Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Mélanie Chiriacescu 

BA [Hons] Production Design

Hi I am Melanie. I am a Production Designer, based in Ireland, originally from Switzerland. I have a passion for writing and creating with the intention of enabling people to escape reality. For this reason I have decided to pursue a career in the Entertainment Industry. I enjoy working on a set with people who are passionate and hope to be able to do that in the future. I have always been particularly passionate about music and I would love to be able to work in the music industry as a Production Designer.

Set design for concert

For this project I have decided to design a stage for a concert. My design was based on an album called “Mono” by RM. It is made of seven songs in total and I made a different design for each one of them. The album is a very introspective album that analyses our relatonship to the city we live in, how we interact with others and the world around us, and how to find peace amid the chaos that life can bring sometimes.  
The idea was to offer a visual experience to an audience that supports the narrative of the album and adds an atmosphere to it. Going to a concert is a mix of different experiences such as visual, social and auditory, but what stays with us forever is what we felt and in order to feel it again, we have to re-visit our memories. With my design I wanted to offer an event that will allow people to make memories that they could go back to and relive a time when they felt alive with no worries other than enjoying a performance and living in the moment.


Representation of women in the James Bond franchise from 1962 to 1974

For sixty years now the James Bond franchise has been one of the highest grossing franchise in the history of cinema gethering millions of viewers with each new movies. As people know today the franchise has a history of problematic depictions, racism and stereotypes. One of the famous character that came out of this franchise is "the Bond girl." The “Bond Girl” is viewed as an archetype. It is a beautiful woman that Bond interacts with but is the depiction of this woman realistic of full of stereotypes?
In my research I decided to focus on the James Bond films made during the second wave on feminism. I picked three movies that mirror society and the changes feminism was creating for women. As seen in the dissertation, the franchise has used feminism demands to its advantage. It attracted a broader audience while maintaining patriarcal gender stereotypes and gender relationships.
After doing an in depth analysis of different scenes from each movies it becomes obvious that the James Bond franchise has not evolved with its time but instead pushed back on different ideas and created a version of feminism that advantages men.