13/05/2013 - The Future Look

For a more 'Fantasy' themed article on the topic of looks, visit Rains' blog here: http://rainhmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/its-all-about-look.html

For years we've been playing with movie magic and costume making to build up a detailed work up of what a future environment and future clothing may look like. In this blog post I will be exploring movies and television shows, talking about the way they portray the future through look.

A main theme that's constantly played with and seen in most takes of the future is silver or copper, it gives the future a very metal and technological feel to it.

Continuum, 2012 TV series

Continuum is a TV show that was first aired in 2012, it was created by Simon Barry, It's at in present day and future day 2077, where an a future terrorist group named 'Liber8' escape execution by using a device given to their leader by Alec Sadler, the CEO and basic ruler of the new world. What they don't expect is that a young agent sees the pieces of the circular device in the groups hands, and she runs over to them just as they merge the device and get sent back. 

Continuum Promotional Photo.

The look of Continuum is very much what you would expect from people in 2012, although the outfits in 2077 are ordinary, except for the police and the way they work, everything is a technological database and each police officer in the future has a chip in their head and their eyes are modified to see things differently. The general aesthetics of the future does appeal to me, everything seems easier. Kiera Cameron, the main character is seen going to 2012 in this sci-fi getup and gets a lot of strange looks, which causes her to change the color with the color wheel on the outfit so it looked as if she was wearing black jeans and a copper colored jacket. (Picture to the right)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/

Revolution, 2012 TV series

Revolution is a future set show, except it lacks the sci-fi theme, in 2012 the world loses all power, everything turns off, even the things not connected to the electrical grid, like cars and mobiles. All at once everything turned off and never turned back on. It was created by Eric Kripke (Known for Supernatural). Everything basically goes native, they live off of the land. 

It has a very western feel, just because of the fact they have no electricity, uses horses to travel and grow their own food. everybody really had an ordinary way of looking, their clothes are tattered though due to no longer being able to manufacture new ones, but they get through. it's a very civilized new way and more logical way of seeing the future, governments collapsing and a mali`cia rise up to become the new law. everything is very green and overgrown, it's a different future look that I like. 

The world is almost completely covered in plant life, it thrives more now there's noting stopping it. The world of the future seems scary with this, everyone is fending for themselves and is willing to kill for food. The look of the world is very well done, although i think if only 15 years had passed there wouldn't be as much foliage as there is.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070791/

The Host, 2013 Movie

The Host is a movie set in the future, it's an adaptation of a book written by Stephanie Meyer (Twilight) although the screenplay was written by Andrew Niccol. I can't recall if there was a year mentioned that the movie was set, but it's clearly the future. Humans have been taken over by an alien race, their bodies became a vessel that is hosted by worms/souls. The main character is Wanderer "Wanda", a soul who moves into a live girls body - Melanie Stryder, who convinces Wanderer to get her body back to her family.

How the Souls arrive

Ringed blue eyes

The way to distinguish humans and the Hosts are the yes, the worms create a blue ring around the eyes of the bodies they inhabit. It's very futuristic, apart from the clothing of civilians, that's very suburban 60s. The Seekers (people that rule over the rest of the Souls) drive mirrored vehicles and live in tall skyscrapers. It's very sci-fi, with the huge grids where the souls come down to earth in. the seekers seem very elegant, they always wear white and keep clean, especially their vehicles, which obviously have to be clean as they're mirrored.  
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517260/

-LJ