The Creative Maze: Costume-making for Film.

Hello again, and welcome back to The Creative Maze.

You may remember, from my last Creative Maze post, I promised you a decent image of my finished huntress costume for filming later this year?  Well, here are a few shots...

The Creative Maze: Val - Costume-making for Film

Hello again and welcome back to The Creative Maze.  Today, I have an update for you on the costume I am making for a summer film project.  You may remember that last time I had to make some adjustments to the skirt of the original bought pattern.  Well, those adjustments seem to have worked on the calico mock-up and so I've taken the plunge and cut out the pattern pieces in the main fabric - always a scary prospect as you don't want to get it wrong!  So far, so good...

The Daily Maze

On This Day:

On this day in 1953, House of Wax, the first color 3-D movie from a major American studio premiered in New York City. The film starred Vincent Price, Carolyn Jones, and Phyllis Kirk and is a horror classic.

You can read more about it here and here.

Also, you can view a clip from House of Wax here.

Arts and Culture : Graduation Day at the Barbican

Hi everyone, and a very Happy Saturday to you all.

I'm REALLY excited today, as I'm graduating this afternoon after four wonderful years of study!  I live in the far west of England, but chose to graduate at the Barbican in London, as I'm from London originally, my close family still live there, and it makes for a great day out.  A weekend away is always a bonus, too.  I remember going to a classical music concert at the Barbican when my husband and I were first dating, but that was years ago (Okay, not that long!), and I hadn't realised what a fascinating place it is.  I thought it might be interesting to show you a little about it, and, if you like, they have a dedicated YouTube channel where you can watch more of what goes on there.

The Creative Maze: Costume-making for Film

Hello again, and welcome back to the Creative Maze.  Today’s post concerns costume-making, as a certain member of my family wants to work in the film industry when she’s older, and has asked me to make some costumes for a film she wants to shoot in Scotland later this year.  I thought it might be interesting to document the progress, and, hopefully, they’ll turn out alright!

Sewing has always been part of my life.  My mum made dresses for me when I was a little girl, and knitted cardigans and jumpers too, and I wanted to have a go and be able to make wonderful things like she did.  Mum taught me early on how to use her sewing machine.  Sewing was just something we did, and I loved it.  In fact, I don’t remember not sewing –  I recall patching small pieces of fabric together, and trying to make little dresses for my dolls when I was quite young.  It’s great that these sorts of skills are having such a huge resurgence at the moment, and I’m particularly enjoying the second series of The Great British Sewing Bee currently showing on the BBC.  I think it’s so important to be able to divert from the digital in the modern world, don't you?  Anyway, I digress, so back to the costumes...

Arts and Culture : The Power of Film

Many people talk about the power of film, and I was struck by this ‘power’ just last week whilst watching Paul Greengrass’s magnificent ‘Captain Phillips’.  Based on the true story of the hijacking of Captain Phillips’ ship off the coast of Somalia, the film is a thriller with tension levels off the scale.  Tom Hanks, in the title role, gives a phenomenal performance and Barkhad Abdi’s portrayal of Muse, the Somali pirate captain, was so good he won this year’s BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor – pretty amazing, as this was his first film role.
As a family, we felt we’d all been on a journey through watching this film.  We were all completely immersed by its tension and characters.  We talked afterwards about what made it such a ‘good’ film, and here are some of our responses: