Whistle costumes and sets: Introduting Erato Arampatzi

Erato Arampatzi - Assistant Costume and Set Designer

"Since reality and fantasy prove to be inseparable, the cinematic "universe" of WHISTLE is quite complicated. The challenge creating the sets and costumes for this purpose was equally tough. All the reference to the past and folklore tradition, the element of supernatural, the unwelcoming environment, half lit streets shadowy corners sense of urban emptiness,  in which the protagonist moves, everything had to create a unified and realistic result.

We were given a lot of creative freedom by our director. So, we were able to move towards this direction."

"Since the story of the film is heavily inspired by myths and superstitions of days gone past, we wanted to give a more "timeless" feel to costumes, makeup and sets. Timeless being without a sense of "time" or "period".

In our initial research, we incorporated a lot of stylistic elements from past decades. We drew inspiration from thriller and B-movies of the late 70s and early 80s. Elements like Peter's glasses and turtleneck or the classic "cut" of Anastasia's gabardine.

All actors were presented with a more "down to earth" style, something that was deliberate chosen. That way viewer's attention can focus on the story rather fashion trends or gimmicks."

"We gathered a lot of imagination and creativity in order to give life to the "mythical" creatures of the film. Since we were working on a tight budget, we indulged with great enthusiasm to handmade custom constructions and we did a lot of painstaking research to find cheap bur efficient materials. Visits to the city's junk shops, reusing stock materials we had in our disposal, buying stuff from internet and a lot of hard work in our stage design studio, all paid off in the end!

Most of all, materializing "evil" (our basic antihero), took countless working hours. And as we progressed with the construction so did our expectations and our obsession with detail.

With an experienced and valued cast along with the presence of the remarkable Sofia Filippidou on the set, our outmost effort was self-explanatory from the beginning.

For us this was a project that allowed us to explore new creative methods. The voluntary and hard work from all members of cast and crew, inspired us to do our best on our behalf in order to fulfill our common vision."

Erato Arampatzi was born in Ioannina, Greece. She studied architecture in Thessaloniki. Her engagement with fine arts started from a very early age. She has also studied classical piano and music theory, classic ballet and contemporary dance while she has participated in various theatre groups. She has been occupied with film projects since her college years.

After her graduation from architecture, she has followed the path of cinema working as assistant director, director, videographer, editor, animator, storyboard artist, sound engineer, assistant costume and set designer and assistant art director. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany.