London Film & Comic Con

London Film & Comic Con - meet the Pinupzania Girls

A future date for your diaries - Friday July 5th - Sunday July 7th 2013. The London Film & Comic Con at London Earls Court 2.

Pinupzania will be having a stall at this years London Film & Comic Con as we did last year, though this year we will have even more girls at the show, many in costume (think sexy pin up super heroines or movie/comic characters) others in pin up. So you can meet the girls, say hello and have a chat and peruse a selection of pin up prints, post cards, jewellery and othre pin up goodies. The girls will be on hand to sign post cards/prints as well.

Last year was a riot of fun and this year will be even better, if you are in or near London that weekend do drop by. Here is a selection of shots from last year.

Anatomy of a shoot - Pinup Zombies

Anatomy of a photoshoot - Pin up Zombies

You have already seen a couple of behind the scenes shots from one of our biggest shoots of last year in our blog entry on modelling not being always so glamorous, now for the full story of that shoot.

We had been wanting to shoot a 'B-movie' sci-fi or horror theme for a while and at the time there was a lot of interest in pin up zombies, which are always a lot of fun, so we thought we'd base a shoot around that idea. Though a 'B-movie' theme was the key driver for the shoot we wanted to achieve a 'big budget' film look, that meant a big location so we decided early on that shooting on an empty Westminster Bridge would be a fantastic location. You can't just turn up and start shooting within the Government security zone which meant that we had to make sure we had all the necessary permits and permissions in place before shooting, which would tie us down to a specific date and time so we would just have to hope that the weather (and other things as it happens) would be kind to us.

Initially we had a huge amount of interest from within the group of models that we shoot with and had about 40 girls wanting to shoot. We also had some top make-up artists and a great hair stylist on board as well. As the date of the shoot drew closer and people realised that it would be an overnight shoot quite a few people dropped out, then there were a few people who really wanted to be a part of it but were unable to make it, but we had enough girls to make it worth while.

As we assembled at a flat in North London, serving as our base for make-up, around midnight one Friday night the weather was a little chilly but the forecast was largely dry for the next morning. We planned to be on the Bridge ready to shoot before the sun came up.

Make-up was initially fun, with the usual chatter and fooling around making way for quiet industry as the make up artists began their transformational magic.

 

 

A good few hours later we were ready to start moving to the location, only we hadn't allowed for a Bus strike. There seemed to be a few buses running so we got on one heading in the right direction thinking we were going to be OK, only to be dumped off it a few stops later, this was everyone, not just us, attracting more than a few puzzled looks from the other passengers, it's not every day you see a scantily clad, attractive zombie on a bus, and found ourselves stuck rather in the middle of nowhere. We waited in vain for another bus but none turned up and in the end, as the tube was about to start running we made our way to the nearest tube stop. Eventually we arrived at the Bridge, a little more tired, hassled and stressed than we otherwise should have been and about an hour and a half later than we wanted. Luckily it was still empty enough to shoot so the girls had hair and make-up touched up and we started shooting.

 

 



 

 

 

There were a few people about, joggers and the odd person on their way to work but whislt a few did a double take, we didn't attract as much attention as we might have elsewhere, it was almost as though this was a fairly normal occurance for London. Though we were fairly lucky with the weather in that it was dry, it was cooler than it should have been for the time of year so in between shots the girls had to put their big coats back on and try to get warm, this was one of those shots, that whilst the concept was fun, it wasn't all fun and games actually shooting. It was a long, tiring and cold and uncomfortable shoot, but we got exactly the sort of shots we were after.

 

 

 

 

By the end of the shoot the Sun had even come out to warm things up - Finished and satisfied we had the shots we needed, we then went for a rather surreal breakfast in a nearby McDonalds where the girls could start picking off their decaying flesh, just what the other diners wanted to see I'm sure. Some of the girls had other jobs to head off to making for a very very long time awake whils the rest of us headed home to crash out.

 

The results of the shoot attracted a huge amount of interest, especially at that years London Film & Comic Con, but also achieving publication in both local publications/papers and The Cat's Meow Magazine and we even got a message from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson where he said that he hoped the shoot had gone well.

