IN THE GALLERY

Holidays at Reston, New Shows, Costumes. Yeah. We have fun!

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:48:57 -0500

Just came back from playing Belle in the Reston Town Center holiday parade. I asked by sister Coco to play Cinderella. She looks so much like her, she could be hired at Disney. We also had the 501st Legion with us in the parade, and they are always wonderful to have--helpful, very interested in charity (we love that!)…

I've played Snow White (there are pictures…), Maleficent, the Queen from Snow White, Cruella, A fictitious professor at Hogwarts, a pirate on Jack Sparrow's ship, Princess Leia, the Grinch, Bugs Bunny, and now, Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Just when you wonder what good going to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in England will do…since when I dress as Snow White I look not a little like a drag queen I have discovered kids just love princesses, and they won't notice that instead of 15 she might look around 35. Today as Belle I get spontaneous hus Bless them, I say…

We have been so busy this year we haven't had time to update what we've been doing on this blog, but let's just say we've spent lots of time out at conventions and special events...

like:
I was at the Harry Potter premiere in London for the very last movie and walked a red carpet that is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for its length.

We had our very first panel for The Art of the Hollywood Movie Poster at the San Diego Comic Convention. (it went so well we had folks who had sat in on other panels just to be able to get into ours!! a great sign!)

We were also at Leakycon, went to Paris and the South of France to visit animators and go to a family reunion, and went to D23, where we were the only ones who had ONLY original art by Disney interpretive artists.

I'll tell more when I ever write "ArtInsights: The World Tour".

All of it went incredibly well, and we've had our best year so far!

We have big new things in store, and have plans to work with more wonderful artists we met on our travels, but just getting through the year doing what we planned was amazing!

We haven't been actively open as much this year, because we've been gone so much so for those of you interested in visiting us, give a call and make sure we aren't off somewhere doing ambassador stuff for the art of film, or visiting John Alvin's wife Andrea, or some such fun thing, because we'd love to see you!

Meanwhile, one of the big additions to our offering (and workload!) is we started including movie reviews on our web magazine more and more, and Cinema Siren is featured on Patch now, not just a few favorite Patches, (like Herndon.patch.com and rosehill.patch.com, both of which are edited by good friends) but often we are featured on tons of Patches all over Northern Virginia and Maryland, and we've had up to 200,000 people read one review so far. Should we aim for a million???

Not sure where that will take us, but we know it will expand awareness of film art, which is good, since it takes a long time to write them, and we take it seriously!

We are just finishing up the opening of Chuck Jones's 100th Birthday kick-off, (an honor from the family) and we were involved in the first Washington West film festival (I was a juror) and we represented Chuck's family at the festival. I also voted for some amazing animated films and met some great film makers.

We've interviewed some great artists this year, and covered some great events (like the Harry Potter premiere!) and look forward to doing that more and more!

Our big new deal this December is some John Alvin art we've actually been authorized to sell for his estate, and we are trying to get as much of it on our site as possible. We want also to try to change to Paypal International so we can take payments from all over the world without a headache for the clients, and so we can be assured everything gets processed smoothly for everyone. We'll let you know when we get all that together!

Keep checking back to see more of John's art, like originals from Blade Runner and E.T. when he was working on the posters for those films. VERY exciting!

New artists are joining us all the time, but we are only a few of us here, so we add them slowly! Check back for that too. We also have a new intern, Victory, so if she answers the phone, say hi to her, she's a great help to us.

Lastly, if you appreciate our web magazine, my interviews, reviews, and our educational perspective, both inside the gallery and out in the world, tell the world about how wonderful we are. That's how we get our best clients, is through word of mouth. Usually once people start buying from us, they find we are jolly good fun!!

Thanks and happy holidays!

Leslie (and Michael!)

Things are Warming up in the Film Art World: more artists, more interviews, more fun!

