Gavin McLain, the costume designer who thinks up the weird and futuristic outfits on The Tribe, will design the new range of children’s clothing. McLain has worked on top New Zealand films Heavenly Creatures and Once Were Warriors. He crafts the costumes for each character in The Tribe’s 20-strong cast from the drawing board to the rack. “There are no boundaries. I don’t look through magazines at the new season’s ranges or scan the internet. I give these kids anything I like. It’s not restrictive. If I want to put white sox with purple pantyhose I can,” McLain says. “I do a lot of thinking, drawing and deleting. It takes me two or three days to do all the costumes. I analyse the character and the personality and take it from there.”
McLain describes his work as contemporary, futuristic funk. He brings his costumes to life using anything he can get his hands on, including recycled cans. “If I find a tablecloth or car parts I’ll make them into a costume. I’ve also used carpets and computer parts.” One costume is made of soft drink cans with a base garment underneath to protect the actor. “It’s hard to come up with an original idea. Once you’ve got something in mind because you’ve seen it somewhere else, you find yourself reproducing it,” he says. “I try not to get too many ideas from other people. It’s a personal growth thing.”
And The Tribe is starting to set it’s own fashion trend for teenagers because it breaks barriers on clothing design. “The Tribe will be good for children’s fashion because they’ll feel less trapped by other people’s trends. The best thing children can do is have a mind of their own,” McLain says. That’s where the new millennium clothing is headed - for children at least. Now kids will be able to go out dressed like a space alien or new-age warrior, complete with blue hair. The Tribe fashion will give children creativity and the chance to set new trends. McLain will play a major part in producing fun and different clothing for the new label. “They should have more of a choice to wear something different or individual. Kids should feel free,” he says.
Make up supervisor Susan Glass has worked on hit shows Shortland Street, Duggan, Hercules and Xena and enjoys the creative flow on The Tribe. “The fun thing with The Tribe is that it is very visual and there is no guideline. We can just go for it and have fun,” she says. She uses anything from feathers and willow to metals, flax and aluminium to create the tribal look. “My imagination goes wild. You have to think outside the square and nothing is over the top,” she says.
Glass uses MAC products as a base and face paints for tribal markings and tattoos. “I look through tribal and nature books for inspiration. There’s Star Trek and sci-fi stuff too but we don’t follow trends, we try to set them,” Glass says. Each female lead takes tow hair and make up artists around 45 minutes to complete, making things in the dressing room pretty hectic. Tattoos and tribal markings are then painted on using stencils. Hair pieces are used for the misfit colourings worn by the younger actors but the main cast have to live with their wacky colours permanently. The hair is bleached and then colour is applied every nine days to keep it up-to-date. “Sometimes I design a character and then I buy a magazine and see a similar thing. That’s a good feeling.”
Adrienne McDonald
The relaunched site, which has been technically engineered by AMX, the company responsible for the Spice Girls and EMI websites, now gives viewers the chance to join The Tribe Fan Club. And the response has been overwhelming.
"We had 400 fans join up overnight when we first launched the fan club which was very reassuring," says Thompson. "We've had 3000 new members in the past few months and we are forecasting that we will have about 20,000 fanclub members by the end of the first year."
In addition to the Fan Club, www.tribeworld.com gives fans of The Tribe the chance to chat online with stars of the show as well as with other fans from all over the world. There is also the opportunity to download tracks from The Tribe album, which features songs performed by the actors, who include Lex, played by Whangerei actor Caleb Ross. The Tribe album will be released in New Zealand early next year.
TV4
The Tribe is proving popular overseas, currently screening in the United Kingdom and has been bought by networks in the United States, Finland, Holland, Poland, Africa and Israel. The programme is becoming such a cult among its viewers overseas that many of them dress up as their favourite characters, with Ross' character Lex among the more popular.
Among Ross' first acting roles were parts in productions by WAODS (Whangarei Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society). From those humble beginnings he went on to act in New Zealand television shows such as Shortland Street, Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess, Avondale Dogs and Plainclothes.
Ross has just finished working on an album - to be released early next year - and two music videos with the Tribe cast, working with UK record producer John Williams. Williams is known for his work with Debbie Harry, The Proclaimers and Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Ross said that swapping his acting script for a musical score was different, but a great learning experience. William Kircher, of Cloud 9, describes Ross as "a real find; one of the songs 'This is the Place' really goes off. Caleb moves well and with his theatre experience he looks really good," Mr Kircher said.
Ross said he was the complete opposite to his bad character Lex. "I'm not like him. He bullies, he drinks, he does all sorts. But that's what I love about acting. It gives you the opportunity to be somebody that you're not," he said. "By playing bad-boy roles I show sides I never have and it gets out pent-up emotion." Ross said although it was every teenager's dream to live in a world devoid of adults, it would be chaos. "There would be a lot of problems. The Tribe deals with problems in really realistic ways. One girl wrote in and thanked a cast member for helping her overcome bulimia." Ross said he wants to play Lex for as long as possible. "The longer the better and after that I'll just see where I go."
Mr Kircher said Ross was a very professional actor who was not star-struck or silly. "Caleb's got a lot going for him. We have a third series in the pipeline (there are 52 episodes a series) which is an awful lot of camera experience for an actor. It will develop his strength and centre his acting. Despite working 12-hour days and being based in Wellington, Ross said he was "loving the experience of a lifetime", but enjoyed returning to Whangarei to relax.
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Last updated 18/02/00© 2000 scaramouche@tribeworld.com