'Fallout' Costume Designer Amy Westcott | Production Value
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FunTranscript
00:00Well, I've always been a big movie buff, so that was a thing I always loved.
00:10And I went to college for fashion design and started working on 7th Avenue straight out
00:18of college.
00:19And then I started working in the fashion industry, and a few years in, I realized that
00:24it was not for me.
00:26And I thought, oh my God, what am I going to do?
00:28I mean, from when I was 12, I sort of was very focused on the fashion industry.
00:35And that led me to, I worked on Copland, it was my very first movie.
00:40I was a PA in the wardrobe department, costume and wardrobe, and that was where it all started.
00:48I found it on a production, was looking for, you know, was coming to town, and I just cold
00:57called and went in.
01:00And the funniest thing about that interview was that I was wearing a suit, because that's
01:04what you do in the fashion industry.
01:05You know, you go in and you try to put on a big, big, you know, impression.
01:11And one of the producers saw me and said, hey, do you live far from here?
01:16Because you might want to dress down a little bit.
01:19And I thought, oh my God.
01:49And I'm obliged to intervene.
01:52Now if your instinct is to harm me, as a person simply trying to de-escalate a conflict, then
01:57I'll have to assume of the two of you, you are likely the primary aggressor.
02:01In which case, I think everyone in this town would agree, the force is justified.
02:08Unless you willingly stand down now.
02:13Fucking bald dwellers.
02:24Well, now that is a very small drop in a very, very large bucket of drugs.
02:32I was working on a commercial with a friend of mine who's a big gamer, and he told me
02:40that it was coming to town.
02:42So I thought, oh, okay.
02:43Because, you know, in New York, we don't usually get the huge things.
02:47We get big things.
02:49We have Gilbert H and some big things.
02:50But it was a stage show.
02:54A lot of it ended up being a lot on location, too.
02:57But he said, oh, this big show's coming.
03:02And I hear they're making it into a show.
03:05You know, it's really a cool game.
03:07So I started researching the game.
03:09And then, you know, my agent called and said, hey, these guys want to meet with you.
03:15And I thought, this is great.
03:16Like, it's all, you know, coming together.
03:18And the more that I researched the game, the more excited I got about the prospect of working
03:26in that world and doing something like this.
03:28I'd only worked on one other sci-fi before.
03:32So it was a really cool challenge.
03:35And I was up for the challenge of making it good enough for the fans, for the gamers,
03:44like people who really are into that.
03:46I thought, okay, I'm ready for that.
03:49And I met with Jonah and Geneva and Graham.
03:53And it was just my first meeting with them felt very much like I was already working
03:59on it.
04:00We were just spitballing ideas and coming up with some interesting ways of doing things.
04:07And they liked where, you know, what I was pitching to them.
04:09And it was sort of a really exciting first meeting.
04:15And that was it.
04:17Ball was rolled.
04:18Wise men never die.
04:25Well, you know, the first thing I had to sort of suss out was what material could make it
04:31look like the game.
04:32People, when they watch the game, they expect it to look exactly the same when it's in 3D,
04:39you know, on a person.
04:40But it's very hard to get that.
04:42And a lot of times, you know, you'll have like buckling or things like fabrics can be
04:48very unforgiving.
04:49It can stretch out and then stay stretched when you're dealing with certain things.
04:53And so I had worked on a sci-fi about 10 years ago called After Earth.
05:01And somebody introduced me to a fabric on that that was sort of revolutionary to me.
05:07I thought, like, this is the perfect fabric.
05:09It was a four-way stretch.
05:10It was, you know, forgiving.
05:12It looked like a woven fabric, which means it had the sort of qualities of, you know,
05:18not shiny and cheap looking.
05:20It was a beautiful fabric.
05:22And it's beautiful.
05:23And we never look back.
05:24It comes in white, you know, and you have to dye it, which was fine because we really
05:29had to match everything up to very specific colors.
05:33And, you know, from there, it was all, how do we get this fabric and various fabrics
05:42to give credit and an homage, really, to the real costume and make it look cool, you know,
05:50make it look, elevate the look of it.
05:53I think a lot of times people try to make what is in a game and what is 2D into something
06:03functional, and it ends up looking like costuming, you know, and we really fought against that.
