CDG - The Costume Designer

Fall 2017

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Fall 2017 The Costume Designer 29 S torytelling has been a lifelong passion for Costume Designer Kristin Burke, and one that developed alongside another passion, community involvement. "4H is where I learned photography, taking pictures, developing the negatives," she explains. "It was a very good training ground and I realized that all of the people who were keeping us in 4H were volunteering their time. It was really important for us to develop an awareness that not everybody has what you have, and it's not their fault. We could use our knowledge and experience to take care of something other than ourselves, and prioritize time and fair treatment of other people." Passionista Kristin Burke By Anna Wyckoff Illustration by Aasha Ramdeen In high school, Burke began making video shorts while attending the National High School Institute's summer film program at Northwestern University. "This is it," she realized, "I can tell stories, and there are people like me." She contin- ued on to receive a film degree from Northwestern. At that time, there were very few female directors; Penny Marshall and Betty Thomas had strong, established careers, but the opportunities for women to direct were few and far between. Given her background and experience, Costume Design was the path that opened when, during a summer in Los Angeles interning on the film Hudson Hawk, she met legendary Costume Designer Marilyn Vance. The idea of a film or television crew showing up on location and exploiting the environment and locals, has long been a stereotype of Hollywood production. Drawing on her past, Burke made an effort to do the opposite. At each new city, she made an effort to always in some capacity give back to the host community. She found so many of the materials used by costume departments were useful to local community groups. "I remember off-loading our costumes at the end of a show to a local charity, rather than ship them to L.A. I feel if you donate it, pay it forward, you can leave a place with the benefits of having been here."

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