Filming Vegetables from the Grocery Store

 
 

Filming vegetables from the grocery store: Recently, I was at my local grocery store and was looking in the produce section. I spotted some romanesco broccoli (or roman cauliflower) and noticed how amazingly beautiful it was. The natural fractals it had were mesmerizing. In a spur of the moment decision, I decided to purchase a few to document them with my camera. 

When I got home from the store, I turned my small NYC-sized kitchen into a “film studio.” I covered my kitchen table and walls with black duvetyne and placed the broccoli onto the table. For the lighting, I used a LED spot light and bounced it off the ceiling and used a 2’ by 3’ silk to diffuse the bounced light. It was the ghetto version of a ‘book light.’

It was a fun project I did very quickly with my equipment I had at home. Also, the broccoli tasted amazing! Add some hot sauce and bang, dinner time!

 

Behind the scenes

 
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Screen grabs

 
 

VHS Hero: Hybrid Documentary

 
 

I always had a fascination with VHS tapes and old media in general. When I would hear the distorted audio playing from the degenerating tape, it would give me chills that would run down my spine. I knew I had to make a VHS related film, but I wasn’t sure what it might be. To keep that feeling I had alive, I printed out a few photos that gave me this same feeling and taped them on my wall: interior of a Blockbuster video rental store, children riding bikes in suburbia, wall of VHS tapes, wooden paneling, 1970s station wagon.

A few months went by and I discovered an artist who creates his own VHS tapes. Essentially, what he does is transform newly released films into VHS tapes. I reached out to this artist (who wished to remain nameless) via email and I thought this could potentially be the film about VHS tapes I was searching for, possibly a documentary. We agreed to do an interview via email and an actor would repeat his interview, word for word. After the interview was finished he suddenly realized I would need copies of the artwork to film for the re-enactment. After this realization he no longer felt comfortable showing his artwork.

I didn’t want this interview to go to waste, so I thought to make the faux-tapes myself and create a hybrid documentary with the interview, after he gave me the thumbs up to use his words.

For the casting I sent out a casting call on backstage.com and after looking through hundreds of actors, I discovered Erik Bjarnar from Ithaca, New York. Erik was amazing! I knew he had to play the artist. Again, I ran into a problem. Erik isn’t from New York City and he doesn’t have a car. After we discussed the problem on the phone, we agreed to film it in his apartment. Erik’s home was perfect: he is a single forty-something man in a very disorganized motel-like small apartment. Exactly what I imagined the original artist’s apartment to look like.

I drove up to Ithaca, New York from New York City and stayed for two days in a hotel room. I filmed during the day in Erik’s apartment and followed a shot list based on the interview. Erik was amazing and read the lines so well. He appeared so authentic I almost forgot he wasn’t the actual artist.

It was a very fun project and I’m really happy in the way it turned out.

Screengrabs