Sharen Davis Colorful Stylist On The Help
August 16th, 2011 § 2 Comments
August 16, 2011
Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help is an honest dialogue of what it meant to be the “help” for well-to-do families in rural Mississippi in the 60s. This film is rich both in character and in color.
From a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter comes some color insight from Sharen Davis, costume designer for the film.
“It was tricky because everyone thinks of Mad Men. But that’s about an upper-class Manhattan lifestyle, and this focuses on young women in the South-most of them getting married and having babies…
…I looked at copies of Vogue from the 1960s for inspiration, but it was too sophisticated, so I ended up getting my ideas from Seventeen magazine. It still had that innocent girlie look and lollipop color.”
Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan played by Emma Stone, in “straight skirts and subtle prints” is career oriented and her look is a bit different from the other women.
Her longtime friend Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the Southern belle who wears “bright colors and bold prints because she always has to be seen,” while the outsider of the group is Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain) the bombshell. “Celia’s clothes are more fitted and feminine. She does her best to look like Marilyn Monroe.”
A Study Of Bill Gold’s Poster’s: Color And Typography
July 11th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
July 11, 2011
Bill Gold, called the greatest poster designer in Hollywood, has had an illustrious career designing classic posters for such films as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “The Way We Were”, “Casablanca”, “Hair”, “My Fair Lady”, “The Sting”, “Barry Lyndon” and “Mystic River”.
Here are some examples of his colorful work and some of the rationale behind it.
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
For his first major studio release, it was important to Gold to emphasize the patriotism in the story of George M. Cohan. So he used bright American colors and incorporated the flag design as part of the Uncle Sam hat. He did all the lettering by hand then had a sign painter come in and color it at his direction. The “C” in James Cagney’s name is the same type Gold used for Casablanca.
My Fair Lady (1969)
Gold says he used Peak’s “squiggles to get his juices flowing”. The final poster is a collage of the charcoal drawings, to which Gold added color.
Dirty Harry (1971)
For his first collaboration with Clint Eastwood, Gold saw the police detective’s gun as a central image that he used in all of the poster variations. He exaggerated the size of the gun in the international and main U.S. posters. In the international, he used repeating images and “psychedelic” colors, which design critic Steven Heller praises for having “a pop art quality”.
The Sting (1973)
To capture the 1920s look of the movie, Gold took the approach used in The Saturday Evening Post developed by illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, for both the main poster and the alternate. “The texture of the clothing has a hand-painted quality,” Gold says. “The whole feeling of the story is there.” Gold also used the magazine’s classic lettering style.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
For Stanley Kubrick’s 18th century costume drama, Gold flew to London for three weeks of intense discussions with the director. Kubrick insisted on having a special hand-lettered alphabet created, and Gold suggested the illustrated outer framing. After Gold returned home, he and Kubrick spoke by phone each day for weeks while a Warners messenger flew back and forth daily with sketches. Kubrick kept adding shading around each illustration to make it more distinctive.
Hair (1979)
Gold and illustrator Bob Peak did a lot of experimenting, including the picture of the sun coming through hair. He also played with different lettering styles.
Color Within The Lines and Behind The Seams
January 24th, 2011 § 1 Comment
January 24, 2011
The following designers will no doubt be nominated for Academy Awards for their costuming work.
Behind-The-Seams with Costume Designers
by Elizabeth Snead
Colleen Atwood-Alice In Wonderland
Behind-The-Seams: “The Hatter’s look was based on the real hatters who used mercury in their trade which poisoned them and made them go mad. It also caused their hair to turn a very fried red color and their skin to get very pale…
We wanted the Mad Hatter’s bow tie droopy but, when he cheered up, such as when Alice came around, he perked up and his tie would also get happy. It was controlled by Johnny so he could make it happen when felt it…”
Amy Westcott-Black Swan
Behind-The-Seams: “It was Natalie who recommended Rodarte. …I met with Laura and Kate Mulleavy (Rodarte), and I saw their feathered Vulture Collection-I think it was Spring 2010. It seemed very appropriate…
All the lead characters are based on characters in the ballet. Nina, the White Swan, wears pale colors. When Nina loses her innocence, she starts to dress a little darker. By the end of the film, she’s all in black for the first time…”
Louise St Jernsward-Made In Dagenham
Behind-The-Seams: “It was in the script that it had to be a Biba dress and two girls had to wear it, and Sally was quite a bit smaller than Rosamund. …Biba, which was such a great shop and so inexpensive…
Sally wanted to keep her character very low key in the beginning. She’s a working girl with two kids, so it’s clothes form that era, but practical, simple. As her confidence grows, she gets a bit more stylish, but then she also had less money so I tried to do it with color…”
Jenny Beavan-The King’s Speech
Behind-The-Seams: “We had an incredibly short prep time, just five-and-a-half weeks. So thank God for the Internet. There is an incredible amount of archival footage online-Pathe News-of the Duke and Duchess of York. I had no idea and I was very grateful. We also got the spirit in family Photographs that you can find, as well as books and souvenir albums from the coronation…
The Queen mother loved fur. She had fur trim on practically everything. Not to get PETA riled up, we used very old furs, nothing new. Even though she wore a lot of blues and mauves, the colors were too theatrical on film and too strong on Helena so we used muted softer hues.”
