quinta-feira, 26 de julho de 2012

My top 5 scenes from movies and TV shows

When I was a teenager, I used to record every movie or show that I liked back then in order to be able to watch them again in the future. It was the way I found to own everything that, in a particular way, had moved me. I thought that VHS players would always be available but in short time I realized that a new format had changed everything and then I started buying DVD´s to keeu up with the new technology. But I was wrong again!

What conforts me is that the new solution is by far much better than VHS or DVD´s. Today almost everty movie or show is available in sites that offer Video On Demand streaming such as Netflix or ITunes store.

What is also cool is that in sites like You Tube and Vimeo users all around the world post scenes that they think are special and you can find specific parts of movies or shows that have moved you in the past and that are available to you in seconds. Of course it is impossible to find every little thing but it is possible to find really good stuff if you surf on these sites.

I decided to make a top 5 scenes that I love to share them here in this post. It´s a feeling just like the one described by writer Caio Fernando Abreu when he wrote about this feeling that "moves the dust inside me and I was able to touch something else. This small epiphany. With body and face. Then I put it back slowly, inch by inch, when I´m lonely and feel afraid. Then I smile. And I almost not hungry anymore.".

The first scene I chose is from Philadelphia that I watched when I was that teenager that recorded everything on VHS tapes. I think I was around 15 when I watched in the theaters. Today, almost 20 years later, it is impressive to see the quality of the movie with amazing performances of great actors Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas and Tom Hanks. It is essentially a sad movie but it contains a wonderful message of dignity and respect. The scene I chose shows Tom Hanks interpreting and feeling Maria Callas´ singing of "La Mamma Morta". Tom Hanks was impecable during the whole movie, in particular in this scene.




The second one I chose is the end of  “Breakfast at Tiffany´s” my all time favourite movie. I think I have watched them over 50 times but the end always moves me. When George Peppard destroys all the persona that Holly (Audrey Hepburn, simply perfect) had created as an ambitious, independent and - in current language - gold digger woman. She then realizes her mistake and surrenders. It is a wonderful scene. Yes, I know it´s very different from Truman Capote´s book but it´s also amazing. Actually I do think that both (movie and book) are remarkable.





Another classic movie that I love to watch many, many times is “An Affair to Remember”. It´s a little bit tacky but very romantic and simple. And it´s also very old, from the days were even kissing was forbidden. The scene I chose is particularly great. When Nickie (charming Cary Grant) and Terry (classic Deborah Kerr) visit Nickie´s grandma Janou in France and he asks her to play the piano. Then Terry starts to sing along the song "An Affair to Remember" in French (at that time it was still expected from rich and educated people to speak French and that showed everyone the quality of education they had received). by watching that scene, Nickie realizes he is in love with Terry and the camera captured this special moment. Super romantic!





One of the most interesting and smart movies I´ve seen is "Gods and Monsters". It´s a fictional story about the end of the life of the director of Frankestein´s movie that retired from work early in his career due to some problems he had in the film industry and he resents that early departure and the path his life had turned after his dropout. Fascinated with the rustic beauty of his gardener, he begins an inner travel and starts to remember the most important facts in his life and confronts them with his actual life. This was the best performance I´ve ever seen of an actor in a movie and I remember being very angry when he did not win the Academy Awards for that performance. His acting is just perfect and it moves me to see him in action during the whole movie. The rest of the cast is also brilliant, including Brendan Fraser. In the scene I chose he talks about his first love in the trenchs of WWI. It´s not the best scene but it´s pretty good. The nicest one I couldn´t find in You Tube. It´s when he says that he left the movie industry because he had chosen freedom and that he resents it now, as he now sees that freedom should be considered an addiction just like any other.






The fifth and last scene I chose is from HBO´s Angles In America. This small show had only 6 episodes and it may be considered a movie 6 hours long. The script is amazingly intelligent and the cast is just breathtaking. In NY´s in the early 80´s where all the world is astonished with AIDS´ episodes, Angels In America tells the story of a gay guy that found out to be HIV positive and is left by his boyfriend that had met a handsome  in the closet mormom republican (performed by really hot Patrick Wilson). In the scene I chose there are 10 minutes of intense performances when the mormon tells his mom (Meryl Streep, divine as usual) that he is gay and, right after, the scene of both him and his new boyfriend leaving their partners. It´s a very special part of the show and performances are just mind blowing. The script is also incredibly amazing.




