Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / The Bluff with Costume Designer, Antoinette Messam | The Costume House with Spencer Williams

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The Bluff with Costume Designer, Antoinette Messam | The Costume House with Spencer Williams · The Art of Costume Podcast

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She dove in and did so much of her own stunts and the action
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and I reposted it and tagged her set.
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Costumer, who I knew had panic attacks on a daily basis, was
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literally there biting her nails because Priyanka decided, no,
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don't bother, I'll just roll in the ground in the dirt and
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dropping and messing herself up in all the leaves in the dirt
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and then getting up and say I'm ready and I'm like, no, I've got
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to match all six of those. Welcome to The Costume House
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with Spencer Williams, a podcast dedicated to the art and
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storytelling of costume design and film and television.
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I'm your host Spencer Williams, and for today's episode we're
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heading to the shores of a sun soaked island where secrets,
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survival and spectacle collide. We're talking about the new film
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The Bluff. I'm so excited to welcome back a
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long time friend of the podcast, costume designer Antoinette
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Messam, to talk about her work on the sweeping high stakes
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story The Bluff Falls. A Caribbean woman who's hidden
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past resurfaces when her island is invaded by a ruthless crew of
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pirates, setting the stage for a story of resilience, identity,
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and confrontation. In our conversation, we dive
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deep into the research that informed A distinct worlds
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within the film, from the clothing of the island's
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community to the visual language of the pirates themselves.
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We talk about the challenges and thrills of designing for a
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pirate crew, the striking presence of Bloody Mary's
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legendary cross, and how elements like blood, salt, and
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sand quite literally shaped the costumes on screen.
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And of course, we had to talk about an unforgettable moment at
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the Bluff red carpet, one that made my costume nerd heart
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absolutely scream. So without further ado, let's
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step inside the costume house. I am so happy to welcome back to
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the podcast a long time friend of mine, someone whom I just
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love talking to all the time, costume designer Antoinette
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Messam. Hello Antoinette, how are you?
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So good to see you. Spencer, I miss you.
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We have fun in these things. I'm so happy we get to talk
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about what is, I think, one of my most amazingly, challengingly
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beautiful projects. I always How's that?
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How's that first start? Yeah, exactly.
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I always look forward to talking to you, and I wish you could
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have heard the scream. I scrumped when I was watching
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the trailer for The Bluff. And I was like, who designed?
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First of all, I love a pirate film.
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And when I looked it up and I was like, Antoinette did this.
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I was like, oh, hell yeah. No, it got a Pretty Little twist
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in it, yeah. So let's get into it.
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I've been dying to talk to you about this.
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So let's start with the director of the film, as you know, as we
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always tend to start, director Frankie Flowers.
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Tell me about your collaboration with him and what drew you to
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the story originally of The Bluff.
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Well, I was really fortunate to meet Frankie, our director pre
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strike and, and I say that that it was fortunate, wasn't
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fortunate being on strike and being off that long, but it
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enabled me to meet with him in person a couple of times and and
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talk about the project and we bonded immediately over our
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Caribbean roots. He's from the Cayman, I've
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learned to say that correctly. Cayman Island, and I'm Jamaican
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and Cayman is our sister island. When they were settled, we being
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the bigger island supported, came in with supplies and and
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military support. And I mean there was nothing on
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the island. So they're most of their food
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sources, etcetera. Went came from Jamaica.
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So I actually have family on the island who know Frankie Flowers
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family. So that was impressed.
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And as soon as I found that out, but we, I'd heard the story of
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the female pirate growing up, you know, in school, I went to
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primary school, public school in Jamaica and it was a folklore.
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It was one of our folklores, our fairy tales.
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And you know, once he, I read the script, I, I said, I know
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this story. And we, we dove into that.
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But more importantly, what enabled me by meeting with him
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early is to get an idea of the tone he wanted for this movie.
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It definitely was not Disney, you know, And I say that in the
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sense that this is this is as R rated as you're going to get.
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And he wanted that element of, of rugged and gritty and
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tactical interwined into the costumes and the tone.
