CoCo Before Chanel

In the summer holidays I went to se "CoCo Before Chanel". CoCo Before Chanel is a film about Gabrielle Chanel (founder of Chanel Beauty). It was a Bio-Pic. A lot of film critics claimed it was boring. So I was a bit apprehensive when I bought my ticket. I was surprised when I watched it because usually that's not my type of film. But I really enjoyed it. To be fair I didn't understand a lot of the storyline but what I did understand was really good. The film was in French so it had subtitles. I always find this a bit confusing because it is hard to watch the film and the text but you can get used to it after a while. I love love loved the dresses. It was really inspiring to see how someone who started off with literally nothing can go as far as creating Chanel!

The Role of Gabrielle Chanel was played by Audrey Tautou who nailed the part and made it her own.

The clothing was immaculate. Sadly the real CoCo Chanel died at the age of 88 in 1971. But the boi-pic did not include a lot of her time being famous. It was more before that when she was making her way there. She has been a very influential on haute couture. This film helps people to understand CoCo Chanel, it helps you to realize that she was a person not a brand. I think it gives people hope because it makes you feel like even you have a chance of making an imprint on the fashion industry. It shows that, like us, she had a life before she was famous and it was a normal if not poor one. She made her way from scratch proving we can too. I think this film was a brilliant film to her memory.
Kitty

Work Experience

For my work experience I went to work at B*Boy Enterprises "never trust a stylist!" This is a leading clothes designers founded by William Baker. They design clothes for sets and tours for people as famous and Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Ciara and many more. For two weeks I went to go work as a fashion assistant at their company base in old street.


It was very interesting. I got to work with all of their clothes that they wore on tour. I liked it but it was very repetitive. Because all of the clothes were being shipped off to America we had to take pictures of every piece of clothing we packed in case something got lost on the way. It was interesting to see how much pressure everybody is under behind the celebrity. I think that those people don't get enough credit because it is just as hard for those people as it is for the celebrity if not harder. It was odd though because when I think of celebrities in a way you kind of forget that they are actually just people. I think my favourite bit was working with Kylie Minogue's shoes. There were so many brand labels like Gucci, Prada, D&G, Jimmy Choo and so many more. It was so exiting to get a glimpse of what it's like on the other side. I think it was very enchanting seeing what happens to an outfit before it is worn. It was a very interesting experience and I would love to do it again. However, I don't think I would like to work there for good. Too much Stress!
Kitty

Andy Warhol

We have been learning about Andy Warhol's work. Andy Warhol was born on August 6th 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He creates a type of art called: POP ART! I think his work is vibrant and interesting. He started off painting basic everyday objects for example his world famous painting of a Campbell's soup can.
Later on in his career he went on to paint celebrities including Marilyn Monroe:

Debbie Harry:

John Lennon:

And quite a few others. In Art we have been trying to create our own pieces in the style of Andy Warhol. I think that it is a very interesting process. The problem is I find photoshop quite difficult to use so therefore it was more difficult for me to create mine as I feel I need constant guidance. I also think that if Andy Warhol started making these pictures now it wouldn't be as popular because with technology nowadays it is so simple to set your camera to a setting and take pictures that way. I think I need to learn how to use photoshop and then maybe I will be able to explain the process in a later post.

Teachers TV

Teachers TV filming crew came to our school and observed and filmed us. They asked us questions about the course. They asked us things like what our favourite part of the course was and would we recommend it to people. I said my favourite part of the course was the fact that we went on a lot of trips. I think this is a good because it's not just sitting in a classroom, which I find helps me loose concentration a lot quicker, but it is getting outside of the normal school environment. It was really interesting watching the professionals do what we've been doing all this time and to see how it really works. In the lesson we were doing prints of Barack Obama and ourselves. They filmed us working from many different angles before asking us questions. I found it difficult not to look into the camera when we were supposed to be working. I found it off putting trying to act normal when they were so closely observing us. If we said something in a way they disliked they would ask us to repeat is again and just change things. It was interesting to see how they operate behind the scenes because on the TV you only see it once through you don't see all the "bloopers" so it was fascinating to see how it operates.

Graphic Design

Last lesson we interviewed Andrew Walker from Thin Martian about his job for inspire. He was a graphic designer. We were told to ask him about literacy and numeracy and how it is used in the work place. We got into groups and shared out roles. In my group i was the interviewer, Gina was the camera man, Kubra and Kai were directors and Ann-Marie was the sound man. We asked him the questions once or twice from different angles but from different camera angles. I think it went well because he was nice and pleasant to interview so that lifted the mood. However I also think that people began to get restless and snappy so it became difficult to work in that atmosphere. But I think that Andrew was very nice about it so it was ok.

Kitty

Art-Clay

Instructions:
1.Get a wooden stand.
2.Wrap two pieces of A3 paper around it to form a basic head and neck shape.
3.Add small pellets of clay over the paper until completely covered.
4.Add details eg. chin, nose and ears but remember proportions.
5.Firing-Take the clay off the wooden stand and place in a Kiln*
6.The paper will burn away and you will be left with a firm shape.

Facts:
1.Once the clay is joined into a sphere it becomes a strong 3D shape.
2.The red clay we use is called 'Terracotta'.
3.The clay piece can be cast or fired.
4.Casting-Make a plaster mould then pour bronze* into it.

Keywords:
*Kiln: A Kiln is a an oven that goes up to 1000 degrees which is a great deal more than a normal household oven which reaches a mere 250 degrees.
*Bronze: A liquid metal.

Kitty

Drama-Woyzeck

Last lesson we carried on with our study of 'Woyzeck'. The first thing we had to do was, in our groups, brainstorm different settings and stage set ups that we would like to perform our play in. We soon after went into more detail and started to talk about lighting and props. Our group decided that we would hold our performance in an amphitheatre. We also thought that instead of having a pit for the orchestra we would have a balcony so that the audience could watch the orchestra as well as the play. We also thought we could Strobe Lights to make things go in slow motion, for example, when he kills Marie. We agreed that large screens would be put around the theatre so that when someone does a monologue everyone would freeze (apart from the character) and their silhouette would appear on the screen of them acting it. After we came up with these ideas the class had a group discussion and we fed back our ideas to the class. Then , in our groups, we started to act out our scenes. I was in a group with Kai, Marley and Alex. I was Marie, Alex was Woyzeck and Kai and Marley were both the drum major. Kai would shout abuse at Alex when there was silence so that Kai voiced the inner thoughts and flashbacks Woyzeck was having. Marley did something similar only he was my inner thoughts and flashbacks. We rehearsed and then performed it to the class. Kitty