First Time

Directed in 2007.
Amazing looking back at old work and being able to see how much you progressed in 3 years.
Still this was one of my favourite shoots with an excellent team!
Much love to you all

What a difference a day made

Missing my two little adings
xx

For a Smile

Because we all have them

We all have them.
Moments.
Moments of doubts, moments of fear, moments of anger, moments of madness.
Or moments of laughter, moments of happiness, moments of bliss, moments of pride.
Whatever they are, they are best not to be lived alone. Share them with someone and the pained will be halved, or the happiness doubled. Open up yourself to the ones your love and trust. They are part of who you are, they make you more real, and in touch with your inner self. Hiding them to appear stronger will weaken you more than anything, putting a veil on an issue does not make it disappear.
Don’t force it. The first step is to realise that you are holding back. Find the moments in your day when you feel you could have said something but didn’t. If it’s still accurate to do so, then bring those thoughts back up later. Slowly those realisations will become closer to the moment, and soon it will be seconds between the thought and it’s expression. Just stay connected.
It’s a long process to master, but be it career or on a personal level, expressing your true self is what will take you further in life, rather than baring the mask of the one you wish to be. The stronger one, the funnier one, the darker one. Bas les masques is what I would say in French. Live with what you have been given and make those qualities stronger, turn them into your shield. They are a gift from God, and it’s now in your hands to master them.

Picture by http://technicolorpsyche.blogspot.com/

Inception

One word: Waw.
Maybe that’s not a word but that’s the only one that can summarize it’s all mighty amazing-ness.
The subject itself was enough to attract me. Dreams. If you are reading this then you probably know me. And if you know me, then you know how much dreams are a recurrent theme in my life and my work. Most of the films I’ve written or directed have included a dream sequence. I just like the surrealist feel of them and how art uses them to subtly reveal the unconscious. Anyway, back to Inception.
This film is a masterpiece. An true art work from director Chris Nolan who has cleverly orchestrated a film that will leave you wondering what just hit you.
The film was flawless. The special effects were impressive, and mostly never seen before and the editing fitted to perfection the pace of the story. And as for the performance of DiCaprio, Cotillard and Co, simply faultless.


But were Nolan proved his genius was with the swift switching between realities, to a point where more than ever, you leave the cinema wondering wither you are yourself in a dream.
Usually, after watching a good film I feel like I am living in the said film, at least for 30 minutes until after the film has finished. The experience of watching a film in itself is, as a principle, the idea of entering someone else’s’ reality for a couple of hours. My fellow film graduates will know that it’s our inner “voyeur” side. So entering someone’s not only reality, but also their dreams is taking the experience one step further.
Anyway, if you think how confused the audiences were in the 20’s after seeing a close-up for the first time, thinking that a head had been cut up for the screen, this is the feeling we had leaving the cinema today.
Nolan has put spectacle back into film. We are entering a new era, realism has taking a new turn. And British film-makers are back in the game!
Move over Hollywood. We are the new generation of British directors and we are taking you for quite a ride. You’ll be wishing you were dreaming.

Pictures borrowed from Traileraddict.com and media.nj.com

Jean Paul Gaultier

I never really thought about him in much depth. Actually, I never really had any thoughts about him a part from maybe the fact that two of my close friends used to wear his perfumes, and that he was a controversial designer.
But because of a recent assignment for work I have had to look into his life a little bit more and have found some really inspiring notes on his work ethics and beliefs which have made me think and I found myself inspired to write again.

JPG started working as a designer at the age of 17- and from then he started a world-changing career in designing.

But the message behind his talent is what has really drawn me. He has taken feminity to a whole new level. Like Channel did when she broke down the conventions of corsets and got rid of all the superfluous laces and thrills, JPG has also given women a chance to express their independence and their rights. Funnily enough, he did that by bringing those corsets back in.
Both rebels with a cause, it just makes you think of how much fashion represents the changes in our society, and how much women and their perception have evolved in the past 50 years.

