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stagefoureddiediaz · 2 years

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Kym!! Okay first off, that post is freaking amazing! I'm astounded by your insight and how in depth you went with it and you are truly a gift for it! I can't believe we got all of that. You are phenomenal. Secondly, that picture of Oliver was hilarious, I laughed so hard at it.

Question! You touched on it briefly about how the colour/costume theory that comes into play are talked about in concept and production meetings but I'm curious (if you know) how much of this comes from the writers/directors and what is just decided by the stylists. Take the plaid for example - is that something specifically that the writers/directors would say they want to incorporate as foreshadowing and that they want the actors in it? Or is it much more vague and then the costume department take it and run with it?

Same with like the universe or dinosaur theme. Does something like that come directly from the writers/directors in particular? Or is it more like - give Chris a kids theme and reoccur it constantly through the season? Same with colours - would the costume dept be getting notes that specify 'x' actor is feeling 'y' in this episode or do they simply take that away from the script themselves and colour coordinate accordingly.

I guess I'm just really curious how much of it is specifically discussed and pushed down from writers/directors and how much of it comes from the costume departments analysis themselves.

Sorry for the long ask, if you can't tell I find this so fascinating and have so many questions on the whole process. As always I absolutely love reading anything you have to say, its always so interesting! 🧡🧡

Aww stop it, you're making me blush

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But seriously, I'm so pleased you enjoyed reading it and found it useful and that my silly picture of Oliver made you laugh - once i'd typed the words I couldn't get the image out of my head, so I needed to make sure everyone else saw it too😂😂

I had so much fun writing that post - it was nice to step back into that world for a little bit and put my knowledge to good use!

With regards to the second part of your post, it really depends is the answer!!! Not helpful I know, but its the truth because it varies from production to production. Sometimes you'll get producers and writers with very specific ideas about how they want to tell a story, and the characters they've created, other times they'll be pretty loose and let you come up with stuff - they might then veto it because they feel it doesn't work for the character or for the sake of the narrative, but often its because they know their creation better than anyone at the point when these concept and production meetings are taking place but may not be able to articulate it - they just know its wrong for whatever reason - perhaps I as designer haven't understood where they're trying to get to, or perhaps I have but they've been toying with changes they want to make to flesh something out further. It's no different to me as a designer wanting to put a character into a specific colour or outfit purely based on a feeling thats hard to explain exactly why it's speaking to you, but you just know that it tells the story and really sells the character.

Using specific 911 examples; the decision to put Eddie in lots of khaki/ green and tan colours will have come about in one of these production meetings - the writers and producers would possibly have come up with the use of those colours, while I as a costume designer would also have been thinking about the quick and easy character establishing and storytelling of these colours especially because of eddies introduction to the audience ('he's served multiple tours in Afghanistan') so even though the producers may not have said it outright in one of these meetings (they may have only given notes on Eddie as a new character at this point- which would've read something along the lines of;

'Eddie is the new probationary firefighter, introduced to the 118 but Bobby, he's an ex military combat medic, who received a silver star. He has a disabled son - Christopher - who is the most important thing in his world (if the roles had already been cast by this point, they may have specified that Christopher has CP). Eddie is a single father who has moved to LA from El Paso to make a fresh start for himself and his son. He will initially come into conflict with Buck, who feels threatened by Eddies competency...'

As a designer, just that one paragraph of description is enough to give me plenty of ideas - I can pull from it that he's ex military - which makes me think about colour and the way he wears his clothes - he'll always look neat and presentable with clean and shiny shoes etc, his son is the most important thing, - this automatically makes me think about his clothes being functional and not necessarily super fashionable - its all about practicality, not looking good. We also know he's come from El Paso - so we can play on the Texas connection - give him a subtle country/ cowboy vibe through plaid and check patterns. putting him in jeans and giving him boots that hint towards cowboy boots (without actually being cowboy boots!), especially in the beginning - as he settles into LA life, then the cowboy vibe can be toned down as can the military colouring - both things we've seen happen - his colour palette has shifted subtly away from being quite so green and beige and we've seen more block colours, dark blues and reds and creams as well as saying goodbye to the plaid shirts (the last time he was in a plaid shirt was in S3E12 according to my spreadsheet!). So you can see how much you can pull out of a couple of sentences of character description to use as a starting point for Eddies wardrobe, obviously this will then be agreed on and honed in production meetings - the writers may go away and choose to pinpoint specific scenes where they'd like to see him in something specific - such as the red and black shirt he wears when Buck introduces him to Carla - did you know this is a specific type of plaid known as buffalo plaid, it was created in the 1850's by a company called Woolrich woollen mills - based in Pennsylvania and it became synonymous with Americana workwear for cowboys and lumberjacks from then on - a perfect symbol for Eddie at that point - he is Americana - ex military with roots in cowboy country!

When it comes to themes like the plaid theme I've picked up on, thats likely to have come from the costume department and may not have even been intended to start with - having spent far too much time playing spot the plaid shirt during my rewatches (and another shirt theory I have which I promise will be posted in the new year!) I think it was an accident that they've decided to run with once they realised they were doing it - its something that happens more than you'd think!

the dinosaurs and space theming will definitely have come about through collaboration - I think its most likely that the producers and writers went in to the concept meetings and production meetings wanting some sort of theming - initially around the return of Shannon (because I'm pretty sure thats when the first dinosaur appears!) but the decisions to use dinosaurs and space themes would've been developed in those meetings - a fully collaborative process between them and the set and costume designers- they probably tossed loads and loads of ideas around before settling on dinosaurs and space, we see a dinosaur drawing appear in Christophers room when Shannon is introduced in 2x07, but there is also a rocket clock on the wall of Christophers room and its only as seasons 2, 3 and 4 progress that those eagle eyed among us would be able to spot the connection between Shannon (and later Ana) and dinosaurs and the connection between Buck and space and I will say that if we see the space stuff reappearing in 5b then I will bow down to the genius of the set and costume teams (not that I wasn't already!) because means only one thing - that Buddie has been the intended endgame for longer than many think and they've been subtly telling us from the start because that rocket ship clock is like the literal embodiment of a count down to Buddie!!!!

Sorry got a bit sidetracked there!!!

But basically what all of i've talked about amounts to is that the conversations will be ongoing, especially around colour and what a character is thinking or feeling (because they change stuff right up to just before the episode airs!!) but the general arcs, themes and colour stories will have been decided in pre production!

Wow this ended up so long!! Hopefully this has answered your questions, but feel free to ask me more - I always love getting your asks because they're so juicy!! 😁

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#kym answers things #costume questions #costume meta #long post #long answer #got a bit carried away!#911 on fox #911 fox #eddie diaz #911onfox #evan buckley #buck #buddie #eddie #911

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