Costume design

Costume design is the envisioning of clothing and the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a class, or a period. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the artistic, visual world which is unique to a particular theatrical or cinematic production. The most basic designs are produced to denote status, provide protection or modesty, or provide visual interest to a character.Costumes may be for a theater, cinema, or musical performance but may not be limited to such. Costume design should not be confused with costume coordination which merely involves altering existing clothing, although both create stage clothes.

Four types of costumes are used in theatrical design: historical, fantastical, dance, and modern.

History

Village festivals and processions in honor of Dionysus (See also: Dionysia) amongst the ancient Greeks, are believed to be the origin of theatre, and therefore theatre costume. The sculpture and vase paintings provide the clearest evidence of this costume. Because of their ritualized style of theatre many masks were used giving each character a specific look and they varied depending if they were used for comedic or dramatic purposes. Some masks were constructed with a cheerful as well as a serious side on the same face in an attempt to indicate a change in emotion without a change of mask. The same is true for the Romans, who continued the mask tradition, which made the doubling of roles easier.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is an upcoming American superhero film featuring the DC Comics characters Batman and Superman, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is intended to be the follow-up to 2013's Man of Steel and the second installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film is directed by Zack Snyder, with a screenplay written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer. The film stars Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, and Gal Gadot. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be the first live-action film to feature both Batman and Superman, as well as the first theatrical film to feature live-action portrayals of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg.

The film was announced at 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International, after the release of Man of Steel. Snyder and Goyer were both brought back in June 2013. Snyder stated that the film would take inspiration from the Batman limited series The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, but that it would follow an original premise. Pre-production began at East Los Angeles College in October 2013, with principal photography starting in May 2014 in Detroit, Michigan, with additional filming in Chicago, Illinois. Filming concluded in December 2014. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is scheduled to be released in the United States on March 25, 2016, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D.

The Danish Girl

The Danish Girl is a novel by American writer David Ebershoff, published in 2000 by the Viking Press in the United States and Allen & Unwin in Australia.

Summary

The novel is a fictionalized account of the life of Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery.

The Danish Girl, as Ebershoff stated, does not try to tell a true story. He has not only imagined most of what he wrote about Elbe's inner life, but he has also fabricated all of the other characters in the book, most important among them Wegener's blue-blooded American-born wife, Greta Waud, who like Ebershoff comes from Pasadena, California. The real Gerda Wegener was Danish, but in the novel her name was changed to Greta to please the American audience.

Awards

The Danish Girl won the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Lambda Literary Award. It was also a finalist for the Tiptree Award, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, and an American Library Association Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book.

Mad Max

Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller, produced by Byron Kennedy, and starring Mel Gibson. James McCausland and Miller wrote the screenplay from a story by Miller and Kennedy.

The film earned $100 million worldwide in gross revenue. It held the Guinness record for most profitable film from 1980-1999 and has been credited for further opening up the global market to Australian New Wave films. The film became the first in a series, spawning the sequels The Road Warrior (1981), Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Fury Road (2015).

Plot

A berserk motorcycle gang member named Crawford "Nightrider" Montazano (Vincent Gil), having killed a rookie officer of an Australian highway patrol called the Main Force Patrol (MFP) while escaping from police custody, is attempting to outrun the other MFP officers in a stolen Pursuit Special. Though he manages to elude his initial pursuers, the MFP's top pursuit-man, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), then engages the less-skilled Nightrider in a high-speed chase. During a sudden game of "chicken", the Nightrider breaks off first, his nerve gone in the confrontation with Max; Nightrider is unable to recover his wits, which leads to his death in a fiery crash.

Into the Woods

Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from "Little Red Riding Hood", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Rapunzel", and "Cinderella", as well as several others. The musical is tied together by an original story involving a childless baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family, their interaction with a witch who has placed a curse on them, and their interaction with other storybook characters during their journey.

The musical debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986 and premiered on Broadway on November 5, 1987, where it won several Tony Awards, including Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason), in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera (1988). The musical has since been produced many times, with a 1988 US national tour, a 1990 West End production, a 1997 tenth anniversary concert, a 2002 Broadway revival, a 2010 London revival and in 2012 as part of New York City's outdoor Shakespeare in the Park series.