A Song for Manzanar

I updated with photos from "A Song for Manzanar," a short film I designed earlier this year. It is based on the true story of two sisters, one in Japan, one in the United States during WWII. One sister is sent to Manzanar, one of the Japanese internment camps in California. We shot in Pasadena and on location at Manzanar. Have fun taking a look!

I'm in!!

Well folks, it's official! I'm a union member now!

I spent the last two and a half months working at Western Costume for their Halloween store, and as a result completed enough days to join the Motion Picture Costumers Union, Local 705! I've been waiting a long time to make this jump, and I'm very excited to begin working as a costumer on union projects! Thanks to everyone who helped me get to this point, I feel extremely lucky to have had people in my life who have been looking out for me. :)

In other news, word on the street is that Mojave Cherry Petals is getting very close to completion! Very much looking forward to seeing how it turned out!

Halloween at Western Costume!

Good news!

I started last week at Western Costume as one of this year's Halloween crew! We're pulling and putting everything together this month for their annual Halloween store that opens October 1st. Come on down anytime during the month of October and we'll be on hand to help you pick out a fabulous costume!

This means that as of November I'll be joining 705, the Motion Picture Costumers Union! Very excited to start working as a union costumer!

Wolves From Another Kingdom trailer

The preliminary trailer has been released for "Wolves From Another Kingdom," the post-apocalyptic AFI thesis I was working on in April/May! They're trying for another round of fundraising to do reshoots at the end of July. If you like what you see, click through to the vimeo page and there's information on how you can donate. Either way, here's the trailer, hope you enjoy!


WOLVES FROM ANOTHER KINGDOM teaser from Christopher Carbone on Vimeo.

Wolves From Another Kingdom

 

"Wolves From Another Kingdom" is almost wrapped! Just one day at Salton Sea this weekend and that's it. Here's a group shot they took of the wolf pack kids, complete with flaming dumpster in the background! Totally crazy stuff.. don't worry, the fire was built by the SFX technician, it's safe. :)

Mojave Cherry Petals on set snaps!

Here's a few more candid snaps of the kids on set of "Mojave Cherry Petals"! Aren't they cute? Very much looking forward to seeing the footage on this one..

Now that "Mojave Cherry Petals" has wrapped, I'm gearing up for dress rehearsals for the play "Big Love" at Occidental College as well as prepping for another AFI thesis film called "Wolves From Another Kingdom." Busy busy busy, but despite what I might say sometimes I think I prefer it that way. :)

Mojave Cherry Petals!

We finished the first five days of shooting on Mojave Cherry Petals, and tomorrow we travel to Manzanar to finish the shoot. It has been a great experience so far, and the kids were adorable! I'll post more pictures after we wrap! For now, here's a group shot of some of the kids!

"Enchanted" in Big Bear!

Was up in Big Bear last weekend for another AFI MOS shoot, this time we were on location in snow! Quite exciting, especially since I had never been to Big Bear before. The film is about an enchanted necklace. A huntress kills a beautiful woman she finds in the woods and takes her necklace, which turns her beautiful as she puts it on. Not to spoil it, but she soon discovers that what goes around comes around! Anyway, here are some snaps I took this weekend! Looking forward to seeing the final product..

MOS project.. with fire!

A few snaps from the set of an AFI MOS project I did a few weeks ago.. We lit a rose and a casket on fire! Pretty crazy stuff..

Coming up for air!

Well, it has been a long time since my last update! Since last June, I was working as a costume assistant on The Gangster Squad, a 1940s action movie based on a true story. An awesome first PA job, working for one of my favorite designers, Mary Zophres! I also, more recently was helping on her next film, Inside Llewyn Davis, before they headed to New York to shoot. Now that that job is over, I'm taking a few months to tackle some design projects! Very excited to sink my teeth into these two.

The first is an AFI thesis short, called Mojave Cherry Petals, which is set in Manzanar (a Japanese internment camp in eastern California) during WWII. It's a beautifully written script, and a really great time period that after Gangster Squad, I feel very well versed in! It's a story about a teacher and his classroom full of 6th graders, so it'll be a fun opportunity to dress kids, which I haven't done before! This one shoots in late March, and they're still fundraising so if you feel so inclined please donate!

