Our Epic Visit With The Costume Department For Marvel’s Ant-Man!

Costume Designers Sammy Sheldon and Ivo Coveney

Hey All!

My epic week of sharing my experience on the set of Marvel’s Ant-Man concludes with an epic visit to the costume department to chat with the legendary Costumer Designer Sammy Sheldon and Props Maker Ivo Coveney! In case you’ve never heard of these two, you’ve see their work in a number of legendary films. Sammy Sheldon was the Costume Designer on everything from Kick-Ass, to Kinky Boots, to X-Men: First Class and V for Vendetta. They’ve worked as a team on a number of films to be exact. Sammy usually brings Ivo in when she’s working on an action packed movie. Ivo has worked as the specialty props maker andĀ head specialty costume creator on everything from Star Wars Episode 1, 2, and 3 to X-Men: First Class, to Kick-Ass, and Prometheus! I almost died being close to someone who has worked on Star Wars movies. Sammy designs the costumes and Ivo essentially makes the weapons and specialty props that go along with the costumes. These two have helped bring some of the most amazing costumes ever made to the big screen. You can only image what they have done for Ant-Man!

We were lucky enough to see some of the work first hand and it was spectacular. It’s every geeks dream to see the actual superhero props from the film. They put these things in museums and on display for a reason. Us geeks like to bask in the glory of seeing these costumes and props in real life. They took it a bit further by being kind enough to let us actually touch the props and costumes. Yes this is me below actually touching Ant-Man’s helmets!

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I was surrounded by a plethora of awesomeness on that table as you can see below. Each one served a different purpose and was used for different scenes in the film. We had to learn more about each item and Ivo was more than happy to share.

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IVO:

“You see each one is made out of a different material. They all have to look the same, but they are all made of different materials. Some are made out of a softer material in case they are having a scene and he has to fall. This one is a stunt one (he holds up one of the helmets) and it has more cushion to it. We don’t want him to get hurt when he’s wearing the costume. So we make some helmets and props out of this softer material. The others are made out of a harder material and look much better.”

SAMMY:

“Yes we call them hero pieces when they are harder.”

IVO:

“Yes the hero pieces are the pieces they are going to do close ups on with your lead actors. And they are the main pieces your lead actor wears when he’s going to look his best as the superhero on camera.”

 

It was epic to see how these two work together. Keep in mind folks that they have been working on this film for some time. They were even on this film when Edgar Wright was the Director. They are the ones who created the costume for that epic hallway/elevator teaser test footage they showed way back when before the film began even shooting!

We got to chatting with them and learned many amazing facts about the Ant-Man costume. For example there is one main design for the Ant-Man suit but there were variations of the suit made according to Sammy. Both Sammy and Ivo went on to explain it further.

SAMMY:

“There’s one main suit and design, but there are 13 suits and they are all different, not by the way they look, but the technical making of them in order for them to be stunt suits and some are made to be beauty (hero) suits.”

IVO:

“There are 13 suits, 17 helmets and we started out making 8 belts and it then turned into we’ve now made 15 with the demand of the stunts, no it’s now 17 belts alone for this film.”

SAMMY:

“With things like the belts, let’s say they want to do a certain move such as a wire move for a stunt, like they want to drag someone in the suit on a wire. They want to drag him with the wire on his back, we’ll make a belt with no back to it so the wire doesn’t rip off him. It makes it easier for the movement of the stunt and you can’t see it when they are filming. We make elements of the costume to help with movement of some of the stunt moves.”

Stunt belts are essentially 1 piece and are made specific for each kind of particular stunt in a scene. The “hero” belt has over 50 pieces to it so it looks more realistic on camera.

To make each costume they start out with a concept design and then work out what they decide to do for the actual film. They then make a sampleĀ  of for example the helmet and they they hone it down to what will become the final helmet used in the film. They then will get it fitted to the actor. They decide on the amount of costume and props they will need when they look at the script and realize how much the actor will need and how much his stunt doubles will need. For Ant-Man they had to create costumes for Paul and his two stunt doubles. To get it all done and made the same way they did use a 3D printer to help them.

Everything is thought up by this amazing team, the writers, and the Director. And this duo and their team custom make everything themselves. It’s beyond impressive! It took 7 months of prep to create the costumes for Ant-Man. It’s not something that anyone can do over night. These people worked long and hard and it shows!

They also gave us the spectacular first had experience of what it’s like to put on one of the hero Ant-Man helmets. You actually have to be screwed into it. Yes there are screws on the side and you need a little screw driver to screw the helmet chin piece (which detaches on one side) to the top piece of the helmet. Both pieces create the helmet when they are fastened together. You can see Ivo screwing me into the helmet below.

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Paul Rudd was not kidding when he said you need your own pit crew to get in the Ant-Man suit. I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t probably the most geektastic moment of my nerd life to put that helmet on. It really was! I was like the 7th person in the world to put on that helmet. I kid you not only Paul, his two stunt doubles, us 13 bloggers, a Disney PR rep, and I believe the one child who visited the set are the only people to have ever been allowed to wear this helmet! No other press was allowed to do this! Bloggers are special folks! And before we had gotten to the set literally only 4 people in the world had put this helmet on.

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I felt very special and like the luckiest nerd girl in the world. I of course had to pretend I was pressing a button to shrink down in my Ant-Man suit as I wore the helmet. It seriously was the best time ever and truly a once and a lifetime experience!

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You can see a few of the body costumes hanging below to the right in our group photo. You can’t tell from the picture, but the red shoulder & chest materials on the Ant-Man suit were designed and patterned after the look of insect eyes. How cool is that?! You can totally tell when you see it close up! I’m sure you’ll be able to tell when you see the film.

Group costumes

I could go on and on about this epic adventure to the costume department, but I’ll leave it at that!

I hope you enjoyed all our Ant-Man Interviews and experiences from the set of the film this week. If you haven’t checked out our week long posts featuring the cast and Director of Ant-Man you can find them HERE!

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I seriously can’t wait to see all these costumes in action when I see the film! So much went into making them. I know when I see the film, I’ll also remember that I wore that helmet as I watch and how many other people in the theater with me can say that? Probably none! Woot!

ANT-MAN opens in theaters everywhere on July 17th! Counting the days!

For more info on Ant-Man:

Like ANT-MAN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antman

Follow ANT-MAN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/antman

And Visit the official ANT-MAN site: http://marvel.com/antman

 

 

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