Uniforms are deceivingly difficult, and surprisingly expensive to deliver. As a Costume Designer I always warn indie filmmakers that uniforms and multiples are where we hemorrhage budget as a department.
If you know where to look, the perfect outfit can be thrifted from head to toe for $60 . But if you need multiples for stunts or blood or spills the ENTIRE outfit has to be purchased new so that you have the ability to procure the exact same thing multiple times. Off the rack looks also need additional material and labor to distress them and give them a lived in look. $60 barely buys a quality pair of pants nowadays, let alone an entire outfit. So you easily go from spending $60 for a look to $200+ in materials and labor.
Uniforms have similar cost issues. You cannot thrift them, and they need to be available in a diverse range of sizes so you can be inclusive of all body types. You can always rent them, but remember most uniforms have team logos, which need to visually align with the Production Design, suddenly Custom seems to be the only path to success. (Continued in comments ⬇️)
4 months agofriedcustard
These are the things I will be hiring @claire.mildred for DIRECTING, COSTUMING, EDITING et al😍 😤😤😤
4 months agoclaire.mildred
2/2 All of this is to say Uniforms are expensive, and they are difficult, and if you are an aspiring indie filmmaker let's just say you've been warned! On the flip side they are incredibly rewarding and a wonderful way to showcase character and style, is it baggy, is it tight, is it cropped? Every detail adds something to your story. If you've read all this and still feel uniforms are essential to your story here are some tips to keep costs down: 1) Screen Printing -smaller off center logos cost less than full shirt prints -keep the logo simple -you don't have to put a logo on every shirt, make sure every principal and speaking character has one and you can do 50/50 on your BG, often the audience will never pick up on it. -ask your colleagues for recommendations, good vendors are hard to come by -If you are doing a very small quantity (1-5) find a friend with a Cricut Cutter and iron on the decals by hand 2) Dyeing/Teaching -teach yourself, all you need is a large stock pot, tongs and patience. This is an excellent skill to pick up between jobs 3) Amazon (Sorry I hate it but sometimes it's essential to handling the needs of production) -When dealing with casting that's ever changing buy all your uniforms ahead of time, you can purchase before you are cast, you just can't start any customization. I like to order 5-10 of each size so as soon as casting is done I have everything is on hand and I can start immediately. -Returns are essential to staying under budget -Cost, $0.50 less per item might not seem like alot but it adds up quickly in terms of multiples, make a budget and track every $1 so you can maximise your budget -If you are doing production expenses on your personal CC and getting reimbursed, get the amazon Prime Chase CC, you get %5 cash back on all purchases made on amazon. Good luck and happy Uniform crafting!
4 months agoclaire.mildred
1/2 Once you've stomached the blow to your budget expense wise there's another hurdle to overcome. Casting. Especially when dealing with BG casting can happen last minute and even down to on-the-day additions. Why is this so difficult to accommodate? Take these uniforms for Toin Coss for example; They are purchased white > take time to be shipped and arrive since online purchases keep costs low > dyed/teched to an off-white to not upset the camera's color balance > screen printed > then they are ready to be worn. Personally I do my own dyeing in-house, but most require a trip to a dye vendor and a trip to a screen printing vendor. Each vendor requires turn-around time and often come with expensive rush fees to accommodate the turn times around of productions. So you've spent $ on buying everything new, $ on vendors, $ on rush fees, time and energy coordinating/transporting and approving each step only to find that the hardest step is actually the first one, Sizing. What it boils down to is mostly guesswork. Casting is often not locked by the time you've already had to pull the trigger on sizing to get the uniforms through every stage of the process. On bigger productions with more resources you can easily afford to produce extra costumes to be flexible and often casting can Cast-to-Size. On indie productions where budgets are limited and BG are often friends and favors neither of those are really an option.
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