Re-discovering Fountain Pens

 

The past some months have been very hectic, work at office keeps piling up, and its a similar story at home. Trust me, being married is like working on a second job, it just can't be neglected. As a part of some late-year house cleaning, I was re-arranging things at home when I opened some old shelves, and found a Parker fountain pen. It is a red bodied Vector with a piston for drawing ink, and was gifted to me by my father when he returned from Gulf two decades ago. Somewhere circa 1997~99. Made in UK, it says. And with it I got drawn once again to my fun filled school days.

                     

A simple google turned up endless blog posts of nostalgia, kids who grew up in the 90s had a special place of the fountain pens, lovingly called the ink pen (ironical, every pen has ink, fountain or not ). I could see bloggers typing on and on about those days when you had to load your fountain pen with ink, the same way today people charge their phones before heading out to school or office. Writing instruments have gone down a one way street, and smart pens and voice-to-text converters are in use today. But I long for the days men were men and carried their own fountain pens proudly in their shirt pockets.

So here is how we progressed in school: from the kindergarten days (LKG,UKG) to about 4th grad (or 4th standard), we Indian students were equipped with the trusty pencil and sharpener (which we used to call the cutter). Then about 5th grade, we were trusted to start using pens. The cheapest pens in the market were the disposable ball-point pens, the most popular I think was the stick-eazy pen, which could be bought for 2 rupees back then.

But schools used to insist that a good student no-only required good grades, but also a good handwriting to go with it. A legible handwriting in the cursive style was the hallmark of the Oxford academia, they used to say.  And the best way one could achieve that was to write using a fountain pen, in plain white 'unruled' notebooks. The challenge was to write on plain paper in straight lines , which none of us could do except some of the girls in class. Most often , our writing would go obliquely across the page which we attempted to compensate in the next line, and fail again. We needed practice. So we were encouraged to buy good ink pens and practise writing with them in plain sheets. This opened up an arsenal of sorts, because unlike ball point pens, which were identical and everyone had the same ones, fountain pens were distinctive and different. You could either buy a cheap unheard of Indian company like Bismi, Camel, Camlin..or you could go all in and buy the coveted Cadillac of fountain pens : Hero, Parker & Sheffer.

The chinese brand Hero was specially coveted, because it was extremely light weight to use and even easier to refill ink, and had  a longer mileage. Plus spare parts were easily available and interchangeable from other pens of the same company, and the nib was , well. smooooth. It gave the smoothest writing on paper, and the ink dried instantly without smudges. It was very common for us students to carry our pens in the shirt pockets of our white uniforms, but we would also forget to remove it when we ran for the bus, causing the ink to spill onto our shirts. Apart from the regular stuff taught in school, we also learned Pen-engineering, removing and changing of the nibs, bending and forking the nibs to "correct" the ink flow, and experimenting with different brands of inks. Often our inks would run out during our class, so we would switch to the reserve ballpoint pen, and even un-luckier ones would find the ink in the ballpens have dried up. Then we would start borrowing inks from neighbours, by transferring ink from theirs to our pens ! We would carry a piece of cotton for these emergencies in our pencil boxes, yes they were still called pencil boxes, even when they did not have any pencils, and a small piece of chalk, which instantly absorbed any ink spilled in the box or on our clothes. The Parker fountain pens had a beauty of their own, small, simple design, and just heavy enough to stand out, but ink flow was heavier, and would smudge our writing in the cheap school provided answer sheets. And the ink would run out an hour after lunch break. The Hero pens on the other hand, with their friction caps and hooded nibs were better engineered (we thought) and wrote longer, in sleek lines.

