9:30 A.M. I arrive on set in Queens. To no surprise, Jean-Emmanuel, the director for this project, is giving direction and coaching the actors. Authorized Dealer Film’s production manager is present as expected; our own Geoffrey Jean-Baptiste but we call him G. He is coordinating organization with the assistant director making sure everyone is in place and executing their tasks (lights, set decoration, etc…)The location for today’s shoot is a studio apartment. Once through the door you find yourself in the living room: two sofas sit against their own walls and a big wooden bureau is placed only a few feet away from the entrance. You walk another ten feet and you reach the small kitchen, with its wooden cupboards and crimson tile floors. Two French doors determine the kitchen’s end, into the beautifully decorated bathroom: a vintage four-leg tub, large leaves to decorate and set the Amazonian atmosphere, and a table piled with the lovely smelling Wembe soaps. Actress A is sitting on the couch and is rocking the tiger body paint. For the rest of the shoot I call her Tiger. Actress B is being painted, she’s Leopard. Seeing those two painted so perfectly as the roles they were to play made me anxious and excited about how the rest of the day would unfold. The atmosphere was pleasant and everyone seemed in good spirits despite the heat.
However, Jean-Emmanuel forgot to mention the chaos that can ensue onset: so I will give you the juicy details of Day 1 on Wembe Commercial.
My role today is: STYLIST (insert chair here), which means I chose Tiger and Leopard’s wardrobe and accessories. Unfortunately, day-of, the Director was not too happy with the looks anymore. So I have to spend a very hot 3 hours roaming the streets of midtown in order to accommodate his vision. Once back onset, I settle in front of the fan to cool off, and notice G huffing and puffing on the phone. He is dealing with permit issues. Misinformed and upset about his wasted trip to the Mayor’s office, he thinks of ways to resolve the problem. But the clock is ticking and time is of the essence here.
So, as they deal with the permit issue, we begin to get the room ready for the shoot, moving furniture around and cleaning the area a bit: “The couch should go there.” “Yeah and lets move the desk this way.” “Can we get rid of those heaters?” The point was to make the studio look like it was being lived in.
We are finally ready for scene 1. Well, almost ready. G is still on the phone dealing with the mayor’s office regarding permit issues. The clock is ticking and time is of the essence here.
Kareem Rogers, director of photography for Authorized Dealer Films, is prepping the Red cam. This requires some explanation for those of you that are unfamiliar with the device. You see; the Red Camera is a device that comes with a whole bunch of gadgets and wires and plugs. Then there is the Steady-Cam that requires a whole team of set-up all on its own: balancing the weight of the camera, to the weight of the cameraman, so the shifting and movement can be facilitated, etc. a bunch of technical stuff. But we manage to quickly put the camera together and get some great shots with it. I had lots of laughs from watching the scenes! The actors were really into character and did a great job in portraying their roles. The cats were stalking and feverishly sniffing for the Wembe soaps as the King of the Cats was leading them to the apartment. The naked girl in the bathtub scene was my favorite of the day. “CUT!”
When we declared “WRAP-UP!” everyone was all too happy to go home and shower. As the day comes to a close, I remember what Jean-Emmanuel said in the interview: “We are all links in a chain and each individual contribution is necessary and important.” (see Jean-Emmanuel Interview Post for more information).
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