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So that was a, a really quick pivot for me because I, I didn't
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visualize it quite that far right off the top.
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So I'm glad I got to spend time with him to, to figure that out.
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And what I mean by spending time, we met a few times.
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Let me not, let me be clear, because when I hear about other
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designers who get to spend months upon months with their
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directors, I'm like, I'm so jealous.
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Yeah. It was a couple Zoom meetings.
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Perhaps you know what I mean. And you know, a coffee maybe.
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I think 2 coffee meetings. Yeah.
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So it was lovely, but I'll take it.
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It was great. But what you got was still led
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to a very cohesive tone that went from beginning to end of
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this film of the bluff. So I don't get to talk about
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pirate esque stories very often on this podcast.
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Honestly, it's something that I feel like I've been missing out
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on. I mean, yeah, you know, we've
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talked about pirates before. But so now that I get to talk to
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you, I'm kind of want to nerd out a little bit on this.
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With you for a. Little bit.
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So can we just talk about the research for a little bit,
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talking about pirates? So where do you start with this
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in terms of the research process, diving into the
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inspirations behind this film and later your characters?
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You know, I'm going to, I'm not going to lie, it was hard.
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I could imagine. I'm like right off the bat.
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I'm like, I remember being a kid seeing pencil, you know, black
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and white etchings of, you know, Caribbean pirates on in
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Caribbean islands. But then I couldn't find it.
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And I was in LA at the time and I couldn't find anything other
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than what was online or you know, I was shown some AI
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generated very risque images which were not practical or
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organic or our. Minds are so like, dignified at
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this. Point Yeah.
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So. So I stepped off that lane for a
7:28
second and started researching the Caribbean islands during
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that time, Victorian time. And I lucked out because I found
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a Caribbean archive of of black and whites and early etchings
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and paintings in the collection and I sourced the collection to
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our Art Gallery of Ontario AGO in Toronto.
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So guess who gets on a plane 'cause I knew the curator just
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by chance fluke. And I said thank you to the
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costume gods. And I got on a plane and I was
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allowed access and they put the white gloves on and somebody was
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watching me in the corner to make sure I didn't touch
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anything incorrectly. But I got access to this most
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incredible research I've ever discovered in my life.
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Like literally leather bound in in boxes.
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I have sent you a picture so you see it like I'm going through
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original very first photographs from this collection of people
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in Jamaica, St. Lucia, Martinique.
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And what I was able to see right off the bat is the difference
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between the English settled, settled islands and the French
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and how they their hair, you know, the head wraps and and the
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jewelry. Like there was very much a wave
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of let us present ourselves in in in a way that was beautiful
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and becoming artisan courtesan style with the French islands
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and then with, you know, Barbados, Jamaica, Cayman
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Islands. You saw that these were settlers
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who were working. These were former slaves that
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were a little rust, more rustic and threadbare.
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And, and I was able to pull from the sailors and the fee, the
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farmers, a visual that I presented to our director and
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our art director and the DOP. Like I was able to share all
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these references with the entire heads, you know, the crew head
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hair and makeup to say, look what I've discovered so that
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we'd all have access not only for props and set deck, but for
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hair and makeup and costumes. I mean, props was like, thank
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you, you know, so it was, it was a gold mine and it was really,
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really helpful. And again, it was a fluke, but
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I, I went there and just by chance, I went to the calf CAD
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library because a lot of us in the early days donated extra.
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I was moving out of Toronto. I gave them a lot of my
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reference material that I didn't feel I could bring with me to
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California. And I found my pirate book, of
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course, the only one the. And I have references of black
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and white etchings that I remembered from a child of just
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these stories of realistic imagery that I could see then
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where someone would have taken that and created something like
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Pirates of the Caribbean, you know?
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But what it gave me was a silhouette for my sailors from
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the, the town and the sailors on the boat, the base.
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And then we, of course, separated them and added to it.
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Yeah. You actually mentioned working
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with the other, how you know this naturally got to
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collaborate with the other department heads.
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I was wondering if you collaborate a little bit on
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that, how that must have been pretty crucial to the process of
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this film, seeing how. Cohesive.