Wed, 18 May 2011 16:17:05 -0400

As it says in "Hello Dolly", (and Wall-E!) "It only takes a moment"... for everything to change. Brrrrr, it's COLD in January… for us life is about finding art no one in their right mind could refuse. I could say I trust in the universe on that, and maybe that's true, because invariably we find something spectacular and our clients are beside themselves with glee. Is it enough to skip headlong through the financial daisies? Sometimes. Mostly, though, it's like hibernation. We wait and work, continuing our search for new great art and artists we want to represent, hoping we encounter collectors and artists who match their talents and desires.

All hail the thaw--the warming up! Something about it here on the east coast and here in our gallery leads to fresh optimism, to deals finally taking shape, interests peaking, and new fans and collectors becoming loyal clients here. It has happened every year. And this year is no exception. I'm SO GLAD!

So what about ArtInsights? As we've sprung forward and are moving to summer, what's new and exciting?

Well, we just returned from a great trip to LA, Burbank and Hollywood, and interviewed a slew of incredibly talented artists--animators and illustrators and film artists. For the most part we have some of their original work or are representing them in some way, or hope to in the future--and they all have very interesting stories to tell and lessons to teach--

Let me tell you about some of the very talented artists well known in Hollywood and the exciting partnerships we are entering into:

There's Mike Hobson, who has created many of the most recent images for the Disney and Pixar movie posters. He keeps sending me amazing image after amazing image, and if belatedly he says "Sorry, i was working on the new….(fill in the blank of the most recent awesome Disney release)". ummmm. Go team! Yet another kind hearted humble guy who had ONE picture of himself and hasn't gotten to sending me another one for our site he was the first person i interviewed when we got to LA…now i have a video of him talking stories and concepts from his career history with Disney and other famed Hollywood studios.

His pieces are beautiful, and represent some of the only original production art available of the characters shown. If you are a fan of recent Disney movies like The Incredibles, Cars (or Cars 2), Princess and the Frog, or Tangled, his art is very impressive--he has been creating images for movie posters for 40 years, after all!

We also have just started working with artist James Goodridge, who is still a working artist in Hollywood, having worked on Sucker Punch, True Blood, HP7.1 and HP7.2, as well as a host of great recent movies. He created images for Wall-E, and that work is filled with heart and the best of what the movie became. I discovered i had Mr. Spock as my first love in common with his wife…and his interview was inspiring-- this artist teaches how determination mixed with talent is an unbeatable combination!

And we are VERY EXCITED about a partnership with the estate of Bob Peak with his son Matthew, who is a really great movie artist in his own right! Bob Peak is considered "The Father of the Hollywood Movie Poster"….and we now have access to the original paintings for Funny Girl, some comps from the original poster for My Fair Lady and some other amazing images, you have to check out the new art as we get it up on the site!

Things are changing in the Disney interpretive art world as well. We are just now putting together the interviews for some of the best and brightest artists who have worked inside Disney and we'll have original interpretive art by them available either by commission or as they become available. There are artists like Lisa Keene, who has worked at Disney since The Black Cauldron era and has had a hand in many movies over the past 15 years up to and including the very latest, Tangled. We also talked to art director for The Little Mermaid, Mike Peraza, and will be interviewing him again with his wife, who is also an animator! Once we heard his influences and experiences inside Disney, you could really see each of these mentors expressed in his own art. Once again, humble. and once again, awesome!

There's a new artist we've fallen in love with who is doing interpretive art for Disney who is known for entirely different imagery….his name is Tennessee Loveless and he's been doing pop drag queen art and getting raves, now he's turning his unique eye on Disney imagery. He actually designed the Disney villains products for MAC cosmetics--and a series of band aids that have become an instant collectible…outrageous and so much fun--i wanted to put his fashionable little bod in my pocket and fly him home with me!

Also, Acme has stepped up their game in the Disney Studio interpretive art with new artists and images more classically inspired--by artists like the movie concept artist Stephan Martiniere and famed movie concept artist for Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear and Star Wars William Silvers, who we also interviewed for the web magazine. Bill has been doing original backgrounds for Disney and Industrial Light and Magic (for Star Wars) and has just begun creating a new series of traditional Disney images, as well as a super funky alternative design style he paints on paper called "birds nest", which really has to be seen in person to be believed. Totally all about texture and speed, which is the opposite of the mat paintings. Both express his artistic passion but in completely different ways. His interview was so great, and I found he would be very inspiring to new artists and those reaffirming their commitment to their own vision.