The good days didn't last though. During our 10th standard board exams  we found that the  government provided answer sheets were of even lower quality, and thus played safe with the ballpoint pens. Somewhere around this time, the Gel-pen entered the Indian market, you could have the convenience of the ball point and the output of the fountain pen. You could leave in in your pocket when you ran, and it wouldn't spill ! Amazing ! By highschool  , we were all converts and adopted the ballpoints for all our scribbling. Life had turned fast, there was no spare time to waste on refilling inks every night, and our handwriting was either improved or in  a complete mess. The teacher didn't care, there were no marks for beauty on the test paper. The new weapon of choice ?, the Cello Gripper:

The last fountain pen I used was a maroon colored Hero , with a funny looking unhooded nib, which I used in first year of Engineering college. It was broken when it fell from my pocket and broke cleanly in half, where the suction mechanism met the nib. After that it was all ball point pens for me, and after entering the computer programming profession, the only time I used pens was to jot down a phone number or to fill in application forms.

Well, this Parker has come back my way, and I am trying to find reasons to start using it during work. The ball pen was designed for quick brisk writing, they say. The fountain pen is for more relaxed , laid back and flowing writing. Has to. It needs special care and time of its own, something the modern office worker has very little of.

Observations On Jurassic World

There’s great irony hidden in Jurassic Park’s (1993) success. As audiences watched Doctor Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) rile fiercely against the idea of the commercial use of dinosaurs to make a quick buck without truly understanding the technology used to bring them back to life, the very film itself became one of the biggest, financially most successful movies of the nineties, only to be dethroned by James Cameron’sTitanic (1997). Which, irony strikes again, was up against The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) in the visual effects category at the Academy Awards. Titanic won, but Jurassic Park's sequel boasted some effects which rivaled with its predecessor’s.

Granted, not all of the CGI effects of the first (and second) film hold up as well as they did twenty-two years ago. Which is no surprise: in 1993, this had never been done before, and the artists involved did the formerly presumed impossible - they gave us life-like dinosaurs hunting and stalking their human prey in jungles and industrial kitchens. They took an enormous risk showing off the Brachiosaurus in harsh sunlight. And they succeeded on all these fronts.

But it no longer is 1993. It’s 2015. There’s no shame in admitting other, newer films offer better visual effects. This does not mean it lessens the experience of viewing Jurassic Park and you can’t still be amazed by what you are shown; in fact, all effects-filled films made from 1993 on are built on the solid foundations Jurassic Park laid out. People still refer to it as a landmark in cinematic and visual-effects history. Which it is. The power of the original film does not just lie in its visual effects; it’s the combination of technologies, clever story-telling, a tight script and the addressing of current issues all packaged in a remarkable film, making viewing Jurassic Park the extraordinary experience it is.

But audiences have a yearning for more, they feel not just a desire to revisit familiar grounds: they want to be thrilled and won over by new, exciting ideas, larger-than-life situations and the best visuals the business has to offer. Escapism at its finest.

Now, just four months away, a whole new adventure awaits us. This time, the fourth installment in the popular Jurassic Park franchise will take us back to the island of the original film and present us with a new theme-park named Jurassic World. And, odd cameo aside, an entirely new cast will give act-de-presence to, once again, fight off dinosaurs.  

This sequel to the original trilogy is much anticipated; for fourteen years the project had been on and off irregularly. Different rejected scripts surfaced, one of the oddest telling the tale of dinosaurs being bred in a Swiss castle where they were trained in combating drug-cartels. The idea caused consternation amongst fans, most of which were glad this concept never saw the light of day.

Then, one glorious day, Universal announced the fourth film would hit production. In association withLegendary, dinosaurs would once again roam the silver screens, and, again, live in a theme-park which was to be opened on Isla Nublar.

Commentary amongst the fan community was abundant: an outcry of fans who claimed a new park would never be successful because the original characters, including Grant (Sam Neill) and Malcolm, would protest the park publicly, and major problems would arise should the gates open for the public: to top it off, the United Nations (briefly mentioned in 2001’s Jurassic Park III) wouldn’t even allow for the islands to be explored or just set foot on ever again in the first place.