 

We have a few items featuring images from this shoot in our store over on our main site (link on the top menu bar) and will be adding images from this series to our zazzle store as well.





 

Make-up Artists

 

Alice Bizarre                           https://www.facebook.com/alicebizarremakeup

Robyn 'Skins' Skinner             https://www.facebook.com/robyn.skinner

Nancy Lopez                           https://www.facebook.com/nancy.lopez.14

Zsuzsi Kantor                          https://www.facebook.com/zsuzsi.kantor.7

Hair Stylist:

Tiffani Caroline Scarlett         https://www.facebook.com/Tiffani.Scarlett1

 

Models:

Ruby Secrets                           https://www.facebook.com/RubySecrets.Model

Dolly Divine-Donnahue         https://www.facebook.com/DollyDonnahue

Jenna Jazz Loveridge              https://www.facebook.com/JennaJazzModel

Dakota Hunt                           https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miss-Dakota-Hunt/304146889649362

Blanche De Sade                    https://www.facebook.com/blanche.desade

Jackie Pritlove O'neill             https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jackie-oneill-aka-little-miss-pinky-MISS-Pinky-BOO/196680680365200

Alice Bizarre                           https://www.facebook.com/alicebizarremakeup

 



Pin Up Goodies

Zazzle Store

Gosh where has the day gone today, so just a quick blog today to say that we now have a zazzle storefront where we will be slowly uploading a lot of our images.

So if you would like anything from a phone cover to a dinner plate featuring one of our lovely girls then take a look. There are only a few images available so far but there will be more added every week.

Tomorrow you can look forward to something a bit more interesting

Recipe: Chocolates

Chocolate Recipe:

For something a little different today, a recipe for some home made chocolates.

You will need:

A good quality white chocolate bar or white chocolate drops
A good quality dark chocolate bar or dark chocolate drops
Freeze dried strawberry pieces
Double cream
Vanilla extract or a vanilla pod
Chocolates mold - the silicon rubber ones work very well.

Get the best quality chocolate you can, it makes a real difference.

To begin, break the white chocolate into chunks and melt in a heat proof bowl over a pan of gently heated water - do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.

Blitz the freeze dried strawberries in a food processor.

Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the freezed dried strawberry pieces.

Coat the mold with the melted white chocolate and either rotate the mold or use a small pastry brush to ensure that there is a fairly even coat of chocolate. Put the mold into a fridge for a few minutes for the chocolate to firm up. You may need to repeat this process to get a thick enough coating. Retain some of the chocolate for closing the molds later.

In the meantime, heat the cream in a pan with the vanilla extract or the seeds from the vanilla pod - do not let the cream come to a boil. Break the dark chocolate into a heat proof bowl. When the cream is hot, pour the cream onto the dark chocolate. Pour on a little of the cream at a time as you are looking for a thick consistency, not too runny. Stir until the chocolate is melted into the cream, adding more of the hot cream if needed, and the mix has a smooth consistency but is thick enough to hold it's shape. You can put it in the fridge for a few minutes to cool. - Then fill the mold with the ganache to a level just below the top of the mold, smooth with the back of a teaspoon or a palatte knife. Once all the molds are filled, place into the fridge to set.

If necessary remelt the remaining white chocolate and finally pour onto the molds to 'seal' the chocolates. Put into the fridge for 20 minutes to completely set and then carefully turn out the chocolates from the mold.

As these chocolates use fresh cream they should be eaten within a couple of days of making them.

You can add flavourings or liqueur to the ganache filling, add this to the cream when it is being heated and stir in before pouring it onto the dark chocolate.

Spring is sprung

Spring is Sprung!

Finally it feels as though spring is here, splashes of colour are appearing in the garden and beginning to poke through the woodland undergrowth. It's still a little cold and there is more bad weather to come but it's reached the time to start shooting on location again. We much prefer shooting outdoors or at a great location than being stuck inside in a studio.

So you can expect to see plenty of spring and summer style shoots in the coming weeks but here is a shoot from around this time last year.

