17:17 PST 28/8/2021
by
Emily Hilton
Veteran costume designer Brenda Abbandandolo reflects on communication and non-verbal storytelling after her experience with director Sian Heder’s ‘CODA, Child of Deaf Adults’.
“This is America,” says costume designer Brenda Abbandandolo of her most recent project CODA, Child of Deaf Adults, which premieres January 28 at Sundance. The film contains a largely deaf cast and tells the story of Ruby, the only hearing member of her family, torn between her dream and her family’s business. ‘This is an American family; they are no different from any other. ”
Abbandandolo first worked with CODE writer and director, Sian Heder, on Heder’s debut, Tallulah, in 2015 and has continued to work with the helmet ever since.
‘I love Sian, so it was not a difficult decision to think I was going to work with her [CODA], ”Remember Abbandandolo. ‘When I read the screenplay, it was such a different text, and especially in today’s climate, that includes films that are more inclusive about different kinds of families in America … I was so honored to work with someone which made a film about it another topic. ‘
The project was Abbandandolo’s first time working with hearing – impaired actors, as well as her first time with interpreters. ‘These actors were amazing,’ she says, ‘and I actually started picking up a little sign language. I wish I could draw a little more, but they were so happy to be there, and they were so open to working with me, and they were so generous to share their experience … and the interpreters just become such a large part of the crew, perhaps the most important part of the crew. They have become your channel for communication until we learn how to read each other. ”
The NYU Tisch graduate began her career helping costume designers for the stage in New York before making the leap to film. Her credits include the Oscar nominee The disaster artist and An American pickle, with Seth Rogen in the lead role.
“We wanted this film to feel really real,” says Abbandandolo about her and Heder’s stylistic choices. ‘[The process] was so cooperative. Once one sense is over, all the senses are raised so that it played like some of the tones we use … I have discovered that bright colors can sometimes be exhausting for the deaf people because the sense is increased, so we worked with colors that felt emotionally right, practical for the film, but also right for the deaf community and right for the actors. ”
Another consideration is the movement needed to sign, and Abbandandolo had to ‘make sure’ [actors] comfortable and the clothes did not obstruct their arms so that they could draw throughout the film. I felt like we were really learning from communication, learning from each other, and I really helped them communicate the story visually. ”
Clothing is one of the many ways people communicate non-verbally, Abbandandolo adds. “This is the way we present ourselves,” she says. “Color has volume, it has a pitch. We all wanted [the costumes] to be really realistic and you have to deal with the environment and their work and their socio-economic class so that everything works in. There are moments when Ruby gets her moment and you want her to be harder so the color of her clothes can get a little brighter. Or there are moments when she’s in her work environment, she’s a little distant from the rest of the world, so she’s getting a little quieter, her colors a little quieter, and everything’s a little muted. ‘
Communication, and its many layers, is a central theme of the film and one of Abbandandolo’s biggest takeaways from her experience working on the project. ‘There are so many elements of this film,’ she says, ‘from the way music communicates to us to the way movement communicates. There are different kinds of language, there are different kinds of color, there are different kinds of visual language, there is the language of music, there is the artistic language, there is verbal language. Our world is so low and so dimensional, and that’s so clear in this movie. This is what life is like. ”