“I have a homework assignment for you guys: Go to the mall, and just look at all the prices.”

Costume designer Samantha Kuester (Any Day Now) came into the Film Independent office last week for the most recent edition of our “Know Your Crew” series, and she assigned everyone in attendance this unusual task. Understanding how much things really cost, she explained, is crucial to working effectively with a costume designer.

“I like to bring up budget right away,” she said of her initial meetings with a project’s line producer. “There should be no surprises.” As an experienced costume designer, she is able to tell a producer right away whether the script can be outfitted for the budget they’re offering her.

Kuester makes a point of always reading the screenplay fully before coming on any project, taking copious notes along the way. She finds character descriptions to be much more informative and helpful than outfit notes; “’middle-class,’ or something like that, is very helpful…more helpful than ‘jeans and a t-shirt,’” she said, “because that’s telling me who this character is and where they come from.”

After reading the script multiple times, Kuester meets with the director to discuss their ideas. She brings tear sheets for major characters—a collage-like visual aid to communicate her ideas, using images from magazines or the Internet—and she said she loves it when directors have their own look books as well. “A character’s look is a marriage between the director’s and the designer’s visions,” she said. “We’ll have an open dialogue about who I think these people are and who they think these people are.”

Kuester emphasized how collaborative the costume designer’s role is, and said one of the worst things a designer can do is to become too attached to their own ideas and unwilling to compromise. “The bottom line is: you are making the director’s vision come to life,” she said. She also works closely with the production designer—discussion of color palette, for example, is very important—and the makeup, stunts and special effects departments.

The biggest mistake she finds that first-time directors make is that they aren’t communicative enough. “Have a really clear picture of what you want, and tell [your costume designer] what you want,” she said, recalling a recent experience with a filmmaker. “Be specific—don’t use words like ‘street.’ There are ten different meanings of ‘street clothes.’ Or if you can’t be clear about what you want, just trust your designers to know. They’re not going to lead you down the wrong path.”

In their initial meeting, the costume designer and line producer will discuss how many additional people will join the wardrobe team (Kuester recommends at least two), as well as the kit rental. A costume designer’s kit is their own personal stock that they can use toward a project. “I have a steamer, multiple racks, a storage unit full of clothes—prison uniforms, scrubs, things like that,” Kuester said. She also said it’s great to have a trailer for the wardrobe department, especially for shoots that change locations, and insisted on the importance of scheduling a wardrobe wrap day. The costumes team needs time to clean up, return rentals and package everything in case of reshoots or a pickup.

And then, of course, there is the all-important discussion of the budget. Kuester knows how to stretch her money and cut corners where possible on low-budget indies, but insisted you have to be realistic about what things cost. “An experienced line producer is key,” she said—but that doesn’t mean that a lot of them don’t allot enough funds to the wardrobe department. When asked how to keep the wardrobe budget low, she did not hesitate: “One [story] day. One location. No doubles. No blood.”

Period pieces require a bigger budget, because the designer will need to dress everyone in the frame from head to toe, typically in entirely rented costumes, which are expensive. For contemporary projects, she will sometimes ask background players to bring some of their own clothes as options. “Generally you don’t [build costumes] in the indie world,” she said, “unless there is something really, really specific and they put it in the budget to have it made.” So Kuester is a very diligent and savvy shopper. She advised putting money into key pieces, and if you’re looking for something very specific, she said, shop retail rather than thrift—but for background actors, always shop thrift.

“People always say, ‘You’re a costume designer, so you must really like to shop,’” Kuester said, rolling her eyes. “No. I am in charge of creating characters for your movie. Shopping is part of the job, obviously, but it’s not what we do. We’re not just glorified shoppers. We do it with the character in mind, to find a specific piece that speaks to the character, that maybe the audience won’t even see—but we know it’s there.”

Mary Sollosi / Film Independent Blogger