“We looked initially at David Lean’s B&W classics, such as Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), both shot by the amazing Guy Greene. They’re timeless, the cinematography is stunning, and they set very high bar to reach in they way they evoke emotions.
However, B&W movies are not the perfect visual references to show to studio executives wanting to make a big budget production in colour. So we also talked about certain painters that Ken [Branagh] and Dante [Ferretti, production designer] had in mind. The usual references for candle-lit period dramas are Flemish painters, such as Rembrandt and Vermeer. But these have been done many times over, and were not playful enough for Disney. That was the trick. For the more joyful moments in the movie, they asked me to consider the paintings of Fragonard, an often-overlooked artist. Fortunately, the UK has many of his works at The Wallace Collection in London. The Fragonards are colourful and playful, and I could see how they could open-up new cinematographic opportunities. The “The Swing” in particular, is slightly naughty and flirtatious, and there’s a direct reference to it in the movie.
For the darker, more wretched moments in the movie, we again avoided the typical references, and looked at the works of the French Baroque painter Georges De La Tour. They are unusual, dark, but with bold lighting and strong compositions. I’ve loved his work since being a student at Central St Martin’s and “Joseph The Carpenter” is a masterpiece.
Whilst these painterly references gave us two strong starting points to counterpoint the joy and drudgery within the story, we also wanted a way to treat the seemingly benign but evil step-mother – for her to appear more like a film noir femme fatale. So I suggested that we also consider the portraiture work of Joseph Walker, cinematographer on many of Frank Capra’s best-loved movies, inventor of the zoom lens, and a forerunner of the Hollywood glamour look, and also the large format portrait photography of George Hurrell, upon whom Walker had great influence.” — Haris Zambarloukos on finding the looks for the movie
African wild dogs are social pack animals. (Reuters)
Poachers use wire snares in many parts of Africa to trap wild antelope, but collateral damage occurs too. African wild dogs, one of the world’s most endangered mammals, are often caught by these snares. Due in large part to this poaching practice, the population of African wild dogs has dropped by 90 percent – to 6,660 – in the last century.
So, zoologist Brandon Davis and his team formed the Painted Dog Protection Initiative and designed specialized collars to protect the animals from these deadly entanglements.
The African wild dogs’ susceptibility to snares arises largely from their social nature. They are pack animals that move in groups and look after one another.
African wild dogs are social pack animals. (Reuters)
“They will lick the wounds of the injured,” Davis said, explaining that these animals are “one of the few species that actually care for their injured.”
When one wild dog is snagged by a wire snare, others will return to care for the packmate, and then get trapped or injured as well. If enough traps are present in a snare line, an entire pack can be caught.
Wire snares are lightweight and low cost traps, so they are easy to obtain and use. It takes only a light touch to trigger the wire loop to tighten down on the animal’s neck.
Davis’ team tested the specialised collars on domestic dogs. (Brandon Davis)
Davis’ team noticed tracking collars – used in research to keep tabs on a wild dog’s location – helped animals caught in snares to avoid suffocation. So, the team built custom collars with rivets and clips that allow a trapped animal to breathe and break free.
Now that testing is completed, the Painted Dog Protection Initiative plans to deploy ten collars with wild dogs living in at-risk packs in Zimbabwe. They aim to build 100 additional collars, which could protect 20 percent of the wild dog population in Zimbabwe.
Interesting article with very subtle criticisms. The “experts” want her to wear better made and less expensive clothes as well as more British designers. I do not think that’s what is going to happen.
I lol’d at this one. I thought I was the only one who noticed that hem.
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge’s Wedding Dress and accesories
Designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, the wedding dress (The ivory gown of white satin gazar with overall lace applique work with floral detail, the full skirt with box pleats, the back leading to a 9ft train. The lace bodice with V-neck line and long sleeves. The lace detail incorporating the rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock) is on display alongside the magnificent Cartier ‘Halo’ tiara (A diamond ‘halo’ tiara formed as a band of 16 graduated scrolls, set with 739 brilliants and 149 baton diamonds, each scroll divided by a graduated brilliant and with a large brilliant at the centre; original red leather box, with later Garrards label.) lent by The Queen to The Duchess on her wedding day; The Duchess’s wedding shoes, hand-made by the team at Alexander McQueen (ivory shoes with lace embroidery); the diamond earrings commissioned by the Middleton family as a personal gift to the bride from her parents; a replica of the bridal bouquet(A wedding bouquet of lilly of the valley, hyacinth, sweet william, myrtle and ivory) and a veil made of layers of ivory silk-tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers.
