talking with romeo

Tonight I had the pleasure of chatting with my DP John Romeo. He called to check in and make sure that I was taking the next right step with my pre-production preparations. It was perfect timing, I was thinking of calling him and he beat me to it. I was going to call him to find out exactly what kind of camera he has. His camera is a Panasonic AG HPX 170 handheld camera. Instead of using Mini DV tapes it records to a P2 card instead. It turns out that there is a job out there called, digital imaging technician. The DIT takes the information out of the camera and into the hard drive. I am all about learning "marketable skills" and that sounds pretty darn marketable, boring, but marketable. What is really great about digital imaging, is that I won't have to re capture the footage, it will already be on my hard drive. 

Speaking of hard drives, I have to buy a hard drive that has around 400 gigs of memory. It also needs a 800 firewire, cause my new mac book pro doesn't have a 400 firewire. 

The P2 has 16 gig's of memory which is about 40 minutes of footage shot at 720p at 24 frames per second.

We also talked about how long the shoot should take. We are estimating 1 hour for set up, 2 hours for the shoot, and 1 hour for take down, and 2 hours of buffer time. It is my intention to stagger everyones in times so that we don't waste anyones time. We shall see how that works out. 

Next Tuesday Romeo and I will go to the location and attend one of Dages' cooking classes to get a feel for our shoot. 

My DP homework is to find out exactly what kinds of lights we have at school. I went to the TV Center today and didn't get very far. All I found out was that I have to be very careful when plugging in all of the lights. They are really strong and the apartments in NYC are very old, which could be a problem. Luckily Romeo knows what he's doing and the loft in Chelsea is renovated so all should be gravy. 

inspiration_real food

the dream team_step 2

The next step was figuring out what I needed for the shoot. Where would it take place? What kind of a crew would I need? Who would compose the music? What would the topic be for the first episode?  What kind of props would I need? How much money was this going to cost? And bit more advanced, what is my aesthetic?Not having any funding for the shoot outside of my own pocket I needed to think about who would volunteer their time and expertise for free.  Even thought I would need to ask for a freebie, I still wanted the best that I could find. I am very lucky to have amazing friends who are super talented and willing to help out. After figuring out that we would shoot October 10th, I set about to see who could be there for the big event.


Location.
Finding a good location is clutch to the look of the show. The look of the kitchen needs to be state of the art and chic, modern but not to cold. Welcoming and easy to light, meaning no large windows to mess with. It occurred to me to ask Maria Grey. She is a long time supporter of Dages and her work, and someone whom I've wanted to get to know better since I met her. She designed her kitchen and she often host's Dages' cooking classes at her home. I had another option in DUMBO, but as great as the view is, the lighting would have been more difficult than I think I could handle. My third idea was to pitch the idea to Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg and see if they would be interested in sponsoring the show. I contacted Maria, my first choice, and she said that she would be very happy to host the show at her house. Every time that I get a yes I am so excited! I can't believe the amount of yeses so far. It is very encouraging. 

Kitchen Stylist.
After speaking with Maria she suggested that I hire a person to style the kitchen. The first person that came to mind was my friend Michael Cohen. Michael has tremendous style and has been developing his portfolio for prop styling and I thought he might be interested in helping me on the project. He agreed and I sent him some some words that describe the aesthtic I'm looking to create: urban, rustic, hip, fresh, alive, joyful, delicious, and simple.


Hair/Makeup/Clothes Styling.
Hallie Goodman is one of the most fashionable people I know. She no longer actually styles people (aside from me) Instead she writes copy and article's about fashion and beauty. But since she loves me and wants to help, she is going to come down to help with Dages' look. I want her to look a polished urban hippie hipster yoga chic. 


Director of Photography.
Okay this is where I really went for it. I have the pleasure of knowing a very talented DP who works internationally, John Romeo. John was one of the first people that I met when I moved to New York, and he is as lovely as he is talented. It has been my experience that to learn how to do something well you should learn from the best, and John is up there in the best category. He is also very honest and a born teacher and I can't believe that he is going to help, let alone be in town for our shoot. He has also offered to shoot on his HD camera and teach me and his assistant how to capture footage directly to the hard drive from the camera. This has a fancy name that you can bet I will find out so that I can list it as a marketable skill. 


Assistant DP/ Gaffer.
Brian Reiser. Last month I acted for Brian in his final project for the New York Film Academy. He is a lovely supporter of my work and really looking to expand his skill set and when I asked him if he would assist, he was thrilled. 


Music. 
This is another small miracle. I totally went out on a limb and asked my dear friend Sunshine Jones in San Francisco if he would make a song just for my show and he said....YES! I can't believe it really. Sunshine is one of the pioneers of House music. His band Dubtribe was one of my favorite bands in my early twenties, and it is the perfect kind of music for this type of show, and his positive, joyful, outlook makes him perfect for the overall theme of the project.

the dream team_step 1

Meetings. 
After the idea I had to figure out how I was going to make it all happen. The first order of business was to get Dages on board. I had taken her class and we had several mutual friends, but we didn't really know each other. I set about writing an email that I hoped would get her as excited about the program as I was.
Dear Dages,
 It was so lovely to get your newsletter in my inbox today! Writing you was at the top of my todo list and it felt oh so serendipitous.
First I want to apologize for not getting back to you sooner. When you sent me that email last month I was on my way out of the country and I had all of the best intentions to respond and It just never happened. I was so happy that you thought to ask me to pass along your information to folks because I absolutely love what your doing and would love to help spread the word!
Ever since I attended Yumyoga I have had this idea floating around in my head that is starting to gel enough to where I can run it by you and see what you think.
I have recently returned to college to complete my degree, it turns out the hippie clown/acting program I went to in California isn't really the path that I want to continue down (who new?) Instead I am interested in harnessing the power of the Mass Media to perpetuate positivity and well-being. The question I keep asking is, What if loving-kindness was the driving force behind the media instead of consumerism?
What does this have to do with you? Well, I would like to produce a Delicious Dialogues with Dages television/web segment with you. I really believe in the work that you are doing and I think that it could translate to a large audience, helping to perpetuate health and well being to all.
This fall I am taking a production class where I will have an abundance of resources at my finger tips. In the class we will produce a five to ten minute short, create a dvd for it, and a website.  It would be a dream to produce your show!
If this is something that you would consider, I would love to get together with you over tea to talk.
I really believe that your sparkly, passionate, approach to eating healthy and happily can and will inspire the masses as much as it has inspired me!
love, light, and laughter,
Drea
She responded a couple of weeks later that she would love to meet to talk about ideas. We met the first week of September and I pitched my idea to her in person. She was delighted with the idea and agreed to participate. Game on!

the idea

Last year I had the pleasure of attending a cooking class at the home of architect Maria Grey in Chelsea. The class was lead by Dages Keats, a holistic health counselor and cook. It was there that I began my love affair with kale. A gorgeous leafy green that I had always thought too tough to eat. Dages taught us how to cook the kale in a way that was delicious and inspiring. After the class on my way back to the subway, I couldn't help but think that she should be on television, inspiring the masses to eat healthy and tastily! 

Thus the idea for my project was born. A webisode series starring Dages Keats, that looks at different vegetables and teaches the wonder of eating healthy, locally, and tastily!

The title of the program Delicious Dialogues is taken from Dages's website/newsletter of the same name. 


http://www.deliciousdialogues.com

http://deliciousdialogues.wordpress.com/