Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Breaking News: EW Puts 'Beauty and the Beast' on the Cover & Shares 9 New Stills

All aboard the roller coaster ride to the release of Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast!

About an hour ago, Entertainment Weekly shared the cover for their upcoming cover, which has exclusive photos and cast interviews on the movie. Already going viral, the EW website has shared nine stills from the movie, giving fans the best taste to-date of what the film will be like.

From EW:
 For this week’s cover story, EW visited the film’s U.K. set and spoke with [the cast], as well as director Bill Condon and costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who talked about creating the new version of the iconic yellow dress Belle wears in the original film’s ballroom scene. In addition, we chatted with Ewan McGregor, who voices the enchanted, “Be Our Guest”-performing candelabra Lumière, and Sir Ian McKellen, who plays the clock Cogsworth and was apparently desperate to get his own big production number. “I kept singing what I thought would be a rather good addition to the score,” says the X-Men franchise star. “‘My name is Cogsworth!/ And I’m a clock!/Ticktock!’ But I didn’t get my own song.” 
Readers can also find out about the film’s new songs — penned by Alan Menken and Tim Rice — and feast their eyes on an array of exclusive photos featuring all of the aforementioned characters as well as Belle’s father, Maurice (Kevin Kline), Mrs Potts. (Emma Thompson), and Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).
Clark Collis, Senior Editor for Entertainment Weekly, gave a brief and entertaining interview, talking about writing the cover story for the upcoming issue, which you can see (along with sneak peeks) below:
G-nome. Heh.

Okay then.

Are you ready for the images? 

Here they are:








We have no doubt there are fans out there in happy tears right now, while others are still scratching their heads over those enchanted objects. Overall, it doesn't appear to be a great departure from the animated classic at all. Our one query is that it seems a bit dark with lots of browns and dark, moody lighting, but then, these are production stills, and they can often look quite different in tone from the movie. Either way, everyone in the office here has announced they'd happily cough up for silver screen tickets.

Bustle grabbed this preview from the video shared above, a cropped shot of one of the spreads from the upcoming EW issue, specifically discussing costuming and design. If you look closely you can see comments about that famous yellow dress.
The one we like best is:
“For Emma, it was important that the dress was light and that it had a lot of movement… In Emma’s reinterpretation, Belle is an active princess. She did not want a dress that was corseted or that would impede her in any way.”
To see more you'll need to pick up a copy of Entertainment Weekly, which will be on stands this Friday, and/or subscribe for the exclusive access features.
The current Twitter header for Entertainment Weekly. You can see a larger version, showing all the nuances in expressions, HERE.
Update at 1:16pm, same day: We have just learned that Emma Watson has been participating in the Books in the Underground movement, leaving copies of books they love, all around the London Tube. The BBC reported:
“The star left the novels as part of the Books On The Underground movement which sees ‘book fairies’ leave their favourite reads for people to enjoy. Watson left about 100 books with some including a hand-written note….Books on the Underground started in 2012 and leave about 150 books in stations across London each week.”
Emma Watson is a book fairy! Can we like this woman any more?

Fairy Tale Bonus of the Day:
Ever wonder who was Linda Woolverton's inspiration for writing Belle as she did? (Woolverton was screenwriter of Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast.)

EW and Bustle shared some behind the scenes on this earlier in May this year, which we're now sharing some of below:
Entertainment Weekly... interviewed the legendary screenwriter behind the movie, Linda Woolverton, to ask her about Belle's development as a character — and, in turn, to uncover one big thing about Beauty and the Beast that even hardcore fans don't know... Probably the most unexpected part of the interview centers on how Hollywood back then was dominated by "the whole idea of the heroine-victim" — something hard to imagine post tough-Disney heroines like Princess Jasmine, Mulan, and Merida. Woolverton discovered her own background in the feminist movement in the '60s and '70s meant she "definitely couldn’t buy that this smart, attractive young girl, Belle, would be sitting around and waiting for her prince to come."
"That she was someone who suffers in silence and only wants a pure rose? That she takes all this abuse but is still good at heart? I had a hard time with that," she told EW.

And then she revealed her inspiration: Katherine Hepburn in 1933's Little Women (playing Jo).


When EW asked Woolverton about her having said she modeled the character after Katharine Hepburn in Little Women, the screenwriter responded:
Yes. That was a real depiction of womanhood. I think you can take on current issues of today through fairy tales or the mythic. And so that was my fight, always saying, 'The audience is just not gonna buy this anymore.'

It's not difficult to see some parallels between Belle and Hepburn/Jo, like the wandering, book reading and love of outdoors, is it? We think she made a good choice.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A Brave Cosplay Take on "Brave" (Yup, That's A Real Bear!)

The internet has been wowed this last week (at time of writing) with Jessica Chastain's new Merida look (courtesy of Annie Leibovitz for Disney Parks) but before then there was a different Brave photoshoot, with a very different Merida (and a very brave model), and it's currently going viral in English speaking countries now that Chinese and Japanese cosplay sites have spread the word.
While it's a little difficult to see Pixar's Merida in these shots, they were inspired by the fairy tale movie. In fact the model is a Russian cosplayer named, Tina Rybakova, who invited/collaborated with Dasha Kond on this project. I'm sharing this shoot particularly because I noticed that there's a whole lot of fairy tale folk who ADORE the theme of women and bears in myth and fairy tales. It turns out too, that this photographer has a strong fairy tale sensibility in setting up her photos, particularly in showing animal-human connections.
The photos are from Moscow-based fashion photographer Dasha Kond, who often uses real animals in shoots, whether they are wolves, camels, horses, snakes, and more.

