Unit 3: Introduction to Professional Practice in Creative Media Production - A Christmas Carol
Day 1
On our first day of the shoot, we went to Preston Park and filmed at the museum. At the museum there is an open air section that looks like a Victorian street, we filmed here for the whole day, shooting scenes that use the exterior of these different settings and buildings.
My role on set was costume assistant, where I helped my Head of Department, Anya, with providing actors with their costumes and making sure they looked appropriate to the time. Luckily, Preston Park was kind enough to let us borrow some of their costumes that they use at the museum to dress our actors accurately.
We first started the day with arranging costumes for the actors, as they were all in makeup meaning we had enough time to be able to get all of the costumes we needed for our 11 extras (5 boys and 6 girls). I found the easiest to dress were the boys as we mostly needed formal shirts and trousers for them but I found it quite challenging to find suitable outfits for the girls. This was because all the dresses had to be appropriate and not look to similar to another actresses and also matching blouses and skirts was pretty tricky. Once we had gathered all the costumes and had the actresses pick out what they wanted to wear in a scene, we headed to the changing rooms and started to get all the girls ready. We didn't have many issues with this, luckily, but mostly needed to pin up skirts and dresses as some were to big or long on certain actresses. All the actors looked well-dressed and fit the era they were meant to be set in.
As we got all of the background actors sorted out, we started to face a few issues with the Ghost of Christmas Present's (Sophie Ashcroft) costume. Originally Anya wanted her costume to look very traditional and similar to past re-imaginings of A Christmas Carol, where the character has a large green robe over their whole body, with white fur and a large piece on their head. Anya and the art department decided against this as they wanted to change the classical look of the character with something that fits the era but has a modernised spin on it. So, Christmas Present's costume was still very green but much more minimal to the average portrayal of the character. The costume consisted of:
When we did scenes later on in the day, that come later in the film, either set present or past, we needed to make the actors look much different to when we first saw them to show we are now in a different time of the story. We didn't have many costumes left for the actors, so they had to wear the ones that they already had on in previous shots but putting a few accessories over different costumes. For example, for the boys we had them put coats, scarves, hats or waistcoats over their costumes they had on previous. As for the girls we also put scarves and coats, as well as shawls. This worked well as these different items that we dressed the actors in were very large pieces and covered most of their costumes they had been wearing in previous scenes.
On our first day of the shoot, we went to Preston Park and filmed at the museum. At the museum there is an open air section that looks like a Victorian street, we filmed here for the whole day, shooting scenes that use the exterior of these different settings and buildings.My role on set was costume assistant, where I helped my Head of Department, Anya, with providing actors with their costumes and making sure they looked appropriate to the time. Luckily, Preston Park was kind enough to let us borrow some of their costumes that they use at the museum to dress our actors accurately.
- Black top hat - with cogs and a pair of black, steampunk like goggles
- Red tie
- White shirt
- Green waistcoat and overcoat
- Belt - which was covered in compasses and telescopes
- Black boots
Originally, for the character, Anya wanted black trousers to go with the rest of the costume, but we weren't able to get a hold of any that suited Christmas Present well. We did find some light blue, high-waist trousers but it didn't fit with the rest of the costume. Kelly, the producer, wanted something much bigger for the costume as the character is one of the most important in the film. We were able to find a large green skirt and made the characters presence look much larger in scenes.
When we did scenes later on in the day, that come later in the film, either set present or past, we needed to make the actors look much different to when we first saw them to show we are now in a different time of the story. We didn't have many costumes left for the actors, so they had to wear the ones that they already had on in previous shots but putting a few accessories over different costumes. For example, for the boys we had them put coats, scarves, hats or waistcoats over their costumes they had on previous. As for the girls we also put scarves and coats, as well as shawls. This worked well as these different items that we dressed the actors in were very large pieces and covered most of their costumes they had been wearing in previous scenes. 
I think on the costume part of the first day of filming, it was a success in terms of getting everyone dressed ready for a scene, making the costumes look appropriate to the time period and working around continuity and fitting issues. We also did really well with getting over certain hurdles like making Christmas Present's costume better and finding a way round differentiating background actors in the past and present scenes with covering their outfits with accessories. I think we also did well if their were certain things going wrong with a costume in a scene, for example, in scene 11 when Christmas Present takes Scrooge (female Scrooge in this piece) to Fred's home, the back of Sophie's skirt was getting dirty. So, once the scene cut we quickly went over to Sophie and pinned her skirt up, making sure it wouldn't fall out and get dirty again.