But we soon learned writer Derek Connolly and director Colin Trevorrow found a clever way around this: in their expansion of Jurassic Park’s already rich universe, the park has been open for ten years, apparently without incident, suffering slowly but gradually declining visitor numbers.

This didn’t exactly shut up the nay-saying crowd. In fact, they were most displeased when learning there would be a new guy on the block. And this time, unlike Spinosaurus in the third film, it isn’t just anotherbigger-than-T-rex predator; it is to be a fictional creature, created out of the DNA of several different animals, combining the best of each of their abilities.

I, too, had my reservations about this idea. A fictional creature, while there are so many real, wonderful dinosaurs to choose from! A wealth lies hidden in the fossil record still, magnificent creatures begging to be brought to life again on the big screen!

But the more we learned about this new Jurassic World and the proposed reason for the creation of Indominus rex, the more I came to appreciate the concept. As images leaked (first of Lego figures, then merchandise, then the Hasbro toy version), my initial concern dissipated. This new creature will not simply be a freak; it looks like an animal that could have been a real dinosaur.

Another much heard complaint involves the connection between the original film and Jurassic World; many fear this film will be a remake in disguise, given it takes place on Isla Nublar (the island on whichJurassic Park was built), it will be another dinosaur park and, as we know from the two trailers released, dinosaurs will escape once again and cause havoc, mayhem and death amongst those residing on the island.

There’s no denying options are fairly limited when you set a story on an island inhabited by dinosaurs.  There are only so many ways in which a dinosaur can chase people on screen, while keeping it family-friendly at the same time.

However, it hardly seems to be a remake. In fact, it appears to be straying as far from the original film’s premise as possible. While we no doubt will see chaos, as we did in the first three films, the setting is distinctly different. This is not a zoo that has just opened. It’s not about people inspecting a place they’d no idea existed before arriving. This is a park up and running for years, doing business and having built a brand-name people all over the globe instantly recognize.    

Looking at the original franchise, what seems to come closest to this new scenario is the third act of The Lost World: Jurassic Park in which the T-rex escapes a wrecked cargo ship and terrorizes unsuspecting people on the streets of San Diego. Even so, with two failed attempts in the original trilogy, the idea of a successful, operational park has not been explored up until now in the Jurassic Park franchise.

And, contradicting as it may seem, while people complain this film seems to try copying the original, they,we, seem to have a desire for that rush of nostalgia too. We want this film to be good; we, as long-time fans, have waited for it for over fourteen years. We feel we deserve a good film, one that lives up to all our hopes and dreams and (impossible?) expectations and at the same time will take us right back to 1993, when Jurassic Park amazed and captivated audiences around the world.

The problem is: people appear to expect and want a whole lot from Jurassic World, which it might not live up to. That (false) nostalgia we are all hoping for could be there, because we will return to Isla Nublar. For what reason they’ve chosen the original island, after ignoring it in the two sequels, as a setting for the new park remains to be seen for now. But it does have people excited for a chance of seeing the ruins of the old park (we have an indication some construction was left up - to what extent is yet unknown). 

And we’ve already seen some homage in the two Jurassic World trailers released, including the iconic shot of a helicopter flying towards the island and a scene with a herd of Gallimimus running across a field. We know there will be a Tyrannosaurus, and she will once again be a star. There will be Velociraptors much like the original creatures (though with different color patterns), and we might be offered a bit more intellectual substance than the third film gave us.

But this will be a new film, a separate entity. It could be the start of a fresh franchise, expanding on the original trilogy and acknowledging and respecting the source material. However, if we will enter the theatre expecting to feel the exact same way we did in 1993 (or the moment you first saw the originalJurassic Park and were mesmerized by it), we might fool ourselves greatly. This new film is not just being made for the original fans. It’s made for everyone, and it will target a whole new, young and different audience.

