From December 2021 to June 2022, I worked as an intern in the costume department at NRK on the youth series Venner fra før. My role involved assisting with costume development, contributing ideas, and supporting both the pre-production phase and the filming process.
During pre-production, I began by creating mood boards for the main characters. Costume and visual expression are important tools for conveying mood and narrative. Each character’s style was developed to reflect their personality, which is essential for clearly communicating and strengthening their roles in the series.
Here you can see the mood boards I developed alongside selected stills from the series, illustrating how much of the visual style is rooted in the initial concepts. Each mood board was tailored to reflect distinct personality traits through color, silhouette, and styling, helping to establish clear and recognizable character identities throughout the series.
Behind the scenes: one elevator, countless costumes. Shopping, fitting, sewing, and transporting wardrobe pieces throughout production.
Next, the process involved sourcing clothing that matched the defined style. I assisted with purchasing new garments and spent a significant amount of time in NRK’s costume storage. Our goal was to create a series with a strong and distinct visual style, emphasizing a period in life where one is trying to find their identity as a student in a new city.
We then moved on to costume fittings to ensure everything worked as intended and to make any necessary adjustments before filming.
I also participated in continuity meetings, where we reviewed each scene of an episode in detail to determine what each character should be wearing at all times. This helped us prepare everything needed for each filming day.
During the production itself, I had the opportunity to work as an on set costume assistant. My responsibilities included helping actors with quick changes, providing them with the correct outfits and relevant props. Maintaining continuity was essential, ensuring that each actor wore the correct clothing for each scene. I closely monitored continuity before and during takes, making sure costumes stayed in place and stepping in to adjust anything if needed. In addition, I documented scenes for later reference, so that if parts of an episode were filmed on a different day or needed to be reshot, we could accurately recreate the original look.
During my time at NRK, I gained extensive insight into television production, pre production processes, costume design, the importance of clothing as a storytelling element in film, continuity and attention to detail, as well as how to work under intense pressure.
