Claire on Avatar costume team: “It’s a dream come true!”
Designer Claire Prebble. Photo: Neil Wilson.
Designer/artist/jeweller Claire Prebble has been busy.
In 2004, Claire became the youngest-ever winner of the Supreme Award in the World of Wearable Art show, and she says that her success became a stepping stone to other exciting career opportunities.
One such opportunity involved working on the costumes for James Cameron’s just-released 3D movie hit Avatar.
“I went to Weta Workshops in 2006 looking to work on another of their projects and [creative director] Richard Taylor told me about the Avatar project that they were just getting started on. I said ‘Wow, yes, that really suits my style’ and came home to Golden Bay, packed my bags and took off for Wellington. It was pretty much a dream come true.”
Claire worked on the project at Weta Workshops, making parts of costumes in real life for digital artists to reproduce on screen.
“Avatar has a kind of tribal feel to it. We had to think about what kinds of materials the people would have access to. We used a lot of possum leather, beads, harakeke and raffia.”
Claire made half of a bone collar and part of the king’s cummerbund. The artists were able to render the whole object by digitally reproducing the parts.
“Making only part of a piece meant that we could put days and days into making it look great. Having the real thing, or part of it, gave the digital artists a clear picture how the costumes would move,” said Claire. Working on the Avatar project gave her the chance to collaborate with prominent costume designers John Harding and Deborah Scott, who is based in Los Angeles.
“Deborah won an Oscar for her costume design on Titanic,” said Claire. “And she worked on Transformers and Get Smart and a huge list of other movies. She sent me illustrations and photos by email and I worked on her ideas. Sometimes she had very clear instructions but other times we would bounce ideas and she would give me free rein. It was amazing. There was another team working in LA as well and I got the chance to go there a couple of times.”
Claire said that movie work in Los Angeles was “amazingly focussed”.
“You go home when your supervisor says so,” said Claire. “I worked 74 hours in one week but mostly I averaged about 50 hours. Deborah made sure I had one day off a week so that I could rest and see some of the sights.”
Claire says that her work on Avatar seems likely to be another stepping stone in her career.
“I’d truly love to live somewhere like LA and work in costume design for film, music videos and live performance, but I have another film project here later this year. I haven’t been told that I’m allowed to say what it is yet, so I won’t.”
All the successes Claire, who is just 24, has achieved in her career so far are creating opportunities for future development.
“Opportunities are what you make of them,” she said. “You can’t just stop when you succeed at something. Winning WoW and getting this work on Avatar have opened doors for me. It’s up to me to make the most of my chances.”
Claire is home until the end of February and she says she is open to work of all kinds. “I’d like to run workshops, maybe making copper masks with adults or making model creatures with kids. I’m also going to update my website where I display my jewellery – it’s in MONZA too. Contact me on <claireprebble@gmail.com>.
Neil Wilson