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It looked. It was not only crucial, it was
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a gift. I have never in all the years
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I've been doing this, yes, art department's out the door, down
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the hall, or, you know, a couple floors up, a couple floors down.
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And of late, because I've been doing so much location prep and
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shoot 5 kilometer drive to, you know, where the art department
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is or the production office. And this time I got to be in the
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same room, same floor, same vicinity as my Paul Ivy, my
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production designer, his office. I could see out my my door and I
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could see when the director walked by on his way to his
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office, which was cue for me to get up and follow.
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You know, it's like, what's up? Costumes has come into this
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meeting too, but also too I could see them waving to say
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come over or we were right beside set deck and props so I
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could see him like Oh my God, I love these fabrics.
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Where did you get them? India?
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Give me the resource, you know, and we would share resources.
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We would share fines and I see it in the movie.
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I see how much being able to work together helped and it
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spoiled me because I could literally being with props.
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He show me something that he wants to add to a gun belt or
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something. And I'm like, hold on, let's get
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Frankie in this. And we walked to his office,
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which is just done all and knock on the door.
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Do you have a second? And we could have those
13:15
spontaneous conversations that just made the process move like
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this. And then we were all on the same
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page and it was not one of those.
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You show up on set and say, what were you thinking?
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Why could you call me? You know, we didn't have that.
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We caught it early. Anytime there was a like, I
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suggest you do this, or once you have our fabric fabricator build
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this for you and we'll age it because it's going on her waist,
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you know? So it was a lot of teamwork.
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Yeah, it was beautiful teamwork. Yeah, I love it.
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Yeah, Well, let's dive into some of our characters here.
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So Karl Urban plays the very menacing Captain Connor.
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When we meet Captain Connor, you can just tell that, first of
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all, he's captain for a reason. His costume feels very lived in
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and honestly, it's likely because he's earned that title
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at this point. So tell me a little bit about
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his costume story and what you wanted the audience to
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understand when you meet Captain Connor.
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Because at this point, I mean, all these characters, their
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their life lines have been a little bit established at this
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point. You want to learn a lot about
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them when the story gets going. Yeah, that was a conversation.
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I was given an image of a captain that, you know, it's
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very similar to the Russell Crowe character in the film that
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he did. That was he wore that uniform
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throughout, which name has slipped me.
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Sorry, but master and commander, that's it.
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Yes. And I said, why do you like this
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costume? And it, it just, it immediately
15:04
told the story of where he started, which was in the
15:08
military, right? He was a captain of a ship for
15:12
the Indian trade. And but this is many years past.
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So what do we carry from where he started to where we end up?
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And I thought it was really important to keep the coat, you
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know, the coat and his boots. Keep the coat and his boots and
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one that gate that movement and and having Carl as soon as he
15:42
put it on and he started to move in it and especially the gate of
15:48
the boot. It's it's very it's very strong.
15:51
It's it's a it's a you know, he called it his his deck gate, his
15:55
deck walk, you know, but the code was was a very instant
16:01
recognizable. I am the captain and that's what
16:05
we wanted. I mean, you couldn't miss Carl
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even if he was in a paper bag, but a sack, anything he's he he
16:13
he just wears clothes so well and costume is so important to
16:17
him, helping him find that beat. But it was just really important
16:22
that the coat be something that was a carryover to help tell his
16:28
story. And, and with all of the men
16:33
that were in his quartermaster and the followers, the the
16:41
premise was that they were going to be dark, they were going to
16:44
be tactical. They were like, you know, a
16:46
mission. They've come to handle their
16:52
business. Let's be a strong force.
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But what I shared with our director and DP is that let's
17:00
texturize them. Let's not have everybody in
17:03
black because if you line them up and looked at them, they're
17:07
dark. But it's, it's it's degrees of
17:09
dark in terms of Blues and Grays and even stripes under there.
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When you look at the quartermaster beside Captain
17:18
O'Connor, you see the difference in the colorways.