I couldn´t resist and decided to include a sixth scene. Sorry!! Couldn´t help it! It´s the final scene from "The Hours". It´s less than 2 minutes but with an extremely wonderful text, wrtitten by the director of the movie, representing the goodbye letter that Virginia Woolf left for her husband. It says:

"Dear Leonard, to look life in the face
Always to look life in the face
And to know it for what it is
At last, to know it
To love it for what it is,
And then.. to put it away

Leonard, always the years between us
Always the years,
Always the love,
Always.. the hours"

The movie ends with that scene. It´s one of the most poetic movies I´ve ever seen!





terça-feira, 17 de julho de 2012

Dior: a million flowers for Raf Simons

There are things that can only happen in the Fashion World. A very chic and glamourous atmosphere (just like the one in "Devil wears Prada") was set up by Dior that decided to use thousands, maybe even a million, flowers in the set for their Autumn Winter 12 show. Yes, it was NOT their Spring Summer collection in spite of such an automatic reference as flowers. I think that no one would like to invest in Flowers in Spring after the superhit  ironic comment in "Devil wears Prada": "Flowers? For Spring? Groundbreaking!".

This is a very special collection for Dior as its their first by designer Raf Simons. The video below showcases the making of the set for the show and we can really see that Dior has invested heavilty to Raf´s debut:



The result was amazing! I think it was impossible to be blase in front of such a rich and elaborated scenario. Extra luxurious and glamourous. Just like Dior.






It is funny to think that all this hard work and investment were done to a 20 minute show and after that none of it would be used anymore. I wondered about what happened to all these flowers after the show but I did not find on the web what happened to them.

The super production was not only for the scenairo. In the video below we can snoop the backstage and realize that several people were involved in the production of the show:




The final result can be seen in the video below. At Dior´s website it is possible to follow all the news for the brand in a very ellaborated material. It´s worthed to access it. Specially for fans (like me).




There you can also find Raf Simons´ interview where he talks about its debut and how interesting and challenging is to work in a company with such a recognisable style and distinct heritage as Dior:



I am not a Fashion expert but I think the connection between Dior and Simons are not completely working yet. Their identities seem a little off together. I do think that Dior had a perfect match with Galliano and it would be hard to achieve such cohesiveness with another designer. But I like Raf Simons work and hopefully next collections would be better. Let´s wait and see.

quinta-feira, 12 de julho de 2012

Meadham and Kirchhoff, amazing designers from London!


The first time I ever heard of Meadham Kirchhoff was when Thomas, Vicunh@ Europe´s director, told me we were going to spounsor them in London Fashion Week. As he is always tuned to the latest trends I thought these designers should have a good potential. Some years later, I realize he was extremely right.

The designers

Their last show in London Fashion Week was highly commented by the media and considered one of the highlights for the whole season. This huge success was deserved! Their show was amazing! Everything was perfect: styling, music, scenario, all came together beautifully. Specially the clothes.

winter 12

These designers really pulled the envelop as they presented a collection full of printed patterns of all kinds and mixed in every way possible. They also chose all kinds of materials, from fur to denim, mixing amd matching in glamorous ways proving that it´s possible to keep individuality in fashion and that as conceptual and crazy as their clothes might seem they do work together and can be wear on the streets. All you need is the right attitude to wear them.
And attitude was definitely not missing in the styling that put together colored hair with faces painted in green and/or blue. And its impressive to say that this outrageous styling "fit like a glove". The extremelyold expression was placed here on porpous as they say their trademark pieces are "feminine designs that are considered and executed in an old fashioned manner".



Backstage image

This last show really has a classic atmosphere in the models posture that combined with the extravagant looks and colorfullness of the show gave the spectacle coherence and fun.