We should not forget these are indeed different times. In this day and age, big, effects-heavy blockbusters hit cinemas week after week, and run for a limited time, as they are quickly replaced by the next big-name franchise vehicle. In 1993, Jurassic Park literally was the biggest film out there and held this title for months on end; everyone had either seen it or heard about it. It was impossible to escape the ongoing bombardment of merchandise and promotion. People stood in line to purchase tickets, and many returned multiple times to see the film on the big screen again and relive the wonder of seeing life-like dinosaurs.

Now, Jurassic World faces challenges the original film did not. Competition’s stiff. My hope is young boys and girls will be as captivated with this film as I was with the original. Marketing is in full swing already, with viral videos, a viral website, the film’s official website, images of the toys and merchandise popping up rapidly everywhere. Come June 2015, few people will not have heard of Jurassic World. Will this do the trick? Time will tell.

Speaking of marketing and merchandise; there’s the uproar over the new Hasbro toys too: ugly, generic, don’t fit with the original lines. I can’t deny I’m disappointed with this new toy line, especially when you take in consideration the fact that Hasbro had shown great potential during 2013 with the release of two entirely new sculpts. The Allosaurus and Pachyrhinosaurus enthralled collectors. These were high-quality toys that held the promise of much more! But the two remaining figures, Carnotaurus and Stegosaurus, were cancelled and the line was discontinued. 

The new Jurassic World toys indeed seem to miss that incredible detail and the spark of magic the original Jurassic Park (and The Lost World: Jurassic Park) toys and collector cards held; one of the new Velociraptors is even missing the iconic sickle-claws!

But these toys are not (just) made for the die-hard fans and collectors: they are targeted at a much younger audience. Most of us who are in our late twenties, early thirties have seen the original film in cinemas and were no doubt aware of that dino-sized marketing campaign which supported the film; we were lucky to have experienced it consciously. 1993 was dinosaur-heaven, with an unprecedented renewed interest not just for these animals, but paleontology, biology, research and even filmmaking and story telling. 

For me, it defined my childhood, and I can’t help but feel snippets of that very excitement and wonder whenever I see clips of the original film, hear its soundtrack, see a toy, a book or just the logo associated with it.

The sequels never brought this particular feeling back to me. They’re different - in a good way, they hold their own well enough. But they miss that bit of enchantment, that moment you first gaze up to observe the Brachiosaurus, the arrival at the Visitor Center, entering the laboratory to witness the hatching of a baby Velociraptor, an up-close encounter with a sick Triceratops so life-like it makes you choke up. None of the sequels contained such iconic scenes. Is it fair to expect Jurassic World will? Have we not raised the bar way too high for ourselves, and by doing so, don’t we run the risk of leaving the theatre utterly disappointed when that spark, that magical touch, the imagery which defined our childhood, turns out to be absent and replaced with new experiences somewhat alien to us now we are older and, possibly, a bit more cynical?

Will Jurassic World be as good as Jurassic Park? With a little luck, I dare say, “yes, it could be.” But it no doubt shall be different. All we can do for now is enjoy the ride and count down until June 2015!

Get your InGen pass !

 

Jurassic World is very much in progress. They have recently started their factious site masraniglobal.com.

 

It turns out Masrani buys out InGen, and then continues the dino-dna game.

 

Get your own InGen id pass at:

http://www.masraniglobal.com/careers/index.html

 

Go to the bottom of the page and enter some info in the fields there. Clicking on Submit will take you to next page where you can upload your photo and generate a InGen id pass!

 

Along with this message.

 

 

Congratulations, and welcome to the Masrani Corporation!

Thank you for choosing to join one of the world’s fastest growing families. Given your set of skills, we are pleased to offer you employment as an Intern Genetic Biologist at International Genetic Technologies in San Diego, CA.

Your immediate supervisor is Dr. Henry Wu, Lead Genetic Scientist.

At Masrani we have a philosophy that combines vision with innovation to create success. We will ensure that these skills are presented to you in your orientation, and they will help to guide you through your journey at Masrani.

On your right, you will find an ID badge for you to complete for security purposes. Simply upload a photo of yourself using the upload tool below and you will see your ID card in full fruition.