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You know, having some people with the similar leather vest to
17:24
what Bloody Mary wore. So I just felt we could do dark
17:29
without it being carte blanche all everybody in black tactical
17:33
wear of the period. And as costume designer, you are
17:37
kind of like your own captain, but you do have a crew out there
17:40
with you. Can you tell me a little bit
17:42
about your crew that was out there with you making this
17:44
possible? Wow.
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You know, we always say it takes a village and boy did I have a
17:51
village on this one. Literally our build, our
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production office was in a former manufacturing office
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with, with, you know, warehouse at the back.
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And I had different in the parking lot.
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It kept growing. First it started with ager dyers
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had their trailer, then I needed the letter makers, then the
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fabricators, then the, you know, extra cutters.
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So the parking lot grew into Antoinette's extension of her
18:22
costume department. This was a first for me.
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I've never worked with leather makers or fabricators before.
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I mean, I've worked with leather makers who create incredible
18:36
leather garments, like Izzy Camilleri is one of the best in
18:40
the world and she's based in Toronto.
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I mean, she's, you know her, she just won an award too.
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And she did all the leather wear for the harder They Fall, but
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having wet molding done and etching and, you know, having
19:00
these metal stencil that we did for the Siren was done on metal
19:05
by the fabricator and then embossed.
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The leather was embossed with it.
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That's all new. I love learning new stuff, you
19:12
know, And I was like a kid in a candy store when you couldn't
19:15
find me in my office. I was always in the back with
19:18
the leather makers or the fabricators.
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And then let me tell you about Billy's domain.
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I'm going to start posting videos of my my poor art
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finishers, ager dyers and what we put them through.
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Oh, don't worry, I'm. Going to be asking you all about
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aging and dying later. Oh my God, it was fantastic.
19:40
And again, I love learning, you know, different techniques and
19:45
what we learned in Italy and you and I talked about that book of
19:49
cred. So it was just fantastic.
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It was an amazing experience and you know, I really loved being
19:58
able to take the heads of departments down to the back to
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show them what we were doing and how it could relate to what
20:11
Frankie was storyboarding, so he'd see it live and also
20:16
understand it too. You know, there's only three of
20:20
these. Look 12.
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You know, and right, so, yeah, but and also just seeing the
20:34
workmanship that went into some of these costumes, it was just
20:39
incredible. I had four incredible cutters.
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One of my cutters, Kit did Cruella.
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She did created that beautiful black and white, you know, so
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that was a level of artistry I had.
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And I'm forever in depth to these people.
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I'm just a conductor, you know, without their talent and their
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patience and their their their intuition.
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Because, you know, I always ask everyone to read the script and
21:12
the questions. I'm able to get by.
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OK. We see that there is a fire
21:18
being built in the last scene. Do you think we need to have,
21:21
you know, burn spots? I'm like, no, no, no, no,
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they're not going to be close. I've already asked stunts that.
21:26
And then of course, on the day we're literally on set burning
21:31
holes in clothes. Literally it's like this one's
21:34
ready. Run it to set because that
21:40
always happens. Right, always.
21:41
It's I mean, that's the name of the game.
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Let's talk about the character of the hour who we all want to
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talk about. Let's talk about Priyanka's
21:49
character, Air Cell first. What a bad ass.
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She chooses to defend her family, as I hope everyone
21:56
would. And throughout the course of
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this film, she undergoes A remarkable transformation into
22:02
this fierce warrior, which, I mean, at the beginning of this
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film, you're not really sure where this is going to go.
22:08
And a lot of that storytelling really takes place through the
22:11
costume design, aside from, of course, Priyanka's incredible
22:14
acting and stunt work and so on and so forth.
22:18
But a lot of that storytelling took place through the costume.
22:21
And I'm sure, as you were just starting to tell us, through the
22:23
work of your incredible crew and then bossing in the leather
22:27
work, they really put you through it in terms of that
22:30
transformation in her costume where she had to go and
22:34
eventually find old pieces of her Bloody Mary costume that she
22:38
took to battle. So tell us about that
22:40
transformation. It was incredible.
22:43
Thank you. I, I was very lucky to get
22:47
Priyanka early because she was going off to do another project,
22:51
I think in Italy. So I met with her with her ABO
22:57
producer and our and Frankie the director we met talked about the
23:03
beats of the character and I showed her some samples and they
23:07
immediately loved. I had this original dress.