While we were in LA we all went to the El Capitan theatre--where Citizen Kane made its debut in 1941, and saw the exhibit by Disney artist Andreas Deja that was part of the release of the movie "African Cats". He created images in watercolor (some of which were turned into limited editions) of a variety of African wildlife, with a portion of proceeds to benefit the African Wildlife Foundation. I interviewed Andreas about his career and heard some great stories and trivia and you will too when i put up the video!

For more information about these artists you can call me or check them out online on our gallery site, as we add new art, and each of the interviews we've done! And of course, we'll always add more information and interviews as we find them or conduct them! Some of the artists we just interviewed aren’t quite ready to be seen yet (Disney gets the first OFFICIAL eyeball) so just keep checking back and we’ll have new surprises showing up often now!

Lastly, the folks over at Pixar allowed a few interpretations of their films by Disney interpretive artists, and we got to sell some of the originals--we were very pleased with their images, and since many of these artists are our friends, we love to see the excel. Check these images out! They are also on our site, so if you’re into Pixar movies, go look at what is available from your fave Pixar release...(mine are Monsters Inc, Ratatouille, and Wall-E)

In the gallery: MOVIE AWARDS PRIMER

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:03:01 -0500

The movie art I promote and sell is from a wide spectrum of film genres. We have lots of Star Wars and other
populist movies represented. All longterm fans of animation know well how the Academy and critics associations routinely dis
Disney movies, as if cartoon art is an oxymoron. Yes, things have changed for the positive, but there is definitely a weight given to dark sad auteur films that comedies don’t get, and so on...at the same time, some of these supposed awards have the distinct odor of “money walks, bullshit talks”. For this reason, I thought i’d give you some information on the awards show that wins it’s own prize in that arena....

What does this have to do with my gallery? Well, I spend all day long promoting the beauty importance and worthiness of the
art of film and animation. When collectors of what they call “real art” ask me why I only have cartoons and “Star Wars pictures”,
suggesting I sell out by showing such populist imagery, I have to show some concern about the way the movie industry points
to one movie vs. another for accolades and declarations of artistic prowess.

Case in point, many of my clients thought Inception was genius. It might be a movie, like Nightmare Before Christmas, whose
fans will create a rabid collector base in the longterm, after the movie gets less accolades in it’s release than it deserves...

So. Here is what my research, after my curiosity at both Burlesque being nominated for Best Comedy or Musical, and Piper
Perabo (not known for her mad acting skillz) was nominated for a show i’d never heard of...

THE GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS 2011: THE SCAM, THE POWER, AND HOLLYWOOD’S BLIND EYE...

If The Golden Globes and it's voting body the Hollywood Foreign Press Association were a relative, they'd be the cousin who calls themselves a "filmmaker" but actually works at Blockbuster. Or your cousin in "high finance on Wall Street" who sweeps the floors after the closing bell….well, you get the idea…except your cousin would be routinely flown around the world and given many thousands of dollars in perks every year as part of their job.

For some years now, the Golden Globes have been increasingly mired in controversies, accusations of bribery, and litigation. The movie and tv watching public in the know discovered the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes for the winners of the award, is made up of only 83 active members. A membership is nye unto impossible to obtain. Many of the current members don't even write about or review films. There are no names you'll recognize, for example, no Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian or or Stephane Delorme of the influential film magazine Cahiers du Cinema in France. Part of the reason none of the most well respected film writers the world over aren't included is the requirement that they have "permanent, primary residence" in Southern California. The difficulty being accepted as a member is also a factor. Any current member can boycott an applicant from joining for any reason. Whatever the case, the end result is a collection of members that include a bodybuilder, a real estate agent, and a car salesman …They enjoy free airfare, swank hotel rooms, and souvenirs, all perks most film writers from better known publications generally eschew in the name of objectivity.

