BA (Hons) Costume Interpretation with Design students Esther Finlay and Eleanor Rowley had the exciting opportunity to work on Danny Boyles major feature film 28 Years Later, a 2025 post-apocalyptic coming-of-age horror film. Speaking of the opportunity Senior Costume Lecturer Jane Havakin said “the students were blown away with the opportunity to work on such a large movie and with the added bonus that it was filmed in the beautiful local location of Holy Island.”

Now graduate Esther Finlay said she “got the opportunity to work on 28 days later by responding to an ad in a costume facebook group. It was for a daily dressing role and I had no reply so I assumed that was that and moved on! But I then got a text asking if I was available for a job as a costume trainee on the production for a week. Once I had completed my week they knew me and when they needed an extra pair of hands in the NE I would get a text to go help out!

Esther worked on the set a costume trainee “meaning I worked primarily with the supporting artists. On some days there were hundreds of men, women and children who needed to be in costume. My job consisted of anything and everything the costume team needed of me from quick repairs and alterations, hand sewing prosthetics, organising stock clothing, dressing, fetching lunches and looking after extras. I worked mainly on location at Lindisfarne and at Kelder reservoir splitting my time between doing prep at the crowd base and helping out on set. The job required me to be able to work quickly under pressure as we didn’t want to be the team holding up the next shot!”

“I got to meet and work with people in lots of different areas of costume from breakdown artists to costume supervisors and makers. This helped me get an idea of what areas of costume I am particularly interested in. I also got to work with Eleanor Rowley who was also on my course at uni! Having someone to share the role with was great and meant that we could split between base and on set so all areas were covered.”

Reflecting on the experience she said “it was amazing to get to be on set behind the camera and get more of an idea of what the costume team do day to day. Seeing everyone in all departments work together to execute the directors vision is really exciting and I feel like I learned so much about how films get made.”

Working on this particular location also had its challenges, “while the days were really fun, they were also long and tiring with days that started before 6am and other days that finished after midnight. Being on Lindisfarne also added a unique difficultly as it is an island meaning that for hours of the day the causeway is covered in water and there’s no way to travel on and off the island! Crowd base was on the mainland but filming was happening on the island so we had to be very mindful to make sure we were on the right side when the tide came up with whatever equipment and costumes we needed. When shooting at Kelder Reservoir we had to contend with the clouds of mosquitos which made working a little unpleasant at times but everyone banded together and with the help of some very fashionable mosquito nets we were able to push though and get the shots we needed!”

When asked what her advice is for students looking to gain more experience she said “I would recommend getting on set however you can! Before this job, I worked as an extra on various productions which really helped as I already had a general idea of how a filming day worked and what some of the lingo meant so I wasn’t a complete newbie. I would also recommend just throwing your name in the ring for jobs even if you don’t think your quite qualified – you never know when a production might also be looking for more junior roles!”

Our BA (Hons) Costume Interpretation with Design degree offers students the skills and opportunities needed to carve out successful careers in the stage & screen industries. Alumni from this programme have worked on world famous sets and stages across the country and internationally. Find out more here.