23:12
I literally took it off. The woman who who owned it, she
23:16
was in a vintage shop and she was wearing like that's perfect
23:19
can I borrow it? And I ended up buying it from
23:21
her. But the silhouette I felt would
23:24
be it was sort of a western ish influence, but very much in
23:32
keeping with some of the references I'd seen from women
23:36
of that time who were not affluent but who were not
23:41
servants. And I showed it to her a few
23:46
different styles and she immediately agreed with me that
23:48
that was the perfect silhouette. So right away we knew what the
23:51
shape of the dress was going to be and I then went to Australia,
23:58
we made samples, we made a couple of different shapes for
24:02
the Carrasse, wider shoulders, you know, lacing up the back,
24:08
lacing down the side, you know, different details.
24:11
And, and what we ended up with, which I'm so thankful we did, is
24:15
just the bodice that was fitted, but with buckling at the side,
24:22
you know, which I thought was very much more in keeping with
24:27
something someone can put on themselves.
24:29
And, and then it gave you a clean back and a clean front,
24:33
you know. So we took samples made-up in
24:38
the leather, made-up in the fabric of her first costume and
24:42
her second. And we brought that to LA and I
24:46
did a 48 hour in LA fitting with a pre uncle.
24:50
And it was great because it gave her the opportunity in her home
24:55
in a safe space to get on the floor, roll around, lift up the
25:00
dress, tuck it in, figure out the beats.
25:03
Because it was really important because she was going to be in
25:06
each costume for so long that we workshop it workshop.
25:14
Can you do a stunt in just those first?
25:17
That was going to be a dress. The, the the nightgown.
25:22
It was supposed to be a nightgown.
25:23
And what we realized very quickly in that first meeting is
25:27
she can't do all that action in a nightgown.
25:30
So we shifted it to petticoat and pantaloons, which is as
25:36
accurate as a nightgown but just much more practical.
25:40
So that when she threw on the dress, she only, you know,
25:45
scripted but also practical wise, she only had time to take
25:50
off the bloody top and put the dress over the bloody panty
25:54
loots, you know. So those are the kind of beats
25:57
that having her early and meeting with her and going
26:03
through what was the right boot? What did she feel comfortable
26:06
running in, fighting in all those things.
26:09
Because she doesn't change her boot when she changes from Ursel
26:13
to Bloody Mary. So those are the things that,
26:17
again, it was a gift to be able to do that with her prior
26:22
because we still had work to do when she got there a week before
26:26
camera. But now I'm in a queue, I'm
26:29
behind hair and makeup tests, behind all the stunt rehearsals
26:33
and you know, so having that early time with her was amazing.
26:39
Talk about the detail on the Kuras, too.
26:41
I mean, there's like a siren on it.
26:43
There's so much detail I love going on.
26:45
Your Instagram. Just, I mean just scrolling
26:47
through these pictures, I mean every time I look at it I see
26:50
something new. And my team is posting too,
26:53
which is incredible, and I'm just reposting some of them.
26:55
Beautiful. Well, that's maybe.
26:56
What I'm looking at. But still, it's gorgeous.
27:00
Well, that's again being, you know, the affinity of being so
27:03
close, the proximity to being so close to Paul's office.
27:10
I saw that Siren picture that was on her sail of her ship, and
27:17
I said I'd love to incorporate that in her costume.
27:22
Originally we were going to incorporate it also on the
27:25
leather of vest for O'Connor, but it just didn't work.
27:31
It wasn't necessary. Do you know what I mean?
27:33
He was commanding enough. Just the coat did it.
27:37
He didn't need an additional symbolism.
27:40
But her siren that we see on her caress, which stood out from the
27:47
other caresses that you saw all the men's were playing, hers is
27:52
the only one that had embossing on it and that was from her
27:56
sail. So it was the her.
27:58
Her sail of her ship had the same siren.