There have been several instances where conflicts of interest have put the integrity of HFPA, the parent company putting on the awards, into question. In 1992, Scent of A Woman won for Best Drama after Universal treated members to a weekend in Paris where they had extended access to Al Pacino, subsequently that year's Golden Globe winner for best actor. The most infamous was when Pia Zadora won for best newcomer after her billionaire husband wined and dined the members at his luxurious hotel before the vote. That series of indiscretions cost the HFPA its contract with CBS, and It was 14 years before NBC picked it up again. Once again this year, the HFPA is in hot water over the Best Film nomination of Burlesque (largely despised by critics, one of which called it "a cinematic hairball") after Sony flew the members to Las Vegas for a fun filled weekend culminating in seeing Cher in concert.

Now former Golden Globes publicist Michael Russell is suing the HFPA for 2 million dollars in lost salary and damages charging the organization that runs the awards show does so with fraud and corrupt practices. Among the abuses listed in the suit:

>> Accepting money, vacations, and gifts from studios in exchange for nominating their films.

>> Selling media credentials and red carpet space for profit.

>> Accepting payment from studios and producers for lobbying other members for awards nominations.

>> HFPA consistently directed Russell to bury stories in the press regarding HFPA's unethical practices.

Even with all this latest drama, more than one power player in tinseltown thinks of the show as "Hollywood's guiltiest pleasure". Getting this many stars in one room, even if it is with the promise of flowing champagne and 91thousand dollar swagbags, makes for a stardrooler's nirvana. There is certainly benefit for all the tv nominations, especially on cable, as it promotes lesser known less hyped shows to a large award show audience. But at best the winners paralleling from the Golden Globes to the Oscars is like a blind squirrel finding nuts. They have the benefit of voting and presenting their winners after all the more bona fide critics associations have already announced their winners, and since the balloting for Oscar nominations ended right before the Golden Globes aired, only those who don't know about any of the other (largely unaired) critic associations results assume the Golden Globes effect the Oscars in any significant way.

As Angelina Jolie said on the red carpet this year, reiterating Meryl Streep's words from last year almost verbatim, "It's just fun to see my friends and hang out for an evening." We should all take it about that seriously. Let the movie experts decide the more worthy of the year and may the bodybuilders, real estate agents, and car salesmen of the HFPA pop open another bottle of champagne in a great vacuum of silence.

So...Here are the winners and nominees of the Critics associations that actually do shape and effect the Oscar race in a significant way:

CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS (broadcast film critics association)

Best Picture "The Social Network"
Best Actor Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"
Best Actress Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"
Best Supporting Actor Christian Bale, "The Fighter"
Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo, "The Fighter"
Best Young Actor/Actress Hailee Steinfeld, "True Grit"
Best Acting Ensemble "The Fighter"
Best Director David Fincher, "The Social Network"
Best Original Screenplay "The King's Speech," David Seidler
Best Adapted Screenplay "The Social Network," Aaron Sorkin
Best Cinematography "Inception," Wally Pfister
Best Art Direction "Inception," Guy Hendrix Dyas
Best Editing "Inception," Lee Smith
Best Costume Design "Alice in Wonderland," Colleen Atwood
Best Makeup "Alice in Wonderland"
Best Visual Effects "Inception"
Best Sound "Inception"
Best Animated Feature "Toy Story 3"
Best Action Movie "Inception"
Best Comedy "Easy A"
Best Picture Made for Television "The Pacific"
Best Foreign Language Film "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
Best Documentary Feature "Waiting for Superman"
Best Song "If I Rise," performed by Dido and A.R. Rahman/ music by A.R. Rahman/ lyrics by Dido Armstrong and Rollo Armstrong, "127 Hours"
Best Score "The Social Network," Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

The 2010 New York Film Critics’ Circle Award Winners:
Best Film:  The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Screenplay: The Kids Are All Right
Best Actress: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Best Cinematography: Black Swan
Best Animated Film: The Illusionist
Best Non-fiction Film: “Inside Job
Best Foreign Language Film: Carlos
Best First Feature: Animal Kingdom

LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS AWARDS
Best Picture
• The Social Network Runner-up: Carlos
Best Actor
• Colin Firth (The King's Speech) Runner-up: Edgar Ramirez (Carlos)
Best Actress
• Kim Hye-ja (Mother) Runner-up: Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Best Supporting Actor
• Niels Arestrup, A Prophet Runner-up: Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Best Supporting Actress
• Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom Runner-up: Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer
Best Director
• Olivier Assayas (Carlos) and David Fincher (The Social Network) (tie)
Best Screenplay
• The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin) Runner-up: The King's Speech (David Seidler)
Best Cinematography
• Black Swan (Matthew Libatique) Runner-up: True Grit (Roger Deakins)
New Generation Award
• Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture)
Best Documentary/Non-fiction Film
• Last Train Home (dir. Lixin Fan) Runner-up: Exit Through The Gift Shop (dir. Banksy)
Best Foreign-Language Film
• Carlos Runner-up: Mother
Best Animated Film
• Toy Story 3 Runner-up: The Illusionist
Best Music/Score
• The Ghost Writer (Alexandre Desplat) and The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) (tie)
Best Production Design
• Inception (Guy Hendrix Dyas) Runner-up: The King's Speech (Eve Stewart)
Douglas E. Edwards Award for Independent/Experimental Film/Video
• Film Socialism
Legacy of Cinema Awards
• Serge Bromberg (Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno)
• The F.W. Murnau Foundation and Fernando Pena for the restoration of Metropolis
Career Achievement
• Paul Mazursky

BAFTA AWARD NOMINEES

BEST FILM
BLACK SWAN - Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
INCEPTION - Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
THE KING’S SPEECH - Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
THE SOCIAL NETWORK - Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Céan Chaffin
 TRUE GRIT - Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
127 HOURS - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Christian Colson, John Smithson
ANOTHER YEAR - Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe
FOUR LIONS - Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger
THE KING’S SPEECH - Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
 MADE IN DAGENHAM - Nigel Cole, William Ivory, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
THE ARBOR - Director, Producer - Clio Barnard, Tracy O’Riordan
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP - Director, Producer – Banksy, Jaimie D’Cruz
FOUR LIONS - Director/Writer - Chris Morris
MONSTERS - Director/Writer – Gareth Edwards
SKELETONS - Director/Writer – Nick Whitfield

DIRECTOR
127 HOURS - Danny Boyle
BLACK SWAN - Darren Aronofsky
INCEPTION - Christopher Nolan
THE KING’S SPEECH - Tom Hooper
THE SOCIAL NETWORK - David Fincher

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BLACK SWAN - Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin
THE FIGHTER - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
INCEPTION - Christopher Nolan
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
THE KING’S SPEECH - David Seidler

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 HOURS - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
THE SOCIAL NETWORK - Aaron Sorkin
TOY STORY 3 - Michael Arndt
TRUE GRIT - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BIUTIFUL - Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev
I AM LOVE - Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante
OF GODS AND MEN - Xavier Beauvois, Pascal Cauchetuex, Etienne Comar
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES - Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella

ANIMATED FILM
DESPICABLE ME - Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON - Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
TOY STORY 3 - Lee Unkrich

LEADING ACTOR
JAVIER BARDEM - Biutiful
JEFF BRIDGES - True Grit
JESSE EISENBERG - The Social Network
COLIN FIRTH - The King’s Speech
JAMES FRANCO - 127 Hours

LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING - The Kids Are All Right
JULIANNE MOORE - The Kids Are All Right
NATALIE PORTMAN - Black Swan
NOOMI RAPACE - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
HAILEE STEINFELD - True Grit

SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTIAN BALE - The Fighter
ANDREW GARFIELD - The Social Network
PETE POSTLETHWAITE - The Town
MARK RUFFALO - The Kids Are All Right
GEOFFREY RUSH - The King’s Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS - The Fighter
HELENA BONHAM CARTER - The King’s Speech
BARBARA HERSHEY - Black Swan
LESLEY MANVILLE - Another Year
MIRANDA RICHARDSON - Made in Dagenham

ORIGINAL MUSIC
127 HOURS - AR Rahman
ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Danny Elfman
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON - John Powell
INCEPTION - Hans Zimmer
THE KING’S SPEECH - Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY
127 HOURS - Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak
BLACK SWAN - Matthew Libatique
INCEPTION - Wally Pfister
THE KING’S SPEECH - Danny Cohen
TRUE GRIT - Roger Deakins

EDITING
127 HOURS - Jon Harris
BLACK SWAN - Andrew Weisblum
INCEPTION - Lee Smith
THE KING’S SPEECH - Tariq Anwar

PRODUCTION DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara
BLACK SWAN - Thérèse DePrez, Tora Peterson
INCEPTION - Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
THE KING’S SPEECH - Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
TRUE GRIT - Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

COSTUME DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Colleen Atwood
BLACK SWAN - Amy Westcott
THE KING’S SPEECH - Jenny Beavan
MADE IN DAGENHAM - Louise Stjernsward
TRUE GRIT - Mary Zophres

SOUND
127 HOURS - Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron
BLACK SWAN - Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella
INCEPTION - Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
THE KING’S SPEECH - John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen
TRUE GRIT - Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland, Douglas Axtell

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Carey Villegas, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Sean Phillips
BLACK SWAN - Dan Schrecker
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 - Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Aithadi, Christian Manz
INCEPTION - Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb
TOY STORY 3 - David Ryu, Guido Quaroni, Michael Fong

MAKE UP & HAIR
ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Paul Gooch, Valli O'Reilly
BLACK SWAN - Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 - Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
THE KING’S SPEECH - Frances Hannon
MADE IN DAGENHAM - Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

SHORT ANIMATION
THE EAGLEMAN STAG - Michael Please
MATTER FISHER - David Prosser
THURSDAY - Matthias Hoegg

SHORT FILM
CONNECT - Samuel Abrahams, Beau Gordon
LIN - Piers Thompson, Simon Hessel
RITE - Michael Pearce, Ross McKenzie, Paul Welsh
TURNING - Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Alison Sterling, Kat Armour-Brown
UNTIL THE RIVER RUNS RED - Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis

ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING AWARD
GEMMA ARTERTON
ANDREW GARFIELD
TOM HARDY
AARON JOHNSON
EMMA STONE

HOLIDAYS AT ARTINSIGHTS

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:09:38 -0500

IN THE GALLERY: ArtInsights's shambling foray into the undead art scene…

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:54:08 -0400

Anyone with any braaaiiiiins knows zombies are ubiquitous and tres a la mode at the moment. In the past few years we've seen the release of New York Times bestsellers World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide, and Pride Prejudice and Zombies. Everyone awaits excitedly the October 31st premiere on AMC of one of my favorite directors Frank Darabont's new series "The Walking Dead", an interpretation of the 2010 Eisner Award winning comic book series by Robert Kirkman…starring, of all people, Andrew Lincoln, who you might know as the character in unrequited love with Keira Knightley in Love Actually.

I've started thinking about what it is about zombies that so fascinates us, and why it has been showing up more and more in entertainment and art in the last 2 or 3 years…There are certainly lots of theories, what with the zombie experts on the web and at the universities (yes. universities.) Our friend Doug Winter is a zombie expert--and wrote some pretty seminal short stories--he was the first to write a zombie mash up with LESS THAN ZOMBIE in 1988, then followed with Bright Lights Big Zombie and finally The Zombies of Madison County, both in the 90s. I gave him a call to discuss the changing rotting face of zombie acceptance in society--and wound up doing a great web interview with him! We talked 60s to now, zombie fascination, and bandied about whether the art world was ready for a film/zombie art mash up--pop culture and social commentary at the same time, but art not blessed by the monkeys of the art media.

That interview can be read here. I’ll wait while you read it. ok. moving on....

