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Laura

Bêtes de Mode

View my latest blog over at my new home LauraWalsh.wordpress.com

Bêtes de Mode

Melancholic Technology

This year we got a new CS lecturer and he is fantastic. When he speaks you feel utterly compelled to listen, he is insightful, funny and more than knowledgeable.
Last week he did a lecture on the ‘Non-Place’ and melancholia towards technology and it got me thinking.

There used to be a Utopian idea of the future. This future would be one where we were at one with technology, we lived happily alongside many other species of humanoids, and doors make a ‘whoosh’ noise as they open.

Maybe we’d all know someone like Spock or Warf. Maybe you’d be the Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

But this Utopian image has been tainted because of an uncertainty about the future.
Global crisis, images of wars, destructive technology such as the A-Bomb, things that even if eradicated cannot be forgotten, create a hazy future. One where there are no whooshy doors!

We now suffer a disenchantment with technology because of the way it has deconstructed our idea of the future. We feel like we’ve lost something, but we’re not entirely sure what – we don’t know how to get over falling out of love with technology – thus we all suffer from techno-melancholia.

The point of this is one of the very poignant examples this lecturer gave of a lack of a Utopian future. He explained that many games are marketed on the uncertainty of the future.

In Gears of War the main character, Marcus Fenix, is part of a ruined wasteland and he’s trying to find a meaning to his life. But he is not trying to fight for a better future. He has no beliefs, he knows he has no future.

The images of the Dystopian landscape are played out alongside a very melancholic soundtrack, emphasising the complete lack of faith and hope.

I’m not really into video games, because I am generally rubbish at them, but I absolutely loved the theory behind this, and really wanted to share it with you all!

I Love Jewellery

One of my loves is jewellery. But I don’t like to wear just any old jewellery, I find myself drawn to unusual, beautifully crafted pieces. I wanted to share with you a small selection of my favourite places to find said items, and show you why I love them! So my first stop is a shop you might find on your high street.

Accessorize

Frilly Airline Brooch, £8 – I’ll definitely be looking for this one next time I pop into Accessorize.

Jingle Owl Long Pendant Necklace, £12. This was my last buy from Accessorize and I am completely in love with it. It’s even better seeing it for real!

Now for three of my favourite online shops!

Rock n Rose

Rock N Rose on Twitter – @rocknroseuk

The Exclusive Collection: Pocket Watch – £25. This has a gorgeous mirror on the inside instead of its expected clock. Makes a fantastic alternative to your regular compact mirror!

The Exclusive Collection: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – £17. Vintage. Parisian. Gorgeous.

Sugar Mouse

Sugar Mouse on Twitter – @sugarmouseshop

Матрёшка Doll, £10. The great thing about this item is that each doll is a different colour and you get a surprise doll! I love that!

Hello, Sailor!, £10. The nautical theme is in, and this fulfills the trend wonderfully!

This Charming Girl

This Charming Girl on Twitter – @tcgjewellery

I’m Late, I’m Late, £8.50. Love it! Plain and simple! Its very ‘me’!

Treasure Chest, £12.50. This opens us and just made me go ‘wow’. This Charming Girl turns 3 years old tomorrow (9th Oct 09) so to mark the occasion there is free P&P all day! I’ll definitely be ordering a couple of things!

Magical Muse

At the beginning of August I posted a blog entitled ‘Rock & Roll Chic’ that focused on the Burberry ads featuring Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame. After a quick look at ‘Google’ image results for the actress’ name I found that Burberry wasn’t the only design outfit interested in the star.

It seems that Miss Watson has become somewhat of an artists muse, and rightly so. Emma Watson, known for playing Hermione Granger, one of the heroic trio in the Harry Potter series, has progressed rapidly in the fashion stakes and is definitely a natural model. I wanted to put together a small collection of photographs from international photographers who have chosen Emma as a muse for recent shoots, and I’ll start with a collection of the Burberry shots.