JPG was influenced by his grandmother; a woman with an extremely strong personality and a lot of his iconic items derive from some memory of her.
(See article from the guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2005/aug/28/fashion.shopping3)



And so his icons are women with equally strong personalities. Models who incarnate his ideal of a woman. Any size, any race, any tattoos or piercings, JPG has the gift of bringing the woman out of herself, sometimes in quite literal terms, but in anyway, with the one intention of making a lady feel more woman just by embracing who she is. That explains his passion for Madonna or Lady Gaga. They both go for self-expression rather than wearing something they think will please others. And that is what fashion is all about.
Though some of his more haute couture designs are a little controversial, raunchy and provocative (leather harnesses, Conical bras, elaborate corsets…) I don’t think any woman in her right man would think ‘Oh, that’s what I’ll wear to work today.’ These are images of a woman. They explore and represent exteriorly how she would be from the inside. Strong, direct, straight, powerful, yet feminine and beautiful.
This is art. Art is expression, and so is fashion.

This is my favorite quote from the man to sum it all up: 'my raw material isn't fabric, it's human beings. Voila!' (From the Guardian Article)

I guess the message I want to put across is for my fellow ladies out there, don’t be afraid to express who you are, how you feel. Don’t let yourself down. By respecting and knowing yourself as a woman, you will gain respect from others around you. Keep smiling and keep trying. Stay humble and you will see the world fall at your feet. We ARE worth it.

Images found on the web.

Tightrope, high hopes.

Who said you couldn’t dance in a wheelchair? Well, this is a current affair that is being addressed in various medias. Any other fellow Gleek will have seen that episode where Archie gives up on his dream to be a dancer because he is a wheel chair. I think maybe the producers of the show should have got tickets to see Tightrope this weekend in Hammersmith. Trust me the trip from L.A would have been well worth it.
The show put on by Amici really put things into perspective for the whole of the audience watching. From start to finish, they kept us breathless and teary-eyed and I’m not usually the emotional type. I think I cried at least 4 times. Everything reached perfection in this colourful and powerful performance.



The show started with a very powerful piece where a paralysed dancer gracefully glided across the floor soon followed by a flood of ladies holding white umbrellas and holding them around him, making a screen on which was projected some footage of a tightrope dancer. Dreams are achievable if your belief is strong enough is exactly what you are thinking when, at this very point, the very same man bursts through the umbrellas and into the air, flying across stage.
That was the first time I cried. Running time: 2 minutes?



No amount of description will make this show any justice. Every participant was better than the other! But I just want to point out the other scenes that really got me.
First was a beautiful rendition of a Carmen scene, which for this circus was called The Love Pyramid. An ex- ballerina paralyzed from the waist down and her dance partners got the audience whooping and cheering at their romantic dance piece, on and off the wheelchair. I felt so much pride and admiration for this beautiful young woman, she was just so captivating and inspiring with her determination.
Then the duet between two severely paralysed dancers took me away again. They gracefully circled around, hands reaching out for each other, smiling wide enough to blind you!
It wasn’t just emotional, it was also really funny, with the strong men act and the opera singer failing trying to reach a high note … The full house audience was just always on edge to see what would be next.



This amazing performance was crowned with the final message that the company put through with the amazing ending. Two suited men, representing a corporate and norm-following society decide that these are no real artist and “burn” their circus down. How very accurately said. An amazing statement to what the arts are reduced to these days.: “Conform to what is commercial or you will be turned into irrelevant ash”.
But hope always lurks around the corner.
As for the Amici Circus, they represented this by each performer rising from that ash, holding a red balloon, brandishing them proudly over their heads. The great stage directing made the lighting fall onto the balloons to make them look like 20 red lanterns floating up.
It was a brilliant finale to a brilliant show, which really deserved that standing ovation.

For more information on Amici,, look them up on http://www.amicidance.org/