The whole thing started when i was 7 years old and my au pair in Italy, in her infinite teenaged wisdom, allowed me to watch the original George Romero film "Night of the Living Dead"--(which is a major influence on all things zombie since it's release)--Needless to say it scared me half to death, so much so that it played in my head for years, i was afraid to go out at dusk, and garden trowels made me recoil in horror. (it's like the movie trauma version of Three Faces of Eve!) On the positive side, however, I have grown to be passionate about black and white movies and to appreciate horror films in my adult years, a result, I'm sure, of the drive to turn my terror into something positive. When i think of my favorite black and white movies, they have sharp contrasts and chiaroscuro like Romero used in Night of the Living Dead, but then he himself says he was influenced by Orson Welles and Fritz Lang…Curiously, i discovered in my research about Romero that he began his career filming segments at Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and even offered the role of Barbara to a member of its cast!

As to my recently espoused partner Michael, he had the license plate Zombi from the day i met him (23 years ago) and he has always had a fascination with zombies in movies and literature, so he was very excited to get involved with Matt and his zombie project.

"Hollywood is Dead" began when, in 2009 as part of this recent infestation of zombies in our culture, a Star Wars novel was released by a writer named Joe Schreiber called "Death Troopers", and Matt Busch was hired by LucasFilm to create images based on the original Star Wars posters for the official Star Wars site to promote this new book.

They were so well received that he was inspired to add a zombie twist to some of his other favorite movie posters. I got a chance to see the original art he had done for it, and was floored by the artistry--the care he took--and the detail in the images--I'd been looking for something to work with Matt on, since we had become good friends. He mostly sells his own originals and does very well doing so. We had, with Hollywood is Dead, finally found a common fascination and appreciation that brought Michael, me, and Matt's art together, so we decided ArtInsights would take on this series in our gallery!. It actually took some time to decide to do it, because I wanted to make sure even though Michael and i love parody and edgy creepy things like zombies, we didn't want to overtly offend anyone or defame our favorite movies or movie poster artists in any way…In thinking about it, we figured this: Yes, these images are over the top, but they are also a commentary about our pop culture, at the same time as a bit of a love note from Matt to the original artists who created these classics and to the dying art used to make classic movie posters. Since Matt had both done covers for George Romero's comic book series of Night of the Living Dead, created original movie posters for Star Wars, and had done storyboards for other movies like The Matrix and The Devil's Own. You can see his credits HERE.

Matt created all the images in Hollywood is Dead the traditional way, painted by hand, and as some of you know, more and more art is created in the computer these days, with movie posters being done that way almost exclusively. When we got the art we were amazed at how artistic they are for their own sake! Matt had been a close friend of John Alvin's, knew Drew Struzan's work well, and had studied other movie artists both as a student and as a professor looking to educate younger artists about the best of the craft. Matt says this is his favorite project he's ever done, and i've also done a web interview with Matt Busch about the show, and you can read it HERE.

Just below are a few images from Matt’s dedicated site “Hollywood is Dead”.

I honestly don't know how it will be received. Sometimes I concern myself with that, sometimes i don't…Lots of movie industry insiders have bought images and art from this series, so i know it hits its target with them. What i DO know is i continue to feel very passionate about film art, the importance of it, of the place it has in our culture and I love being able to transmute my weird scary beginnings with zombies into something that relates to what i am so passionate about, something one of my early experiences with film unwittingly shaped. A portion of the profits from this show will benefit the National Film Preservation Foundation, so hopefully we'll sell a bunch of them...

If people get a better understanding and an appreciation for the art of the movie poster, or even if they just get a laugh seeing their favorite movies turned on their oozing bleeding heads, and also see some of the original art by the artists Matt is honoring by his project, that'd be great. If some newer fans of production and interpretive film art, which, since our continued 8 years of promotion of it, has started taking off and is beginning to be represented in other galleries, see our gallery as being the most committed and enthusiastic about cinema art and choose to become our loyal collectors, that'd be no skin off my nose!