Photograph by: Mario Testino

Photograph by: Mario Testino

Photograph by: Mario Testino

Mova

I’m really beginning to like Twitter I come across a lot of information that I find interesting. Just a few minutes ago I read the following:

For those of you that don’t know, Oliver Phelps is the actor who plays George Weasley in the Harry Potter series. I can only assume that the facial scan is the beginnings of the effects that will create the illusion that George only has one ear. [Yeah that's a spoiler, problem?] I have @replied him asking if this is what the scan was for but I’m sure he has far more interesting/important things to be doing than replying to random people such as myself.

I decided to ‘google’ the VFX MOVA facial scan and am amazed at what the technology can do! Check out this video its just fascinating that they can achieve such realism.

Another little bit of information from Oliver Phelps’ Twitter page:

And the scan is not to create the missing ear which I have concluded from the following:

So I skimmed Deathly Hallows very quickly last night in the hope of coming up with the answer to my own curiosity as to where this would be used.
One option is for the diversion in the chapter The Seven Potters. I assumed the scene would just involve lots of filming for Daniel because everyone has to look just like Harry. But then I thought back to the Polyjuice scene in The Chamber of Secrets and compared that to the one in Deathly Hallows.
In CoS the trio are in bathroom cubicles and although we get a description of the transformation in the book we don’t have a vantage point in the films that allows us to see what is happening.
In DH they are all in the kitchen of the Dursley house. We will be able to see their entire transformation and their won’t be a way to avoid that. And by using the 29 cameras mentioned by Oliver and the expertise of the cgi team we should be able to see the fantastic transformations of George, Fred, Fleur, Hermione, Ron and Mundungus into six identical Harry Potters.

Now I am excited about this film!

Links:

www.twitter.com/OliverPhelps
www.twitter.com/hva_junkie
www.mova.com

Joking Around

The creative review blog recently featured some of the work of Nicholas Saunders, one of the assistant graphic artists on the Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince movie. The small team of four designers, Senior Graphic Artists Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima and their assistants Saunders and Lauren Wakefield created such delights as the Magical Moustache Miracle Stubble Grow packaging for the Weasley Twins’ joke shop.

The images that appeared on the CR blog are ones that Nicholas Saunders personally designed. All images belong to WarnerBros

Now I have some problems with a couple of these images, I just wouldn’t have even shown them to my boss the way they are! And how did they get signed off?!

Can you spot the mistakes?

Wonderland Correction

September’s Sight & Sound magazine features a little information about the coming Alice in Wonderland movie. Information that contradicts what I posted from Empire magazine a couple of blogs ago!

‘The Film borrows characters and scenes from both Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’ books, but tells a new story. Alice (played in the film by newcomer Mia Wasikowska) is now 17. After her parents try to marry her off against her will, she once again disappears down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, a place she hasn’t visited for ten years, and of which she initially has no memory. All is not well in Wonderland as the Red Queen has replaced her sister, The White Queen (Anne Hathaway), in power, and the creatures of Wonderland ask Alice to help them revolt. The cast includes Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, Christopher Lee as Jabberwock and Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar.’

After a bit of googling I have found many sources saying Alice is 17 in Burton’s remake. I’ve also looked back at Empire to find out if I made a typo and Mia Wasikowska is quoted as saying Alice is 19. So Wasikowska made an accidental slip or Empire did. I’m now assuming Alice to be 17 during this new visit to Wonderland!

As accompaniment to this correction here is another shot of Depp as the Mad Hatter

Imagination Galore

Here are the trailers for two films that I have already fallen in love with and cannot wait for the release of.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
&
Alice In Wonderland

Enjoy =]

Rock & Roll Chic

I wanted to share with you the Burberry A/W 09 collection ads. Shot by Mario Testino, featuring Emma Watson.