Styling ousado no desfile.
Proud of their great work, they simply put the video of their show and nothing else on their website. You enter and that´s all you can see. But it´s really worth it. You can see the video below: 


MEADHAM KIRCHHOFF / AW12 from osborne+bisoux on Vimeo.

Or entering in their websiteThe soundtrack is also excellent, mixing songs as if they were outfits in the show. 

sábado, 18 de fevereiro de 2012

Dazed & Confused and Swatch working together on a very cool project

The super cool magazine Dazed and Confused paired with the always cool Swatch to launch the website Satellite Voices, a global and cultural platform with the latest news in cities all over the world.



They hired local journalists from Paris, Tokyo, Munich, Rome, Shanghai, Santiago, Moscow and Dubai to write about the cultural production in these cities. The main areas covered are fashion, arts, photography, film, music, design and cultures. The result is a website with an extremely rich content and a truly global point of view. One can spend hours checking what's going on in the cool cities.

They work with the slogal:"local creation, global inspiration" and the cool thing is that they decided to work with cities out of the fashion and design circuits, like NY, Milan and London. In Germany, for instance, they chose Munich instead of super hype Berlin. Maybe because the creation in these super hype cities are very global to be characterized as local creation.

On the website it's possible to browse through different topics or cities. There are plenty of exclusive interviews with the local creators what showcases the richness and authenticity of the content available on the website.

They also keep a very good and cool channel on Mix Cloud (Facebook's app to listen to playlists) where local DJ's and artists from these cities offer different playlists. They are very good as they showcase lots of new artists and music. I just listened to the mix "Yokyo on air: Eiko". Simply divine!

There's one last thing that's very clever: As Swatch is the main sponsor of Satellite Voice, they inserted pictures like the one below to display the local time in these cities with their new display for their watches. Very smart and cool, don't you think?

Red Hot Chilli Peppers launch an interactive videoclip



I've just watched Red Hot Chilli Peppers' new videoclip and I was impressed with the quality of the interactivity they promoted in the video. The effects are truly amazing way better than previous interactive videos I had seen before. 

When watching the video you kind of walk into different rooms where one member of the band is interacting. On top of that elements in the scenario are shortcuts to extras such as making of videos and photos. And if you[re just not in the mood to keep looking for this shortcuts, you can just press the button "Show Hints" and they[re highlighted to you. #VerySimple.

Thumbs up! This video showcases what the latest interactive technology available in the market offer to creators everywhere. It's easy to think about several different ways to use this technology. #Awesome!

BTW their new song is also great ;). you can check it out the new video by clicking in the link below: 




domingo, 12 de fevereiro de 2012

Web 2.0 offers opportunity to new business models

Consumers live nowadays in a very comfortable and convenient world and much of that was provided by internet tools. Considering this new scenario, start up companies are blossoming everywhere, offering consumers a new solution to ease their daily lives. The challenge is to be showcased in the market. The key ingredient for success seems to be simple: to offer a solution that would  effectively easy a consumer´s life.




American website "Trunk Club" apparently found this key. Betting on a simple presumption that men don´t like to shop (sad, but true), Trunk Club offers a service that goes beyond shopping assistance: they actually select and buy pieces of garments for their consumers and "surprise" them with a package containing around 8 - 10 different garments. To choose the pieces, Trunk Club professionals take into account the consumers profile, previously uploaded on the website.

The cool thing is consumers can take up to 30 days to analyze and consider the garments they received and return the pieces they did not like. And all for free, including the costs for delivery and devolution transport. The website expects that with experience, consultants would achieve a better knowledge of their consumers what would reducing the average amount of return items.






Trunk Club works currently with a 3 thousand customers base and they accept around 50-60% of items in the boxes they receive. The website maintains a high profitability because they purchase with wholesale prices. The average price of a garment sold by Trunk Club is 70 dollars.

Aware of their customers´ lack of time, the company offers different points of contacts such as phone, email, Skype and a store where consumers can try on and immediately take away the garments they like. This new business model seems to be working well as the company saw the annual revenue growing from US$ 1 million in 2010 to US$ 5 million in 2011.

The video below showcases the way Trunk Club works: