Doodles.

Thumbnails from working on designs for The Marriage of Figaro. The final design is going to be a mix between the 1950s and the 1780s. Fun Times.

Boardwalk Empire Research

Been working on designs for the pilot of Boardwalk Empire. For those who are not familiar with the show, it's about mobsters in Atlantic City on the day prohibition was instated. Lots of mob bosses, loose women, prohibition supporters and FBI officials.

Here's a sampling of some of the fantastic research I've accumulated over the past couple of weeks.

Atlantic City boardwalk and looks from 1919:

 

Parties on the night before prohibition:

Prohibition & Gangsters:

AT&T: They Grow Up Fast

There sure has been a rush of new projects. A double Sally Beauty commercial day on Sunday and then yesterday it was AT&T. The premise of this one is a boy and his dad are at the zoo and see a bug. The dad pulls out his phone to find more info about the bug and because his service takes to long, his son grows up.

It's tough when you have absolutely no budget and have to pull together costumes from the actors' wardrobes. This happens when actors aren't cast until a few days beforehand. It gets even worse when there is a sight gag that relies on different actors in matching costumes. For this shoot the boy grows up before our eyes. To indicate that we put the both actors in the same costume. The only thing to get through it is insist on a budget (which goes over so well with producers) or make those actors bring in as many clothes as they possibly can and pretend you're on Project Runway.

Father and son(s):

The background cast:

Sally Beauty Supply

I've been having a fantastic week. Right now I'm designing costumes for a couple of spec commercials with director Yuyo Villamar. How spec commercials work (or at least how I think it does) is an advertising agency orders these commercials using production companies, then after seeing the final cut they decide if they want to use them.

Sunday we shot 2 versions of a commercial for Sally Beauty Supply: one in English and one habla Español. The lead actress was bilingual but there were two actors that played the male lead. The premise is a woman invites her date, ahem, "up for a nightcap," ahem, while her team of Sally stylists observe at the edge of the bed, making sure she looks flawless. Whether or not these ads get picked up, they were a lot of fun to work on. 11 actors + 7 crew members in one very small bedroom for 8 hours = good times for all!

Our Leading Lady and her Stylists:

The English and Spanish versions of our Leading Man:

Stylists proud of their handiwork:

Mash-up of Favorites

It's the end of the school year and even though I still have one more project to go, I thought I'd do a mini retrospective. It's been a tough year but looking back it was all worth it! Here are my favorites from classes, theater and film productions in no particular order.