We look forward to welcoming you as a new employee at InGen's state of the art laboratory facility. In the meanwhile, please continue to check back at www.masraniglobal.com for all the latest news, videos, and images.

Sincerely,

Simon Masrani

Chief Executive Officer, Masrani

Interstellar - Science and Fiction

 

Spoiler : (Biggest shocker for me:) Matt Damon’s character scientist/explorer Prof Mann is a negative role in the movie. It is his treachery which kick-starts the  third act of the movie. I didn’t see that coming, never expected Damon's 'small' role to have such a huge impact.

I watched this movie yesterday evening with my wife at a theatre in Bangalore, and I enjoyed it, though not thoroughly. I have been following this movie eagerly, ever since it was announced in 2009. When I heard the screenplay had been leaked, I scrounged the interweb for a copy, and read through. This version was before the Nolan's where involved, and I put this up on my blog so I could share the link with some like minded close friends. In a way , I am glad a big bulk of the original had been removed, the  whole part of the Chinese station, and two blackholes instead of one in the movie…but even the final trimmed version had excess baggage. Too much to explain in even 3 hours running time.

Enough has been said of the science of Interstellar, with experts and novices on both sides debating if the story holds credibility. I have no new thoughts on the matter, as physic and math were not my stronger subjects anyway. Nolan never made movies which where easy to understand, each one of his movies required careful rewinding and rewatching in order to fully grasp, except maybe for 2002's Insomnia. His movies are drenched with science fiction , gadgets and hero-improvising-at-the-last-moment, they are definitely not for the commoner. But here, I felt the movie was stretched too much, over space and time. Interstellar is not a movie about space travel, it is a movie about time travel. And relativity. And the director's vision that love is a fifth (or is it sixth?) dimension ,which can span across space and time. It is a beautiful work of art, and sound. I am sure the second and third acts were shot completely in a green screen, except the icy planet scene, which was shot at Svínafellsjökull glacier.

So here is the story: Prof Brand Senior wants to save the human species. He asks Cooper to take his daughter Amelia Brand and team on a  space mission to find another planet which can sustain life, so that humanity can populate it and continue. The assumption is that he can find a way to transport millions of humans over space-time to the new planet , after travelling back and forth through a wormhole. This he calls plan  A. And like any brilliant scientist, he has a plan B too. Plan B: In the highly unlikely event that the explorers cannot travel back via the blackhole, they drop a population bomb. They are to carry millions of fertilized eggs with them, which they will incubate..and reproduce via surrogates…and grown on the new planet, so that some part of the human species will live and flourish, but not the existing population alive on earth. Exactly how these eggs will be used is not fully explained, it was not in the original script either. But this ridiculous plan is just a failsafe, he assures them, by the time the mission returns, he would have solved the grand equation and found a way to travel both ways easily.

On his deathbed, he reveals to Murphy Cooper, that there never was a plan A. It would never have worked. The only way for humanity to continue was to populate the new planet with the fertilized eggs. There was no return journey possible. But he greatly under-estimated his pilot Cooper, and his fatherly affection to his children, and his gut determination to get back home. Cooper finds a way to survive the long journey, sends a message home to his daughter, thereby providing Murphy with the quantum data to solve Brand's equation completely, and by the time Cooper is found by earthlings again, his age by earth time is 120 years. What felt like days and hours for him in space time was decades back home. He meets his daughter on her deathbed, and then leaves on a final adventure to find Amelia Brand, who has by this time found an earth-like planet capable of sustaining humanity and life.

Review: Interstellar is not Nolan's best work. It lacks cohesiveness, and the polish seen with his previous works. The movie starts slow, too much time is spent on earth, establishing his family background and current condition on earth. I guess that part was to emphasize that his son Tom was not academically inclined, while his daughter Murphy is brilliant and tom-boyish (tom-boyish means , like Tom, right?). But again, too much time there, by the time the mission is launched and the first spectacle is put-up, (travel through the wormhole), we are nearing the halfway mark. During the launch process, the craft never contacts NASA ! So now we have a trained NASA pilot and some scientists in the spacecraft, but instead of sticking to scientific jargon, as one expects them, they revert to casual everyday talking in layman's terms. Romilly explains to Cooper how a wormhole works using a paper and pencil trick we first saw in the 1997 movie Event Horizon, which is not required because Cooper is a engineering wizard and a bookworm(remember his library back home ? and the original copy of a textbook which Murphy's school no longer follows?). All the scenes in outer space have no sound, accurate , because sound cannot travel in space. But by blanking out the sound it felt disconnected from the rest of the movie which had loud organs and synthesizer music. When they land on the first planet, which is too close to a blackhole, we see daylight there. But surely, it can't have daylight, because the planet is in orbit around a blackhole, and light cannot escape from a blackhole, right ? The gravity levels on the planet where one hour on the surface equals seven years elsewhere would crush all human life. The astronauts would also be squished and “spaghettified” by their proximity to a black hole.The robots TARS and CASE are robots, but they speak with undeniable sarcasm like humans. And even in an ultramodern spacejet, Cooper decides to fly manually to save fuel, even with all the computing power available to him. Surely the computer could have calculated the most fuel efficient path to the planet ? When Cooper and Amelia get back to Endurance, Romilly is there and has waited 23 years for them to return. How can a human wait 23 years locked up in a zero gravity environment, alone ? With no other human to talk to ? And the same question to Mann, alone on this frozen planet, locked up for decades. Anyway, Manns' first reaction on being awakened and seeing another human face was priceless, few actors could have pulled it off. Edmund's planet had better data, but they go to Mann's planet, because he was still transmitting. They just found out the Miller was still transmitting only because of the gravity distortion due to the blackhole, but Miller is already dead. Caution anyone ?

But what got to me most was the ending, the closure, or lack of. The part where Cooper falls into the blackhole into a tesseract, which connects to their library back home, and how Cooper communicates via gravity….it is the most stunning set pieces in Interstellar, with reality-bending visuals reminiscent of Inception. But it's also a ridiculously contrived cop-out twist, illogical, incoherent and profoundly unscientific. I know that the original script didn't have any of this gibberish. There, Cooper loads the quantum data onto a probe and sends the probe back to earth, which is the probe Cooper and family find at the start. That was so much more better. There was a question of matter travelling back, but at least there was nothing supernatural about it.

 

My best part in the movie would be after the explosion on Endurance, when Cooper tries to dock his ranger onto the Endurance. The graphics, sound ..it was all perfect, and had us audience tightly hugging our seats and holding our breath. Of course we knew Cooper would dock the ship, but the build-up to it was spectacular.

 

 

Point of Interest: The probe Cooper finds at the start of the movie is from India ! It was supposedly from Delhi Mission Control. Clearly India has made giant leaps as a space superpower, but by the time they do it, the planet is dying !

Tailpiece: I am going back to my favourite space travel movie: Apollo 13. Again, the movie was ahead of its time, but it was simple and concise. And long shelf life too. I have already watched it some 50-something times. And time to revisit.

Costuming The Blacklist - Tyranny Of Style

 

 

The Blacklist, the new crime drama that pairs one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals with a rookie special agent to solve high-profile cases, has been one of the runaway hits of the Fall. This unique show has been keeping audience coming back week after week for a strong core of complex characters with fascinating stories that run up against a slew of domestic and international terrorists. The woman at the helm of dressing this remarkable range of characters is costume designer Christine Bean. I recently had the opportunity to ask her about her work on The Blacklist.

The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

Tyranny of Style: Can you give us a brief description of your background in costume design?