06:11I mean, I tried everything from, you know, the pleated leather, which we ended up using,
06:16but I tried printing, 3D printing, printing, you know, where it looked like it was
06:24dimensional and using a lot of different applications to get to that place.
06:31So it was a ton of trial and error to get to that ball suit.
06:39Well, you know, we made a lot of things because it was basically, you know,
06:45I sort of think of it like Cuba, like, you know, how Cuba stopped getting things imported,
06:54you know, in the 50s, and then they took all their things and sort of Frankensteined them
07:01into things that worked. So in a way, I was trying to do that. The production stopped for
07:08for the people above ground after the bombs dropped. And that was our retro,
07:16you know, our sort of retro futuristic 50s. So that's when it production stopped. So really,
07:23it was about getting things to that place where they have lived for 200 years outside and what
07:31elements had an effect on them, you know, the sun, the sand, the wind, and the lack of cleaning
07:40and everything that had an effect on the fabric and on the garment. And so, you know, a lot of it
07:48we made, tons of it we made, and then tons of it, we found beautiful vintage pieces that we just had
07:56to destroy, which brings a tear to my eye. But, but it was worth it. You know, you really had,
08:02you had to take something amazing and then just take it down and, and, you know,
08:09pulverize it to the place where it was, where it looked 200 years old plus.
08:15For me, in my head, I couldn't really get to the ghoul until I understood Cooper,
08:20you know, who the guy was before he turned into the ghoul. And it was important to, to get that
08:27look down first. For a lot of reasons, not only did you get to know him as a human being, but also
08:34we ended up taking that costume and using it as the skeleton of his ghoul costume. So under his
08:44duster and vest and layers that he has acquired in the wasteland over the years,
08:50under that is his, his cowboy costume, so to speak. And, and that was, you can't really tell,
08:59there's a few tiny little things where he's like leaning forward and you can see a little bit of
09:03the blue, but, but it's very, very distressed and aged. So really, we had to start with Cooper. And
09:11so, and so you really have to, once you get to know the ghoul, you have to sort of see these
09:16elements of Cooper, you know, these, these elements of who this guy was. And Walton's such a
09:21ridiculously great actor that he, you can see it in his eyes. And really he could be, he could be
09:27wearing a bag and you, you would still understand that, that guy. And he just had, you know, he had
09:33to be a badass. He had to be cool as hell. And that again, is not difficult with Walton because
09:39he's super cool. But, but really it's, you know, he, he, he acquired that duster. So you see the
09:45bullet holes, you see where he had to shoot somebody to get it, you know, and his, his,
09:53his vest is the same way. These are acquired pieces, scavenged pieces because it's so much
10:01a part of the game. And that was important for us to follow the skeleton of the game.
10:07I mean, it was massive on every level. It was such a huge project that it was like, I mean, I,
10:15to, to give you an idea of, you know, I, I was so excited to get the job and I was like, this is
10:20great, got the job. And then I thought, Oh, like it became very, it was a huge undertaking. So
10:29reading the first, even the first script, it was, there was so much involved and so many different
10:36worlds to create that, that was, that was a challenge just to sort of pull myself out of
10:41one world and go into the next one and, and, you know, sort of pull my attention in very,
10:51very different directions a lot of the time. But I think that was also, while being a very huge
10:57challenge, it was one of the things that made this completely unique and such a, like an insanely
11:05creative project for me. Because it's very rare that you get to create different worlds within
11:13one show. You know, the biggest joy for me after this was that people loved it. And I would,
11:23it makes me super proud. And I, um, I got feedback from, from super fans that said,
11:32you know, Hey, you nailed it. You got it right. And, and that's, um, that's huge for me. I think
11:37that's huge for, for everybody who worked on it. We were, um, accepted and that's, that's massive.
11:43I've worked on things that, that were not, and, um, and there's nothing you can do about it. You
11:48know, you just hope for the best. And the fact that it was, um, well-received was, was just like
11:55really, um, a high point. I have a theory on working in this business. And, and that is that,
12:02um, that if you don't love what you're doing in this business, cause we work 12 hours a day on a,
12:10on a regular day, but on a hard day, it's more like 14 or 15. Um, and it is, it's a lot. And
12:18if you don't love coming to work and if, and if your work doesn't excite you,
12:24you got to keep walking because it's, it's, it's so much work that you have to be excited
12:31about it. And after 25 years of working in this business, I'm still super excited.