‘Andor’ Costume Designers Break Down Looks of Mon Mothma, Luthen Rael and Imperial Prisoners

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The story behind Pixar’s latest animated feature “Elemental” is a personal one to filmmaker Peter Sohn. The opening shows a family arriving at the fictional port of Elemental City, which closely reflected the immigration story of Sohn’s parents from Korea to New York. The story breathes life into the earth elements of fire, water, land and air, depicting them as residents of Elemental City. When Ember (Leah Lewis), a fiery young woman, meets go-with-the-flow water being Wade (Mamoudou Athie), they discover that, despite their conflicts, they have a lot in common. As the two fall in love, Ember is faced with the internal conflict of being with Wade or following in her parents’ footsteps and running the family business. As the son of first-generation immigrants, Ember’s struggle reflected not only Sohn’s personal experience, but that of many of the animators and storytellers behind the scenes.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Jessica Chastain was a “mess” when she won the best actress Oscar for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” in 2022. Not from the barrage of congratulatory messages from friends and family, but her hair (Stephanie Ingram) and makeup (Linda Dowds) collaborators had also won the best makeup and hairstyling Oscar. Says Chastain, “It was so meaningful to me that they were recognized for their work.” Chastain, Dowds and Ingram first crossed paths in 2013 on “Mama,” and most recently on Showtime’s “George and Tammy,” the story of country singers George Jones (played by Michael Shannon) and Tammy Wynette (Chastain). Since then, the trio has become a tight unit with honesty and trust at the core of their collaboration, whether conceiving real-life transformations or subtle applications as part of their process.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Filmmaker Victoria Bousis has partnered with Unique Network to enhance the immersive film experience of her award-winning film “Stay Alive, My Son.” Inspired by true events and based on the memoirs of Pin Yathay, “Tu Vivra, Mon Fils” (“Stay Alive, My Son”), Bousis says she wanted to “leverage technology to break the rules of traditional storytelling and educating audiences about Cambodia’s history.” The film, which will screen at Siggraph in August and is currently on the festival circuit, uses augmented reality and a virtual world that audiences experience through a VR headset.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Fatal Attraction” production designer Nina Ruscio’s visual challenge was taking on an iconic movie, paying homage to it and finding a way to put her creative stamp on it by taking it into 2023. In the eight-part Paramount+ series, Joshua Jackson stars as Dan Gallagher with Lizzie Caplan as Alex Forrest, roles originated by Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in the original film. And while it’s not a remake, the creative team stressed, it’s an expanded adaptation that provides more insight into Alex’s behavior after an affair with a married man drives her to obsession. The series covers Alex’s struggles with her mental health, but it’s also an erotic thriller.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The year was 2001. Catherine Zeta-Jones had yet to do the table read for Rob Marshall’s “Chicago” or even meet co-star Renée Zellweger. But she recalls being in Toronto, walking down a long hallway and entering costume designer Colleen Atwood’s fitting space: “There was an explosion of costumes and fishnet tights.” And thus an enduring collaboration between thespian and costume designer was born. Both would go on to win Oscars for their work on the film. Zeta-Jones would call on Atwood to design her outfit for the 2002 Academy Awards when the actor was days away from giving birth. It would be two decades before they officially reunited for Netflix’s “Wednesday.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor It took a village to build the costumes for Shonda Rhimes’ latest “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.” Costume designer Lyn Elizabeth Paolo and co-costume designer Laura Frecon paired up to tell young Queen Charlotte’s (India Amarteifio) story and her rise to power in Britain, after her marriage to King George III. But even though Rhimes told Paolo it was going to be a “small spin-off,” the costume designer who had worked with her on “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” knew that Rhimes would want “everything to be glorious.” There were going to be grand scenes, such as a funeral and a coronation. Frecon says, “We were told there were no balls,” referring to the grandiose costume fetes that marked almost every episode of “Bridgerton.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The desert meets the ’70s meets the Western. That’s how “Poker Face” costume designer Trayce Gigi Field describes the vibe of Peacock’s whodunnit series starring Natasha Lyonne. Lyonne plays Charlie Cale, a casino worker with a knack for solving crimes as she goes on the run across the country. Field knew the first thing she had to do was create a look that was a departure from Lyonne’s previous series, “Russian Doll.” First rule: No black. “We wanted a different color palette, so I put together mood boards, and some of those things like the buttery brown YSL jacket made it into the series,” says Field.