2022 - 2024
Paramount+
Halo
SEASONS 1 & 2
COSTUME DESIGN: Giovanni Lipari (Jane Holland, Jill M. Ohanneson)
Building costumes that could take Master Chief and Silver Team from video game to TV screen for the Halo series was one of the biggest technical challenges we’ve undertaken at FBFX, and would call on the expertise of every department.
Fans who’d spent decades with the characters knew every inch of every iteration. The brief was to ensure the suits looked exactly right, while remaining wearable and allowing for stunt work.
On season one, FBFX worked very closely with talented costume designer Giovanni Lipari and 343 Industries to bring the suits to life.
We started with game assets from Halo: Infinite, then still in development. But while the supersoldiers in the game are not in human proportion, wearing armour that defies the laws of physics, ours needed to work on real people. Every piece was rebuilt from scratch and reconfigured to work practically in concert with the rest of the suit - working closely with each actor and stunt performer to ensure fit and function.
Performers were 3D scanned and costumes digitally constructed over digital models. Each armour piece was 3D printed, moulded, textured and cast - there were 216 individually cast pieces on Master Chief alone.
The Halo undersuit was equally, if not more, complex. A complete costume in itself, it comprised trousers, bolero and tac vest with PU sprayed and vac cast pieces, layered over digitally sculpted muscle suits made from lightweight foam.
The DMX-controlled, integrated electronics in the helmet were our smallest to date, with lights and fans to keep performers cool.
For season two, we took full advantage of the opportunity to redesign the suits from the ground up, putting into effect everything we’d learned in season one. Virtually every element, from the muscle suits out, was redesigned and rebuilt.
The look was completed with game accurate weapons manufactured by the great in-house team in Hungary. It was quite the thing to witness a fully armoured Silver Team testing out their moves around the workshop!
