Keep up with the latest Aisha promotional activities at the official site, on Twitter, and on Facebook.  Those who are registered with the official website have been receiving digital postcards introducing the various characters from the film…

Those interested in reading more about the production might enjoy this short Times of India piece featuring young co-producer Rhea Kapoor:

Aisha is a ‘young’ film

While many of the fashions worn in the miniseries were actually created for other productions, Ebbutt was responsible for a majority of the pieces worn by the production’s principal actors. The current exhibit includes pieces designed for Romola Garai as Emma, Jonny Lee Miller as Mr. Knightley, Sir Michael Gambon as Mr. Woodhouse, and Laura Pyper as Jane Fairfax.

The Jane Austen House Museum’s website lists a May 7 event featuring Rosalind Ebbutt herself – wish I could go!

More information about the exhibit:

• Emma costume photos by Rebecca Smith, Jane Austen House Museum Writer in Residence
• More Emma costume photos by Rebecca Smith, Jane Austen House Museum Writer in Residence
• Jane Austen House Museum website
• AustenOnly’s report on the exhibit

More information about Emma adaptation costumes:

• 2009-2010 BBC Emma costume trivia (IMDB.com)
• Emma DVD review (the DVD special features include interviews with Rosalind Ebbutt and various cast members regarding costuming in the miniseries)
• Rosalind Ebbutt at IMDB.com
• Recycled Movie Costumes
• Heather’s Jane Austen Movie Gowns site
• Costuming Emmas 1-3

Other links of possible interest:

• 209-2010 BBC Emma section at the Emma Adaptations Pages
• Learn more about Chawton Cottage and other places relevant to Jane Austen’s life at SeekingJaneAusten.com.

Disc 1 includes featurettes on the Emma filming locations and costumes, bringing you short interviews with crew and cast about the visual side of the production.

Design board for the Squerryes Court dining room.

The “Locations” piece primarily covers Squerryes Court as Hartfield and Loseley Park as Donwell Abbey, describing the crew’s intent to use space as a metaphor for the various characters’ existences and as an indicator of each character’s social station.  Emma, for example, inhabits an elegant home with an easy, unobstructed floorplan which represents her personality and life experience:

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”

Donwell Abbey, by contrast, is more venerable in size, style, and age, which very much suits the character and social status of Mr. Knightley:

“The house was larger than Hartfield, and totally unlike it, covering a good deal of ground, rambling and irregular, with many comfortable, and one or two handsome rooms. It was just what it ought to be, and it looked what it was; and Emma felt an increasing respect for it, as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted in blood and understanding.”

The featurette also briefly covers decor choices and the tricks involved in shooting winter scenes in June(!).  While the snowscape longshots at Squerryes Court were indeed filmed during winter, the Knightleys’ rear garden snowball fight was shot on a 27-degree C day!  This recalls the snow scenes from the 1995/96 Pride and Prejudice adaptation, which were filmed in July of 1994, if I’m remembering correctly.

Snow in June at Squerryes Court!

The costume featurette was of particular interest to me.  There were several conversations with costume designer Rosalind Ebbutt, who shares various elements of the design process.  Ebbutt brainstormed ideas via collages of period images, fabric swatches, and color samples for each character.  Frank Churchill’s even included a photo or two of Mick Jagger, whom Ebbutt felt captured the dashing worldliness of the character.  In addition to remarks from the designer, we also hear from the actors.  Romola Garai, Louise Dylan, Blake Ritson, Tamsin Greig, Rupert Evans, Laura Pyper, and Jonny Lee Miller all comment on the collaborative design process, how fashion reveals character status, personality and transformation, and the nuts and bolts of wearing period fashion.

Harriet and Emma: Twins!

