ABOUT THE PROJECT

Inspired by a true story, but set in a dilapidated, dystopian steampunk-esque world of old buildings, steam powered machinery, and odd-ball characters  'Maurice's Symphony' follows the story of Maurice who is labelled ‘deaf and dumb’ because he suffers hearing loss. I designed, made, and co-ordinated the costumes for this short film with assistance of Amy Goddard who made the Doctor Kennedy’s jacket and assisted dressing extras during the two crowd scenes, Jessica Moulds who lent us Catherine’s dream sequence dress, James Allenby who assembled Doctor Kennedy’s leather chest harness, Jordan Bates who made the earmuffs for the factory workers,  Terry from Dragon Blood’s Creations who provided the costume for Rachael Leahcar, and finally, Helen Snoswell at the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and members of the steampunk community who lent a number of steampunk items, clothing, and hats, as well as attending as extras. All the costumes in ‘Maurice’s Symphony’ were beautifully complimented by Pip Strachan’s amazing production design, and Cashmere Hawkins’ fantastic makeup and hair design.

All costumes adhered to a colour palette of murky browns, greens, reds, and off-white, and were a combination of sourced materials, borrowed items, and makes, with a concentration on textured or patterned fabrics, and leather. Maurice works in a factory, and his costume, along with his co-workers’, therefore express the grimy, dirty, sweaty environment of the factory, as well as their lower working-class status. The factory worker costumes were deliberately make to appear mismatch, non-fitted, and hand-mended to heighten the lack of resources and money in this world, and therefore consisted of adapted oversized pants and shirts, topped off with newsboy and flat caps to set the era. Some of the workers were ‘fortunate enough’ to wear aprons, deliberately made to look handmade, using belts as straps, in a one-size-fits-all, despite their varying heights. I applied a strong art finish to make them appear worn, dirty, grimy, ripped, and unwashed as if they were the only clothes they own. All factory workers wore earmuffs, to emphasise the loudness of the environment, except for, Maurice, to highlight his difference and suggest his hearing disability. The supporting characters were especially larger-than-life, reflected in the exaggerated almost cartoony elements in some of the costumes. In particular, Mr. Ferk’s, costume made entirely of brown leather makes him cockroach-like in appearance, Doctor Kennedy’s doctor’s jacket was designed to be outlandish with exaggerated lapels, collar and buttons, while his surgery costume, even more so, with steampunk-esque headgear and a leather surgery chest harness laden with bizarre medical tool, and the street showman Zoran the Great’s costume was designed to be loud and over-the-top to antagonise Maurice’s heightened post-op hearing senses.

THE TEAM

PRODUCERS: Andrei Gostin, Alexander Nakone
DIRECTOR: Andrei Gostin, Alex Nakone
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Pip Strachan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andre Gostin
COSTUME DESIGNER: Hannah Sitters
COSTUME MAKERS AND ASSISTANTS: Amy Goddard, Jessica Moulds, James Allenby, Jordan Bates
COSTUME SPECIAL THANKS: Terry from Dragon Blood’s Creations, Helen Snoswell at the Gilbert and Sullivan Society
MAKE UP: Cashmere Hawksworth
EDITORS: Andrei Gostin, Alexander Nakone
CASTING: Patrick Frost
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Fiona De Caux, Tess O'Flaherty, Jasmin Watkins
VISUAL EFFECTS: Jeremy Kelly-Bakke, Anne Wallace, Bradley Webster
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: Sofia Mikhaylovskaya
SOUND: Phil van Hout