Posted
Photo:
Wollongong’s Alarna Hope was in charge of recreating this Night King from Game of Thrones for publicity events. (Supplied: Pedestrian TV)
A Wollongong fashion stylist, hired by US television giant HBO, has recreated the famous Night King villain from Game of Thrones for a variety of official publicity events.
The slogan for the show is ‘winter is coming’, but it came at the start of spring for Wollongong fashion stylist Alarna Hope.
She was contacted by the creators of one of the world’s biggest television shows with an unusual request.
The job? To create an identical real life Night King — the number one villain in HBO’s all conquering series Game of Thrones.
“The opportunity was an odd one because I don’t get these types of calls every day,” Ms Hope said.
“I get the odd costume request from a die-hard fan who needs a lot of detail in their outfit, but not an exact replica of something.”
In fact, she originally thought the voice on the phone was just an enthusiastic Game of Thrones fan, not someone hired by HBO to look after a series of official publicity events in Sydney.
“Not being a Game of Thrones fan myself, when he said ‘Night King; I said, ‘Oh, okay’ and had a quick Google,” she said.
“They wanted me to manage the project of making sure the guy — from head to toe — would look like the Night King.”
She said not being a Game of Thrones fan meant she was able to approach the request like any job.
“I called mum and asked her if she’s heard of a White Walker [the name given to the army led by the Night King],” she said.
“I was nervous, but I’ve always had the attitude that you say yes and then work it out [and] you often end up learning new things and doing a decent job.”
Recreating one of TV’s great villains
Ms Hope was required to coordinate everything, from the hiring of the actor, to the creation of the costume and the application of the makeup required.
After finding a suitable actor, she enlisted the help of Sydney costume prosthetic maker Herbert Peppard, who specialises in creating chest armoury from foam.
“He did chest mouldings for the movie Thor, and he came through in a few days to get the majority of it together,” Ms Hope said.
“Then there were minor sourcing things like making sure the mask arrived from the US on time and fit the actor’s face properly.”
She said part of putting together any replica outfit was knowing what the actor would be required to do for the day.
“With this particular one, it had to look good on camera, so we had to make sure it was as close to the actual costume as we could get,” she said.
After initially planning to recreate the Night King’s face with special effects makeup, she sourced a mask from a company overseas, which she said aligned well with the actor’s face shape.
How costume designers trick you
Working in the film industry taught Ms Hope that what you see on screen can be cleverly deceptive.
Most of the costumes are fashioned out of lightweight material and painted for effect.
“Armoury can’t be proper armoury — it’s often knitwear sprayed with metallic paint,” she said.
“Chest pieces are often made of foam and things that look like leather are often sprayed wool and cotton blends.
“The people are often using things you’d pick up from Bunnings or Lincraft.”
Ms Hope said being a stylist on a major film involved making sure costumes were safe for the actors to wear, that the costume department stayed on budget and that there were enough outfits to cope with stunts.
“If someone’s about to get stabbed and there will be blood over their shirt and we’re doing five to 10 takes, we need five to 10 pieces of clothing,” she said.
“We can’t have people getting stabbed and already having blood on their shirt.
“You have to make it work, especially when it’s HBO. You don’t want to mess that up.”
Topics:
work,