Tamsin Greig, for example, describes Regency underpinnings (chemises, custom corsets made specifically for each actress, and in some cases, a “bustle” pad).  Romola Garai shows her little chatelaine watch as an example of a costume accessory that denotes Emma’s status as “lady of the house.”  Louise Dylan describes how Harriet Smith’s wardrobe begins to mimic Emma’s as the older girl’s influence grows.  And Jonny Lee Miller discusses Mr. Knightley’s practical yet elegant wardrobe as an outward manifestation of the character’s personality.  “I can see myself gambling in this,” he jokes, indicating his beautiful brocade waistcoat and velvet tailcoat.

Disc 2 contains the music featurette and an interview with Sir Michael Gambon (Mr. Woodhouse), filmed on location at Squerryes Court.

The Music piece includes interviews with composer Samuel Sim, Director Jim O’Hanlon, and Producer George Ormond, and generally overviews the process of scoring a television series.  Director O’Hanlon describes Sim’s Emma soundtrack as having “one foot in the period and one foot in today,” allowing the film to sound historically-appropriate while maintaining a freshness accessible to modern ears. Sim and O’Hanlon also discuss how Emma’s main theme, or motive, is reiterated over the course of the miniseries to accentuate onscreen moods and actions.

Samuel Sim and Jim O'Hanlon "spot" musical cues.

In addition, we learn a little about the planning or “sketching” period, during which the composer creates the main theme and ideas for the various musical cues that will be required in the finished miniseries.  We also get to glimpse a “spotting” session with the composer, director, and producer, which involves watching the film, matching up extant music cues with the footage, and coming up with plans for additional cues not yet written.  The featurette concludes with a recording session at the legendary Abbey Road Studio of Beatles fame.  This is totally off-topic, but it’s worth noting that the score for the upcoming “World of Color” show at Disney’s California Adventure was recorded just a few weeks ago at Abbey Road.

I haven’t yet watched the DVD version of the miniseries itself, but I understand that it DOES include various short scenes that aired on the BBC but not on PBS.

In all, I think the bonus features were worth the DVD purchase price (I paid around $23, via Amazon).  The packaging is a beautiful, book-style box – gatefold, I guess you could say? – with photos of Garai on the cover and on the discs themselves.  There’s a panorama of the Box Hill picnic on the inside.

Related information:

• Buy the DVD
• DVD reviews
• More about the various Emma filming locations
• More about Samuel Sim and the Emma soundtrack (including purchase information)
• Costume trivia from IMDB

Anyway, here’s the latest scoop on Emma, which wrapped last night on Masterpiece Classic:

• If you were one of the #emma_pbs Twitter winners from last week, make sure you follow me/respond to my direct message so I can get your mailing info to the good folks at PBS.org and so you can get your awesome Jane Austen action figure.    Remember, I’m @magicskyway.
• Vic’s thoughts on Emma 2009/2010.
• Laurel Ann has posted some final thoughts on this latest Emma miniseries at Austenprose.
• The 2009/2010 Emma DVD is now shipping.  I can’t wait until it arrives!  TV.com’s Emma DVD review is fairly extensive.  Here’s another review of the DVD edition, from BlogCritics.  Remember, the DVD version includes unique special features and a few “deleted scenes” that aired on the BBC but not on PBS.
• Eventually, I’ll post a fashion review and screencaps from the third hour of the miniseries.

WGBH’s official Emma site is chock full of interesting bits and bobs, including an audio slideshow, an interview with show writer Sandy Welch, a character quiz, and more!  From January 25 – March 9, 2010, the miniseries itself will also be available to stream directly via the Masterpiece Classic Emma site.

For grins, here are blurbs about the adaptation from the WXXI and Connecticut Public Broadcasting sites.

Also, Katie of Recycled Movie Costumes is planning a big feature on the previously-used costumes of Emma 4 – keep an eye out and enjoy!

1924 diamond and pearl earrings.

Anyway, when I say old, I mean OLD.  First, I give you two cameos.  The larger one belonged to my great-aunt’s husband’s mother.  Like that?  Anyway, I’m guessing it’s 1910sish, but I have no way of knowing for sure. It’s a genuine carved shell, featuring what appears to be a maenad.  The ivy in her hair and the very Dionysian thyrsus (a very phallic giant fennel stalk-turned-ancient-Greek-fertility-symbol) in the background are the dead giveaways.