Emma has really climbed high in the fashion stakes over the past couple of years and has hit the nail on the head with some of her recent looks. She looks fantastic in these Burberry ads. The ads master rock and roll chic perfectly. Her hair is tousled but not in manner that exudes a lack of effort. Her smokey eyes are balanced with natural cheeks and lips. The look definitely works on Emma.

She has a slight look of Marianne Faithfull from back in the days of the Swinging London scene. Part of the rock and roll scene Marianne Faithfull certainly dressed the part.

Marianne almost certainly influenced the look of Kate Moss. Faithfull even accused Moss of befriending her in order to study her then steal her image. Kate’s look has certainly progressed over the years and is one of the forerunners of the current Rock and Roll chic that graces the catwalks.

I hope we see Emma embrace her skills for fashion advertising in the coming years with many more collection adverts. Its nice to see young stars revamping and reusing the style that many models such as Kate Moss have ingrained into modern fashion.

Maybe Emma Watson could teach one of her US equivalents some key lessons in Rock and Roll chic, because no matter what gets thrown onto Kristen Stewart it looks badly fitted, like she’s slept in it and like she’s unsure how clothes should look! And her hair more often than not looks dreadful. I think that might be a curse of Twilight though as Robert Pattinson’s hair is always godawful too! In short, its lazy rock and roll, but definitely not chic!

So Kirsten, stop and take a look at Emma, she’s stunning and can take on so many different looks! Definitely a good reference point for other young actresses who need to improve their red carpet & out and about looks!

& PS Kristen, is there anything you can do about that look you do, where it makes me think you’ve taken something?! =]

Curiouser and Curiouser

These are the character preview images featured in the September issue of Empire magazine. I’ve been excited about this project from the moment I discovered talks were underway. Many crazy rumours flew around about Alice in Wonderland but I wasn’t really discouraged by any of them, although the one that claimed Johnny Depp wanted to play the part of Alice did confuse me. I sincerely hoped that Burton wouldn’t be that bizzare in his remake. So here they are, the four characters featured in Empire.

This film marks the seventh colaboration between Burton and Deep since they first teamed up on Edward Scissorhands in 1990. Johnny seems to have a penchant for weird and wonderful characters but this could be the wackiest to date. Burton’s Mad Hatter has been created just for Depp and by the sounds of things both have done their homework on 19th Century hat makers. During the 18th and 19th century hatters used Mercury compounds in the production of felt hats. At the time the effects of Mercury were unknown and their extensive exposure to the compounds meant many hatters went insane as a result of Mercury poisoning. This is where we get the saying ‘Mad as a hatter’. I think we can assume Burton and Depp’s Mad Hatter will be the maddest hatter we have seen in Alice interpretations, with Depp claiming ‘he’s far gone.’

Alice is 19 in Burton’s remake. He says he likes that ’she’s at an age where you’re kind of between a kid and an adult.’ Alice will be returning to Wonderland without any real memories of the adventure she had there aged seven. Wasikowska says Alice will ‘come out of her shell. Her return to Wonderland is her redescovering who she is.’

Helena Bonham Carter is marking her sixth collaboration with domestic partner Tim Burton as the villainous Queen of Hearts. Bonham Carter describes the Red Queen as ‘like a spoiled child. She has no compassion for anybody else’s feelings.’ Sounds somewhat like Bellatrix Lestrange, Helena’s character in the Harry Potter series. She seems to have mastered Bella so the Red Queen should be a breeze.

Here we see the darkness that is bound to be all over Burton’s Alice. In Through The Looking Glass the White Queen is seen as an ally of Alice’s, whereas the Red Queen opposes Alice. But Burton has put a lot of emphasis on their sibling status when creating Hathaway’s character. Her dark eyebrows and lips add a sinister edge to the White Queen. If this image is anything to go by we could be seeing more of her sister’s influnce upon her in this adaption.

These photographs have only served to make me even more excited about Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Now how many days do I have to wait until March 5th 2010?! =]