Fashion by The Breakfast Club

They may have been from all different walks of life but they definitely had a few things in common, and one of them was style. John Hughes: A Life in Film details costume designer Marilyn Vance’s plans for styling each character from The Breakfast Club.

Costume designer Marilyn Vance (below) created a costume design board for each character in the film, either cutting out a face or figure from a magazine or sketching one herself to give that character a “look”. The original design boards became those characters.

Allison Reynolds (played by Ally Sheedy): Black was not happening at the time according to Vance, but that was Sheedy’s character. So her purse, fabric, and cashmere sweater, supposedly her father’s were black. She was a dark character.

Brian Johnson (played by Anthony Michael Hall): For Hall’s character, Vance chose green and khaki pants and regular turquoise blue and white sneakers with two different color socks. “Nike made me those three-toned sneakers for Michael,” she adds.

Claire Standish (played by Molly Ringwald): Vance explains she didn’t want to make Claire “hard” so she went with a pinkish look accented by a brown leather jacket.

Andrew Clark (played by Emilio Estevez): Vance went with royal blue for the team jacket, figuring blue to be the school color. She adds, “Then we cut those T-shirts to make him bigger and more muscular.”

John Bender (played by Judd Nelson): Bender, of course, is a renegade, anti-fashion guy (as was Jon Cryer’s Duckie in Pretty in Pink). Vance reveals, “I still get emails today about Bender – Where did that overcoat come from? A thrift store! WE cut the shirtsleeves off, beaded it up, and made sure the plaid material matched.

John Hughes wrote 46 movies, produced 23, and directed 8. He never went to film school, never spent time studying film and its history, but was unusually adept in three key areas — writing, directing and producing.

John Hughes: A Life in Film, by Kirk Honeycutt, former chief film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, is the first complete illustrated tribute to the legendary writer and director, and includes fresh interviews with Judd Nelson, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Columbus, Steve Martin, and more.

John Hughes & Molly Ringwald

Many directors have a tendency to use the same actors in their films. Who is most notably known for her roles in John Hughes’s Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. John Hughes: A Life in Film tells the story of her start with the legendary writer and director. The rest, as they say, is history.

One of the pros Tanen hired to help his new director was casting director Jackie Burch. She did discover, though, that two of the film’s principal actors were already cast in John’s mind.

Earlier, at a general meeting at ICM when the agency first agreed to represent John, agent Hildy Gottlieb had given him a bunch of 8×10 headshots of actors. Among them was a freckle-faced, red-haired teenager who liked like Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer. As legend has it – and for once the legend is true – he put that photo of Molly Ringwald up on a bulletin board above his word processor when he wrote Sixteen Candles.

When John finished the script, Gottlieb set up a meeting with Ringwald and her mother. John liked her a lot, but since she was his first interview he continued to read young actresses in L.A. and New York, only to come back and read Molly again. No one had come close. She got the lead role.

Ringwald seemingly was born for show business. At age six, she recorded, “I Wanna Be Loved by You,” a music album of Dixieland jazz with her father and is group, the Fulton Street Jazz Band. At ten, she was chosen to play Kate in the Los Angeles production of the musical Annie. In 1980, at the age of twelve, she preformed as a lead vocalist on two Disney albums.

John Hughes wrote 46 movies, produced 23, and directed 8. He never went to film school, never spent time studying film and its history, but was unusually adept in three key areas — writing, directing and producing.

John Hughes: A Life in Film, by Kirk Honeycutt, former chief film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, is the first complete illustrated tribute to the legendary writer and director, and includes fresh interviews with Judd Nelson, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Columbus, Steve Martin, and more.

Behind the Scenes of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

A classic and a favorite of many, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off still makes kids and adults alike dream of ditching things for a day. But what happened behind the scenes? John Hughes: A Life in Film reveals Hughes’s methods behind the camera that made this movie, and his many others, into such fantastic films.

Production, which was to begin in September, was divided between Chicago and L.A. due to the budgetary concerns and the weather. (The story needed to take place in spring.) A “Midwestern” house in Long Beach, California, served as the Bueller residence for interiors and even some exteriors. All upstairs sequences were filmed on a soundstage.

As usual, John insisted on his own peculiar rehearsal period, which began August 29. Actors hung out with one another and visited locations.

Since everyone stayed at the same Chicago hotel, John would meet his actors in the same room every day to rehearse, which was mostly schmoozing and eating and looking at pictures.

