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5:17 p.m. PST 01/28/2021
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Emily hilton
Veteran costume designer Brenda Abbandandolo reflects on communication and non-verbal storytelling after her experience working on “CODA, Child of Deaf Adults” by Sian Heder.
“This is America,” says costume designer Brenda Abbandandolo of her latest project CODA, child of deaf adults, which premieres at Sundance on January 28. The film stars a largely deaf cast and tells the story of Ruby, the only hearing member of her family, torn between her dream and her family’s affairs. “It’s an American family; they are no different from others. “
Abbandandolo first worked with CODA writer and director, Sian Heder, on Heder’s early days, Tallulah, in 2015 and has continued to collaborate with the pilot since.
“I love Sian so it wasn’t a hard decision to think I was going to work with her on [CODA]», Remembers Abbandandolo. “Then when I read the script, it was such a different script and especially in the current climate, making more inclusive films about different types of families in America… I was very honored to work with someone who was making a movie about it. a different subject. “
The project was Abbandandolo’s first time working with hard of hearing actors, as well as his first collaboration with performers. “These actors were amazing,” she says, “and I actually started to learn sign language a bit. I wish I could have signed a little more but they were so happy to be there and they were so open to working with me and they were so generous to share their experience … and the performers have become such a big part of the team, perhaps the most important part of the crew. They became your channel of communication until we learned to read each other. “
NYU graduate Tisch began her career assisting stage costume designers in New York City before moving on to the movies. His credits include the Oscar nominee The disaster artist and An American pickle, with Seth Rogen.
“We wanted this movie to be really authentic,” Abbandandolo says of Heder and her stylistic choices. “[The process] was so collaborative. Regardless of the sense, once one sense is gone, all the others are strengthened so that they play like some of the tones that we used … I have found that sometimes bright colors can be exhausting to the eyes of deaf people because that sense is heightened, so were working with colors that seemed right emotionally, practically for the film but also for the deaf community and good for the actors.
Another consideration is the movement required for signing, and Abbandandolo had to “make sure [actors] were comfortable and the clothes didn’t hinder their arms for them to sign throughout the movie. I felt that we were really learning communication, we were learning about each other, and I was really helping them communicate the story visually.
Clothing is one of the many ways humans communicate non-verbally, adds Abbandandolo. “It’s the way we present ourselves,” she said. “Color has volume, it has tone. We all wanted [the costumes] to be really realistic and you’re dealing with the environment and their work and their socio-economic class, so that all factors into it. There are times when Ruby has her moment and you want her to be stronger, so the color of her clothes might get a little brighter. Or there are times when she’s in her work environment, she’s a bit removed from the rest of the world, so she calms down a bit, her tones a bit calmer and everything is a bit muffled.
Communication, and its many layers, is a central theme of the film and one of Abbandandolo’s greatest lessons from his experience working on the project. “There are so many elements in this film,” she says, “from the way music communicates to us to the way movement communicates. There are different types of language, there are different types of colors, there are different types of visual language, there is musical language, there is artistic language, there is verbal language. Our world is so layered and so dimensional, and it’s so evident in this movie. This is what life looks like. “
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