The latest entry in the Ender’s Game production blog is here and they’re talking about costume designer Christine Bieselin-Clark, who has done work on movies such as TRON: Legacy, Watchmen, and 300.
It’s obviously a tough and daunting job to create something that fans have been imagining in their heads for nearly 30 years.
Are the suits loose or tight fitting in your imagination? Are they completely colored in the army colors or are they a single color with the army colors on the fringes? Or do you not have much of an image of it in your mind, with more focus put on the look of the Battle Room itself?
In truth, the suits in the books aren’t described with very much detail other than being tight:
Worse, the suits were confining. It was harder to make precise movements, since the suits bent just a bit slower, resisted a bit more than any clothing they had ever worn before.
Ender gripped the handhold and flexed his knees. He noticed that along with the sluggishness, the suit had an amplifying effect on movement. It was hard to get them started, but the suit’s legs kept moving, and strongly, after his muscles had stopped. Give them a push this strong, and the suit pushes with twice the force.
Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game (pp. 55-56)
Ender does mention his new Salamander suit given to him on his birthday as feeling loose, but since they’d tailored that one for him, it was probably designed with growth in mind and the suits are probably tight fitting.
So how did Bieselin-Clark go about creating them?
With science fiction, there’s a danger in creating a look that seems so foreign it becomes alienating. For ENDER’S GAME, we wanted to make a future that looked both functional and logical. We wanted it to be a future where you can picture yourself in their shoes.
But of course, it is the future. For the uniforms, all synthetic materials were used, meaning no loud silk florals. And for the flash suits… well, we actually had to create them out of thin air.
Christine built the flash suits from virtually non-existent fabrics designed by our incredible production team. The idea was to take cues from “extreme sports” to inspire our design, using real world practicality as opposed to the heightened reality of superhero spandex and a cape.
And the best part? They look pretty darn cool.
The grid suits in TRON: Legacy looked pretty phenomenal, so if she brings that experience into the mix the suits will likely have a wonderfully modern and sleek look to them.
Similar to how actor Chris Hemsworth worked out a little too much and then didn’t fit his Thor costume, it must have been a nightmare to measure growing teenagers and then make suits from scratch while considering their growth during filming.
Speaking of big men, they also joke about the size of Nonso Anozie.
And then there’s having to make a uniform for Nonso Anozie, who plays Sergeant Dap.
Normally, a bolt comes with nine yards of material, and can make 2-3 suits. Or, in Nonso’s case, one suit became a living example of the expression “the whole nine yards”.
Amazing! It’d be awesome to see a side by side photo of Aramis and Nonso.
510 days left, folks. We’re still a really long ways away, but hopefully the next production entry comes soon! Executive Producer Mandy Safavi assured us on Twitter there are a couple more coming.
