Photoshoot for my Dracula costume

As the course is coming to an end its time to put together my portfoilio. I felt that all though the Dracula productions were great the did not show enough detail in my costume, so i arranged a photoshoot with my actress Georgina. The shoot was alot of fun and i am really happy with the photos. It was taken in one of the smaller studios on campus. I have selected what i think to be some of the best images, also the ones which i plan on putting in my portfolio.

Third year final costume

So after working on the Dracula production for the first part of my project, I am now going to make the next costume. I really had to think about what I wanted to create, and i realised that I have not actually made a proper corset yet in the 3 years on the course... which lead me to decide that I wanted the costume to take this into account. I did alot of research going through alot of books and on the internet as well before finally having an idea on what to create. The Phantom of the Opera is one of my favourite films and the costumes in it are Victorian with a twist, i managed to get a design of Christine's costume from the Point of no return scene. This image is what I am now going to make for my final costume of the project. ..... so on with the making!

Dracula review

Dracula, Arts University College Bournemouth School of Performance, Lighthouse, Poole
2:34pm Saturday 13th March 2010

By Linda Kirkman »


THIS production celebrated the collaboration between the various courses in the School of Performance – acting, costume design, film, make-up, animation, model making, digital media production – and the result was sensational.

With few props other than sheets, ladder-back chairs and hanging ladders plus incredible graphics, stunning effects and chillingly appropriate background music, the well-known story of Count Dracula and his thirst for blood can surely never have been told in a more original fashion.

Co-devised by the cast, this very physical production involved incredible gymnastic-like movements that came into their own during the brilliant shipwreck scene, as well as highly detailed performances that brought other scenes such as those in the lunatic asylum and Dracula’s castle bursting into vivid life. And the excellent costumes, made especially for the production from clothing donated by OXFAM, were outstanding.

The cast, most of whom I have seen several times this season in various productions, can clearly encompass many differing styles of acting and in that respect I must pick out for particular praise Kevin Leslie (Dracula), Becky Snellin (Lucy Westenra), James Benedict (Renfield), Nicholas Farr (Jonathan Harker) and Jane Crawshaw (Mina Harker).

They and their fellow cast members instilled a real sense of terror into this absolutely brilliant production.

Backstage at Dracula

Working on the AUCB Dracula prodction backstage, the jobs various jobs that I did were dressing, for the three male leads in the show. This included Dracula, Reinfeild and Harker. These included quick changes and quite a few costume changes being done in the wings. As well as dressing I helped to do alterations and odd bits and pieces that needed doing. We were there from Thursday the 11th the massive tech day! then the first performance on Friday before finishing on Saturday in the final performance. Overall an amazing show to be a part of and I had a great time!

Dracula - Poole Lighthouse 12th 13th March 2010

I recently worked on the AUCB production of Dracula, which was put on by third year BA Acting and the costume were made by BA Costume with performance design. As well as making a costume and helping on others we all worked backstage too. Here are some production photos of my costume and a few other little bits.

Specialist Practise unit

During the third year we have a unit called Specialist Practise. The emphasis of the unit is to develop cut, construction and finishing skills to a professional standard, preparing you for the Extended Major Project (EMP) but also to push your skills in problem solving and risk taking. I decided to do the section of thae project that was developing a working relationship.

Nadine Grant from Canada who won the Young Designers Forum at the USITT conference in 2009. Working with Nadine you will experience a transatlantic project, making a costume from the production of The Bald Soprano, or Alice in Wonderland. You will communicate with your designer via skype/ email and telephone and reflect and record this unique working approach. I selected the cooks design from Alice in Wonderland.

The designs were really expressive so we had to use our own judgement and creative ideas and problem solving to really figure out how it would work. This as well as being in comunication with Nadine, who was very clear on what she wanted as well as open to our creative suggestion.

We had nine weeks to do this project, and in that time we had to create a toie and do a total of four fittings, we had two on the same day each for our toile fitting and then our final fitting. This was because we could get the correct fit in the morning before getting the designers opinion in the afternoon. We also created a facebook group where we could upload images if we needed a quick response, or generally wanted to ask something.

I really liked doing this project alot, it wasso different to everything we had done before and gave us such experience.

Tailoring

Second year, We are doind Sunday in the park with George. For this unit I am going to be learning male tailoring. The design that i will be making is of the solider. This is based on Georges Seurat's painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte (1884).

Shakespeare.... first costume

For our first costume to make on the course we had a design project, where we did designs for Shakespeare's Midsummer nights dream. It had to be renaissance designed, and could have a twist, this twist was that they were either in black leggings or jeans. We made from our chosen designs to make for the Second year actors. I quite liked doing this project, I even made the fabric. It was fake leather that I made in our craft room. This costume was in the Costume show at the end of term in 2008.