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Archive for Sarah

Clone Wars – Orphan Black

Aug16

orphanblackposterTitle: Orphan Black

Genre: SciFi Thriller

Watched: August 5-6, 2013

Summary: great first season

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Lately, there have been a lot of shows  using the device of twins borrowing identities. Perhaps it’s a trend, perhaps it’s just a fan fave, as Shakespeare himself went for it in Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night. In any case, Orphan Black up the ante. Not twins or triplets, but human clones. And there are at least seven of them. Plus, it’s better than last years duplicate thrillers: Ringer (as much as i’m a SMG fan) and The Lying Game (which is pretty good in a lightweight way).

What is crazy impressive about Orphan is that Canadian actress Titiana Maslany (Shakespeare reference right there in her name!) manages to pull off wildly distinct personalities was incredible aplomb. I mean, seriously, you can just feel the different presence of these girls. You can even see quite effectively when one of them is pretending to be another. Watching uptight suburban mom Allison pretending to be punk Sarah is hilarious — and effective.

OB-Trailer2-1024x578

Tough Sarah

This show is Science Fiction, but the SF is confined to the clone thing and it’s low budget too. There aren’t a ton of effects. What there is, however, is very good writing, casting, acting, and pacing. It’s a great show really. We can’t know that the quality will survive into later seasons, but this one is break neck. The characters are sympathetic and interesting, and boy is she(s) put through the ringer (sorry SMG). The tone is simultaneously dark and comic, but always tense and unpredictable. There is one bit in the pilot where Sarah (playing Beth) is caught in an impossible situation. She goes to the bathroom to buy herself some time, then does something completely unexpected that actually works as a clever solution. This is very effective thriller plotting. It doesn’t feel forced or overwrought but merely tense.

16764841001_2372205947001_vs-518d65b8e4b0d749ff6ef2b7-1206954758001

Psycho Helena

Importantly, the complex central mystery is drooled out episode by episode, but it is drooled out. We find out quite a lot — although hardly everything. The amount of reveal is very effective in this season, but could be problematic next year as they will not be able to depend on the same  dynamic. The show might not be able to depend on the clones even playing their normal lives (or each others).

While Maslany steals the show. Many of the secondary actors are very solid as well. Jordan Gavaris as her (very) gay foster brother is a standout. He about says it all when he sits down at a piano and says, “let me show you a bit of Queen.” Kevin Hanchard is solid as cop twin Beth’s partner.

16764841001_2396979261001_vs-519a6b65e4b0878ee9f6ccee-782203288001

Geeky lesbian Cosima

The show feels slightly schizophrenic with regard to its sexuality. At times, in some episodes (like the pilot), it’s pleasantly steamy. Maslany does a good bit of walking around in underwear (always a plus). But this remains uneven, unpredictable. When two characters close we never know if the camera will linger or cut to morning. In a way, this keeps the viewer off balance. Deliberate thriller style or mere inconsistency? Who knows.

Either way, the show is very much worth watching.

Check out more TV reviews.

Related posts:

  1. Orange is the New Black
  2. Black Swan
  3. More Game of Thrones CGI
  4. Guest Interview – The Gaia Wars
  5. Men in Black 3
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: BBC America, clone wars, clones, Orphan Black, Sarah, Science Fiction, season 1, Tatiana Maslany, Television, Television Review

Making of a Cover

Dec19

On Sunday we shot the live model for my new cover for The Darkening Dream.


The artist, the amazing Cliff Nielsen, works out of a 1903 former power station! This was totally awesome given the 1913 setting of The Darkening Dream.


The interior is even crazier!


And our studio location where Cliff has set up his stage area and lighting.


The artist behind his camera. Turns out he’s a Canon 5D Mark II shooter as well!

Enter our lovely young protagonist, Sarah Engelmann, played by the talented Dana Melanie.


It just takes a bit of costume and some hair styling to take her back a hundred years! This cover is a bit allegorical. In the book, Sarah is plagued by dreams of violent super natural deaths, and entangled with more than a bit of the violent supernatural during her waking moments.


So for the cover we are trying to capture a bit of a nighttime Sarah caught in the junction between these waking (natural) and sleeping (supernatural) worlds. Just a note for total verisimilitude, Cliff will have to Photoshop off the nail polish (like 2 minutes work) because Western women didn’t wear nail polish between late antiquity and the 1930s! (Although the Chinese did)


Cliff earning his keep.


He shot using the 24-70 2.8L which is a great lens for studio work.


Hair fix.


I thought this shot during break an amusing contrast of period and modern.


Dana was a fantastic sport and even put up with a second — and creepy — crucifixion pose. In the context of The Darkening Dream this isn’t really Jesus type crucifixion, but more Conan on the Tree of Woe or Odin sacrificed and hung from the world tree Yggdrasil. Rest assured, it has certain magical/occult significance in the story.


Cliff had to shoot from high up on a ladder.


During this part of the shoot it was suggested that I draw in a small dark mustache and cultivate a sinister silent movie villain laugh.


Or perhaps it’s the reverse.

All in all, it was a fantastic shoot and we got great images. I can’t wait to see the finished cover in a couple of days.

Read more about The Darkening Dream here.
Or check out the cover design here.
Or read the first two chapters for free.

Related posts:

  1. Cover Commission
  2. The New Cover Concept
  3. The edits are all in!
  4. Untimed – The Second Cover
  5. Making Crash Bandicoot – part 4
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Book Cover, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Cliff Nielsen, Cosmetics, Cover art, Dana, Nail polish, Photoshop, Sarah, The Darkening Dream
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