“He was always playing Preston Sturges movies,” recalled Broderick.

John drove his four principal actors around in a beige Lincoln Town Car to show them his Chicago and talk about his life there as a high school student. He slammed music cassettes into the car’s tape deck to play music he intended for certain scenes.

He did admit, though, that he was still searching for music for the film’s big parade sequence.

“I want something like Elvis or the Beatles but then I want something Midwestern, kind of schmaltzy,” he said.

Jones piped up: “How about Wayne Newton?”

“Who?” said John. Addicted to cutting-edge music, he apparently was unaware of more main-stream performers.

“Well, his song ‘Danke Schoen’ is about the schmaltziest thing I can think of,” said Jones.

A few minutes later, John stopped at a music store and went in to look for a Wayne Newton cassette. While Broderick, Sara, and Ruck stayed in the car, Jones hot out to try on sunglasses for sale outside the store. John came out and saw him.

“Those are perfect for the film,” John said.

So be bought three pairs. Not only did Jones now have flip-up sunglasses for Rooney, John had found his parade music.

The only actor who felt uncomfortable with these “rehearsals” was Sara.

“I was very young,” she said. “His method of rehearsals was more about trying to get to know you. He and Jennifer (Grey) got along incredibly well. I think on a personal level, I didn’t understand that he wanted to be friends. That felt awkward. I felt like a kid and that I didn’t belong in the environment he created.

Again, John sat under the camera and always kept it rolling. This way he could stay close to the actors and, as new lines would occur to him, he’d “rewrite” the scene on the fly.

John was among the first directors of that era to have high shooting ratios, exposing much more film (expensive in those days) than his contemporaries. Jacobson estimated that on Ferris Bueller he shot at least a million feet of film and printed about 650,000 feet. This was to become a methodology for other writer-directors, such as James L. Brooks.

Spontaneity and improvisation were the goals. John welcomes input from all of the actors and then decided whether he wanted to act on a suggestion. Edie McClurg, playing Rooney’s secretary, came up with the delicious idea of pulling pencil after pencil – four in all – out from her bubble hairdo. And John suggested Rooney should be picking at invisible specks of dust on his desk.

“It’s a tiny little think but just right for that guy,” remarked Jones.

The sequence between Jones and McClurg as multiple phone calls come in consisted of four pages of dialogue to be shot in two days. John ended up using four days to capture all the physical comedy the actors came up with.

Shooting the upstairs hallways scenes, where Broderick talks directly to the audience, John told the actor to keep his eyes on the camera at all times.

“Never look away and then back even for a moment,” he said, “Newscasters look the whole time at a camera. Otherwise viewers would think something else is going on.”

One day, while filming Ferris going to the shower as he’s speaking to the camera, John suddenly had an inspiration. He went to Broderick and conferred briefly with him, then told his cameraman, Tak Fujimoto, where the actor was going to stop and say new lines.

As instructed, Broderick popped out of the bathroom in his robe, stopped on his mark, and delivered his lines: “What are you guys still doing here? The movie’s over. Go home.” He turned and walked away.

This, of course, became the very end of the movie.

John Hughes wrote 46 movies, produced 23, and directed 8. He never went to film school, never spent time studying film and its history, but was unusually adept in three key areas — writing, directing and producing.

John Hughes: A Life in Film, by Kirk Honeycutt, former chief film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, is the first complete illustrated tribute to the legendary writer and director, and includes fresh interviews with Judd Nelson, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Columbus, Steve Martin, and more.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Author Catherine Nichols Interview with Mr. Media

Author Catherine Nichols connects with Mr. Media in this great podcast and discusses the epic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and all the media that’s embraced Lewis Carroll’s mad, mad world!

Catherine Nichols podcast excerpt:

“My husband and I went on on the ‘Alice in Wonderland Tour that goes up the Thames River. Lewis Carroll told his story to Alice and her sisters during a boat ride up that very river. To see it and to be able to think that, 150-odd years ago, he was on that same river, telling the same story to those kids was very thrilling. And walking around Oxford, seeing the old buildings where he lived, worked and socialized was so exciting!”

Have You Explored “U2: Revolution?”

They’ve frequently been described as the biggest band in the world. The Joshua Tree alone has sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide. They hold the record for the most Grammy wins by a rock act. And their 360 tour, which started in 2009, attracted more than seven million fans and is one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. U2 has revolutionized the definition of rock band by staying true to its beliefs and passions, through meteoric success, public controversy, and an astounding forty-year working relationship.