28:01
And what I loved was Priyanka wore that caress to the premiere
28:06
of The Bluff, Which I just thought, as, you know, as a
28:09
costume nerd who is a journalist who covers costume design, I
28:12
thought it was the coolest thing ever for her to shout you out at
28:16
the premiere. I mean, that's kind of what I
28:18
live for, honestly. Oh my God, that's all I could do
28:21
not to rush the red carpet and hug her.
28:27
I knew it was happening. I knew from the very first time
28:30
she put on this sample. Wow.
28:33
Yes, she loved it. She loved the direction it was
28:36
going in. She says, I think I'm going to
28:38
wear this to the premiere. I didn't pay attention.
28:42
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
28:44
I mean, thank you so much. I'm honored.
28:46
And I moved on. And then it wraps.
28:49
She's like, I need these, you know, 'cause I'm wearing them
28:52
for the premiere. And I'm like, oh, OK, well I'll
28:56
give you the original sample, which was beautiful and clean
29:00
and all pretty. No aging, no star, no nothing.
29:04
And no, she wanted the one she wore, actually wore.
29:08
I mean, they buffed it up a little bit, which was pretty,
29:11
but it has all the marks from the fight from our agent on it.
29:17
And she looked fantastic. It's probably 1 of at this time,
29:24
one of the most iconic moments for me.
29:27
I mean, I text her to say I was emotional because I couldn't
29:30
believe, you know, that this was she sent me a message, I think
29:35
the 10:00 or 11:00 that night and I sent back that I'm
29:41
emotional about it because I was it was it was that's an honor.
29:46
I think that's ultimate honor. When you're actor loves their
29:51
costume so much, either they want to, you know, they want to
29:54
keep it as a memento or because they want to wear it again.
29:59
That's that's one kind of honor. But to premiere in it, I don't
30:03
know if anybody else has done that.
30:05
If you know, let me know because I was flabbergasted.
30:09
I can't think of many. I mean, that one's coming to
30:11
mind, but I think it just shows just how valuable costume
30:15
designers are to this process as a whole.
30:17
And like, you know, like we talked about all the time, these
30:20
films that we all love so much or TV shows, what not will not
30:24
be possible without costume designers like you who make
30:27
these stories come to life. And this was just like a huge
30:30
example. And Priyanka, you know, made
30:32
that statement in front of everybody, even though if, you
30:35
know, people might not have know that was happening.
30:37
That's what that statement was to me.
30:39
So I thought it was very important and.
30:41
Thank you so much. Yeah, I, I was just told
30:45
recently that that the costumes took took them immediately to
30:51
where they needed to be in that movie.
30:53
You knew who was who. You know, it was very, it was
30:58
very clear from the, the, the, the town dwellers to the pirates
31:05
and something that they asked me, which I get asked all the
31:09
time. And it's again, something, you
31:12
know, harking back to your question you asked me earlier
31:14
about working with Frank Frankie and our conversations and
31:19
collaboration. We were both of the same mind
31:23
that this was an outing for the settlers.
31:28
They were going to see a ship off.
31:30
They had music. They were, you know, doing.
31:34
It was a party. They were in their Sunday best.
31:36
Their clothes were clean, as prepped as they could be.
31:43
You know, they weren't in their their farmer's clothes or their
31:46
sailor's clothes that they you see the wear and tear.
31:51
This was their, their Sunday best and they they recognized
31:55
that and, and wanted to check in with me if that was purposeful.
31:58
And it was very purposeful. We wanted to show that these
32:02
people were coming in to celebrate and then this
32:05
happened, that they were invaded.
32:07
Right. Well, as as we kind of start to
32:10
wrap up though, I was, as we're talking about people and their
32:13
Sunday best, you know, I love talking about the aging and
32:16
dying. As we were starting to talk
32:17
about, I mean, let's talk about the breakdown and the salt and
32:22
the sand and a whole lot of blood too.
32:24
Tell me about how this played a part in the overall process and
32:28
your team and the continuity of it all and tearing these
32:31
costumes apart and the IT is a lot too.
