Pineapple Upside-down Cake - Not Like Your Momma Used to Make

Here's a quick in-between blogs entry about a pineapple upside down cake. 

I was lucky enough to be an art department PA on an independent feature film here in the Bay Area. One of the hardest things to find (surprisingly) was a pineapple upside-down cake (at a decent price). Because we needed it as a prop, we would need multiples. 

I took it upon myself one night to bake one and bring it into the office.

I was hired as the baker. 

(Not really, but you know what I mean!)

So, a whole day and literally 8 cakes later, this was the end product:

This is not your traditional pineapple upside-down cake where the pineapple slices are only at the top. I put them on the sides as well, which isn't practical because they would normally fall off, but in this case they're stuck on with at least 30 toothpicks. This cake is a death sentence! It wasn't meant to be eaten. In fact, I'm pretty sure this cake ended up being two weeks old. 

I went through hell and back to create just two of these babies. Half of the tops fell apart as I was placing them on top of their bottom layers. 

Construction of the cake: 

This is a dual layered Betty Crocker yellow-cake. Because it's two layers, the pineapple slices on the sides were NOT baked with the cake. 

To make them look the same as those on top, I baked them in buttered brown sugar. 

I found an easy to-do recipe here: http://bit.ly/1oOnCSx

The only thing I changed is I baked the cake in a 9-inch diameter non-stick cake pan and removed an egg of the two needed from the yellow-cake mix recipe to save eggs. 

Beginning stages

The most important thing - the director loved it. 

Corals and Blues - Art Direction for a Commercial Pt 1

A few weeks ago I finished a commercial I was Art Director on. I was very excited about it because not only was it a cool app (which I will share in October when it comes out!) but it had an awesome color palette. The client mentioned the movie "Her" which really does nail production design. I went along with her suggestion and was inspired by those similar colors, but a little more youthful and something I felt was appropriate with the app. 


I went with sea-blues and corals. The colors are close to complimentary and play very well with each other. I spread this color palette across each scene in the shoot. 

3 of the scenes took place indoors and were walk-in's, meaning they were already furnished and at items inside. In cases such as these I look at location photos and from those I judge what I need to purchase and what I can use from what's already there to create the best possible looking set for the client. 

Note that the sets are going to look very clean. Normally for films I like to add a lot more items to make it more lived in. However, because this commercial is for an app and we're mostly never really seeing the set because we're punched in very close to the product, it's minimalistic. However, I focused as much as I could on color, because that's most likely what we'd be seeing on camera out of focus in the background. 

BEFORE

AFTER

On the left are before and after photos of the sofa. In the scene, this apartment belongs to a young female college student. I was able to utilize one pillow, the blue one on the far left. The rest of the pillows I brought in as well as the blanket thrown on the right hand corner. 

BEFORE

AFTER

On the right - the mantle originally had a lot of personal items from the owner of this apartment. I removed them and replaced it with items that fit the color palette as well as items I felt represented the character well. Unfortunately, this mantle was never seen in the shot, so I'm sharing it here with you! 

 This location to the left was a bit of a challenge. As you can see, their bookshelves were very full and I had a big bright yellow couch to work with. This is where we were going to shoot the living room of a well-off elderly woman. So, this is what it became:

   I took out a majority of the books and knick-knacks from the book shelf and replaced it with my own. I did use a couple of their items, such as a big white shell that helped break up the black shelves a little. As for the big bright couch, I just threw what's actually a scarf over the top to break the color. Also, with the talent sitting on the chair, it ended up not being so scary! 

Stay tuned for Part II ! 

After a Little While - I'm Back

Hello everyone,
I'm back to continue writing in my blog again to keep you all up to speed on what I've been working on and how much I have learned in the past year since I last wrote here.

In the last year, a lot has happened. In the past few months, even more has happened. 

I will be posting new blogs about recent commercials I've been lucky to say I've been Art Director for and I'll be sharing my vision with you and take you through my steps as I continue to pursue my career in the Art Department on films and commercials. 

So please, stay tuned and expect new posts soon! 

Desdemona: Shoot Day 1

Today was shoot date 1 for the music video "Desdemona." The shoot itself ran very smoothly. 

We set up lights and a little bit of set dressing the night before. Needing more time, we came in the morning to finish setting up. My art department did a fantastic job at turning our hideous studio walls at school to a wealthy rich man's bedroom. 

The DP did a great job of lighting it the way I wanted to inorder to help evoke the sexy mood of Desdemona and give her a more glamourous look. 

The cast was also fantastic. I picked a cast who I thought would deliver the correct humor the band is looking for in this particular music video. 

My entire crew was on top of things, were professional, and worked well together. I couldn't be happier for such a great start to this film. 

Desdemona who?

I am currently working on a music video for a song called "Desdemona." The song is by Dangermaker and can be listened to on their website dangermaker.com. 

The name "Desdemona" comes from Shakespeare's play Othello. Naturally I wanted to be a part of this. The music video is going to be a short narrative. It's about a woman who is so materialistic and high-maintenance, she has to leech onto a rich man, Sugardaddy, to thrive. Sugardaddy being wealthy, doesn't mind to have an attractive 20-something year old by his side. Wanting to stay with her for looks is one thing, but he ends up falling for her but is frustrated by her ungrateful and very childish ways. When he looks at her, he sees a child - literally. Reaching is last straw, he throws was little bit of money he has towards her and finally realizes he's hit rock bottom and is completely penniless. In rage, Desdemona leaves him and he has nothing left - in the end, it is he who was acting like a child. 

Stay tuned for more updates about the shoot to come! 

Where is It's a Joke?

After our success with Kickstarter and having finished shooting It's a Joke, many are wondering where did the film go? When will we see it? Will it be online? 

The fact is, this project is a little delayed. But not to worry! We are all film students here working on this, and with school and other projects in the way, a little delay is inevitable. I want to make sure that this delay will at least give us that extra time to make this film as special and well done as possible. 

I found a great composer by the name of Fred Adler who is a busy fellow as he plays little concertos around San Francisco while also being a medical doctor. His talents and experience are unsurpassed and I am very grateful to have him on board. 

The film should hopefully be completed by the end of March. As soon as it is finished, it will be posted online first exclusively to Kickstarter pledgers, and then a week later released for public view. I will try to keep everyone updated as best I can on the progress of this great film. Thank you everyone for your patience. 

It's a Joke - Done Shooting

This morning we wrapped for the shoot of It's a Joke. Yesterday's shoot went really well and everyone applauded the team for being very professional. The catering service by Lisa was extraordinary and everyone raved about the chili. Overall, it was a great shoot and I'm happy to finally call it a day on It's a Joke - time to go to post! 

The day started off with hanging the paintings my friend put together for the film. Once it was set, actors slowly began to show up and we were allowed to begin the first shoot of the gallery. We moved at a good pace and kept on schedule. The actors were fantastic and everyone took direction well, especially our main lead playing Piers, James Smith. 

Most of all, we all had a good time working together and we cranked out a great end to this film. I cannot wait to see the finished product, and I know you cannot too!