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes and Lord Afrixana are just a few of the artists whose music is featured in thethird season of MGM+’s 1960s-set “Godfather of Harlem.” “I don’t pick artists based on their names, I pick artists based on what we’re trying to do,” says Swizz Beatz, who serves as the show’s music producer and creative director. In putting the show’s sonic landscape together, Beatz says he tried to be thoughtful when using a placement. “Music is so powerful and with this, I wanted to use it to give the characters an authentic landscape,” he says. He also didn’t want to put himself in a box by selecting music from the 1960s, rather, he was given creative liberties to use new artists which helped him find the right approach and voices.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Production designer Patrick O’Keefe drew inspiration from brutalist architecture, graphic artist Syd Mead and British punk band The Sex Pistols when animating the world of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” As Miles Morales crosses path with different Spider-People from other dimensions, it was up to O’Keefe and his team of animators to create visual worlds that reflect those counterparts. With Variety, he breaks down the looks of each world and shares his favorite easter eggs that pay homage to the Canadian animators who worked on the film. “Whenever it comes to developing anything for the film, I’m always asking myself, whose point of view are we seeing this from? And what does it need to do?

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Composer Daniel Pemberton pushed a few boundaries and “made something really creative and different” when he scored 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” When he returned to score the sequel, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” he knew he would have to “push it as far as we can go.” Pemberton says he had to build the score from the ground up, which was complicated. “You’re trying not to make a score that sounds like other film scores. You’re trying to invent your own language.” Inventing that language took experimentation, research and failure. He explains, “I spent two years researching and developing this score, going through ideas, coming up with concepts and throwing them out.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor In the penultimate episode of “Ted Lasso” season 3, “Mom City” features Sam Ryder’s song “Fought & Lost,” a collaboration with Queen’s Brian May. Playing toward the end of the episode, the song acts as a bridge as Ted (Jason Sudeikis) as he has a heartfelt confrontation with his mother Dottie (Becky Ann Baker). The next day, he’s in his office to reveal a “truth bomb” to Rebecca, but the end credits roll before audiences get an answer. Ryder performed the piece in front of an audience at the Grammy Museum in Downtown Los Angeles at a special event with the show’s star Hannah Waddingham joining him.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Ruth Carter doesn’t need the prefix “costume designer” in front of her name; she is a household name. Carter made Oscar history when she became the first Black woman ever to win two Oscars,thanks to her work on the “Black Panther” films. With credits that include “Selma,” “Malcolm X,” “Coming 2 America” and being Spike Lee’s go-to, Carter has stories to tell.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The detail in costume design can define a character — especially for Amazon Prime’s epic “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and its retro “Daisy Jones & the Six.” Whether creating costumes for sea guards and Harfoots, “LOTR” costume designer Kate Hawley created over 2,000 outfits for the series. Hawley used blue rather extensively in stones and costumes to reflect the regal presence of Morfydd Clark’s elf, Galadriel, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Míriel, Queen-Regent of Númenor. She created garments for the nomadic Harfoots that would shield them at night. The idea was that, like wild animals, they avoid detection from perceived enemies by just sitting still and blending into their environment.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Yellowjackets” composers and songwriters Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker jumped at the chance to write the original music and lyrics contender “Sit Right Down” for Episode 7 of the Showtime series.