Altogether, I really enjoyed working and helping out with costume on set and learning the extent of the job role and also getting to see how other people worked on set with their specific role. It was really enjoyable and a real learning curve of how much preparation and consideration goes into every aspect and element of a film. I think we could improve the costume department by understanding what costumes we have available to us and where to get them from, this was quite messy in the morning when figuring out what actors wearing what and if it will work as we had never seen these costumes until the day we started filming (as they were given to us from the park). At least now, when we work at Preston again, we understand what costume is assigned to a person and what we can use and how all the costumes should be fit and look like.
I think I would definitely like to have more to do, sometimes on set I felt a bit useless as I wasn't doing much after finishing with costumes and between scenes and takes. I would definitely like to try out another job as well, I did think costume was very interesting but it's not the type of job I want to be doing in film in the future. I am very much interested in the direction of film and being able to be more part of the actual storytelling and how to bring everything together, whether that be trying to make a scene better or helping someone (crew or cast members) to make a scene better. I really love to contribute ideas to make a story more entertaining towards others and to at least help people with what they wanted to do in a scene, how they wanted it to look, where they want the camera to be and where to go, etc.
Day 2
On our second day on set of A Christmas Carol, I was again part of the costume department. Although, this time on set I felt I had less to do then I did last week. I think this might be because some of the members in my year wanted to help out as much on set and ended up taking my role, so I was given less to do on set.
I tried to help out as much as I could with helping the actresses get into costume, but at the beginning of the day, all of them had been dressed quickly by other members and all the actors hadn't arrived yet. I helped pin some of the costumes and making sure that some of the costumes looked appropriate and suitable for the upcoming scene, as well as helping to pin some of the actresses costumes so that their dresses and skirts were comfortable and weren't falling apart.
After all the supporting actors were dressed and preparing for their first scene of the day, I then started to work with one of the year 2's, Laura, with checking and helping out the extras before and after scenes. I first started with taking continuity photos of each actor, in their costume, from the front and back to make sure that their costume needs to look the same as it does in the photo in a scene. Once they were done preparing, we then took them on set to start filming. In this scene they were all playing carolers, so we had to help put them in formation to make them look like a choir. Just before the scene happened, Anya gave me the job of checking all the costumes whilst the scene went on to look out for continuity errors and to make sure all the actors had the same costume on from the photos that I took of them. I would say my only problem when doing this was in-between takes we didn't have time to check costumes before filming again as the camera crew would move on quickly with the takes, but I can understand that they were under a lot of pressure with limited time and were late filming from a few hitches at the beginning of the day.
It was after this scene that I didn't have much else to do on set. Most of the time, I was on set watching scenes being prepared and filmed which I enjoyed as I got to see how all the crew got together and saw the way they worked around scenes, as well as getting to see what the future could possibly look like on set of a film or TV production. Other times I was off set with not much to do.
For next week I would definitely like to have more to do with my job, which I have talked about with Anya, as we are going to work on getting costumes ready straight away in the morning before going to film scenes, as well as costume checks before and after scenes. We are also going to work a lot on the errors with Scrooge's costume in different scenes, as in previous scenes Scrooge has been wearing the wrong costume in certain scenes that don't add up with the time frame. So, it will be mine and Anya's job to go through the script together and note what costume Scrooge will be wearing, either her day dress or night gown, in certain scenes. I think next week will go a lot better than this week as everyone will have more jobs to keep them preoccupied on set and be able to help the year 2's out as much as possible, they have been doing a great job and as year 1's we understand they have been under a lot of pressure with trying to make everything great, so we want to be useful to them to help them more with the production.
Day 3
On our third and final day at Preston Park working on A Christmas Carol, I was part of the costume department again. I had a lot more to do on set this week with being assigned more jobs to do with my role.
