We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Cogan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

This shocked me when I started working as a professional in film and tv: most film programs don’t teach filmmakers about design or how it tells a story, and the programs who do usually spend very little time on the subject. With little resources available out in the world to understand design or how the process works, filmmakers don’t know how 1/3 of their filmmaking process even works.

When I was starting, I joined a workshop of indie filmmakers. I had been advocating for why filmmakers need pitch decks when one of my friends admitted that he had never been able to work with a designer, nor did he know what the collaborative process should look like. Meanwhile, all my designer friends were feeling disrespected and unheard. This made me aware of a really big knowledge gap in the industry around design, particularly for the filmmakers themselves.

Film programs focus on five specific roles: screenwriter, director, cinematographer, producer and actor. They tend to leave out all the other departments that gather the elements that fill the frame such as costumes, production design, hair, and makeup. It still blows my mind that this information is missing out in the world until now. I’ve created online workshops to help fill in the gaps of information to help filmmakers understand what design does for their films.

Design sets the context for your film’s story through first impressions and transformation. Just as in life, when we watch a film or tv show, we are scanning the characters and the environments for clues into who the characters are, who’s friend verse foe, and is this space safe. All of these judgments are predominately made off non-verbal cues that set the relationships between characters to one another and the worlds they live in. Without understanding the context of a story, it’s hard to know where it’s going and what the meaning will ultimately be. Psychologically, this is why we listen to stories.

Let’s take this example: a man and a women meet at a bar and say there hellos. If it’s a swanky, chic Manhattan bar and they are both dressed for a night on the town, that feels very different from if they were to say the same salutations in a western saloon while our lady friend points a shotgun at the gent. Same words, different context.

Or, take an example of a lawyer walking into a client meeting stating “Sorry I’m late.” Lawyer 1 is dressed in a well fitted navy suit with a slight pinstripe. He wears a neatly folded red pocket square, classy cufflinks, and nicely polished shoes and a perfectly quaff haircut. Lawyer 2 does the same steps. He’s in a brown, ill fitted suit, with a yellow tie with a small stain on it. His shoes are scuffed and his hair is a bit unkept. They both walk in the exact same way, yet based on the context set by their design, our understanding of them as a character is completely shifted.

Those are some obvious examples of how design sets context. Understanding how this context is set through design makes for better crafted films. Filmmaker’s lack of design knowledge or the ability to find that information is what shocked me the most when I was starting out.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started designing in college at UC Santa Barbara after training as a performer for over a decade. I had lost my voice due to tonsil surgery and didn’t know what I was going to do. Tony Kushner visited my first quarter of Drama Studies and told all of us that if we wanted to be actors to go live life and come back to it later, all to the horror of my professor. I took his advice and spent a year trying to find something that I liked. When I was ready to quit college, my dad suggested I reach out the the costume design professor because I’d always loved making my own clothes and doing things backstage–plus, you’d have the skills to always keep you in the industry, even if you aren’t acting.

Little did I know that conversation would set me on my life’s path. I sat down with the costume design professor, Diane Holly, and the next thing I knew all my classes were booked for the fall and I was starting my emphasis in design. Within one quarter, I was hooked and spent the next three years obsessing over design, adding lighting and set design to my skills. Then, I attended UC San Diego as a double emphasis Costume and Lighting Designer under the tutelage of Judy Dolan. One of the best decisions of my life.

When I first moved to New York City after grad school, I would light concerts and plays as my “day” gig while designing larger costume projects at the same time. In 2014, I made the full-time move to film and tv and that’s all I’ve focused on ever since. I’ve been blessed with my career. My film 18 1/2 was eligible for the 2023 Oscars and the Korean co-production I designed, Abroad, is premiering at the BIFAN festival June 30th.

There are several things I’ve accomplished that I’m really proud of: I co-own a costume rental house in New York City called Grandma’s Closet. It’s been a dream of mine since moving to NYC to create a large industry resource which allows my business partner and me to support our fellow designer kin. Having a massive stock also helps with the wide range of projects I design to have a base to pull from. It’s pretty magical.

