REMEMBER - A Look at Costumes!

Welcome back to the REMEMBER newsletter! We hope everyone had an amazing summer. Now that we’re heading back to work, let’s take a moment to check out all the Fall fashions.

For this newsletter, we wanted to get a little more specific about one of the more underappreciated parts of filmmaking:

To help us out, we talked with our costume designer Ray Fawley.

Ray has been part of the REMEMBER team since 2022, during our first round of filming. That project followed a group of young people trapped together in closed quarters, so each character had to have a recognizable style to help establish their personalities.

Our upcoming film offers a more difficult costuming challenge, as it expands the scope to characters of different ages and backgrounds. Plus, with the added mystery elements to the story, we can use costuming to offer subtle hints about who you can and can’t trust.

Ray started his design career with handbags, which supplied him with the fabric and materials he needed to experiment with art projects and eventually fashion shows. He often makes “wearable art,” creating new designs with unconventional material. (He won his first fashion show with a dress made out of condoms, for example.)

Outside of REMEMBER, Ray isn’t a stranger to horror. He’s created some nightmarish designs for spooky live events, including the headless horseman above.

For Ray, the top challenge for costume design is wearability. Does it fit? Can the actors move around in it without any buttons or fake body parts falling off? With those concerns always in the front of mind, the next challenge is to decide how each outfit can benefit the story and characters.

“I read the script and try to get a sense of who each person is. I create an identity for the character and then figure out what this person would wear.”

He’s quick to point out, though, that there are plenty of other concerns to factor in, most specifically budget. The costume department works within its limitations as one part of the entire filming project.

Horror films have their own specific challenges when it comes to costuming. If an actor gets wounded or covered in blood, for example, the set needs to have multiple versions of the same outfit. And for a low-budget film like ours, that can get tough.

“Sometimes you get lucky,” he said. “When I was working with this team in 2022, I found two identical shirts at two different stores. When something like that happens, you find a way to use it.”

Wearability is particularly important in horror. It’s a challenge to find garments that fit each actor properly, especially during the more action-heavy scenes. You can’t run for your life if your clothes don’t fit right.

So far, REMEMBER hasn’t made any decisions on costumes yet, but when that part of the process comes, we might give you some sneak peeks.

Now that we’ve gone into costume design, what other areas of filmmaking do you think our newsletter should spotlight next? Let us know!

As always, thanks for reading. If you’re just joining us, you can learn more about our film here. And if you know anyone else who might be interested in our newsletter, please spread the word!