I helped again with finding costumes as well as fitting and pinning dresses and skirts on the actresses, making sure they looked suitable for the time period. I had a lot more to do on set as they were filming with costume checks before and after takes. This went very well as in the different scenes there weren't many actors in them, so being able to check everyones costume were still intact and if they needed anything else done to them, me and Amiliyah (year one helping with costume checks too) would be on hand to help out. Luckily, all the costumes stayed as we wanted them to during filming scenes which was good as not much needed to be done with them.
The biggest scene that we had to do that day was Fezziwig's Party scene, which is set in a huge ballroom/hall that needed to look packed full of people. There were many extras we needed to dress to look like they were attending the prestigious event, so for many of the girls we had them wear either formal dresses or a white blouse and skirt. As for the boys we had them wear white button up shirts, waistcoats, overcoats and black trousers. This was quite the challenge as in the scene they all have to dance and there was one dance in particular that had a lot of movement in it. We had to take extra care when it came to costumes, especially the skirts, dresses and some of the boys trousers (if they were too long), as we didn't want them falling down or falling apart during the dance sequences. So, we made sure all costumes were pinned properly and were tight enough to stop them from falling during dances. This went really well considering there were now a lot of actors we had to keep an eye on during the scenes. All the actors costumes stayed up very well and if anyone was struggling with them during the sequences, we would just pin them back up again, or in the boys cases, roll the bottoms of their trousers up.
I think the last day of filming at Preston was very successful, costume wise, as we had enough costumes for everyone who had just been added to the party scene and making sure they fit the time period well. I would say the only problem was for the party scene, we didn't actually have a costume for young Scrooge and ended up trying to find something very quickly. We ended up getting around this obstacle by finding a white blouse for her and having to swap skirts with another one of the actresses as, in the scene, Scrooge needs to look quite colourful and we only had a black skirt for her. This wasn't a huge issue and, again, quickly pinned both skirts on the different actresses to make sure they didn't fall apart during the dances. I would say another problem was with timing, the year two's got onto filming quite late which wasn't their fault as some actors were late and scenes needed to be set up. So, a lot of scenes were pushed back and some took longer than others to film, and when it actually came to them filming their biggest scene of the day, they were running out of time. From what I saw though they did a really great job with trying to keep going on with filming, even if time wasn't on their side, and it was really interesting to see them getting on with their jobs and seeing how they all worked together when getting a scene done.
I had a really interesting few weeks on set at Preston Park with helping with the costume department and also watching the project coming to its feet. This was a great experience as I learnt what a day on set would typically be like in the real world and learnt about, not only my job but, all of the crew members roles on set and how they got on with them. This was very exciting, especially only being into my third month of the course, as I am very interested in film and I am really excited for the rest of my journey on the course and, hopefully, for a career in the future.
I think I would definitely like to have more to do, sometimes on set I felt a bit useless as I wasn't doing much after finishing with costumes and between scenes and takes. I would definitely like to try out another job as well, I did think costume was very interesting but it's not the type of job I want to be doing in film in the future. I am very much interested in the direction of film and being able to be more part of the actual storytelling and how to bring everything together, whether that be trying to make a scene better or helping someone (crew or cast members) to make a scene better. I really love to contribute ideas to make a story more entertaining towards others and to at least help people with what they wanted to do in a scene, how they wanted it to look, where they want the camera to be and where to go, etc.
Day 2
On our second day on set of A Christmas Carol, I was again part of the costume department. Although, this time on set I felt I had less to do then I did last week. I think this might be because some of the members in my year wanted to help out as much on set and ended up taking my role, so I was given less to do on set.
I tried to help out as much as I could with helping the actresses get into costume, but at the beginning of the day, all of them had been dressed quickly by other members and all the actors hadn't arrived yet. I helped pin some of the costumes and making sure that some of the costumes looked appropriate and suitable for the upcoming scene, as well as helping to pin some of the actresses costumes so that their dresses and skirts were comfortable and weren't falling apart. 