Now for the first time, get the complete photographic history of one of the world’s most influential and legendary rock bands. Mat Snow’s U2: Revolution is lushly illustrated with over two hundred photos and two gatefold timelines exploring the band’s incredible history. Starting with their roots in Dublin where the four teenaged friends first started playing together in Larry Mullen’s kitchen, Snow follows the band through their debut album, Boy, their chart-topping albums of the 1980s, their record-breaking tours and global activism of the 1990s, and their reflective reconnection with core fans in the twenty-first century.

Take a sneak peek at these pages from U2: Revolution.

A John Hughes Holiday – the Best Moments of ‘Christmas Vacation’

This month marks the 25th Anniversary of ‘Christmas Vacation’ starring Chevy Chase! To mark the occasion, Rolling Stone Magazine just published the article, “Xmas or Bust: The Untold Story of ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,'” that describes behind-the-scenes craziness “from freak snowstorms to the comedic cyclone that is Chevy Chase, the cast and creators reveal the secrets behind this beloved holiday-movies classic.”

In 1989, the prolific pop culture visionary John Hughes wrote the movie based on a screen play he had started years earlier. Chevy Chase starred in the film, alongside Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, and Johnny Galecki. The movie instantly became a Christmas classic—though it had its fair share of critics—and is solid-gold rerun royalty a quarter-century later.

Check out one of several chapters starring Chevy Chase in John Hughes: A Life in Film (coming in February 2015).

Follow Race Point Publishing’s board A John Hughes Inspired Christmas on Pinterest.

About John Hughes: A Life in Film:

“I stumbled into this business, I didn’t train for it. I yelled “Action!” on my first two movies before the camera was turned on.” – John Hughes

John Hughes wrote 46 movies, produced 23, and directed 8. He never went to film school, never spent time studying film and its history, but was unusually adept in three key areas — writing, directing and producing.

Classics like Mr. Mom; Sixteen Candles; The Breakfast Club; European Vacation; Weird Science; Pretty in Pink; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; Uncle Buck; Christmas Vacation; Home Alone; and Beethoven will forever live on in the history of film. Launching the careers of Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and James Spader, and working with greats like John Candy and Chevy Chase, John Hughes’s influence can still be felt today.

John Hughes: A Life in Film, by Kirk Honeycutt, former chief film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, is the first complete illustrated tribute to the legendary writer and director, and includes fresh interviews with Judd Nelson, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Columbus, Steve Martin, and more.

 

Race Point Titles Featured In Campus Circle Gift Guide

L.A.’s famous “Campus Circle” blog has been serving the area since 1990. This week, they featured several of our titles in their Holiday Gift Guide: Book Edition 2014. The folks at Campus Circle have gracefully added “Alice’s Wonderland,” “U2: Revolution” and “The Ultimate Woody Allen Film Compilation” as part of their book gift guide.

About U2: Revolution:

They’ve frequently been described as the biggest band in the world. The Joshua Treealone has sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide. They hold the record for the most Grammy wins by a rock act. And their 360 tour, which started in 2009, attracted more than seven million fans and is one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. U2 has revolutionized the definition of rock band by staying true to its beliefs and passions, through meteoric success, public controversy, and an astounding forty-year working relationship.

Now for the first time, get the complete photographic history of one of the world’s most influential and legendary rock bands. Mat Snow’s U2: Revolution is lushly illustrated with over two hundred photos and two gatefold timelines exploring the band’s incredible history. Starting with their roots in Dublin where the four teenaged friends first started playing together in Larry Mullen’s kitchen, Snow follows the band through their debut album, Boy, their chart-topping albums of the 1980s, their record-breaking tours and global activism of the 1990s, and their reflective reconnection with core fans in the twenty-first century.

About Alice’s Wonderland:

Alice’s Wonderland dives down the rabbit hole and looks at the dazzling ways that Wonderland has been imagined by artists, filmmakers, writers, and more. Get a behind-the-scenes looks at how the books were created, meet Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the fictional Alice, and view the original manuscript copy of Alice in Wonderland, illustrated in Carroll’s own hand.

