La Planchada.
This Summer, Rule Design & Development had the haunting pleasure of working on a costume for the Proof of Concept Short-film La Planchada.
Our Creative Director Corinne and the film’s Director and Writer Michael Snyder worked together to bring to life the costume for the titular movie monster, La Planchada.
Special FX Make-Up Artist Brittany Fontane and La Planchada (Kerstin Porter). Photo by Zach Harrison.
¿Qué es La Planchada?
“La Planchada is a well-known ghost-legend first recorded in Mexico, before making its way through the southwestern portion of the United States.
There are various tellings of the story, all of them revolve around a woman scorned, a nurse who was the patron saint of the hospital where she worked.
Patients often remarked on how her uniform was always pressed and how she seemed to wield otherworldly powers of healing. After witnessing horrific torture being carried out by the doctors and staff, who she long trusted, she was murdered and left for dead in the desert.
The story says that she can still be seen haunting the hospital grounds, now using her powers to both give life back to those in need...and to take life away.”
La Planchada is not yet a feature film, but a proof of concept short film. Michael K. Snyder wrote and directed the feature alongside Cobey Cobb as Producer and Editor. With inspiration drawn from horror legends Michael Mann and John Carpenter, it has been described as a piece that has both frightened and intrigued its audiences.
In Los Angeles, there is certainly no shortage of costume pieces available on the rack, but for Michael it was a priority that the dress be authentic and true to his vision. He wanted something period appropriate and distressed to suit the narrative of La Planchada herself, which is why he chose to work with our team of creatives here at Rule DD.
Their vision for this creature feature was honed with an incredible attention to detail. This custom design project was a stand alone creative collaboration. Rule DD was able to bring something from imagination to reality with our design and development services.
Actor Joey Stotts and La Planchada. Photo by Zach Harrison.
A Dress to Dye For
La Planchada’s stitches and seams designed by Corinne, and went from sketch to sample in just 2 weeks! Rule DD was contacted about the project over the 4th of July weekend. Due to the fast production timeline, Corinne started research and sketching on Tuesday, with Abby starting the pattern next day Following an expedited version of our full-service process, Corinne completed sourcing on Thursday, and the sample was started before the end of week!
Finding the right materials for a project is one of our passions, and it's important for us to get it right every time. For this project, we found an ivory polyester plain-weave fabric. This was period-specific to the late 1970’s, and was appropriate for a nursing uniform of that time. Even the smallest details were curated with intention, as we used a mix of marbled ivory and white buttons to aid in the effect of aging the garment and give it a faded and weathered look.
Distress Tests & Dye Work
The dress was distressed using tea, coffee, grease, and cocoa powder over several days to make it appear like it had been lying in the desert for over 30 years.
The second week of work was experimental and fun, with lots of distress tests and dyeing to learn what would work best for the perfect level of decay, before altering the garment itself. The costume was picked-up the following Friday, and used the next day on set in Palm Springs.
The La Planchada costume, before dyeing and distressing.
“If we had more time, there were things I would have done differently. But it was super satisfying for the team to come together and turn this piece around in less than 2 weeks. It took concentration and commitment from all those involved, including the talent who quickly produced her accurate measurements to help ensure the fit.”
- Corinne’s closing thoughts on the design
An original concept sketch of the La Planchada costume.