Our new single and music video, Good Riddance, will release on Friday, August 13th 2021. Working with Director Ryan Klassa is always a joy and a mystery. His mind goes in directions that surprise me and sometimes even make me laugh out loud just due to how fun and creative they are, in the darkest, creepiest ways possible.
What can I say – he gets me.
What was interesting about Good Riddance though, was that the song means something much different to Ryan than it does to me.
I love this because that is exactly what music is meant to be. It means what it means to whoever is listening to it.
What he created was an incredible storyline that spans 3 generations and required 4 different locations and 8 different days of shooting.
The earliest time period was the 1880’s. For this, Ryan got permission to shoot at Hazlewood – a historic mansion on the east side of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The house was built in 1837-38 so was already fifty years old by the time period we were shooting in. It has been pristinely cared for and is also, much to my own joy, delightfully haunted. What more could a girl ask for?
For costumes we immediately called for backup. We were not even ABOUT to attempt to pull off correct period costumes on our own. Luckily, Debra Jolly at Abrams Theater absolutely adores doing period costumes and was happy to give us a hand.
For those of you not as obsessed with costuming as I am, the secret to great costumes is the details.
Mike needed a light colored suit. It was summer, after all. And a short beard and mustache wouldn’t do. They wore larger mustaches back then. Walking stick. Watch chain. It needed to be more of a cravat than a “tie” and there needed to be a pin holding it in place. Technically he should have had longer hair as well, but we couldn’t find a wig that didn’t just look ridiculous so he kept his signature shaved head look.
For women, the 1880’s meant bustles, corsets and having almost every inch of skin covered. Keeping in mind it was about 90+ degrees that day, so I decided to bypass the corset in favor of not passing out. But bustle? Yes. White starched long sleeve blouse with a high lace collar complete with broach. Petticoat, bustle, skirt, and a jacket/vest over the top. Black knit stockings and low heeled shoes. Black lace fingerless gloves. The only thing that was off was I was a bit taller than the last person who wore this costume, so technically my skirt was “scandalously short” meaning it showed ankle. (Gasp!!) And now I very much understand why woman could not get dressed by themselves. I mean, dang.
For makeup, I had to create a “zero makeup” look which included primer, tinted moisturizer, very subtle highlights and eyelash primer. I still had to draw on my eyebrows with a super light touch as mine are white/blonde and look like they don’t exist at all if I don’t do SOMEthing with them.
The hair was my jam. After doing a lot of research, it looked like most styles were done in twists and stacks of curls. I preferred the “half up half down” style and felt it would work best with the costume that Debra had put together for me.
It took me 5 hours to style the wig. It is a 26″ human hair wig – one of my better ones. I had to wash and tone it first to get it to the right color, then blow dry it, condition it and brush it out. Then I got a pile of pins and clear hair bands, turned on a few movies I’ve seen a million times and got to work. I knew the curls and loose twists wouldn’t work as well or have the durability needed for a wig, so I opted for more braids with just a few curls in the front. Everything was pinned and then sprayed into place with the strongest hairspray I could find – then left to air dry.
Filming itself can be a bit tedious. It’s a lot of “hurry up and wait” with Ryan doing 99% of the work. Usually I read a book on my phone between shots unless there’s some gear that needs to be moved or I can be of use somewhere else. That was not really the case with this shoot as the costume and elaborate wig made it pretty difficult for me to move around or lift anything once I was all put together. We were there for about five hours in total and the footage was worth every bit of effort we all put into it.
Just a little look behind the scenes of just ONE day of shooting! xoxox –Kat
Sit Kitty Sit 
That’s fantastic, Kat! Thanks so much for sharing this. The historical house is just gorgeous, and your costumes impressive. Your wig is absolutely incredible, the work you put into the hairstyle. All just so impressive. Hope I can catch the finished video when it’s done. Really love the atmosphere that house must have created. Thanks again for sharing this on your blog post! You need to share those haunted house stories in your next post, I think…… 😉