Category: Film FX

Categories: All CoolShirt News, Film FX
Tailor-Made for Movies
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COOLSHIRT Customizes Systems for Film Productions

 

While films typically purchase COOLSHIRT products “off the rack”—helping keep actors safe and comfortable during shoots—other productions require custom designs. COOLSHIRT is one of the few companies that tailors garments and systems to meet this need.

Typically, actors keep COOLSHIRT garments beneath their costumes so that they won’t appear on camera. This isn’t always possible when costumes are snug, a non-standard size, or don’t fully cover the torso. This might include:

  • A film superhero in a form-fitting uniform.
  • A larger-than-life villain.
  • An actress wearing a costume with a scoop neckline.

COOLSHIRT has actually provided custom solutions to films with challenges very similar to these examples. It works with productions either to alter garments or to integrate active cooling elements into the costumes themselves.

Typically, the work begins when a costume supervisor gets in touch. COOLSHIRT’s reputation is well-known in the film industry, and so this contact often comes from a referral or from past experience with our products.

Next, COOLSHIRT:

  • Identifies the requirements of the garments. This might include a cooling shirt, pants, vest, hood, or other products.
  • Collects sizing information. Actors in blockbuster movies can have truly heroic proportions; COOLSHIRT has filled orders as large as a size 6XL, so knowing if the requirements are non-standard helps.
  • Determines if the project requires modifying the shape of the garment, adding custom cooling zones, or rearranging the placement of tubing.
  • Develops a schedule for production and delivery.

Custom garments work with any of COOLSHIRT’s active cooling engines, including its waist, backpack, and bag systems, and the company is always open to answering unique challenges with effective solutions.

Learn more about our cooling garments for film and other industries, or contact COOLSHIRT to explore customization.

Categories: All CoolShirt News, Film FX
Film Productions
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COOLSHIRT Outfits Crew Members to Prevent Costly Delays

Film productions frequently focus on the needs of the cast, particularly the headlining talent that draws the box office revenue. However, cost overruns during a shoot can substantially reduce earnings, particularly if there are additional takes, delays, or injuries on set. To keep productions moving and on budget, professional filmmakers and crew members invest in COOLSHIRT products.

Here’s an example: movies often make use of Steadicam® technology: lightweight mountings that keep cameras level during handheld or moving shots. Steadicam operators have to maneuver nimbly to keep the focus on the actors. Maintaining that agility isn’t easy shot after shot, and one ruined take could cost thousands.

The same risk applies to boom operators, who hold large microphones on poles as close to actors as possible without entering the camera’s frame. The work can be hot and sweaty, and with inhospitable conditions, there’s an opportunity for mistakes.

COOLSHIRT offers a comprehensive line of garments and systems to help keep crews focused and safe—particularly on shoots in extreme environments. Some of our most popular products are:

  • 2COOL Compression Water Shirt, a form-fitting and unobtrusive garment that circulates cooled liquid around the wearer.
  • MobileCool BP2, a lightweight, self-contained backpack that works with any of our garments.
  • MobileCool WP1, a waist pack cooling engine ideal for camera and boom operators, grips, and special effects technicians.

Customers have also requested tailor-made designs to meet their needs. COOLSHIRT has been able to incorporate our active cooling engines directly into film equipment in these cases, allowing crew members to keep their hands free, stay mobile, and prevent fatigue.

Whether you are running a production or you are a crew member looking for a more comfortable way to work, you can learn more about COOLSHIRT’s film products on our website.

Categories: All CoolShirt News, Film FX
Villains
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COOLSHIRT Provides “Creature” Comforts to Costumed Actors

From hundred-million dollar blockbusters to historical period pieces, COOLSHIRT is a regular supplier to the film industry. We offer particular value to productions in which actors:

  • Are dressed in multiple costume layers.
  • Work in hot conditions.
  • Are outfitted in heavy “creature suits” and prosthetics.