Models:

Dakota Hunt      -       https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miss-Dakota-Hunt/304146889649362
Gemma Renata  -       https://www.facebook.com/gemma.renata

The First Pin Up

The 1st Pin Up

Of course, no-one can say for sure who the very first pin up was but a likely candidate would be Lydia Thompson, a dancer, comedian, actress and theatrical producer in the Victorian era. She began to make a name for herself on the London stage in the 1850s becoming famous throughout Europe for her dancing skill and the 'vivacity of her character'. She became known for performing Burlesque, then rather different from what we know as Burlesque today, and in 1868 set sail for America with her new 2nd husband and a troupe of girls, adpating English Burlesque for an American audience.

Though there were other performers of Burlesque in the U.S.A. at the time, Thompson is largely credited now with 'launching' Burlesque in America, she was certainly one of the most popular shows to go and see, touring throughout the latter half of the 1800s, both in the U.S.A. and back in England and Europe.

She would certainly have been one of the 'stars' of the time who started using publicity photos as 'business cards' and 'flyers' and as one of the biggest stars of the time qualifies as someone who achieved wide popular cultural appeal - so if she wasn't the first, Lydia was certainly one of the first who could be defined as a 'pin up'

Here are a couple of her publicity photo cards.

What makes a pin up?

What makes a pin up?

One of the questions we get asked most often, and one that is sometimes tricky to answer, is 'what makes a pin up?' or the closely related question 'how do you become a pin up?'

We could start with the definition of a pin up, but that is extremely broad, essentially a pin up is:

 '.. an image with wide popular cultural appeal that someone 'pins up' for display'

and a pin up model is:

'.. someone whose images achieve wide popular cultural appeal' 

so that dosn't particularly help much.  For instance what does 'wide popular cultural appeal' actually mean? - It seems silly to argue semantics and strict definitions.  As far as we are concerned, we create photographs that are inspired by our love of pin up through the ages, particularly from the 1920s through to the 1950s but also covering the 1960s, maybe the 1970s now and again as well. We hope that others will see these as 'pin ups' but know that everyone has their own tastes.

We will be taking a close look at the history of pin up on our site in the coming weeks, demonstrating just what a wide range of styles and genres have been popular as 'pin up' over the years. Often we find that people have quite a narrow view of what 'pin up' is, usually strongly influenced by the popularity of images by Elvgren and similar pin up artists, these are certainly 'pin up', but there are other styles and genres that also qualify as 'pin up'.

For instance, pin up started with simple publicity shots of performers, issued as photo cards. In the 1910s 'fantasy' scenes became very popular, especially those featuring mermaids as such scenes could legitmately feature scantily clad beauties as 'art' without being too offensive for the time. In the 1920s the painted images of advertising artists began to become popular, such images evolving into the pure 'cheescake' of Elvgren and Vargas that were so popular in the 1950s. Studio shots of the Hollywood starlets were always classed as 'pin up' whatever the era. In the 1940s we had the first mass produced prints and posters featuring a wide range of styles then eventually we have the evolution into more overt styles in the1960s through to the modern day 'pin up' which can be seen in the 'lads mags' such as FHM and Loaded (something we'll always steer well clear of)

At the end of the day, if you like an image of a pretty girl, or a boy, enough to stick it up on your wall to look at every day, then it's pin up.

We'll cover 'how to become a pin up' in another blog entry to come, in the meantime here are just a few shots demonstrating the wide range of styles that we have shot.

Chilly in the City

Here is a quick preview of our latest shoot, around the centre of a rather chilly Milton Keynes. In a short space of time we had warm sunshine, freezing winds and heavy rain. We also had an audience of office workers from the surrounding offices wondering what on earth these 'mad' people were doing.

Models : Gemma Renata - https://www.facebook.com/gemma.renata
               Rita Matos - https://www.facebook.com/PGaltmodel

It's not all glamour!

It's Not all Glamour!

People often assume that being a model is a fun, glamorous job but they never get to see the hard work, the long days, the tedium of waiting for a set-up or the hanging around in cold, wet locations or the discomfort that models may have to go through to 'get the shot' - Here is a selection of 'behind the scenes' and outake shots from a few of our shoots.