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Costume Design was led by Mark Bridges as he was chosen to design all the outfits that Phoenix would wear. Bridges is another accomplished member of the team for Joker as he has won multiple Oscars with his designs for The Artist and Phantom Thread. In an interview by Awards Daily, they talk with Bridges on the path he took with Fleck’s iconic suit.  

“Things were coming from the script and from the character, from what the character had access to and how he used the clothes that we established in the film.” (Moser 2019). 

The head of makeup for the film is credited to Nicki Ledermann who previously secured multiple awards in the field from her participation in The Greatest Showman, The Devil Wears Prada, and others. In an interview with Elle, she says she got prepared for the job by researching clowns on the internet and says she owns about every book possible on clowns. Ledermann also went on to describe how she brought the iconic look of Joker to life. 

“When I met with Todd [Phillips, the director] for the first time he showed the inspiration that he, Joaquin and the production designer liked,” Ledermann said. “I took that design, and translated it to create the Joker, working on placement, texture and color palette and making sure it was one of a kind” (Penrose 2021). 

The Cinematography was by Lawrence Sher who has done many movies over a successful 30+ year career. He has done previous work with Phillips in a total of six different movies. Sher shared how he approached working on Joker in an interview with Observer.  “I attack every movie probably like the way an actor or the director attacks it: just basically go through scene by scene and try to create an emotional arc, then create for yourself visual rules that can help bring the audience along on that emotional journey” (Katz 2020).