Live the dream

Alright so I'm kind of way late on my posting deadline but better late than never!
This week my topic is: life.

Although for most people work does not consume their entire life...my job has a tendency to. Not so much in a bad way but with the hours I work and the craziness of it all, my work is my life. Don't get me wrong, this is not a "poor me poor me" post. This is about how awesome and unique my job is and in turn; how awesome my life is. I guess I should elaborate before I go into detail.

Clarissa and I both work in the art department for the film industry. Basically that means we shop, set up, and build all the things you see in movies, tv, commercials, and my least favorite to work on: music videos. Literally everything you see on screen is mostly something we picked up from a prop house, purchased from ikea/ target/ etc, or fabricated. Some people dont realize the things on camera aren't real, so I wanted to share with everyone some behind the scenes!

First let me explain my particular role in the art department: set decorator/ coordinator/ shopper. Usually those are 3 different jobs just like a fireman, policeman, and security guard are different roles. With the film industry taking a hit a couple of years ago budgets have gotten smaller and there have been cutbacks, so I'm all three! Basically though I will be given a breakdown of what the "story" is for whatever we're doing, I'll make a list of things we need that are specifically called for then I'll go shop for them at prop houses (my favorite are Warner Brothers, Universal, Independent studio services, and Hd buttercup to name a few) Mostly I'll take pictures of the big items: couches, rugs, lamps, shelving units. Things that will make the look of the room and then the director and the client (the people paying for the commercial) will choose their "selects" and I'll put them on hold and give a list of prop houses to my leadman for pick ups to do in our cube truck. Then when everything shows up on set I have my set dressers help me get everything organized and then I add all the "smalls" (props like chotchkeys, books, and cups...the things that make the set look more real) Then we shoot! Here are some pictures of my favorite jobs I've done over the past couple of years.

 This one is from a barbie commercial I did last year...or maybe the year before. I had to find all of these puffy dresses that could go in "barbie's" closet. It was really difficult actually because you don't want to buy a bunch of these expensive dresses just to throw them away after the commercial. So I had to hunt for a place to rent them. All of the places wardrobe stylist rent from didn't have the style of dresses the director and mattel wanted so I was forced to go downtown into the fashion district and try to talk a business owner into letting me borrow their very fancy dresses for a week. It was nearing the end of the day when I was about to give up and I walked into this huge warehouse of prom dress heaven. I talked to a lady for a while about what we were doing and what I needed. She amazingly agreed to release the dresses for an amazing price and I saved the day by bringing 47 dresses to set!

This is a bust of Matthew Mcconaughey. It's from the movie Magic Mike. It's for Matthew's character's house. We also had this huge picture of Matt shirtless with a giant boa constrictor around his neck in his living room. It's a scene where he has a party at his house to celebrate the opening of a new strip club and there's a hurricane going on. Everyones drunk in his ridiculously dressed modern home.

This is from the subway commercial we did forever ago. It was my first time really decorating and I was horribly nervous. The job was so unorganized but it was so fun.

This was also a subway commercial. I loved this one because a guy in art made a bunch of head stones with the art departments names on them. 

This was a Willow smith music video called Whip my hair. Its only one of my favorites because it was the first job I did for the designer that I work for today. He's awesome and really trusts me which I feel is key. I also thought spray painting food was such an awesome concept even though making grey jello was one of the hardest things to figure out.

more willow

These two are from the eminem & bruno mars video we did called lighters

Decorating Eminems "house" was amazing and meeting him was twice as amazing

This is from a recent barbie commercial I did. I haven't seen it out yet so technically I shouldnt be posting pictures... shhh

This was a Rod steward christmas special. It was awesome because we were doing Christmas in August

This Music video isn't out either yet. It's very dear to me because it was the first video I production designed with a real budget. My crew was so amazing and I can't believe we accomplished what we did but I am so grateful for their support. It's called "land of gathering" by the ceremonies. Keep an eye out for it!

More of the most recent barbie set. 

Well I hope you've enjoyed a little peek inside my life! Although we do 20 hour days and get constantly yelled at and put under unnatural amounts of pressure, I can honestly say I am living the dream. My crews become my family, my job becomes my life, and the payoff is the chaotic drive to always be more and more creative. For that I am truly blessed and I am always excited to see what next week brings!

Miss you always, 

Shanna