“We were deep into the blood, fragmentation, descent and sanity-shattering music,” Wedren says, referring to the events that the survivors have to endure this season. The producers asked them to write an “MGM, old school standard number meets Bob Fosse.” The dream sequence happens as Simone Kessell’s Lottie asks the adult Yellowjackets to choose a therapy option treatment at her “wellness retreat.” Misty, played by Christina Ricci, finds herself in a sensory tank after picking “Guidance.” She needs it. In the teen timeline, Misty (played by Samantha Hanratty) makes a new bestie in Crystal, a fellow theater lover. Except, Misty’s openness with her BFF during a round of rapid-fire secrets comes to a sad end when Misty confesses she sabotaged the flight’s black box recorder. Mortified, Crystal asks if Misty will “poison her,” to which she replies “I’ll fucking kill you.” Moments later, Crystal has accidentally fallen off the cliff to her death. Meanwhile, adult Misty is racking up the “deaths” after kidnapping and spiking a reporter’s cigarette.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Production designers had their hands full the past year, recreating everything from an 18th century palace large enough for indoor badminton games to retro kitchens that looked like they were straight out of the 1970s. To achieve their period-accurate sets, they consulted books, photos and guild archives. For the third season of “The Great,” production designer Francesca Di Mottola a built a “gigantic games room where anything could happen and served many different purposes,” horse breeding among them. The production designer began scouting locations in the U.K., where the black comedy about Catherine the Great is filmed, but none quite fit what she was looking for, so she built the room on a soundstage.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Prey” director Dan Trachtenberg wanted his “Predator” spinoff, which is set in 1719, to be shot in a naturalistic way, so cinematographer Jeff Cutter made use of available light whenever possible — especially from fire and the moon. In the movie, Comanche warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) tracks and hunts down a killer alien through the woods. “I would use fire as much as possible and augment it if we had to,” says Cutter.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Max will be celebrating Pride Month in June through a series of events, programming and partnerships highlighting LGBTQ+ voices. Among the initiatives will be partnerships with Them and Newfest to help amplify queer voices, stories and content. The streamer has planned an in-app Pride takeover of the LGBTQ+ Voices page which will highlight queer content premiering in June. Among the programs will be the premiere of the HBO documentary “The Stroll,” which tells the powerful and poignant history of transgender sex workers in New York’s pre-gentrified meatpacking district in the 1990s. The Max original documentary reality series “Naked. Loud. Proud.” will stream. HBO documentaries “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” and TaylorMac’s “24-Decade History of Popular Music” are set to air.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Lucasfilm’s immersive storytelling studio Industrial Light & Magic’s ILMxLAB is rebranding its creative studio to ILM Immersive. The move comes as ILM seeks to push state-of-the-art immersive innovations for its stories. In a statement to Variety, Vicki Dobbs Beck, VP of Immersive Content, said, “When we launched nearly eight years ago, we chose the name ILMxLAB to reflect the idea that this was a brand new storytelling space – a blank canvas. We knew we would need to experiment, explore and discover – much like a traditional lab. But we also imagined that, as we matured, we would want to transition to a new name that encapsulated our focus and future.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor To bring Disney’s iconic mermaid princess Ariel to life in “The Little Mermaid,” costume designer Colleen Atwood constructed a life-sized tail that went from star Halle Bailey’s chest all the way down past her legs. “We made it to scale and 3D silk-screened the tail and painted onto that so you could get the nuance of the colors,” Atwood says. “We used different layers of sheer material, which gave the tail and scales an iridescent effect.” Her biggest challenge was blending the tail’s scales into Bailey’s skin. “I solved that by putting little fins made of fabric so there was a delineation between where the fish ended and the skin began,” she says.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Broadway designer Dane Laffrey and director Michael Arden often dive into conversations about projects long before a show is greenlit. Says Laffrey, who is nominated for best scenic design for “A Christmas Carol,” “We are extensively consistent collaborators.” Having worked on shows including “Once on This Island” and the Broadway revival of “Parade” — about the lynching of Jewish American Leo Frank in 1915 — the two often discuss visual research and organizing space through “snatches of conversations.” For “Parade,” which earned Arden a Tony nod for best direction of a musical, the duo was looking at visual reference points and political rallies from the period. Says Laffrey, “We looked at grandstands or viewing stands, and things that were constructed hastily. There were also contemporary reference points from Jan. 6, touch points that mean something to us because then they will mean something to an audience.”