After all the supporting actors were dressed and preparing for their first scene of the day, I then started to work with one of the year 2's, Laura, with checking and helping out the extras before and after scenes. I first started with taking continuity photos of each actor, in their costume, from the front and back to make sure that their costume needs to look the same as it does in the photo in a scene. Once they were done preparing, we then took them on set to start filming. In this scene they were all playing carolers, so we had to help put them in formation to make them look like a choir. Just before the scene happened, Anya gave me the job of checking all the costumes whilst the scene went on to look out for continuity errors and to make sure all the actors had the same costume on from the photos that I took of them. I would say my only problem when doing this was in-between takes we didn't have time to check costumes before filming again as the camera crew would move on quickly with the takes, but I can understand that they were under a lot of pressure with limited time and were late filming from a few hitches at the beginning of the day. It was after this scene that I didn't have much else to do on set. Most of the time, I was on set watching scenes being prepared and filmed which I enjoyed as I got to see how all the crew got together and saw the way they worked around scenes, as well as getting to see what the future could possibly look like on set of a film or TV production. Other times I was off set with not much to do.
For next week I would definitely like to have more to do with my job, which I have talked about with Anya, as we are going to work on getting costumes ready straight away in the morning before going to film scenes, as well as costume checks before and after scenes. We are also going to work a lot on the errors with Scrooge's costume in different scenes, as in previous scenes Scrooge has been wearing the wrong costume in certain scenes that don't add up with the time frame. So, it will be mine and Anya's job to go through the script together and note what costume Scrooge will be wearing, either her day dress or night gown, in certain scenes. I think next week will go a lot better than this week as everyone will have more jobs to keep them preoccupied on set and be able to help the year 2's out as much as possible, they have been doing a great job and as year 1's we understand they have been under a lot of pressure with trying to make everything great, so we want to be useful to them to help them more with the production.
Day 3
On our third and final day at Preston Park working on A Christmas Carol, I was part of the costume department again. I had a lot more to do on set this week with being assigned more jobs to do with my role. I helped again with finding costumes as well as fitting and pinning dresses and skirts on the actresses, making sure they looked suitable for the time period. I had a lot more to do on set as they were filming with costume checks before and after takes. This went very well as in the different scenes there weren't many actors in them, so being able to check everyones costume were still intact and if they needed anything else done to them, me and Amiliyah (year one helping with costume checks too) would be on hand to help out. Luckily, all the costumes stayed as we wanted them to during filming scenes which was good as not much needed to be done with them.
The biggest scene that we had to do that day was Fezziwig's Party scene, which is set in a huge ballroom/hall that needed to look packed full of people. There were many extras we needed to dress to look like they were attending the prestigious event, so for many of the girls we had them wear either formal dresses or a white blouse and skirt. As for the boys we had them wear white button up shirts, waistcoats, overcoats and black trousers. This was quite the challenge as in the scene they all have to dance and there was one dance in particular that had a lot of movement in it. We had to take extra care when it came to costumes, especially the skirts, dresses and some of the boys trousers (if they were too long), as we didn't want them falling down or falling apart during the dance sequences. So, we made sure all costumes were pinned properly and were tight enough to stop them from falling during dances. This went really well considering there were now a lot of actors we had to keep an eye on during the scenes. All the actors costumes stayed up very well and if anyone was struggling with them during the sequences, we would just pin them back up again, or in the boys cases, roll the bottoms of their trousers up.
I think the last day of filming at Preston was very successful, costume wise, as we had enough costumes for everyone who had just been added to the party scene and making sure they fit the time period well. I would say the only problem was for the party scene, we didn't actually have a costume for young Scrooge and ended up trying to find something very quickly. We ended up getting around this obstacle by finding a white blouse for her and having to swap skirts with another one of the actresses as, in the scene, Scrooge needs to look quite colourful and we only had a black skirt for her. This wasn't a huge issue and, again, quickly pinned both skirts on the different actresses to make sure they didn't fall apart during the dances. I would say another problem was with timing, the year two's got onto filming quite late which wasn't their fault as some actors were late and scenes needed to be set up. So, a lot of scenes were pushed back and some took longer than others to film, and when it actually came to them filming their biggest scene of the day, they were running out of time. From what I saw though they did a really great job with trying to keep going on with filming, even if time wasn't on their side, and it was really interesting to see them getting on with their jobs and seeing how they all worked together when getting a scene done. I had a really interesting few weeks on set at Preston Park with helping with the costume department and also watching the project coming to its feet. This was a great experience as I learnt what a day on set would typically be like in the real world and learnt about, not only my job but, all of the crew members roles on set and how they got on with them. This was very exciting, especially only being into my third month of the course, as I am very interested in film and I am really excited for the rest of my journey on the course and, hopefully, for a career in the future.
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