Delicate spoilers beneath for many who haven’t caught up on The Final of Us through Max subscription.
HBO’s The Final of Us has typically confirmed its potential as a blueprint for upcoming online game diversifications, with co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin’s inventive staff realizing when to strictly adhere to the supply materials and when to alter up key moments and discover areas the video games couldn’t. Bella Ramsey understandably doesn’t look exactly like pixelated Ellie from head to toe, however they are rocking loads of wardrobe parts crafted with such constancy in thoughts, with costume designer Ann Foley main that cost in Season 2.
I used to be excited to speak to Ann Foley about bringing Ellie’s look to life as she aged up all through the years since Season 1’s tragic occasions. Specifically, she talked about giving Ellie’s Converse sneakers — a glance core to the sport character — a unique look due to Ramsey’s involvement, in addition to having the ability to showcase the beloved character’s scar-covering tattoo.
Bella Ramsey’s Converses Are Extra Particular Than Audiences Would possibly Understand
Within the Final of Us video games, Ellie sticks together with her signature sneaks to the purpose the place it grew to become one thing of a joke to consider her surviving for thus a few years carrying solely Converses as a substitute of a wide range of extra heavy-duty boots. After taking up costuming duties for Season 2, Ann Foley made a degree to make sure that the sneakers followers noticed on display screen this season had been greater than only a bare-bones reference.
To that finish, once I requested in regards to the component Foley was most happy with from engaged on the seven episodes, she introduced these up immediately, saying:
I imply, truthfully, there’s so many. However I at all times come again to the identical reply, which is Ellie’s Converse from Episodes 1 and a pair of. I gave a pair of these to Bella and stated, ‘Okay, I need you channel Ellie and doodle on these like Ellie would.’ Primarily as a result of I’ve at all times beloved once I watched playthrough of the sport, I used to be obsessive about Ellie’s doodles. I at all times needed to see what they had been, and I might hit pause and simply attempt to see what these doodles had been.
Whereas peeping out Ellie’s journaling maybe isn’t probably the most rewarding for avid gamers extra enthralled by burning bloaters with flamethrowers, each the written and illustrated entries present extra methods to know the character’s worldview and the wonder she finds in her environment. To Foley, it additionally represented one other nice method to meld the characters. She continued:
So once I was placing the boards collectively for Ellie, all of the temper boards, I simply saved coming again to the doodles, and I actually needed Ellie to have doodles someplace on her garments, like youngsters would do. I assumed that the Converses had been the very best place to do this. Craig Mazin was fully on board with that concept and beloved it, and so did Bella. And I by no means even requested Bella what the doodles meant, or what they had been. To me, it was between Bella and Ellie.
As a result of it’s the sort of visible aptitude that doesn’t get prolonged close-ups in the course of the episodes earlier than Dina convinces Ellie to ditch the sneakers, Foley made positive to offer a spot the place viewers may get a more in-depth take a look at the doodles, even when we would by no means know what impressed them. As she put it:
However I really feel prefer it was actually efficient and have become a really great element in Ellie’s costume, regardless that the viewers would not essentially see them. Which is among the causes I posted them on my Instagram, as a result of I actually needed the viewers to see a detailed up of these doodles.
Contemplating she performed a giant half in making them distinctive to the TV present, I requested Foley if she was capable of maintain a pair of the Converses, and was unhappy to listen to this as her reply:
I didn’t. They’re in our archives. Fortunately, my breakdown staff, who’re all completely unbelievable artists in their very own proper, had been capable of duplicate all of these doodles onto a number of pairs of sneakers. I believe we had in all probability shut to twenty pairs.
If there are that many, no less than one pair ought to go in a museum, and one ought to go in Ann Foley’s closet.
Ann Foley On Utilizing Silhouettes To Present Ellie’s Getting old And Displaying Off Her Tattoo
Episode 6, “The Value,” was such an emotional journey, not only for Joe Pantoliano’s magnificent visitor position, but additionally for the truncated evolution of Joel and Ellie’s relationship within the years between the Salt Lake Metropolis bloodbath and Joel’s brutal demise. Followers had been capable of watch Ellie develop up, because it had been, with Ann Foley’s staff doing loads of legwork to make these year-to-year transitions really feel official.
After I requested about Ellie’s look altering and her repeated urge to put on quick sleeves once more, the costumer designer spoke to the challenges of representing these extremely early life of somebody’s life, saying:
I believe that one of the attention-grabbing components of making Ellie for Season 2 was exhibiting that distinction between a 14-year-old baby and a 19-year-old younger lady, and dealing on the silhouette. Episode 6 is a extremely nice showcase of the way to present Ellie as [maturing]. On her birthday, simply turning 15, after which because the episode progresses, to 19. We did that with silhouettes and simply refined little modifications.
Just like how Stalkers and Clickers and others TLoU creatures may be recognized by means of silhouette alone, Foley made positive that every mini-era of Ellie’s teenage years might be recognized in the identical means. She defined:
In order the 14/15-year-old, the garments are baggier, the denims are baggier, the T shirts are baggier. However as she turns into extra of an grownup, the denims get barely extra tapered, and so they’re not as dishevelled as they had been when she was youthful. The size of the T-shirts is even somewhat bit shorter, the hem on the arms only a tiny bit shorter. The amount of the shirts additionally nearer into the physique, simply to type of present this new silhouette.
Clearly everyone seems to be completely different, however Foley hit the nail on the top there for an unlimited swath of my buddy group in highschool. I by no means misplaced my appreciation for dishevelled denims, however I can’t think about they might be a giant assist when attempting to run away from grabby monsters within the rain.
Ann Foley additionally spoke to going shorter with the sleeve lengths with Ellie within the flashbacks that launched her tattoo, in addition to in key moments in the course of the current timeline when the weather weren’t an issue.
And I beloved as Season Two went on, having the ability to have Ellie carrying short-sleeve shirts to point out off that beautiful tattoo that was performed by our wonderful make-up artist Rebecca Lee, as a result of it is such an iconic a part of the character, and it must be proven off. I imply, she does put on a jacket in among the rain, however there are actually nice moments after we do have that jacket off in order that we will see that tattoo.
One other unbelievable look that Foley talked extra in depth about on her Instagram web page was Ellie’s straight-from-the-game look throughout her birthday journey to the pure historical past museum, and the way they hand-crafted the striped shirt. As wonderful as that sequence was all-around, from the dinosaur statue to the blast-off, I don’t suppose it could have hit as laborious for me if Ellie would have been carrying a band T-shirt or one thing monochromatic.
The Final of Us Season 2 involves a detailed on HBO on Could 25 at 9:00 p.m. What’s going to YOU be carrying when all of it goes down? Wait, no, that didn’t come out proper…