among work, I have also been caring for an old lady which is a excellent way for me to earn some extra money and also to explore Rome and go further into the suburbs! They have the most incredibly huge fancy house so it's quite a luxury going over there. Plus another skill I could put on my CV should I ever need to.

Her gorgeous chocolate poodle bounding up the garden

I've also been helping Gaby out taking some photos of her beautiful country home. She would like to have an online portfolio as a lot of it she built herself - including the kitchen. It's really incredible the work she's done, I find great inspiration in Gaby! Here are some photos of the house. Next time I will take my new fancy pants camera my dad has loaned me for university and get some really good quality photos.

The hand crafted made-to-look-old kitchen. The cupboard doors are built from old window shutters

A close up of the marble kitchen sink

The are taps from an old water fountain in Rome, you can see the mythical create style spout mouths - these are one of my favourite features of the house - truly stunning! Gaby made the sink from a piece of marble she found, and the counters were made from window shutters, pieces of new wood made to look old etc. Upcycling and recycling home-style!

A beautiful view from the terrace, even on a rainy day

Upstairs kitchenette with ultramarine backwall

Downstairs bedroom, recycled bed frame and windowed cupboard turning into a mirror

I am expanding my knowledge of what I like to call Super-scrimping. Gaby knows all the old ways to save money, create things cheaply and how to be incredibly economical, this is a really good skill to be improving on and I often find myself fascinated by the things she has created from bizarre things she has found in the trash! ('Trash!' I have also found myself picking up American words over here… A lot of things are becoming really 'Awesome')

My favourite photo of them all, the old smudgy mirror reflecting the soft sunlight

I spent a lovely weekend back in England with my boyfriend living the life in the ever changing Shoreditch. I grow fonder and fonder of that place after each visit! We visited Greenwich which is where time is kept (GMT) and got a good view of London whilst up there. I have noticed a huge increase in my appreciate for the beauty of England since being away.

Greenwich, London. GMT

Working as a costume designer - (Plus my latest leather bargain - PIERO GUIDI)

Hedda Gabler auditions have been continuing this week. As the costume designer, I need to pay close attention to who is is cast for each role as I will be tweaking, fitting and manipulating costumes to fit each person. During the week I met with Gaby to go through all the clothes that are available. She taught me some more about period fashion, and made me aware of how little I actually know on the topic.

As mentioned before - the theatre works on a very low budget, this means we have to be imaginative when looking at the garments we have available. There are some super old pieces (well, old to little me!) and I discovered a bag of lace which we can use to customising plain blouses and shirts to create Victorian replica clothing. For me, this is a really interesting way to work and it adds an element of challenge - you really have to look further than the garment you initially see and experiment with how it works with other pieces.

Outside of the theatre I am one of 5 people taking part in a linguistics project ran by an American university. The project focuses on how a computer can interpret phrases, sentences or paragraphs and summarize them. They have selected us to read through paragraphs, phrases and sentences and give our own summaries to help with their research. The depth and accuracy of our summary is dictated by a rating - for example if they need a '1' we should give a bad summary, if they need a '4' we give something very closely accurate. We are being paid very nicely for helping with the research - 160+euro for 15 hours and it also very interesting. We met for the induction there which involved debate - firstly on the summaries, and then on the rating which we had given. When we had different opinions it sparked a lot of discussion which was good fun. 

Walking to Gaby's I noticed a perfect colour coordination with my Italian boots, Viv westwood jeans and the beautiful fallen leaves. Definitely an ideal colour palette for my third year project! Inspired

Monday and Tuesday next week Gaby and I are hosting the casting for a film coming up in Spring, in which they will needing English speakers. There will short interviews for the actors, they speak a little about themselves and answer some questions. I will be organising the event and filming each interview. I will also be giving it ago myself - it takes place in late Spring so it would be a nice extra experience before my placement ends!

The first of Kevin Gildeas stand up show is tonight. I will be picking him up and directing him to the theatre. This show will be an opportunity for me to learn how to work with the lighting. This is something I can see being very beneficial in the future in aspects such as fashion photography. I will learn about how to effectively use lighting to create certain moods, times of day and situations.

Near by my house there is a HUGE flea market called Porta Portese. You can get everything there, for every price. My favourite are the 50 cents and 1 euro store but I couldn't resist when I saw this gorgeous, colourful little Piero Guidi bag - with circus print! I managed to haggle the guy down from 70 euro to 30 (the remaining contents of my purse) and walked away a very very happy lady. 

This little piggy went to market - thank God I didn't stay at home!