Christine Bean: "I moved to LA to study Fashion Design at The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.  While working on my degree I had a series of internships in both fashion and film. It became clear to me that, like many people who move to Los Angeles, I was being drawn into the world of show business. After I graduated from FIDM I spent some time designing and assisting on low budget and student films, which led me to Western Costume where I learned a tremendous amount about period clothing and earned my union status. Following Western I worked in just about every role in the costume department. From set costumer to shopper I worked in LA for 10 years before moving to NYC, where I have been for the past 3 years. Through the years I costume designed several indie movies and assistant designed on big budget projects like The Dark Knight Rises and most recently Smash for NBC." 

T/S: The costumes for the Pilot of Blacklist were designed by Amy Westcott, can you speak a little to how you became involved with the show?

CB: "While finishing Season 2 of Smash I got a call from Amy Westcott regarding the pilot for The Blacklist. She was looking for an assistant designer and I came recommended from costume friends of hers. I was a huge fan of Amy's work and had wanted to work with her in LA but our paths had never crossed. I was thrilled to be able to have an opportunity to work with her in NYC. Amy and I had a seamless work style and a similar aesthetic, so although we had never worked together before, it felt very natural.

With Pilots, I think most designers think of taking them on as they would a feature film. There is no guarantee that the pilot will be picked up, so they often will have projects already lined up after the pilot and may not be available if it goes to series.  However, even if not available to do the series, their work has defined and established the characters. If the studio and network are happy with the look, then it will be the responsibility of the designer of the series to keep the continuity of the pilot while continuing with the development and evolution of the characters. Deservedly for all involved in creating the pilot of The Blacklist, it was picked up for 13 episodes after the pilot tested extremely well. When we got word that the pilot was picked up, Amy Westcott reached out to the producers and recommended that they hire me to design the series. 

Because I had been on the pilot, going onto the series felt like picking up where we had left off. I was able to secure much of the same crew that we had on the pilot as well, so it was a very easy transition for the actors, producers and crew."  

The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

T/S: How much of the look of the costumes for the show were established by Westcott on the Pilot and at what point did the designs feel like yours?

CB: "Going into the series with a full cast and already having had the experience of working closely with them, I was really fortunate to be able to hit the ground running. One of the things from the pilot that I knew would be a priority was having Reddington's wardrobe custom made. The pilot was so fast that there wasn't enough turnaround time. The moment I got the call that I was hired, I starting choosing fabrics for shirts and suits. So while the 2nd episode opens with Reddington wearing his pilot wardrobe, by the first commercial he changes into a custom 3-piece suit, handmade shirt and a custom hat. That, with the addition of 4 series-regular cast members that had not been established in the pilot, it felt very much mine." 

T/S: Can you tell us a little bit about the difference between filming in NYC versus LA?

CB: "While the show is set to take place in Washington D.C., we film in NYC. Having worked in LA the majority of my career, I am still constantly adjusting to the logistical differences of the two. One thing is I miss the tremendous resources available in LA as far as costume rentals. Being able to access MPCC, Western, CRC and Sony is such a huge time and money saver. We have done episodes to have taken place in Montreal, Shanghai, Berlin, Texas, Miami, etc. so we are constantly looking for specific uniforms as well as general stock to really sell the location. It takes a lot more legwork in NYC to make this happen."

T/S: The character of Reddington, an incredibly wealthy criminal, is always so well dressed with coordinating overcoats, hats and accessories. Can you speak a little to the inspiration and references for his character, sourcing the appropriate pieces, and working with James Spader to develop this character?

CB: "It was important for both James and I to have Reddington be incredibly well dressed but still practical. Even though his wardrobe is extremely high-end, there is a utility-based concept behind each piece. His shoes are Italian with a beautiful pebble grain leather, but they also have a practical rubber sole. His Loro Piana outerwear, while from the finest cashmere and wool, is also wind and water repellent, with many pockets and a removable hood. He has suiting appropriate for various climates depending on where the episode may take him. We make sure that there is an underlying color palate so that pieces can be mixed and matched and repeated.  I am also careful to choose colors that make Reddington stand out from the FBI agents. He should not look like one of them. Often times pieces of his wardrobe are integrated into the storyline, such as in "Wujing" you see Red buying fedoras that he will later wear, and then in "Frederick Barnes" you see him being measured at a tailor shop, which is the real tailor used to custom make all of Reddington suits. 

