Friday, September 2, 2011

A TASTE OF WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO : Installment #1

We have been sadly remiss in updating our activities at Helen Uffner Vintage Clothing, so this blog installment will clue you in on a few projects we have been working on, as well as some behind-the-scenes photos at our place! 
 MOVIES:
Catherine at our place
 . Now that the film is finally in production, we can tell you that in 2010 and 2011, we secretly worked in pre-production for "The Great Gatsby", renting the Australian design team beaded 1920's evening dresses and men's eveningwear to inspire reproductions for Baz Luhrmann's 3-D version of the great classic starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick and Carey Mulligan as Daisy.
Catherine and Silvana pose w. our 1920's dress

Baz's wife and talented costume designer of "Moulin Rouge" Catherine Martin and her lovely assistant Silvana first came to us on Sept, 30, 2010 and enjoyed leafing through our fabulous flapper dresses.

Pals forever, Susana and Kasia

.We just finished work on "Moonrise Kingdom", the highly anticipated 1960's film directed  by Wes Anderson, with an amazing cast including Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Frances McDormandHarvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban. The design team, Kasia and her assistant Susana (by the way, Susana is a former employee of ours...go, Susana!!!!!) have worked with us on many films and commercials so it was a pleasure!

. Another film that opened recently to great critical acclaim was "The Music Never Stopped", (which we worked on under the working title "Mr. Tambourine Man"). Since it went back and forth through time, we rented 1940's through 1980s clothes to this production, and here is an photo of the little boy in our cowboy-printed robe!

This film is based on a true Oliver Sacks story about a man in the 1980s who as a teenager 20 years ago had contracted an undiagnosed brain tumor and psychologically was only capable of living  in the past - his past being the 1950s through 1970. His father breaks through their communication barrier by learning to communicate with him through music. As an aside, this movie pays homage to the Grateful Dead, should you be a Deadhead.
Other recent films we have worked on include "The Help", "Mr. Popper's Penguins", "Arthur" and  "The Adjustment Bureau" ...but we need to save SOME projects for future blogs, don't we?
Dr. Freud in our suit
THEATER:
. We continue renting to the off-off Broadway hit, the fabulous “Freud’s Last Session”, about the battle of the minds (and wits) between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis…now in its second year! Go see it!

BOOK COVERS:
. In our August 10, 2010 blog "Metamorphosis: The Making of a Book Cover", we highlighted artist Marc Yankus's work. 

 Here we present a slightly more macabre project of talented artist Scott Nobles,a book which has not only been published but is about to open as a feature film, "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter". We provided Abraham Lincoln's period suit for the original photo that Scott worked against.

Scott's first design draft
The final cover - the publisher wanted it bloodier

See any differences in the covers? You may not notice this easily, but the original illustration on the left does not have the bloody handprint on his (our!!!) jacket...and of course, there is extra blood on the wall.
Here again, the original back
.....and of course, the gorier published version!

Scott Nobles
...and for a guy with a design penchant for vampires, here is Scott himself holding his book, a sweetheart of a guy!

By the way, it isn't the first time we dressed "Abraham Lincoln"...we also dressed him for a television TD BANK commercial also starring Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa.

MORE TO COME ..but, of course, none of our work at Uffner Vintage could ever get done without the help of our wonderful staffers! Our next blog will highlight them in and out of costume!


Below, some of our staff pays homage to the 1980s!(..and who says you can't have fun at work?)


Clockwise from the left: Helen, Dan, Emily and Masha