How to do a Costume Breakdown
No this isn't when you discover you have gained 20 pounds, and the boned leather corset you slaved on for weeks no longer fits. This is when you have decided that you want to create a specific costume. The first thing you do is beg, steal, or borrow, a copy of the tape in which the costume appears.
Next thing you do is sit down, with pencil and paper, and watch the segments with the costume. Begin with writing down the obvious points of the costume, the color, the fabric, the shape of the design, and any other obvious attributes.
The next thing you do is pulled out your figure (a paper doll) and begin to sketch out the design over the paper doll. Since the front is usually the part most shown, you begin with that. Don't worry if you can't put in all the detail at once. Just put in the things that you are sure about. This is when the "pause", and "slow" function of your VCR really gets a workout.
Next you take out your paper doll with a side view. You sketch in what you can of the side view of the costume. When you've gone as far as you can with that, take-out your back view figure, and begin to fill it out. If you're working on a costume from a television show, and it is the onetime appearance, you will find that there will be very few even quick glance's at the back of the costume.
At this point if you have the ability to take pictures with your computer from videotapes, this is the next step. You get a far superior image than your pause option on your VCR, and it will not begin to run again while you are sketching. Take your pad with you to the computer, to fill in the missing details on the three sketches of your figures.
Note. The screen capture image when you are making the capture, is far superior to the image that will be stored on your computer. I use the screen captures as they come in, to fill in all the missing detail possible. You can save the screen captures, but they will lose some of their detail while being saved.
Another problem arises from the lighting on the set, or if the film has been enhanced by filters, etc. for example, most of the klingon shots are shot in low-level lighting, and then are further doctored with filters, smoke, etc. so your screen captures look like they were shot through pea soup. This is done primarily to lend atmosphere, and hide the lack the detail and sloppy set dressing.
In such cases, you have to up your brightness, by 20 to 30 percent. Unfortunately you lose detail by doing so. But if you don't you can't see anything. The low lighting also causes problems with what the actual colors are of the costume. The tinted lighting, color filters, and other effects, can completely change the color of the fabric.
At this point you have done all you can with the videotape. From here on in its case of looking through books and magazines, hopefully with a clear shot of the costume. Another good place to look is the Internet. Whatever you're looking for, there's a chance that it out there somewhere. You just have to be patient, and use all your search engines, to find your costume.
If you find the picture of your costume, you compare it to your sketches, and make any necessary amendments. At this point you have your sketch, but it's highly unlikely that you're going to find a pattern for your costume in Simplicity, Butterick, or Vogue. Well, you might be surprised at how close, some of them can come. This is the point that you pull out your sketches, and look at the lines. You now look at the catalogs looking for a dress, jump suit, coat, whatever which has similar lines. You may find that one pattern has the correct top, and another has the correct bottom..
This is where things get interesting, and somewhat challenging. You were going to make changes to the pattern, to make it conform to the design you sketched. When I started altering patterns, I always left the original intact, and had fun butchering my copy. There are a number of good books on the market for altering patterns. Actually the older books that you find and libraries, are more comprehensive, and show you more variations on creating different looks, than the most recent and up-to-date versions.
When you have created the pattern you want, use some inexpensive fabric (like old sheets from value village or old blankets if the fabric you are going to work with is of that weight. Or you can go the duct tape and thick plastic drop sheets, if you're going to be working with something like a vinyl. Or if you are working with small pieces like wrist protectors, or corset pieces, try paper towelling. I cut out the paper towelling pattern pieces, and use my sewing machine to assemble the pieces to try out the fit, and use marker pens for any pattern adjustments.)
You use the aforementioned materials, to try out your pattern before cutting up your expensive material. This allows you to discover if there are any problems with the pattern, like you can't sit down, you can lift your arms, and other limiting effects.
Although the original fabric for Mara's costume was not a stretch fabric, I will be making up mine from Lycra Spandex, which will be a lot more comfortable, and can be squished into a suitcase, and worn afterwards without ironing. Sometimes it is better to change the fabric than use the original, because the original was never meant to be worn off of a set, where wardrobe is running forth with glue, pins, and a host of other things to keep that costume together, and looking perfect in front of the camera. You do not have someone adjusting you every five minutes, and people will see your back, whereas some costumes are carefully shot not to show the back.
Another problem is like on one film I worked on, someone commented they couldn't see where the zipper was to get into the costume. That was because there was no zipper. The actress was sewn into the costume. The camera has a tendency to lie. Most of the costumes used for Star Trek especially the first series, are amazingly tacky when viewed close-up. When your showing off your costume, you must appear to be the illusion created by the camera, wardrobe, and makeup. You're going to have to solve technical problems which were never addressed during filming.
The following are my breakdown of Mara's costume from the original Star Trek series "Day Of The Dove". There is a composite of screen captures of Mara and her costume. Then there are three drawings of the costume and remarks on the side for construction notes and techniques.
You don't have to be an artist, you just have to know what you intended on the paper.