Reddington Costume Research Board, Including Fabric Swatches, The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

Finished look from research board above, The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

When starting the design process of a Reddington suit, I usually start at Beckenstein's Fabrics in New York's garment district. I also source fabric from the Holland & Sherry showroom. Once I decide on a fabric I pick the specifications for the suit, for example if the lapel should be peak or notch, style of pockets, vest and pant details. We work with Martin Greenfield Tailor in Brooklyn to make all of Reddington's suits, vests and pants. The shoes, ties and socks we purchase from Paul Stuart, Zegna and Saks. The outerwear has been from the Loro Piana boutique in Manhattan, and the hats from JJ Hat Center or if a custom hat is required we use Worth & Worth."

The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

T/S: Elizabeth Keen, the rookie Special Agent thrust into the center of these high profile cases exhibits such a wonderful range of strength and vulnerability. Can you speak a little to the inspiration and reference for her character, visually capturing her duality, sourcing garments, and working with Megan Boone to develop this character?

CB: "In creating Elizabeth Keen, we wanted to highlight the fact that she is balancing two lives, one is an ever increasingly high profile and dangerous career, and the other is being a wife and possibly a mother. While at work, her wardrobe represents the armor that Liz puts on to become Special Agent Keen- dark tailored suits, jewel tone blouses, and very little jewelry aside from her wedding rings. Keen is seeking respect from her fellow agents as well as Reddington. Additionally she needs to be able to run and wear a gun holster, so a tailored pant suit with low-heeled boots are her go-to uniform. At home and with Tom is where you see the side of Liz that is softer and more feminine. She is able to let her guard down and be more romantic, wear florals, lace, pastels, things that she couldn't wear to the FBI and be taken seriously. 

Elizabeth Keen Costume Research Board (left side- home, right side - work) The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

For sourcing Liz wardrobe, her FBI looks are often Theory, Tahari, Reiss and Helmut Lang. Her casual and home looks come from Anthropologie, Zara, Rag & Bone, Rebecca Taylor and local/specialty shops such as Norbu and Bird in Williamsburg for interesting jewelry and accessories."

The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

T/S: You dress such a huge range of extras and guest stars including everything from crowd scenes in both domestic and international locations, visiting dignitaries and international terrorists. How do you approach such variety in each episode, shifting gears, finding authentic global research, sourcing appropriate garments, and executing this large task?

CB: "Luckily I have an amazing team! An average week we will be filming one episode, prepping another, there will be a still photo shoot for crime scene photos, countless fittings, insert unit and often a tandem crew to overlap an episode, not to mention the concept, production and costume meetings that take place. Since I cannot be in all of these places at once, there would be no way to accomplish it all without a top-notch crew.  It requires that I put a lot of trust in each person in the department. For example, the last episode had a scene taking place in Germany, and it was decided that we needed 10 costumed beer maidens to work the next morning. I gave my assistants research and within an hour they had found a woman in Manhattan who came to our office with a suitcase full of authentic Bavarian dirndls.

The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

Another time we were doing an episode taking place in Shanghai and I noticed that many of the female street vendors in Shanghai wore arm covers to protect their skin from the sun. I was unable to find them on-line or in stores, so overhearing the dilemma our tailor cut up some old hazmat suits and re-purposed them as disposable sleeves for the background.  It is small details like these that add to the production value of the show. Each person in my department is creative and resourceful, which keeps us one step ahead of the demands of The Blacklist." 

The Blacklist, Costume Designer Christine Bean

A special thanks to Christine for taking the time to talk with us about costuming The Blacklist. Check out The Blacklist, and Christine's incredible work Mondays on NBC 10/9c.

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