32:34
I loved it. AGBO just posted a video about
32:39
how involved Priyanka was and how you know, she she dove in
32:47
and did so much of her own stunts and the action and I
32:52
reposted it and tagged her set. Costumer, who I knew had panic
32:58
attacks on a daily basis, was literally there biting her, her
33:03
nails. Because I have a video and I'll
33:06
pose. I have so much footage.
33:08
Priyanka decided no, don't bother.
33:10
I'll just roll in the ground in the dirt and be dropping and
33:14
messing herself up in all the leaves in the dirt and then
33:16
getting up and say I'm ready and I'm like, no, I've got to match
33:20
all six of those, you know. So once that happened, we put an
33:28
ager dire on set full time. And if something happened
33:33
spontaneously, we would gather the multiples and they would be
33:38
matching literally as she's in action.
33:40
Because it was, it was really organic and it made sense that
33:46
you do this to help with all the blood that you've added to your
33:51
clothes yourself or to, you know, rolling in the ground and
33:56
all that because it looked fantastic.
33:59
But then the the others flip side to it is we then have to
34:02
match it right And match it in real time because her stunt
34:06
woman is standing there and we've just taken her dress off
34:09
her to match it. So I had a really amazing team.
34:15
Billy is from Melbourne and he we had different specialists
34:21
coming from different parts of Australia, Melbourne, Sydney,
34:25
New Zealand. We had some incredible people
34:28
from New Zealand and put together this shop that it was
34:33
just like a procession line, especially with the sailors,
34:37
with O'Connor's sailors and how salty and gritty and dirty that
34:42
they got. And, and you, I mean, if you
34:45
look closely, you see it, it's, it reads subtle on camera, but a
34:49
lot of work went into breaking down those dark tones,
34:53
especially the blacks to make it look like it was seaworthy.
34:56
You know, So I, I give them full, full credit for taking my
35:08
direction, my imagery. And even in the interview, I
35:12
said, let me break it down for you how we're going.
35:14
This is going to go. And you tell me if you're up for
35:16
this. And it because I was clear, I
35:19
could see it. I knew how detailed it was going
35:23
to get and it would need to be to sell what we were saying.
35:28
And, and he said he was up for it.
35:30
I mean that shot of the young man under the boat when you
35:36
know, Elizabeth runs up and and sees her love with a slit
35:43
throat. We had between special effects
35:46
and our agers working as a team on the day to create that and
35:52
that was fantastic. It looked fantastic, it was
35:55
great. Gory but fantastic.
36:00
With that, Antoinette, what are you most proud of with the
36:03
bluff? Sometimes when you're moving so
36:06
fast and you just organically making decisions and just, you
36:10
know, on the cuff and then at the end you're like, Oh my God,
36:13
is it all going to come together?
36:15
Is it going to be cohesive and, and come together?
36:20
And I have to say, I am so proud of how well it came together.
36:26
It looks like there was teamwork, there was
36:32
collaboration. It looks like, you know, we all
36:38
rose to the occasion from for a man that we wanted to bring his
36:43
vision to life, Frankie Flowers was so passionate, so gracious,
36:48
so respectful of his entire crew.
36:52
And we just wanted to make him proud.
36:56
Yeah. Well, yeah, I think you all did
36:59
because it was an incredible film.
37:00
It felt very cohesive. Costume designer Antoinette
37:03
Messam, thank you so much for joining me.
37:05
I love this film. Congratulations and
37:07
congratulations to all your crew.
37:09
Like I said, it just felt so cohesive and transportive.
37:12
It just took you back to that time.
37:14
And I don't know, I just feel like I'm due for a rewatch
37:17
already. So I.
37:18
Hope everyone missing. Goes and watches the bluff.
37:20
It's such a fun film. Thank you for joining me,
37:22
Antoinette. It's so good to see you and talk
37:24
to you. Yes, and I'm so glad you liked
37:27
it. I really am.
37:29
You know, sometimes it gets come with questions and I'm not sure,
37:32
but right off the bat you're like, I love this film.
37:36
I would never. Lie the Costume House with
37:38
Spencer Williams is a production of The Art of Costume.
37:42
This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Spencer
37:44
Williams. To discover more conversations
37:47
with the designer shaping film, television, and theatre, visit
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37:54
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