Lady Van Tassel's dress from Sleepy Hollow (1999)

I saw this dress at the Celebrity Treasures exhibition at Redcar, this was my favourite piece from the exhibit because of the amazing detail in all the different sections.

In the exhibit there weren't any photo's of the costumes or props in play so I found this photo from Google, while searching this specific dress from the film I came across the other costumes in the film that I've never fully appreciated. So here I am appreciating them now... 

The costumes were designed by Colleen Atwood in this film she was nominated for a BAFTA and won for Best Costume Design and also nominated for an Academy Award. She also designed for Chicago in 2002 and Alice in Wonderland and won awards for those as well as others but these two were my favourites!

Kirkleatham Museum, Celebrity Treasures Exhibit

Last week I visited Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar, they had an exhibit called Celebrity Treasures. They had costumes, props and drawings from films, TV programs and celebrities old clothes such as Marilyn Monroe's party dress. I enjoyed seeing the details close up of the costumes from film and TV. My favourite costume was from Sleepy Hollow but I will do a blog post separate to this one and go into more detail. 

Here are some photos from the exhibit...

Original Wednesday Adams dress from the film. I love the detail under the arms.

Graham Norton's jacket he wore on his talk show.

Lucy Lui's Charlie's Angels costume for a motocross scene on the film Full Throttle (2003).

This is a resin maquette is for the Spy Kids first film. 

Pirates of the Carribean extra's costume.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Alien Explorer Costume. The costume consists of trousers with copper mesh over patterned brown vinyl strips and jacket with faux fur shoulders.

 

Jonas Brothers costumes from Camp Rock.

The Snow Queen at The Rose Theatre in Kingston

Su Blackwell is the set designer for the production of The Snow Queen at The Rose Theatre. I can see her designs are clearly influenced by storytelling and fairy tales by the simple but very effective book page trees in this photo...

In the story of The Snow Queen there is two children that are inseparable but one has an evil spell cast upon them and is whisked away by the Snow Queen so the set has to be magical and the pages makes the play feel like it's a dream.

 

This scene reminds me of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe because of the lamp post surrounded by what looks like a forest. The lamp post doesn't look peculiar in amongst the trees though because it's been coated in the book pages. 

The lights on the stage have set a cold feel along with the snow on the ground but it's is so easy to change the scene by changing the light which is shown here by the warmness of the light coming from the lamppost. It feels cosy and the red rose around the lamppost suggests romance. If the actors weren't present I could still tell the story from the scenery and light which is I believe makes a great set.

Looking through the photo's I have found from the play I realised I'd seen a similar image which my college tutor gave me for research which is here... and would you believe it, it's the same artist, Su Blackwell. Her artwork has been exhibited in London, New York and Melbourne.

Unfortunately the play is no longer showing but enjoy the few photo's I've found along with the link to the Rose Theatre and look in the Archive section for more information. >>> Rose Theatre

Wizards Vs Aliens CBBC

Wizards Vs Aliens is about the Nekross (the aliens) invading the earth for magic. The show is created by Russel T Davies and Phil Ford Davies is the writer from Doctor Who and Ford joined him on Sarah Jane Adventures also shown on the CBBC. 

I came across this children's TV show when my brothers were watching it, the first thing I noticed was the amazing sets and costumes! There was an amazing magical basement with an elf/goblin creature and after some research found out he's a hobgoblin... Anyway he had great prosthetics. I immediately wanted to be part of the creativeness behind the show!

                                             

Fco Javier Coronilla is the puppet maker from Millennium FX. Richard Martin is the prosthetic artist also from Millennium FX, he worked on a few Doctor Who episodes too. Think I may of found my way in to working on one of the best British shows ever!! (Dr Who) Researching into other CBBC shows I've seen links to people working in the BBC as well as CBBC. 

American Horror Story- Coven. Costume Designers.

American Horror Story, Coven was aired in the UK in late October 2013. There's only a year between each series. In the quotes below the costume designer states that she was only given 6 weeks and 4 days to complete and ready the costumes. They found a lot of the garments from vintage stores and online. I would love to work in the costume department for American Horror Story because it would be new every series, the era's change during episodes so it would be impossible to get bored! 

Entertainment Weekly asked, "What is it like designing for an entirely new time and place each season?"“It’s like doing a movie every week,” Eyrich told EW, adding that she only had six weeks to ready the wardrobe for Coven and about four days to prep each episode. “Ryan Murphy has a vision before we even get started. He shares his ideas with me and then I do mood boards and we go over each character and decide what their look would be. This [past] season he wanted each character to have an iconic look. It’s both fun and quite intimidating.”

How does AHS differ from any other show you’ve worked on?
The big difference is, with all the other shows I’ve done, you get to build closets from season to season, you have a stash of wardrobe, like your own closet. You get to run in and [pull anything you need]. But because every AHS season is new, you’re starting over fresh with new characters. You don’t have that stash. Because we shot [this season] in New Orleans… I had not done a television series on location before, so [I had to] get to know a new city and where to find the things I’d need for an 1830s flashback or a Salem witch hunt. 

My favourite characters costume is Zoe Benson's played by Taissa Farmiga, her clothes are long and boho chic but every thing is darkly coloured or black! 

I love that every series is completely different, they don't carry on from the last but have the same actors. The actors are very good at their job, you can forget they were a mass murderer in the last series within 1 new episode. The costume department helped along with the transitions between all 3 series by sitting down and totally re-designing every characters wardrobe. 

Lord Of The Rings Theatre Production, Toronto

 This is the construction of the Lord of the Rings stage set. The different sections elevate to different levels and produce a totally different scene. The production reportedly cost £12 million, so the set better be great!

This is the stage in action, it makes the scene so much more powerful... it may of been a little too powerful, one of the cast members legs got caught in the moving stage and the performance was suspended!

The costume designs for the tree's are lovely, you can tell what they are but aren't too obvious and trying too hard. It is always great to see something different to the norm.

This photo shows the stage in a different position and some of the great costumes. 

 These are the Nazgul also known as the dark riders, the puppets are so clever and yet so scary!

The Eye of Sauron as a flat back drop. Simple but effective.

In my research I also found out The National Geographic Channel produced a 50-minute television program as part of their INSIDE series that followed the London production from the first day of rehearsals to the first performance. 

I would really love to see the theatre production and see if the acting is as good as the set and costume.

 The production will be revived for a 2015 world tour, yey!

Matilda The Musical

Matilda the Musical

Matilda the Musical is showing at The Cambridge Theatre at the moment and performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). I found out the set and costume designer, Rob Howell, is the same man that designed the sets for Lord of the Rings musical in America. I really enjoy all of Tolkien's books and feel the films have done them justice so I would like to see if the musical has worked out as well! But that is for another time and blog post... Back to the wonderfully designed set of Matilda.

This is a set scale model of the stage- scale models are great to help you visualise the space better. 

The whole concept of the wooden letter boxes is great, very eye catching and they can be transformed easily just by the lighting. Cheerful and playful one minute then, they look as if they were reflecting upon the past happy times the next.