Freight Elevator at EZ Studios

Juan the Freight Elevator Operator among his creation

If you ever have taken the freight elevator at EZ Studios, I'm sure you noticed the awesome collage covered walls inside the elevator (I mean how could you not). 

On a recent job where I was going up and down said elevator on multiple trips (you know when the Art Department has to load out all the set dressing and props after everyone else has wrapped and gone home?) I chatted with Juan, the freight elevator operator, about the collage.

Juan, originally from Puerto Rico, has worked as the freight elevator operator in this building for over 28 years.  

Who made this collage?

I DID!

How long did it take you?

I started it three years ago, but everyday I add a little bit

Have you met any of the famous faces featured in the collage?

Yes. (When pressed for more details and juicy stories Juan provided the discreet and vague answers that I'm sure all celebrities appreciate in people they encounter). 

Are these only photos that were shot here at EZ Studios?

No, it is just anything I like.  I don't know why everyone makes such a big deal about it when they come inside here.  Anyone could do it. 

sorry my photos weren't that great.  I was using my phone and taking the photos while in transit and surrounded by piles of furniture and props. 

I'm a big fan of passionately decorating and brightening up whatever small space you are encountering daily (maybe that's why I'm attracted to set decorating) and was happy to learn more about Juan and the collage he created in his workplace. 

Rookie Sleepover

I recently worked on a really fun commercial, er I mean, "branded content" for Footaction as part of the Art Department.  The commercial was in honor of the NBA All-Star Game that was in town in Brooklyn.  The concept of a "Rookie Sleepover" was created by Big Breakfast. 

I would also like to note this spot was my cellphone's on-screen debut:

That's my phone that Bojan Bogdanovic is holding while he prank calls Elfrid Payton. 

First of all, I would like to say it is hilarious for someone who knows virtually nothing about the NBA (me), that Bojan Bogdanovic is someone I actually recognized because at THE ONE NBA GAME I'VE EVER BEEN TO he scored so many points I remembered him. 

This is my husband Tony and I at each of our first NBA Game at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn. It was fun and it was a good game that was close throughout (it was Brooklyn Nets vs. Denver Nuggets). Tony is in fact the person who gave me the phone case that you see in the shot.  

Also, I noticed Bojan Bogdanovic's name during the game (and remembered it during the shoot) because it is Serbo-Croatian.

After reading one of the best articles of my life about the fascinating history and cultures in the Balkan region and visiting a friend in Serbia and traveling together to Montenegro and Croatia I sort of have a soft spot for anything Balkan now. 

Some snapshots from Belgrade, Serbia where I visited my friend Melanie in 2013. The produce there was crazy fresh, beautiful, and delicious I did a lot of cooking while I was there. 

After its on screen debut, my phone has let it get to his head and is acting like a demanding star now:

Harvesting Bales of Cardboard

Today we were breaking down and loading out after a shoot and I had to stop for a moment and capture this photo because it amused my imagination.

We were breaking down this huge cardboard box that an IKEA couch came in.  In order to break it down to manageable pieces to bring out for recycling, all three of us in the Art Dept got involved in the breakdown. 

Samita was dissembling the box into into medium pieces, Anna was cutting them into smaller pieces and putting them into piles, and I was taping them up all in rapid-fire assembly line style. 

I joked that it was like we were harvesting wheat or putting together bales of hay. 

Sort of like this, yes.  This is Jean-Francois Millet's "The Gleaners" which is at the Musee D'Orsay. ( everything you ever wanted to know about this painting here.)  

The Vaccines "Handsome" Music Video is Live!

I was the Set Decorator for this music video which was a fun (and grueling) shoot working together with Production Designer Amy Howard. 

The concept was a take on the classic kung fu movie genre + aliens added in for measure.  If were to apply a critical film theory lens on this text you could say the representations of race and otherness are problematic and very literal...

...but I'm just going to share fun and funny tidbits from stills instead

ok see that nice stack of billowy smoke in the upper half of the screen? (well if you don't see it I just outlined it in red for you).  Well that atmospheric smoke/steam/fog is some handmade fog brought to you by me.  (see photo below)

that is me, hidden behind the trash dump in the cold pushing the fog machine in perfectly timed intervals.  yes friends, the highlight of my career so far is the hours I spent in the freezing rain at 2am in an alley of Bushwick on a December night/early morning operating a fog machine.  All those details are true. 

inside trick of how we got that to stay: VELCRO!

remember that enigmatic photo of a bowl of scrambled eggs on a Greenpoint roof I posted a few months back? That was the set-up for this.  (the idea was from push-ups training with those raw eggs, they ate all the broken ones as scrambled eggs)  As you can see the band was pretty grossed out about these cold 10+ hours old scrambled eggs, but they were good sports about it. 

And that friends is a carefully curated and artfully arranged pile of trash on the bottom right-hand corner featuring imported trash from Chinatown in Manhattan to Bushwick, Brooklyn for the purpose of this shot courtesy of Production Designer Amy Howard who I worked with on this video.  I don't know anyone else who would be as excited about how this pile of trash came out as me (or Amy). 

I would like to confess here that I made an error on those Chinese characters I taped on the window and didn't realize it until it was too late.  After learning Chinese for like 15 years (7 of which I lived in Beijing itself!) it is sorta embarrassing that I got that wrong.  

