Fans watching the webcam closely during the filming of Episode III in Sydney, Australia, and most recently shooting extra scenes with Amy Allen (Aayla Secura), might have spotted Costume Archivist Gillian Libbert as she dressed and adjusted costumes for Senators, Jedi and various recognizable Star Wars characters while entertaining webcam audiences.
Before she joined the Star Wars family, Libbert worked as a page at NBC, as well as an account planner in advertising and as a talent coordinator.
"I always knew that I wanted to be in the film business, I just didn't know how to get started," Libbert admits. "I started working in props years ago but was always more interested in costume."
As an University of California at Berkeley alumnus, she knew she wanted to remain in the Bay Area. So she contacted Lucasfilm enough times that her perseverance paid off and she was eventually granted an interview. In her first job as the Costume Appearance Coordinator, Libbert traveled around the world with R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca.
During pre-production for Episode III, Libbert was the US-based person that assisted Biggar while she traveled between Europe, Australia and the US. While managing things in the US, Libbert would do everything from working with the concept artists, scheduling costume fittings with the principal actors, coordinating the logistics of moving hundreds of costumes all over the world, to sourcing fabric, metals, fur, rubber and anything else needed for the shoot.
The 'George Meetings' consisted of Biggar presenting different fabrics, trims, metals and other materials to Lucas. "He was very involved in the whole process -- down to the very last button," Libbert recalls. Biggar would then return to Sydney and the Costume Department would make muslin samples of various costumes. Once Lucas decided on a specific fabric, the actors would arrive for fittings. These meetings would continue throughout principal photography.
Once most of the costume designs were approved and were in the process of being made, Libbert traveled to Sydney, Australia for principal photography. She worked closely with Biggar, Michael Mooney (Asstistant Costume Designer) and Nicole Young (Costume Supervisor) to ensure that once the costumes were finished, they could be labeled and moved to the stages that were ready for filming. After the costumes had been filmed and all the reference pictures had been taken, it was one of Libbert's responsibilities to maintain the continuity of all the costumes for Licensing and Publicity purposes.
"My job was more preparing and organizing as the costumes were being made," Libbert explains. "Many different fabrics, trims, metals and custom made pieces would come to me and I would set them up for Trish to get final approval from George. It was an amazing process to see all the costumes come to life. From the principal costumes like Padmé's or Bail Organa's to Mas Amedda or Tion Medon -- they started with a brilliant design on a piece of paper and after finding the perfect fabrics, beads, trims and buttons they soon were transformed into unique, one of a kind costumes."
Months after principal photography ended in Sydney, extra footage needed to be shot featuring Aayla Secura, played by Amy Allen, Libbert worked on set as the ILM Costume Supervisor. As part of her job, she's responsible for costume continuity during filming.
"Amy came in the day before the shoot for a costume fitting but since she was wearing the same costume as Ep. II it wasn't a problem," Libbert explains. "We did add a new bit to the costume this time around -- it's subtle, but I think it looks really good! Amy had to do some stunts this time around, but all went well. We definitely left our mark behind -- even though it was blue!"
Even with the long days and endless tasks ahead, Libbert still found herself having some fun with the Hyperspace webcam viewers.
"While in Sydney, we did try and play around with the fans by leaving a black cloak on a dress stand that looked a lot like Darth Maul's, or leaving bits and pieces of identifiable costumes around to see if they picked up on it," Libbert confesses. "The best was having Jango Fett walk by the cam. It was a dead give away once the actor sat down at a sewing machine, the fans knew then that we were just joking around. With Amy Allen's shoot I was a little more aware of it since Pablo Hidalgo (Hyperspace set diary reporter and webcam guy) was telling me what the fans were saying online as we were shooting!"
