Costuming the Band

The Job

My palms were sweating, I was so nervous! I had been to many interviews before but this was my first real job since graduating college. Plus this was my first time working on a music video and I know the work schedule is completely different then theatre or movies. 

I sat in front of my computer watching the minutes tick by on the tiny clock in the corner of my screen. They liked my resume enough to schedule the zoom interview so I should calm down but who knows how many others they did they same thing with. The worst part about music videos is the secrets. Clearly whoever this video is for is a big deal because the bigger the artist the less info is given to us about the project. In college one of my professors had worked with Taylor Swift and he always talked about how he was never allowed to hear the song he was designing for so he just worked off of the lyrics. He also mentioned how music videos filming was always so cramped into a short amount of time. Great now I got myself worried more, am I ready for this kind of responsibility? 

Ok I have five minutes. I quickly check to make sure my blouse looks good on the laptop camera and my background looks professional before I click on the zoom link. 

Host will start the meeting soon popped up on the screen. God I hated that message. Before I knew it the loading circle took over my screen and a beautiful young women with wavy hair showed up on my desktop. 

"Hello Molly, how are you today? I am Mackenzi and I am just gonna ask you a few questions today. Honestly we are in love with your resume so this is going to be super laid back."

"Sounds great, fire away" I say as I have a sudden surge of confidence. We spent the next 30 minutes taking about my past work, they loved my theatre work that was in my portfolio and even mentioned a few of my personal design lines. I was glad I kept those in as I almost took them out afraid no one would care about vintage western wear. My old professor also deserves a card because Kenzi brought up how impressive my concept designs I had done in college were for theoretical music videos. I was so lucky he made us do those projects. 

"Do you have any major concerns about the project before we move on" Kenzi asked as as he pulled out a new stack of papers.

I guess I should be open and speak my mind. "This would be my first professional music video I ever helped costumed so that is intimidating but I am always grateful for an opportunity to grow my skill sets." Was that too honest? 

"I know they can be so stressful sometimes with the deadlines, I have heard horror stories. Luckily you would be working right along side me as a co-designer and I know the boys pretty well." She giggled after the said the last part. Boys? I was very curious who she could be talking about. "And the boys like to give their thoughts as well so they give us time to juggle their requests. This will not be a Beyonce situation but whatever she does for her must work because wow she turns it out." These boys sound like kind of a handful but something about Kenzi is so comforting and makes me feel like they are not the diva type of handful. "I feel that you are a great fit for what we are looking for, I would love to send a contract and basic info your way. Of course once all that paper work is done then we can move on the fun and exciting parts."

"Sounds great can I have 24 hours to look over that contract once I receive it?" Contracts were always the thing that made me feel weird. On one hand I was proud of what I have done but also I struggle to put a value to my skills. This must be apart of the Imposter Syndrome people talk about all the time. 

"Of course 24 hours sounds great and feel free to reach out with any more questions. I will double check with you that you are traveling from Georgia for this job correct. Just want to make sure to calculate the travel expense from there to Tennessee correctly so I can include it in your boarding pay for the contract."

"Yes that is correct."

"Great I look forward to hearing from you."

"You as well and thank you for this opportunity." And with that the meeting ended. My palms were no longer sweating but clammy. A ding rang from my computer as a red dot appeared in my email inbox. 

The contract was pretty basic and paid me more than I had made in the past for my theatre productions. To my surprise the rough production schedule was pretty spread out but this seemed to be because they were still very early in the planning process. This was something I loved to see as designer. The song was just described as high energy and rock revival. A Dirty Honey type beat? I totally fuck with that! It was at this point I learned the band was called Greta Van Fleet. As any good designer does I googled them right away and was digging the vibes. Their name sounded familiar but it was probably just because I heard their name somewhere like twitter before. 

Everything looked great so after a little back and forth for housing during my time on the shoot, I signed my name on the bottom line of the contract.

See you in three days, let the fun begin! was the last email I got from Kenzi before I realized I had to pack. The next month of my life was going to be happening before I new it.