Maenad cameo, non-maenad cameo.

William Adolphe Bouguereau maenad, with thyrsus.

Greek maenad with thyrsus (and ivy all over her peplos).

Wearing maenad cameo and 1924 diamond earrings. Incidentally, I totally recommend DiorShow mascara.

The smaller cameo belonged to my great-grandmother, and is probably roughly the same age.  I’m not sure what it’s made of, but it’s not shell or stone.

Also from my great-grandmother comes this stunning yellow glass pendant.  Once again, I have no precise year of manufacture, but I’m guessing late teens or, more likely, the 1920s.  At any rate, it’s art nouveau enough to look good with my 1912 tea gown.

Glass pendant.

Me, wearing said pendant.

Now THIS is my platinum Pedre watch, probably early 1930s.  It has a gazillion tiny diamonds on it.  It’s crap for keeping actual time, but it looks FIENDISHLY cool, has an awesome story behind it, and reminds me of the Chicago song “Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is?” (“A pretty lady looked at me and said her diamond watch had stopped cold dead…”).  ANYWAY.  The story is that my grandfather used to own a bar in SoMa on 6th Street in San Francisco, and from that bar he also ran a pawn operation.  This was one of the items pawned.  Okay, so maybe it’s not such an awesome story, but it does have a compelling noirish quality to it that “I bought it at the flea market” can’t deliver.

Platinum and diamond deco Pedre watch.

Now for my prides and joys.  First, my 1924 diamond earrings.  They’re white gold with little dangly pearls.  I love them so much I’m afraid to wear them.  I bought them at Jewel D’Orleans (AKA Dianne’s Estate Jewelry) in Disneyland.

1924 diamond and pearl earrings.

Me wearing said earrings.

Me wearing said earrings.

Me wearing said earrings.

Me wearing said earrings. Yes, I'm a total photo whore.

And last, my awesome gold mourning brooch, ca. 1850.  It has black enamel, a profusion of  little seed pearls, and a plaited lock of the deceased’s hair inside.    This piece also came from Dianne’s Estate Jewelry.

1850 mourning brooch.

Next time: Beaded purses, my silk shawl, a SWEET antique dress clip, and maybe some other stuff.

Mainly thinking out loud.

And now, a silly Depeche Mode video.

Heh.

]]> http://blog.strangegirl.com/2009/12/05/straaaange-blog-thats-how-my-blog-goes/feed/ 0 http://blog.strangegirl.com/2009/10/06/emma4-episode-1-screenshots/ http://blog.strangegirl.com/2009/10/06/emma4-episode-1-screenshots/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:03:09 +0000 Kali http://blog.strangegirl.com/?p=339 Here!

Emma titles...

Additionally, Laurel Ann has posted a slideshow of official images here.

“First english edition. Austen had a falling out with her first publisher Egerton over publication of Mansfield Park and transferred to John Murray, who published the second edition of that title and the first edition of Emma on the same terms: each was published at the author’s expense, with profits to the author after payment of a 10% commission to the publisher. In keeping with Murray’s stated views on edition sizes, 2000 copies were printed. Emma is also the only one of Jane Austen’s novels to bear a dedication (to the Prince Regent). –Gilson A8.”

Also, a short article on Sonam Kapoor’s Ayesha wardrobe, from the Times of India:

“Sonam’s clothes for the movie have been designed by fashion designer Rehane. Though Rehane is not Delhi-based, she’s participated in fashion weeks in Delhi, and has also designed the clothes for Sonam in the movie. “I have actually done the western look for her. I was supposed to do the Indian look as well, but couldn’t because of my commitment to the fashion weeks that are to follow,” says the Chennai-based designer.”

I guess this means that Mona May isn’t working on the film after all?  Or perhaps she’s working on special pieces, as Rehane is only doing the “western” portion of Sonam’s wardrobe. 

Here are some of my photos from the event…

Kali in 1880swear.