Holly McGowan

[hlmcgowan]

BLT - Directed by Laura Blake and Produced by Sarah Brady

[hlmcgowan]

Student Falls - Directed by Helena Schweidler and Produced by Denise Brodie

This is a good example of how many different costume changes we had to go through with this shoot. Olly Philpott-Smith worked in Costume Department and we set up an improvised rail using C-Stands and hung all their costumes up on there and also got them ironed before use and always checked on continuity notes if we was unsure about anything, but nearly all the time it was precise and I have to say it was one of my favourite shoots to work on so far.

[hlmcgowan]

'Do I Know You' - short film - Directed and Written by Michael Bonnar and Produced by Darius Asghari

I was in Costume Department as an assistant with Jen Greene as head of dept.

[hlmcgowan]

Here is Tom and John with their simple costume that I had to keep in check of on set of George Wroe's short film 'Room Service' and the main continuity was making sure their bow ties weren't falling down and that you couldn't see their radio mics through their shirts, so I went through it with the Sound Department on what was allowed so it was comfortable enough for the actor to move about, and that it wasn't able to be seen on the camera when shooting.

I can't give myself much gratitude on their costumes as Darius Asghari contacted them and asked them to bring in their own costume so all I had to do to was check them and make sure they were suitable enough.

[hlmcgowan]

Boby's 5 Min Rom-Com

Relief that this shoot is over! I was Costume Department as well as Hair & Make-Up! Stressful for a particular part of this short film.

The top picture is the hair of the main actress and there is a scene in the film where she has to keep taking it down, it's a little like a cheesy L'oreal advert. To get her hair back to how it is in every scene was such a pain! I let the actress, Carly, put her own make-up on and I just touched it up now and then with powder and removed any smudged lip-stick/mascara that ended up on her face.

The 2nd photo is of Arron (other actor) and I had to go out and buy a full costume for him, added up to £18.90 for a shirt, tie and suit pants. Bonuses of working at ASDA part time! I was happy with my purchases, he was the easier person to put make up on as all I had to do was put face powder on so he wasn't 'shiny' on camera.

The last photo was just a full shot of the last scene being filmed. Thankfully the last time I had to help sort out Carly's hair! I definitely wouldn't like to be in make-up/hair in future as the continuity is more stressful than costume department.

[hlmcgowan]

Delicacy - Short Student Film

This picture is from the short student film 'Delicacy' where Sarah Thompson and I were in Costume Department. We was recommended the shop 'B-Authentic' which is situated in Huddersfield and is probably one of the best rental/fancy dress shops I've been too. They have so many different clothing from early 1900's and even some 1800's clothes as well as things for Halloween and characters from certain films. When Sarah and I visited, we couldn't believe how amazing it was and we would recommend it to many people.

As Delicacy is a film based around the 1940'S Battle of Dunkirk we had to get the right uniforms, a Sergeant and a Private. As we weren't allowed to stain the uniforms and we had to bloody up each actor as it's a thriller/horror, Sarah and I went into the centre of Manchester to a place called Afflecks and went to the army shop in there and bought replica trousers so that we could cut them up and get them messy and keep the actual trousers from B-Authentic intact. We also sorted out the props like the rifle, knife and helmets. It took us 2 weeks to sort every single little thing out, we had to get exact sizes of the actors and pass them on as well as make sure the props were the right amount we needed and the boots, putty's etc.

I have to give most of the credit to Sarah for this department though, she did such a good job. The only thing we forgot to get for this shoot is a sewing kit, silly us. We know that's a thing definitely not to forget on whatever shoot we go on as costume department in future with lots of safety pins!

[hlmcgowan]

BAFTA Masterclass with Cinematographer Ben Davis

Ben joined the BAFTA Crew programme to discuss technical and creative techniques behind his hugely successful catalogue of films including, Layer Cake, Hannibal Rising, Kick Ass, Seven Psychopaths and the critically acclaimed drama, Masters of Sex. A chance to hear from one of the most exciting, new cinematographers on his career so far as well as his long-standing collaboration with producer-director, Matthew Vaughn.

They showed us each clip of the films named above he’s worked on as Director of Photography and it was so inspiring to know that he went from a student learning right from the bottom like us, to where he is now. Below is Ben's IMBD profile and his list of Cinematographer credits is very admirable.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1023204/

[hlmcgowan]

This is the model that Joanna Roberts used for her photo shoot 'Ice/Snow Queen' and I went out and bought the dress at an Antiques shop called Ryan's Vintage on Oldham Street in Manchester. Was the cheapest and nicest thing I could find, I also had a standby dress in case this one wasn't the right size or what Jo wanted. £30 for 2 bridal type dresses. I must admit I was displeased with lack of information from Jo, I literally went out the day before the shoot and just grabbed whatever I could, I'd gone to about 6 different shops until I found this main dress. Overall, the shoot went okay, but I found that the dress started ripping at the back, thankfully it wasn't noticeable in the photos and we tried fixing it with safety pins and it worked and we was able to finish off the shoot with no more further problems.

I know that in future I need more detail on the models size so I'm not having trouble finding a dress that'll work.

[hlmcgowan]

Pollyanna McIntosh & Lee Williams. These are the 2 main actors of the Thriller film 'White Settlers'. My role on this shoot was to be Costume Department Assistant and these were only 2 out of the 5 people I had to help with costume. Pollyanna's and Lee's costumes gradually got dirtier and dirtier as the film went on as they were running through the woods, and so their costumes had to be changed a fair amount.

I currently don't have pictures of the other actors as they're a 'secret' until the release date.

[hlmcgowan]

Working with Holly on the China White - Yeah Fool music video was an absolute pleasure. I was really impressed with her commitment and work, especially with her little experience in textiles. As well as being great company, she was always willing to help out and often a step ahead of myself. On one of the shooting days I couldn't make it there and I couldn't have asked for a better person to take my place. I left minimal instructions, yet Holly still did an excellent job. Huge thank you to her, I really could not have done it without.

Molly McConnell - Head of Costume Department on 'Yeah Fool' - China White music video

[hlmcgowan]

I was given the job role of being a Costume Assistant on set of China White's 'Yeah Fool' music video that Martin Butterworth was directing and Jenny Wilcock was producer.

In the first picture, you can see the extra on the right has a Toga on, which Martin ended up giving me the job of designing out of a long piece of material he handed me and to get it perfect, it took a lot of safety pinning together and a lot of patience! Eventually I got it done, but it kept falling down in places and pins kept popping out so I just kept checking up on him before he went on set and made sure everything was in place.

In the second picture I was given some foam material to stick to the inside of the 'twins' costume so that they looked more like 1 person, rather than 2, so the foam helped smooth out the fact that both Chloe and Jennifer were stood close to each other and you couldn't see the both of their shoulders.

I must say that you have to be continuous and make sure that every costume looks exactly the same for each person every time they need to be on set and I had to be on set and watch and help the actors if they had any problems with their costume. It can be quite a stressful job, especially when there's a lot of actors to help and keep an eye on, but after a day and a half of being a Costume Assistant, it got easier to know what I was doing and it ended up being a much quicker process.

[hlmcgowan]

These pictures are from a shoot which was about a drama called 'It's Just A Number' that Amy McIntyre (seen in lower picture talking to the actors) directed and produced with Lucy Lincoln

My job on this shoot was a Boom Operator, personally I found this a very difficult job, because I have no upper body strength and I feel as if that's what you need to do a job like Boom Operating. This was my first time doing this role so I did find it a struggle, of course there's different ways of holding a boom so it makes it more easier on who is operating, but I do find that it's a more male populated role. I wouldn't want to do this job again, but it's always good to experience new roles when on set so you know what you don't like to do and what you do like to do. 

[hlmcgowan]

On one of the drama shoots we did for University called Superheroes, as shown on the loaders board, I was a 3rd AD (Assistant Director) and I really enjoyed it. I guess I enjoyed it as it's sometimes nice to be somewhat bossy and I felt like I did a good job with being told what to do by my 1st AD - Faisal Muhammed, who was a very good 1st AD and it's good to watch and witness what everyone else is doing around you as when you're in the more, productive roles, you're very occupied on doing more than a couple tasks, especially if it's in the camera department!

This was my first time being an AD and I'd definitely love to try it out again!

[hlmcgowan]

These are the 2 sets that were made for the music video Your Prescription by Ideal Forgery. My job was to be a runner, but I ended up mainly helping the Art Department assisting in continuity, the first day of shooting though, I helped out on playback of the music as well as briefly helping out on the smoke machine and helping it level out throughout the set.