The fantastical world imagined by Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) – where a white rabbit carries a pocket watch, a crying baby morphs into a squealing pig, and a flamingo is used as a croquet mallet – has inspired countless artists to produce some of their best work. Illustrators such as John Tenniel, chose to tackle the work directly, producing illustrations, films, and shows that strive to accurately depict Wonderland. Others, such as artist Salvador Dali and director Tim Burton, freely adapted Dodgson’s creation, using it as a springboard for their own incredible interpretations. Lushly illustrated paintings, artwork, and sketches, Alice’s Wonderland explores how artists in different fields like art, music, theater, film, and more have interpreted Carroll’s works through the ages. A must-have book for any Alice fan.

About The Ultimate Woody Allen Film Compilation:

A complete look at the extensive, ageless, unparalleled filmography of Woody Allen. Writer, actor, director, comedian, author, and musician, Woody Allen is one of the most culturally and cinematically influential filmmakers of all time. His films – he has over 45 writing and directing credits to his name – range from slapstick to tragedy, farce to fantasy. As one of history’s most prolific moviemakers, his style and comic sensibility have been imitated, but never replicated, by countless other filmmakers over the years.

InThe Ultimate Woody Allen Film Companion, film writer Jason Bailey profiles every one of Allen’s films: from his debut feature, What’s Up, Tiger Lily, through slapstick classics such as Take the Money and Run and Sleeper; Academy Award-winning films such asAnnie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters; and recent gems such as Midnight in Paris andBlue Jasmine. Bailey also includes essays on the fascinating themes that color Allen’s works, from death and Freud to music and New York City. Getting up close and personal with the actors and actresses that have brought the iconic films to life, this book’s behind-the-scenes stories span the entire career of a man whose catalog has grown into a timeless cornerstone of American pop culture. Complete with full cast lists, production details, and full-color images and artwork, The Ultimate Woody Allen Film Companion is the ultimate, indispensable reference to one of cinema’s most beloved and important figures.

Little Miseries NYC

About New York Little Miseries:

New York City is full of fun little quirks that make living there an adventure. Winter, spring, summer, or fall, there is always something that you could do without.

New York Little Miseries offers a real taste of The Big Apple!

Misery is when one building on your block doesn’t shovel the snow. Misery is stepping over pool of ugly gray slush at each street corner. Misery is a cold subway platform. Misery is too much heat in your apartment. Misery is a wet puddle on the subway seat. Misery is a metro card machine that only takes cash.

Gripe and groan all you want. You know you love it.

Win a U2 Prize Package: ‘U2 Revolution’ Book and A TON of U2 Music

Our friends at the Ultimate Classic Rock blog are doing a serious giveaway for U2 fans! Enter their contest, and win a copy of Mat Snow’s U2 Revolution along with the ENTIRE catalogue of U2’s music.

We have teamed up with Ultimate Classic Rock to offer one special U2 mega-fan the ultimate package of history. For new fans, the prize package offers a chance to delve deep into the heart of U2 by listening to the band’s complete musical history including the well-researched coffee table book.

U2 Revolution author Mat Snow is a London-born journalist who has previously talked with the Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and members of the Beatles, to name a few. The interviews conducted in U2 Revolution all come from Mat Snow, along with accompanying band history.

Ultimate Classic Rock is adding a stack of U2 compact discs to complete your U2 collection. The latest album from U2, ‘Songs of Innocence’ was released earlier this year. With talk of a possible tour to promote ‘Songs of Innocence’, it’s important to catch up on the oldies, right?

WIN BIG:

For a chance to win this prize package featuring the U2: Revolution book and U2 music collection, simply follow @UltClassicRock on Twitter and re-tweet the announcement of the giveaway by Monday, December 15 at 11:59PM ET. Be sure to read our official contest rules, and good luck!

U2: Revolution Review by Neufutur Magazine

Neufutur Magazine Online has given U2: Revolution an incredible review! Reviewer JMoore had this to say about the coffee table book by Race Point author Mat Snow:

Yes, there are plenty of U2 bios out there – some good, some dreadful and a couple pretty great; There are also a number of hardcover, coffee table-sized books on the band out there, but music journalist Mat Snow has found a way to marry the two, pulling together a pretty solid, overreaching bio on the band and packaging it in a beautiful, three-and-a-half pound book crammed with fantastic photos of the band and album covers.

Neufuture Magazine Online is the digital answer to the print version. Neufutur print is released on a bimonthly schedule, and has copies available in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Read the full review by clicking here.