Star Wars Steampunk

According to Wikipedia, Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Therefore, steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or American “Wild West”, in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk perhaps most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era’s perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or the modern authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, and China Mieville.

A sample of Steampunk in the movies is “Metropolis”, Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece, the oldest precursor of this genre in film, and may be the single most important early film to represent steampunk as an emerging stylistic genre. Others samples are the movies “Time After Time”, 1979, directed by Nicholas Meyer, “Brazil”, 1985, directed by Terry Gilliam, “The City of Lost Children”, 1994, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, 2003, directed by Stephen Norrington, and “Van Helsing”, 2004, directed by Stephen Sommers.

I never heard about Steampunk until find those illustrations by artist Bjorn Hurri. As a Star Wars fan, I pay attention about everything related with the George Lucas Saga. According Bjorn Hurri, “there is nothing like being able to create worlds and characters that people will enjoy, and I think the ‘Steampunk Star Wars’ illustrations were really good fun as it gave me an opportunity to pay tribute to one of the best movies out there while giving it my personal twist”. You will see Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Master Yoda as Steampunk models, but… and Darth Vader? Well, Hurri is still working on that one. “I continuously redo him over and over again because I feel like the essence of him is hard to nail,” he wrote. “He is such an evil character I want to make sure I pay proper respect to the original design”.

To see more about the art of Bjorn Hurri, visit his site: http://bjornhurri.cghub.com/

May the Force be with you! Enjoy.

2013 Oscar Nominees

The nominees for the 85th Academy Awards were announced today, January 10, 2013, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Seth McFarlane, host of the 85th annual Academy Awards, and the actress Emma Stone. This marks the first time since 1972 that the ceremony’s host has co-announced the nominations for the Academy Awards (hosted by Charlton Heston that year).

Films receiving the most nominations were “Lincoln” with twelve, followed by “Life of Pi” with eleven. The ceremony is scheduled for February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Seth MacFarlane will host the Academy Awards for the first time. Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said that the show will pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film series. See all nominees:

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Director
Michael Haneke – Amour
Ang Lee – Life of Pi
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Hugh Jackman – Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
Denzel Washington – Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts – The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin – Argo
Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams – The Master
Sally Field – Lincoln
Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook

Best Writing – Original Screenplay
Amour – Michael Haneke
Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino
Flight – John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty – Mark Boal

Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Argo – Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild – Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi – David Magee
Lincoln – Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature
Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Frankenweenie – Tim Burton
ParaNorman – Sam Fell and Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits – Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph – Rich Moore

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour (Austria) in French – Michael Haneke
Kon-Tiki (Norway) in English and Norwegian – Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg
No (Chile) in Spanish – Pablo Larraín
A Royal Affair (Denmark) in Danish – Nikolaj Arcel
War Witch (Canada) in French – Kim Nguyen

Best Documentary – Feature
5 Broken Cameras – Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary – Short Subject
Inocente – Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point – Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine – Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart – Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption – Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill

Best Live Action Short Film
Asad – Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys – Sam French and Ariel Nasr
Curfew – Shawn Christensen
Death of a Shadow (Dood Van Een Schaduw) – Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Henry – Yan England

Best Animated Short Film
Adam and Dog – Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole – PES
Head over Heels – Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly
The Longest Daycare – David Silverman
Paperman – John Kahrs

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina – Dario Marianelli
Argo – Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi – Mychael Danna
Lincoln – John Williams
Skyfall – Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice – J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from Ted – Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi – Mychael Danna and Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall – Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables – Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Sound Editing
Argo – Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained – Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi – Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall – Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty – Paul N. J. Ottosson

Best Sound Mixing
Argo – John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables – Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi – Ron Bartlett, D. M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln – Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall – Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina – Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables – Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi – David Gropman and Anna Pinnock
Lincoln – Rick Carter and Jim Erickson

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina – Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained – Robert Richardson
Life of Pi – Claudio Miranda
Lincoln – Janusz Kamiński
Skyfall – Roger Deakins

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock – Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables – Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina – Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables – Paco Delgado
Lincoln – Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror – Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman – Colleen Atwood

Best Film Editing
Argo – William Goldenberg
Life of Pi – Tim Squyres
Lincoln – Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook – Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty – Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi – Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
Marvel’s The Avengers – Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus – Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman – Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

See the posters for all nominees for Best Picture:

Alexander Shevchenko (+18)

Alexander Shevchenko is a professional and freelancer photographer from Kyev, Ukraine. See more photos clicking here http://www.photodom.com/member/ash or visit his website: http://ashevchenko.wix.com/ra#!

WARNING: Nude content (Not Safe For Work).

All photos are property of Alexander Shevchenko and are here only to promote his work.

Nuts 100 Sexiest Babes 2012 (+18)

The Nuts Magazine has elected the 100 sexiest babes of 2012. Lucy Pinder is the number 1 sexiest babe. Last year Rosie Jones held the top spot, and she falls back to number 2. Click on the images to enlarge. Enjoy.

WARNING: Nude content (Not Safe For Work).

The BSW Calendar 2013

BSW (Byelorussian Steel Works) is one of the leaders in ferrous metallurgy in Europe, stablished since 1984. The products of BSW, aimed at the fields of construction, automobile industry, machine building, oil production, are nowadays sold well in Europe, the Russian Federation, Middle East and Africa. This is their calendar for 2013.

To continue the tradition of two previous years, the working women of the plant were invited as models and at the beginning of 2012 the competition was announced with the aim to choose models. More than 30 women of BMZ took part in the competition; special commission chose the best ones. Special emphasis was made on appearance and photogenicy of girls. By the way, engineers, a laboratory assistant, an inspector, a student, a kindergarten teacher, a storekeeper and computer operator were in the list of models.

The main conception is that this corporative calendar reflects not simply the role of women in metallurgical production, but their uniqueness and gracefulness. Woman’s body beauty and melted metal beauty are in some way allied; their characteristic features are plasticity and natural attractiveness. Women and metal – are the collection of unexpected and contradicted characteristics. At first sight, steel seems to be firm and hard but in definite conditions it may change its state and become soft and pliable. In case with ladies it’s vice – versa: in spite of their profession and circumstances they are able to be elegant and delicate. And at the same time they may be confident, courageous and strong-willed.

Technical realization of calendar idea was made with the help of light projection of metallurgy technological process images to models. Because of idea difficulty, the session was made in two steps: at first the pictures of images and backgrounds were made in shops and then girls were photographed in the studio.

Enjoy.