That is no reflection on all my great Chinese teachers at Wellesley College or the Foreign Service Institute.  I'm going to blame that mistake on the end of a long shoot happening in freezing rain in December.  

So for the record the correct characters should be: 出租大房。

Rag & Bone Spring 2015 Campaign Film

I worked as a set dresser on this Rag & Bone Spring 2015 Campaign Film.  It was a fun set to set dress because as I mentioned back in October, the location had a crazy view. 

This project was also great because I had the chance to work with Emmy-award winning Production Designer Amy Williams. Working with her team and seeing how she created and decorated a huge empty hotel suite was so instructive. 

In the end, the video posted doesn't showcase much of the detailed set dressing we did, but that bed featured prominently with the female protagonist (photos above), guess who made that bed bringing my best hotel style bed dressing skillz? 

Additionally one of the fun details about this shoot was unwittingly running into Al Capone the night we loaded in the set dressing.  We were moving all this big furniture, I was steaming out some bed skirts, and then I took a stop out onto the balcony, and all of a sudden I saw:

It was a little bit jarring of a moment cause I had just seen the series finale the night before so the character was still fresh in my mind when I bumped into the actor, Stephen Graham, who plays him. 

I said something like "hey! I just saw you last night in the series finale." and told him the interchange with his son in that episode was really touching.  He said thanks and that he was glad to hear it turned out well because he hadn't seen the final cut yet. 

Anyways, he was at set, because as you might have noticed in the film clip above, he makes a guest appearance in this campaign video. 

His guest appearance might have to do with the fact that Michael Pitt directed this video, and as you know Michael Pitt was one of his co-stars on Boardwalk Empire as the beloved and early departed Jimmy Dormady. 

Boardwalk Empire was one of my favorite dramas when it was on the air because I LOVE historical period dramas and especially delighted in the ability to hang out in the visual aesthetic of the 1920's on a regular basis as viewer.  The show was great for learning early 20th century American history in a different, less idealized, and more embodied character driven light. 

Working on a project as committed to the historical visual authenticity of the 1920's as Boardwalk Empire's production design was is one of my ultimate dreams as a set decorator. 

Watch my first Superbowl commercials

With Superbowl Weekend coming up this weekend, it would be the perfect time to share the first Superbowl, er "Big Game" commercials (an iconic media category of its own) i had the chance to work on, which you can now watch below.  

They are all pretty fun and I posted them in the order of ones I liked best 

I was the Art/Wardrobe Assistant working with Art Director and Production Designer CJ Dockery.

I would say my responsibilities went far beyond that title since I shopped for all the props, some of the set dressing and decor, and all the wardrobe.  It was more like I was Set Decorator, Props, and Wardrobe. 

Additionally I was the on set go-to for props and wardrobe as well as helping out with food styling and hair and make-up touch ups (!) for all three segments. 

It was really fun working with the legendary UCBComedy team to produce these.

Being around so many professionally funny people made for a great atmosphere and mood on set which is always enjoyable when the days are long and the stress high. 

One of the small details I'm proud of and want to share is the black bean dip featured in the Quarterback spot:

The script called for a black bean dip which the Quarterback (a funny Natasha Vaynblat) to dip her fingers into to spontaneously create those iconic quarterback black stripes. 

I had a hard time finding black bean dip that looked convincing on camera as a dip and that would also create the black stripes on her cheeks.  Refried black beans you buy in the grocery store look like a mushy grey gravel and don't create any lasting impression when wiped on the skin. 

In the end I came up with the idea of using refried black beans from a can, whole canned black beans to create a better and "bean-ier" texture, and then mixing in black acrylic paint for the depth of color as well as the ability to create those black stripes (and wash off easily!). 

Chance Encounter on a Rickshaw in NYC

I was buying up all the props, some set dressing, as well as wardrobe for a commercial I was working on in the middle of December.

Even though I was only a few blocks away from the studio, I was carrying too many bags to walk it over (many are hidden in this photo, but there were like 11).  I could barely make it across the street to get a cab going in the right direction. 

I was standing there, pretty exhausted hoping for the best taxi-wise in midtown during holiday rush traffic (yes that is optimism at its best).  Out of nowhere a rickshaw swooped in and asked if I wanted to a ride.  

After two years of living in Bangladesh where rickshaws rule (see photo below) I was not quite expecting a rickshaw to save the day in the middle of Manhattan.  But then I realized: WHAT A PERFECT SOLUTION. 

I was only going a few blocks and with a rickshaw we could make the illegal U-Turn needed to get back quickly, bypass a lot of the traffic and it would probably be the same price as a taxi. 

So I piled in with great relief and we started pedaling back to the studio and the rickshaw wallah (that's what they are called in Bangladesh anyways) asked me "are you a stylist? Normally when a young woman is carrying that many bags that's what is going on." 

Amused he figured it out so easily I said "yeah in a way...I do set decorating and props" and he said "so does my girlfriend! she's doing wardrobe and props on a shoot today in New Jersey." And  I laughed cause that's exactly what I was doing on this shoot. 

When we pulled up to the studio he asked if I wanted a photo and I said sure, because I loved everything about this little only in New York interaction that I adore about living here. 

A rooftop bowl of scrambled eggs

sometimes in the Art Department you find yourself doing really absurd things: such as setting up this bowl of scrambled eggs (it took 36 eggs to make this) for four people to eat on the rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  

(when the final is released I'll link to the finished product which promises to be a very fun music video!)