Much to our surprise PREY was nominated for a San Diego Film Award for best costume and makeup! We had no idea the film was submitted or that these awards were even happening. It turns out this is the first year that the San Diego Film Consortium hosted an awards event. Eric Fox the owner of MorbX and I were nominated together for both makeup and costume/wardrobe. Eric is probably best known for his work on season 4 of the Syfy series Face Off. And he'll be staring in a new show premiering March 18 called Foxy & Co. Eric did Candy's head wound, all the blood effects and the amazing throat rip on Mark.
The awards were given to short films shot in San Diego over that last couple years. Most shorts are shot on a very limited budget so things like costumes and makeup are usually handled by one person. Michael always talks about film being a visual media and how important the look and art style are to making a production top quality. That being said, he always has a complete and definite design for both wardrobe and any makeup effects that might be needed. He had detailed concepts for wardrobe on each character in the film, so I was able to put costumes together based on his art. Mark's was a custom tailored western-style shirt that I made from vintage 1956 McCall's 2118.
Michael knew the exact look he wanted and I tailored the shirt for a custom fit on Mark Benjamin. The shirt looked great on camera; especially covered in blood!
The rest of the wardrobe was purchased at thrift shops and discount stores. Shopping for the ladies was really fun. We went to the $10 Mall and stocked up on the trashiest stuff we could find. Lylah's character, Desire came together really easily. We found everything we needed in her size, in fact the gold, chain mail, backless top was actually in the kid's section! But Michael wasn't happy with anything we were finding for Lauren's character, Candy. So we came home with a full length skirt in a disgusting gun-metal pleather with an awful lace hem. And a big fluttery Mom shirt in a zebra print. So, I took in the skirt and shortened it and took in the top (a lot) and made it a spaghetti-strap tank. Accessorized with lots of cheap jewelry and fish nets; the girls looked authentic!
The award went to another film and the film maker very graciously acknowledged us in his acceptance speech which was really cool of him. But the greatest part of the whole evening was to see the clip of PREY on the big screen and listen to the audience reaction. There is no better award than to hear people cheer for your work!
And finally... The red carpet experience. I couldn't very well show up to an awards event nominated for costuming in a store-bought dress. So I had to come up with a black-tie worthy maternity dress that I could stand to wear at 8 months pregnant! I took the day off work and channeled the energies of The Great Seth Aaron. I purchased fabric that morning and knocked out a dress in about 4 hours! I just had time to figure out something with my hair and throw on too much makeup before we walked out the door.
Thomas, Rhoads and the infamous Cornbread joined us for the evening and we had a great time!
And here is my favorite pic of the night. Michael Bacon cleans up real nice! I'm forever grateful to him for sharing his life and talents with me. It's so much fun to get to create with your spouse. Especially if you have one as talented as mine! Thanks for letting me be a part of your kick-ass film, honey!
