However most of the sewing over the last few weeks was for a project that I wasn't allowed to mention publicly while I was doing it due to it being a secret.. Secret Cinema to be precise.
In brief Secret Cinema is a brilliant idea where you buy a ticket to see a film.. what film? Well you don't know that, it's a secret. Where.. don't know that either just which city, it's a secret you see!. They let you know the time and date they are nice like that :) Then over time they let slip little clues and send you information on how you should dress for it.. now I'm sure you are asking why would they care what you wear to watch a film? and indeed what has that got to do with me sewing for them ?
Well you see you aren't just going to watch a film, you are going to enter into it or at least a version of the film's world. Because when Secret Cinema put on a film they also immerse you in the feel of the film first with props and actors, sights and sounds so by the time you watch the film you are already very much in the world yourself. Follow the link below to see some videos which explain it far better than I can.
Link to Secret Cinema.
Mandala were asked to supply some of the outfits for the most recent showing. We supplied various things but the ones I was mostly involved in were a whole bunch of police outfits. As the showings have been and gone now I can tell you the film was Blade Runner. We did two versions the riot police in body armour and some beat cops in jackets and hats.
There are a bunch more photos of everything else Mandala supplied on facebook here.
I'm not sure which were harder to sew. The body armour was heavy work as you would expect but between Wookie and I we have access to some fairly meaty sewing machines. The jackets needed to be shiny pvc type fabric. Check the film out if you don't believe me and that in itself was hard going in a different way as neither of us much like pvc to work with but for me it was a good lesson in working in none natural fabrics as I don't have to often and I do like the fastenings !.
I think we did a fair impersonation of the film outfits give budget constraints. For instance we couldn't fully embroider the patches as it would be too material and time intensive so we used a few tricks and I think they work quite well. Wookie made the googles, badges, belts etc.
I can't wait to see what they do next to be honest !
