CHAINED FOR LIFE 2018
Director: Aaron Schimberg
Co-Costume Designers: Stacey Berman and Karen Boyer
CHAINED FOR LIFE is a feature-length narrative movie shot on super-16 film. The story cocoons one plot and timeline within another: it is about a present day (2017) film crew shooting a post-War hospital drama (1940s). The two plotlines intentionally blur.
The conceptual challenge of CHAINED FOR LIFE was visually blurring 2017 with the 1940s. I proposed to the director that we capitalize on the stylistic similiarties between the 1970s and the 1930s/1940s. What if the we could also riff on the trendiness of the 1970s in 2017? This was an opportunity for me to explore my favorite time period: one-era-doing-another-era, oftentimes poorly.
Because CHAINED FOR LIFE is about filmmaking, we looked at films as research, in addition to primary source references. It was an effort to isolate the choices made when presenting a character versus a person. Our research spanned: films of the 1970s set in the 1940s, 2017 trends that overlap with the ‘70s, films about making films, and character references related to the principal and supporting players (including: hospital uniforms, Hollywood paparazzi pictures of starlets, erratic directors, and people who identify themselves as “circus freaks”).
To realize the design on an abbreviated budget, we designed and built hospital gowns from cheap cotton which we then overdyed. We identified that contemporary surgical scrubs, when worn backwards, evoke those of the 1940s. To further underline the blurring of decades and confuse the timeline, each character wore only one costume throughout the film, despite a narrative that unfolded over multiple days. Establishing each character in one outfit removed an understood signifier of the progression of time.
Additional collaborations between Stacey and Aaron Schimberg include GO DOWN DEATH (Grand Motel Films, 2012) and the upcoming A DIFFERENT MAN (Killer Films/A24).
Film stills: Adam Minnick/Grand Motel Films
Production stills: Carly Zavala
