Nola Duo Beauté et Bête Debuts with Exquisite Fashion Film
Visual artists Elizabeth Perrin and Kenny Morrison have joined forces to form Beauté et Bête, a creative team operating out of Nola Pictures that will specialize in elegant explorations of the fashion and beauty worlds. The duo makes a striking debut with Desire Without End, a 4:00 fashion film that illustrates the pair’s uniquely contrasting but complementary talents.
“Desire Without End is a showpiece of our combined effort and point of view,” explains Morrison. “We are both interested in fashion and wanted to create a cinematic story that would move fashion content forward. At the same time, the piece showcases the tension between two very different people with mutual interests but of the opposite sex – the Beauté et Bête, or Beauty and the Beast in French. This difference is at the core of our creative process.”
Shot at New Orleans’ decadent Marigny Opera House, Desire Without End is an intentionally over-the-top exploration of the insatiable human quest for immortality. Appearing in a flourish of makeup and couture, the high priestess Tilda raises the beautiful Scarlet to life from a cocoon, only to have her progeny turn and painlessly dispatch her.
Beauté et Bête underscores its deft sense for the particulars of the fashion world and its role in audience perception with a wardrobe that is at once symbolic and impossible to ignore. Tilda’s red gown signifies life, blood and death; her powdered face foreshadows her eminent demise. Scarlet’s ballerina-style dress and armored corset communicate both her innocence and her duty to kill; her braided hair is loose, flowing and youthful.
The one-day shoot at the majestic former church required major costume changes and a titanic effort on the part of the first-class makeup and wardrobe teams – crews that included former fashion editor for Beautiful Decay Jessica Bosch, New Orleans native and international makeup artist Gina Crozier, and movie hair stylist Tony Ward.
“Our goal was to create a strong mood while keeping the overall film intentionally esoteric, to evoke the maximum emotional response,” relates Morrison. “We chose the theme of eternal life because it allowed us to telegraph a central tenant of being human while creating a tone piece showcasing extremes – of the ephemeral nature of beauty and the passion of desire. Jessica, Gina and Tony created makeup and costumes that beautifully complemented the set and helped bring this whole vision to life,” adds Perrin.
Downloads:
Credits:
Production Co.: Nola
Director: Beauté et Bête (Elizabeth Perrin & Kenny Morrison)
Cinematographer: Beauté et Bête
Story: Beauté et Bête
Models: Milena Ilena, Victoria Anderson
Stylist: Jessica Bosch
Make-Up: Gina Grozier
Hair: Tony Ward
Production Design: Heather Hansen
Art Direction: Johnny King
Editing: Liz Parsons, Olivier Wicki
Music Composition: Jay Weigel
Sound Design/Mix: Sound Lounge Hudson
Sound Designer/Mixer: Josh Wilson
Color Correction: The Mill
Retouching & Titles: Scarlett
About Nola Pictures:
Founded in 2005, NYC-based Nola Pictures is a full-service, multi media production company with affiliates in London, New Orleans, Sidney, Toronto, and Santiago. Nola features a diverse roster of multi-dimensional directors and producers who have created award winning content for their clients.
Nola offers turnkey creative and production solutions from shoot through editorial and post; including animation, design and visual effects. Nola’s mandate is to provide a supportive creative environment with production flexibility and efficiency for our artists and clients. The Nola team has contributed to projects for brands such as AT&T, Proctor & Gamble, VW, Cadillac, Dell, Clinique, Givenchy, Nissan, Budweiser, Lowe’s, Colgate, Verizon, Nike, Samsung, Motorola, McDonald’s, Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, American Express, Carolina Herrera, Johnson & Johnson, Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting, Viacom and CBS, among others.