Russian photographer Dasha Kond* does a lot of work with trained animals (I can't find very much info at all on the animals sorry - I wish I could, to be sure they were being taken care of properly) but it's clear to see she has a strong sense of myth and story when she shoots people with animals in particular. Though all her photography is excellent, there's something special about how she shoots different species together, implying both have a story to tell.

I have fond SO MANY beautiful images I simply can't add them all here but below the jump is a collection of my favorites so far (I've run out of time trying to see every photo, there are so many!) You can see the 2 300, or so, more photos HERE.


In the meantime, jump on over and take a look at the other fairy tale-ish images. I included some that are most definitely fairy tale but without an animal but it's clear the magical human/animal connection is what inspires most of the photography.

Oh and yes, there are more 'girls and their bears' images too.
✒ ✒ Click the "Read more" link below for MANY more fairy tale like images with animals c/- Dash Kond ✒ ✒

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Behind the Disney Brave Shoot

This would be my favorite unofficial photo for composition & lighting
A little bonus because I know there's a whole lot of you (us) who like seeing these things: here are some lovely behind-the-scenes photos that appeared the day after Jessica Chastain's Merida was released into the internet-wilds.

To remind you, here's the official pic (looks like the color is bumped up in this one but it works - that hair is definitely Merida-red now!):

And here are the other behind-the-scenes shots (my favorite is at the head of the post, but you probably read that).
 
Apart from the cars in the background ruining it somewhat, this is my favorite "most natural Merida & Angus".
Jessica most embodies the Merida spirit here & check the horses' ears & eyeline: he likes her!
(So now I like her even more)
Did you notice the horse got a little photoshopping of his own re the markings and the high gloss? I know he had to match Angus but still... seems a crime that such a beautiful animal should need his image altered. But when you see things like this, and also like Jessica rehearsing on the plastic model, her boot stabilizing her position by being on a concrete block, you realize how much more amazing it is when stories - and real life - have these elements in them - without the props and extra touches. (Hollywood's fairy godmothers have to work pretty hard to get their fairy tales just "so"!)

So what does this have to do with anything in fairy tales? Very little - apart from reminding you that Brave and Scottish tales are back in the public mind and eye.

Therefore, you will now be returned to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

"Where Your Destiny Awaits" by Annie Leibovitz

And here she is: Jessica Chastain as Merida for the Disney Dream Portraits series for Disney Parks, photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

I did a quick search to track down what movie-Merida looked like doing mounted archery and found these reference images:
Then I discovered there's already a real life Merida who does the real thing. She's a professional stunt woman and archery coordinator who specializes in recurve, compound, longbow, crossbow, barebow, horsebow and mounted archery. (Phew!) Her name is Virginia Hankins, she looks like this (yes, that's her own hair). and she's had no shortage of work since Brave.
She's also a free diver and does movie stunt work as a mermaid (see below). The woman is like a walking fairy tale heroine! (Can I be her when I grow up??)

But I digress..

As per usual, I got to wondering about stories with mounted archers and wondered where in the world they might make a regular appearance. Turns out Russian hunters used mounted archery a lot, Iranian peoples specialized (still do), Native Americans (both Northern and Southern), Mongols and Turks but it became a particularly honored tradition among the Samurai (called Yabusame). While it's on the rise again in European countries, including Britain, the Scots weren't listed among the world's fiercest in horse archery warfare in history as Japan and Iran were. Though they did use this technique, as the majority of ancient hunters with regular access to horses did, it doesn't seem they practiced specialized training as much.

Here's a photo of a modern female mounted archer from Oregon, Katie Stearns, with her horse, Magic, painted to match her own costume. I kind of love that she studied anthropology before going into her horse training full time.
Katie Stearns aka Morwen or The Flying Dutchess
While I haven't had time to do any serious research, there are quite a few fairy tales in which archery features, though not usually as the main feature. Robin Hood's legend grew up around his skill, of course, but the Firebird centers on 'the king's archer' who comes across a fiery feather, and there are some Japanese tales that feature archers as well.
Behind-the-scenes of "Where Your Destiny Awaits" shoot
But back to the reason for the post: what do you think of the official new Merida?

New Addition to Annie Leibovitz's Disney Dream Portrait Series: Jessica Chastain as Merida

You knew it was only a matter of time but there have been so many excellent cosplays of Merida since Brave hit the big screen that Ms. Leibovitz actually has quite a challenge on her hands to top them!

ET released a behind the scenes video on Wednesday afternoon:
Jessica Chastain isn't quite who I would have chosen since she looks far more fragile to me than Merida should but I have no doubt the results will looks stunning no matter what. We should see the photo some time today...

In the meantime, here are some of my favorite cosplay pics for Merida. Yes, there are a lot  - and I applaud the creativity and attention to detail of each girl (and team) that put these images together - it's kind of wonderful - and since I can't think of a time when I might show these again I'm putting them all here. Enjoy:
Aeriat
Shua-cosplay
Ida Sofie aka. Starbit Cosplay
Monique Duke
Monique Duke

Shua-cosplay
Pugoffka
GreatQueenLina
Re-Aska
AlexanderNVIDIA
shua-cosplay
Re-Aska
MikiLavi
MikiLavi
MikiLavi
AlexanderNVIDIA
Tathariel Creations