The second project is the play "Big Love" written by Charles Mee, which is a modern reimagining of the Greek play "The Suppliant Women." It's a story of 50 brides who run away from their 50 respective grooms to avoid marriage, and a bloody, crazy melee ensues. I was so excited to be asked back to design at Occidental College, where I went for undergrad. It will be such a treat to have a proper costume shop to build costumes for me again! I love independent film projects but sometimes it's nice to have a bigger crew than just me and one assistant! ;)

Looking forward to taking some time to just design without having classes to worry about!

I'm employed!!

So school is officially over and it's still kind of sinking in. I'm sure it'll really hit me in the fall when I won't be going back to class with everyone. I'm glad to be done though! Three years is a long time!

The great news is that I've already found a job! I'm working as a costume production assistant on a feature film, for one of my absolute favorite designers! If you know me, you can probably guess who.. :) I've been raving about how awesome she is ever since I had the chance to help her in the research library when I interned at Western costume two years ago.. Anyway, the great news is that the film shoots in LA, so I'm employed through mid December!! It's a period film as well, with some great actors attached, so I'm very excited to get to see this one all the way through from prep thru wrap!

That's all I'll say for now.. but I'm super excited!

Done with grad school!

Well, this weekend was Design Showcase West, marking the end of my time in grad school! It's still kind of sinking in.. graduation is this Friday and then it's officially over! Too weird!

Two weekends ago I was at the National Design Portfolio Review, which was a similar showcase of graduating designers from across the country. We each had a booth where we put up examples of our work and had our portfolio books to peruse, and people came by to chat and give critique. While I was in New York, I had the opportunity to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met (AMAZING!) as well as The Book of Mormon on Broadway! It was pretty hysterically funny.. I have bought the soundtrack since I got back and it's still funny even after listening to it over and over.. Check it out if you're in NYC! (If you can get tickets that is..)

What with all of this portfolio organizing that I've been doing over the past few weeks, I updated a few things around here as well. I added photos and renderings from Erendira, my thesis production, as well as some new illustrations.

Erendira!

The Sad and Incredible Tale of the Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother opens in two days!

Anyone who's in LA should come check it out! Tickets and showtime info available at:
http://www.tft.ucla.edu/calendar/performance/erendira/

Sneak peek from 2nd dress.. Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother.. :)

National Design Portfolio Review

Exciting news!

I've been selected to represent UCLA at the National Design Portfolio Review in New York City on May 28-29th. It's essentially a chance for graduating MFA students in costume, scenic, and lighting design to network with working professionals and to exhibit their work. Students from all over the country will be coming to present, so it should be an exciting glimpse into what other students around the US have been working on. I'm really excited to have the chance to participate, and anyone in NYC should definitely come by and check it out if you get a chance!

Now to get working on that portfolio..

Wrapped!

Just wrapped tonight on another AFI short, "The Great Commission," about a bible salesman in the 1950s. I'll update the film section later with some pics!

Now that that's over with, it's time to fully focus on my thesis project 100%! It's called The Incredible and Sad Tale of the Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother, based on the novella of the same name by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's an original adaptation, written by my director, Monica Payne. Very exciting to be working on something new and original, but it's also based upon an author whose work provides a lot of wonderful things to draw from. We got signed off on the designs last week, and I love the direction we've settled on. It's kind of a surrealist steampunk hybrid of modern and victorian elements with a very tight color palette. Here's a sneak peek at some of the designs:

Film update!

Updated the film section of my portfolio! Added photos two new films: Lil John, an AFI short, and Silk, Sugar, and Shadows, a UCLA short. Lil John is being screened this Friday, excited to see it completed!

Enjoy the pictures!

La Clemenze di Tito

Taking a mini break from doing alterations on the film I'm working on.. thought I'd share some of my final costume renderings from the opera designed for class this quarter. We were designing La Clemenze di Tito, an Italian opera seria written by Mozart in the late 18th century. I bumped my version forward a bit to around 1810-1815, and did a very stylized interpretation of Neoclassical revivalism. I also had to design the set and lights, which was a challenge to say the least, having no experience with either! Anyway, hope you enjoy the renderings! Now back to work for me..

Silver Gardens Trailer!

The trailer for Silver Gardens was released tonight! Take a peek!

New navigation system!

A quick note to mention that I installed a swanky new mouseover viewing system on the portfolio pages! Instead of clicking on each thumbnail, just mouseover each one you want to view and it will appear to the left! Let me know if there's anything not working properly and I'll fix it. :)

Portfolio updates include new photos of Copenhagen, and the trailer for Honest Cheat!

Copenhagen photos

Finally got photos of Copenhagen from the photographer this week! They came out really great, I'm very pleased with how these will look in my portfolio!

Enjoy!