Jazz Emu "A La Mode" music video

I designed & made all the costumes for Jazz Emu's music video "A La Mode" (part of the "Ego Death" project). I had an £800 budget to create 6 full costumes with some additional pieces and props, following a brief of "Zoolander on shrooms".

I altered, painted and refashioned every item, mostly purchased from local charity shops & Vinted, none from fast fashion companies. Some items were scripted (cape made of cable ties, furry trousers, cheese shoes etc) and other aspects I had creative freedom to create. I particularly wanted to play with texture on screen to create a hectic world full of fashion being treated very earnestly, while the viewer can recognise everyday/childhood objects (toys, toilet brushes, swimming armbands etc)

Building ridiculousness

The 3 central characters costumes needed to build throughout the shoot so I designed & made elements that could be added for each characters look.

Shoes "they are incredibly long and curly"

as Al's character is tranformed into a fashionista the camera pans down to reveal "incredibly long and curly" shoes. I formed these out of charity shop bought loafers and added a cardboard & wire extension to the end of them to achieve their length and curl. I then coated the whole body in a textured velvet fabric and made a new sole for them which I stencilled as another place to reveal the name of the video in the visuals.

Cheese Shoes

The final visual gag of the story is these cheese shoes. I cut cheese slices out of EVA foam, glued them to shoes bought at a charity shop. I then used a heat gun so the sheets would curl and form irregularities to look like melted cheese. I made some samples before applying it to the shoes but was very happy with the final effect.

Ripped skin stunt

Archie and I spoke about a good body horror gag that would be effective but doable for Alex Horne's designer character to do. I used a sheet of tattoo practice skin and my own thigh to build up layers of liquid latex, eyeshadow and Ben Nye thick blood to make a sandwich to be ripped off. My thigh was dressed to stand in for Horne's leg.

Makeup

As we began talking about my costume designs it became clear that the visuals would be really enhanced with makeup. So I designed makeup looks for each character to make their costumes feel cohesive and add to the theatricality of the shoot.

"Suit made of 2 smaller suits"

Al's "suit made of 2 smaller suits" was a scripted costume piece in his characters costume progression. I bought two baby suits, discretely stitched magnets into the back of them, with corresponding ones in Al's suit jacket and used fishing wire to pull them off. This shot was then reversed in the final edit so they appear to fly onto his body.

Additional details

some materials include: childrens armour costume with Gothic text "A La Mode" handpainted on, necklace made of plastic chairs, heat gunned bubble wrap shoulder wrap, Cape (made from 2 skirts) covered in cable ties, Shoes with painted eyes on toes & "A La Mode" on sole, cabbage adorned with job-lot purchased pearls, rubber shark head "Versace" hat, Furry "Gucci" trousers (sewed from scratch & spray painted), Kilt with aby blanket with toy soldiers & chains glued on, toilet brushes & water gun beret.

Credits:

Cast: Al Roberts,Ellen Robertson, Phil Dunning, Alex Horne, Archie Henderson Crew: Archie Henderson (JazzEmu) - Writer, Composer, Sound Designer. Hunter Allen- Director, Editor, Alex Cartlidge - Producer, Hudson Hughes- Assistant Director, Paige Fisher - Camera and Lighting Assistant Ella Kean - Assistant Producer, Max Stevenson - Costume and Make-Up Designer, Spare Flesh- Stop Motion Director, Gareth Dutton- On Set Photographer

Full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKm77n0WcB4