Mother of Lost Things (Conceptual Looks)

Next month I fly to Georgia to film my first short film, Mother of Lost Things.

Paul, the director, and I had our first conversation over the phone about this character. She’s going to be earthly, yet, not? If that makes any sense. The wardrobe thus far is looking like a rough spun tunic and some sort of tattered hood. We’d also like to sew coins and rings into her wardrobe to connotate “finding things”.

I’ve done a few trial runs on her look, and honestly, it’s been hard nailing how I want her to be. In a way, I feel a bit of pressure since she’s technically my character. I really want to delve into mother and become her. She’s a very stoic, strong…but hungry creature who needs food. The issue is which direction to go. Do I want to go with prosthetics or rigid collodion? Now, if you’re not familiar with rigid collodion, it’s a tool they use in SFX to pucker the fleshy parts of your skin. There’s arguments that using it can actually damage parts of your skin. I’m sure there’s truth to that, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done. (😅🥲).

Regardless, I ran two initial looks:

One with liquid latex/wax, oil-based paints.

One with only collodion and water-based paints.

Truthfully, I like the latter. The colors were more seamless, and I didn’t like the lighter tones for the first look.

In addition to her look, she will have Spanish moss, leaves, weeds, and soil on the hair. Which means, I pretty much gave Paul the green-light to roll me around in whatever dirt he can find. I’ll worry about the dirt later. I wanted to entertain the idea of using live maggots for some of the scenes, but we both agreed that we don’t want heat from activist groups looking to start drama. I’d rather have them attack me, but I don’t think the realism would be worth them attacking the project.

So, with all that being said, here’s some concept looks I’ve concocted so far! Lemme know what you think!