Sandy Powell-The Tempest
Behind-The-Seams: “Julie wanted the characters that lived the island to look like they were part of it. So that’s how it started, looking at images of a place [Lanai] I had never been too….
The idea was for Prospera to look androgynous. Her clothing had to be practical and also have this feeling of coming from the landscape. The shapes were inspired by Japanese fashion designers. The colors are natural, indigo, the color of the sky and sea. The browns and sands work with the land, almost as a kind of camouflage…Julie wanted the court costumes to look like those in Goya or Velazquez paintings, very dark but also metallic…”
Nicoletta Massone-Barney’s Version
Behind-The-Seams: “For Minnie Driver, I had to make everything for her. You can’t find vintage dresses for such a tall woman. I had a lot of documentation for her character. She was very spoiled and very rich. One bracelet is not enough, three is better. I love Minnie’s wedding dress. That was fabulous. And she had the body for it. But, as with any costume, without the actor to give it the life, it is nothing…I always assign a color to every actor/character. If you forget the color, a movie becomes like a carnival. It’s terrible. Giamatti was brown. To show the confusion and gradual loss of Giamatti’s memory, we would leave a button undone or make the cuff a little destroyed or the shoulder pad a little off.
For the full story click the link below.
Our Color Favorites From The Golden Globes
January 19th, 2011 § 3 Comments
January 19, 2011
Now that you have had a few days to digest all of the wonderful fashion from the Golden Globes we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite color statements from the night. We made our choices from the stars who wore colors that really complemented their look (hair, skin and eyes) and a great color that is from their Colortime®.
This is not a commentary on the style, fit or designer that each person wore. We are strictly basing our choices on COLOR.
There are four categories that we will use to place our winners and they are all taken from More Alive With Color (if you are not familiar with MAWC please take a moment to click over and find out more about our groupings). The groups will be the three Colortimes® Sunrise, Sunlight and Sunset then we have our wild card the Crossovers.
Let’s get started.
Sunrise category.
Photo: Steve Granitz / WireImage
Photo: Jason Merritt / Getty Images
Sunlight category.
Photo: Jason Merritt / Getty Images
Photo: Kyle Rover / Startraksphoto.com
Sunset category.
Photo: Steve Granitz / WireImage
Photo: Jason Merritt / Getty Images
Last but not least the Crossovers.
Photo: Jason Merritt / Getty Images
Photo: Jason Merritt / Getty Images
I know that we could have included many more in these categories but that would take all day. Also, did you notice how many people were in neutrals? I thought about adding the Fanguide color names to match the colors but I thought that might be taking it too far as you might not be seeing the color I am seeing (we all know how colors vary from screen to screen).
Feel free to share your thoughts and Fanguide color matches or your top color picks from the Golden Globes.
85 Years Of Treasures
December 6th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
December 6, 2010
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Up From The Vault:
85 Years of Treasures From The Warner Bros. Photo Lab
The images below are just a few of the movie titles that are on view. Click the images for more information to the exhibition.
“165 photographs-some famous, many extremely rare or literally unseen by the public-grace the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery in this exhibition showcasing the remarkable archive amassed over the past 85 years by Warner Bros. Studios.”
“A broad range of photography is included, from glamour portraits to set reference stills, from ad art and publicity photos to behind-the-scenes shots and scene stills. New prints of images taken in black-and-white and color, and in nearly every photographic format, from early 4×5″ negatives to the latest high-resolution digital photos, are on view.”
“The Warner Bros. Photo Lab originated in the early days the studio, circa 1930, and remains the longest continuously operating studio photography department. Its purpose was, and still is, to process the unit photographer’s still images into proofs and prints for publicity and advertising. Staffed by printmakers, archivists and digital designers, the Warner Bros. Photo Lab works with millions of original negatives, photographic prints and digital images created during the making of Warner Bros. films and television programs.”
“The exhibition is organized by the Academy in association with guest curators Greg Dyro and Leith Adams.”