Along with being a highly skilled and experienced costume designer, I teach filmmakers through online workshops about film design and how they can utilize it as a storytelling tool. I have several evergreen workshops online and just finished the first draft of my book on film design which teaches filmmakers how to craft cinematic cohesion by aligning their scripts to their visuals. I love worldbuilding and teaching the process to filmmakers.

I don’t believe in the idea of innate genius. Everything is teachable given enough time and practice. If we slowdown to look at the thinking behind our choices, we can start to understand what lead the creative outcome. “Innate genius” is simply automatic thinking and mastery. When we spend enough time in curiosity and exploration, learning how things work, the choices quickly become second nature, the mark of mastery.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The big thing I wish I’d been taught early on is to not use my own credit cards to pay for show expenses. It sounds cray to most people outside of the industry, yet it’s common practice to a scary degree. What’s wild: you’re basically giving an unsecured loan to the show that you will ultimately pay the interest on. It’s a very dangerous financial place to be. When a show tells you they will reimburse you, decline and ask for a production card. It’s their company’s responsibility to pay for the financial needs of the show.

Also, this isn’t really something I wish I’d learned, but rather something I like to pass along to young designers and even any directors/producers/filmmakers reading this article. Here’s the thing about costumes, hair, and makeup that no one tells you: the work you do as a designer directly affects the way the actors are perceived by the media, audiences and future producers who might hire them. If I mess up, no one’s going to look at the film and say: “Sarah’s costumes are terrible.” They are going to say, “(Insert Actor’s Name) looks terrible!” Most people won’t even know my name, yet these people who wear my clothes are vulnerable to public assault if I’m not careful. Actors bare all the responsibility and blame when things go poorly, not the designers or filmmakers. The average person doesn’t really pay attention to who the directors or showrunners are. They only see the faces on screen and make judgements. So, when I’m designing, I will move mountains to make sure the actors feel good about how they look. When they feel good, that means they can focus on their job, which means all both win. And, no one’s talking ill of them in the interwebs.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It’s funny, thinking about this question, a few things come up for me. When it comes to goals, I’ve always wanted to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Peabody (or five). These desires have always caused me to strive to understand filmmaking and storytelling on the deepest of levels, reading and watching everything I can find on the subject while also leaning about the business. I’ve learned over the years that I’m really into business and entreprenuership.

This curiosity lead me to create a podcast about film design and the stories we tell called Designing the Void while also looking to address the questions about design my fellow filmmakers kept asking. I’m excited to share this all on a wider scope when I finish my book on film design and worldbuilding–just finished the first draft and excited to go back through to fine tone to book. I love working with filmmakers to help them craft thier creative vision and truly understand what’s possible. I’ve even put together a Budgeting for Your Creative Vision Workshop to help filmmakers understand the real costs behind design. We can’t wish things to cost less. They cost what they cost.

During the course of my career, I’ve also taken up design advocacy–enrolling filmmakers in the needs of designers. Most people don’t realized that designers don’t get royalties unless they are able to negotiate for them. Costume designers are particularly taken advantage of, making 66% of their production design counter point’s rate. Costume designers are essential for the look of a film. When people dress up for halloween or for a comicon, they recreate the character design through the hair and makeup, bringing shows free advertising and social proof to boost sales and brand interaction.

I was on a job once where I was told the show had no money, so I was only going to be able to make $350/day. During production, I found out the stunt coordinator was making $1800/day. That’s 4.5 times what I was making and I was staying up all night to make sure the cast’s costumes were perfect despite all the unexpected curveballs my team and I were thrown. Costumes are a big part of cast safety, providing the correct shoes, hiding stunt padding, and ensuring the cast is able to do the movement they need to do when actually doing the stunts.

So, my mission, to educate about design was born out of the different needs on both sides of the table. The filmmaker’s needs to understand design, how it works and how to budget for it and from the designer’s side on how to advocate for better pay, work environments and hours.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sarahcogan.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sarahcogandesigns
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdGUy4H2CqWvdkMhwqTRIww
• Other: tiktok.com/sarahcogandesigns

Image Credits
Photo by Lauren Sowa