The+Fantastic+World+of+Costume+Design-+Nickasey+Freeman

Nickasey “Kasey” Freeman Theater 2000 31 March 2017

= The Fantastic World of Costuming =

Interest: From the age of five, performance theater has captivated my life. For the longest time, I have spent a great amount of time trying to perfect my acting, singing, and dancing. Until recently I had never paid much attention to what occurred being the scenes of every performance. Taking a production design class this past semester opened my eyes to what truly makes the quality of a production. In that class, I did a project that required me to make costumes for the popular Shakespeare play, //Macbeth//. Thought the designing process was tedious, I found a great respect for the fanatics world of costume design. I realized that costumes subliminally said so much about each character, and often the most existing part of being a performer in a theater production was receiving your costume from the costume designer. Nothing could top the final touch that makes one fully transform into the character. From my brief encounter with costume design, I longed to know more about art.

Costuming
Purpose: Altering a performers appearance in relation to a production using clothing, makeup, and accessories. Often costuming includes a designer taking a character’s description and the setting of a show to create appropriate costumes that embody the character but also work with the setting and theme of the show.

The Process: The first thing a costume designer does after reading over a play, or plans for a production is consult with the director of the show to see what her or her vision is for the production. Once gaining an idea of what the directors vision, the costume designer goes forth and does research on the show or production. After researching, he or she can create a concept board that he or she can present to the director to see if their ideas match. (Concept Board Depicted to the Left) Once the director and the costume designer agree on an idea, its time for the designer to create thumbnail sketches. Before designing the thumbnail sketches, he or she must consider the other designs of the other designers and the budget of the production. After completing the costume thumbnails, the costume designer must go back and confirm the sketched costume designs with the director. Then the confirmed sketches become actual final costume designs with cloth swatches. Once the final design are completely confirmed with all design teams and the director, the costume is then made or some of the items are bought to create the costume using the sizes of the actors. Several fittings later, the costume is complete and ready to go on the stage!



Salary: The pay of a costume designer can very. Typically, costume designers in the United States make $36,650 a year, but starting off, designers make about $18,000-$19,000. Once costume designers become more recognized and join unions like the Costume Designers Guild, they can set a price for their services. After costume designers join a union and create relationships with fellow artists they an make up $80,000 to $90,000 a year.

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