In most cases, actors wear our garments beneath other clothing. Key costumers, who often serve as the actors’ “handlers,” help them connect quickly to our portable cooling systems and then disconnect when the scene is ready to be shot. This saves actors time and keeps the production on schedule and on budget.

Here are some examples of our products at work in high-profile film productions…

Suicide Squad

In Suicide Squad, comic book supervillains accept a secret, high-risk mission—with explosive results. The cast includes Jared Leto as The Joker, Will Smith as an assassin, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc (a man with the monstrous appearance of a crocodile.)

With a range of costuming needs, Suicide Squad turned to COOLSHIRT for products that could keep cast members comfortable during shooting. Solutions also had to work beneath heavy prosthetics and allow actors to move without restriction in action-intensive sequences.

We provided several solutions, including our 2Cool Compression Water Shirt and Active Aqua Vest (both with and without hood). The production team powered these active cooling garments with COOLSHIRT’s portable bag system, MobileCool.

X-Men: Apocalypse

In the 2016 installment of the X-Men franchise, the heroes must combine forces to take on the world’s first mutant, a powerful adversary named Apocalypse. COOLSHIRT outfitted several actors with cooling gear, providing them with our waist pack system, compression shirts, and one of the largest custom garments we had ever created: a size 6XL Active Aqua Vest.

According to Erick Engebretson, who directs COOLSHIRT’s Film / FX Division, “When you’ve got actors playing larger-than-life characters, your solutions have to be sized to the challenge. Our manufacturing team worked with the production to get sizing and other requirements. Careful coordination made it all possible.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

This sequel sees the Turtles confronting a new alien nemesis threatening New York (and the world). At COOLSHIRT, our job was a bit simpler: protecting the cast with cooling garments and systems that worked effectively and fit seamlessly beneath costumes.

The production made use of our 2COOL Compression Water Shirts and bag cooling system. Since some of the film’s costumes did not provide full torso coverage, we also customized a selection of our garments. Repositioning tubing and revising the cut of our shirts helped keep them out of sight without sacrificing comfort.

Whether you represent a film production or you are part of another enterprise that could benefit from portable, lightweight, and effective personal cooling, get in touch with COOLSHIRT.

Categories: All CoolShirt News, Film FX

 

Bringing Home The Martian
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COOLSHIRT Supports Oscar®-Nominated Film

Director Ridley Scott’s 2015 movie, The Martian, had a worldwide theatrical gross of $630 million as of June 2016 and earned seven Oscar® nominations. During production, it also had help from COOLSHIRT SYSTEMS.

In The Martian, Matt Damon’s character is an astronaut stranded on the Red Planet. While the story throws a slew of interplanetary obstacles at the protagonist and his fellow astronauts, the film’s costuming team had its own challenges: providing the cast and stunt team with space gear that was realistic-looking and functional.

The actors’ comfort was also a priority. In addition to sound stage sets, The Martian filmed its exterior shots in the area of Wadi Rum in Jordan. This nearly 300-square-mile territory consists of canyons and red rock formations that are a close visual match to Mars but present much warmer conditions. Introduce cast members wearing costume space suits, and there’s the potential for overheating.

COOLSHIRT responded to The Martian‘s needs by supplying the production with an order of 2Cool Water Shirts. The product:

  • Circulates cooling liquid through targeted heat zones.
  • Uses patented non-kink tubing.
  • Features a compression fit, moisture-wicking, and anti-microbial protection.

Other benefits that the garments offer came as a surprise. Erick Engebretson, who directs COOLSHIRT’s Film / FX Division, says “Typically, actors wear the cooling garment under a costume where it won’t be seen. However, The Martian chose to make our shirts visible. You can see actors wearing them in several scenes throughout the film.” The sleek, high-tech look of COOLSHIRT garments fits well with the movie’s NASA habitats and space suits.

See The Martian in theaters or in home release, and learn more about COOLSHIRT’s products for film.