Can we talk about Leslie Jones in the front row at Christian Siriano’s show for New York Fashion Week?
For anyone who may have forgotten, Leslie Jones met Siriano when he volunteered over twitter to dress her for the Ghostbusters 2016 premiere when she was struggling to find a dress as no designer had offered to work with her. This was also amid Leslie’s twitter harassment issues.
Siriano’s show included women of all sizes & skin tones as well as Avie Acosta, who is trans woman and the first trans person in any of Siriano’s NY fashion week shows. As well as being inclusive of gender identity, Siriano included two gender non conforming androgynous male models in the show.
Leslie has said of Siriano that “he’s so normal, he’s so down to earth, and he does love all women. That’s what I love about him. He loves all women.”
So in the words of Siriano himself, “people are people,” & “we all grow in the same garden.”
TOP 50 CHARACTERS(as voted by my followers) #38 → Ned Stark (Game of Thrones)
“You think my life is some precious thing to me? That I would trade my honour for a few more years of… of what? You grew up with actors. You learned their craft and you learned it well. But I grew up with soldiers. I learned how to die a long time ago.”
I’m not sure exactly when I started making a point to visit libraries when I traveled, but I think it was a trip to see my sister in Birmingham, UK just a few years ago. We walked by their amazing brutalist library – that was being torn down. I happened to be in town for the grand opening of the brand new wedding cake library, and Malala was speaking SO of course we had to go. After that, it became A Thing. Even on a recent day trip within my own state, we visited two small town libraries that happened to be open. If there’s a gift shop or a used book sale, I buy something. I love seeing the different spaces. Definitely recommend this!
Of course, it’s not too weird given the conversation about Rose and Kit. Britain is a class driven society. Imagine you leave school and you decide you want to be an actor. You’d probably have to move to London where rent is astronomically high. For the average person, they couldn’t afford rent in London on an acting salary so they have to get another job. They would probably end up on a zero hours contract or a low skilled job because they need time to do their acting. That means their focus is divided, they have less time to invest in acting, and eventually they’re likely to come to a point where they have to make a choice as the lifestyle isn’t sustainable. But for someone from the upper classes, they’re much more likely to have someone who will pay for their rent or provide a living allowance. That means they don’t have to get that second job, they can focus entirely on acting. They can stay in London for years until they make it big because there’s less worry. Does that make sense? A lot of career paths will require you to do unpaid internships or have a very low wage for various reasons and unless you have a family who can financially support you for as long as it takes to do it then it’s going to be much much harder for you.
There’s also a really interesting difference in terms of aspirations. So for example I was watching Frankie Boyle’s New World Order yesterday (it’s a satirical panel show, not important). A comedian who I love called Romesh Ranganathan was talking about how he used to be a teacher at an Outstanding school (that’s the best rating a school can be given by government inspectors) and gave it up to teach at a school that had just come out of special measures (that’s basically the worst rating a school can have). Anyway, he said that at his Outstanding school he ran a parents evening where they talked about applying for university, bursaries and loans etc etc. Then he tried to do the same thing at the special measures school and all the parents were incredibly hostile as they thought university was pointless and for snobs and that their child should get a job straight away. I’m not saying that those parents are wrong- I think that their concerns come out of a genuine place and are driven by our class based society- but it just shows you how different things can be. I went to private school and the one girl who wanted to go straight in to a job instead of uni was “persuaded” not to by the school staff. But in other schools there’s no expectation that most pupils will go to university. It’s all part of the same issue.
They are all mentally twelve years old. That’s why we’ve gone from spooning bananas and monogram necklaces to dog adoptions and sleepovers with the Queen.
Yeah anon, as last Saturday showed, Megs is really putting the fear of god into Kate, who is–no doubt–going to spend another week with her children not at all worried about Meg’s future fuckups this summer.
Maybe. Cory & Trevor can always find ways of “talking-but-not-talking.” I don’t know all the people Megs has pissed off in her life, so there’s still the possibility of some shit coming out of the middle of nowhere. Piers Morgan is a known known in Megs life. I don’t know what else she has out there, but it’s definitely more than Piers though.
I think the most significant thing about Piers at this point is that since he’s a member of the press, it means that other members of the press will try to scoop him if they find out he’s going to break something big.
House of Brat 