Being in NYC each day was more exciting then working at the Photo Studio and most days I had more adventures before and after work then I did at work.
After two weeks I had already built most variations of the standard set ups a number of times and only once and while after that would I do anything really different.
The junior photographers did most of the table top shots and set them up themselves.
Cans of soup, piles of towels or a spread of some exciting “New” or “Improved” products across a table, WILD.
One of my favorite products was a painted wooden mock-up of a new Game Boy type hand held toy that had not even been made yet, but because the Christmas catalogues were made in June and July, things were planed ahead and the manufacturer was hoping that the toy would be ready by December.
You might think it would be hard to get Christmas decorations in the summer, but remember this was NYC and you can get anything you want at any time, you may have to look a little but when you find it you know that you pay a lot for it.
For one project the designer had me take a long subway ride out to far the ends of Brooklyn to find a place that would sell us old telephone poles that we had cut down to 3 or 4 feet.
They were to be used as part of a dock set and without a problem they were cut and delivered the next week.
The pole pieces might seem a little odd to people looking at what was coming into a building on Park Ave, but it was the 12 foot row boat that was truly fun to watch as the movers tried to get it in the freight elevator and up to the 15th floor.
During a busy period and needing more room for a project, the Studio rented an empty floor in our building to put up a large set that was too big for our regular space.
I did not do a lot of work in the fashion studios as most shots were simply done in front of any number of colored seamless paper roles that the Studio had.
For one special shot they paid to have 6 inch squares of gold leaf glued on a 4 x 8 piece on Masonite.
We all joked that it looked like Ring Ding wrappers (back then they were still wrapped in foil) and that it would have been a lot cheaper to do.
A lot of photo tricks that the photographers did back then can be done in Photoshop these days, but in 1981 we still had to do some things the hard way or sometimes maybe the crazy way.
One standard trick was doing double exposures with a background slide in the camera which resulted in any kind of image they wanted outside of windows.
For one shot in the fashion studio I was asked to put up a wall with a fireplace in it.
Real wood logs were in the fireplace sitting on a piece of plywood over the carpeting that was part of the set.
During the actual shot I was asked to stand behind the wall spraying lighter fluid down on the logs that had been painted with rubber cement and set afire.
For a few seconds there would be a big whoosh of flames, the photos taken and the fire quickly put out.
I was told that they did this all the time and that the fire they had the previous year was not all that bad.
It was not too surprising when the company comptroller gave me the details about the payoffs to the fire and other building inspectors and of course it was the UPS delivery man who was the local bookie and handled the football pool.
I did win twenty bucks one week.
I would need to go to the comptroller’s office almost every day to get purchase orders to buy paint or other items for the various shots, all of which had to be assigned to a specific account for each of the clients.
People seemed to gather in that office, there was always a lot of goofing off there and we often played darts.
Everyone would put up a dime on the table and take a shot and whoever was closest won the dimes.
One day while a bunch of us were playing darts the company president walked in and almost got hit by a dart.
Instead of yelling at us to get back to work he said:
“I’m sorry, I’ll come back later”
It is no wonder that the company had problems.
The fashion models were an interesting group.
The women always came in sweats with their high up or pulled back and then would spend an hour or more with the stylists in the dressing rooms and then come out for 10 minutes of work in front of the camera.
The male models always came in well dressed, with great tans.
I remember way day in the elevator hearing one model tell another that he had just gotten back from Greece where he had been working on his tan and what a great time he had there.
This was a time before tanning salons, tuff life.
There was an area of the Studio that had all the headshot books from the different modeling agencies in the City and each model had her own page with several photos of her in different poses and looks.
Account reps would work with clients to pick out several choices for each set-up.
The rep would then call the agencies and see who was available.
“I’ll take blonde number 15, 28 and 34 and brunette numbers 23, 57 and 109”.
One time we were doing a towel shot where the model was to stick her upper body through a hole in the table and wave her arms at all the pretty merchandise.
The model got to the Studio, saw the set-up and said “I don’t do towels” and left.
The junior photographers were always more than willing to make a few extra dollars to work as hand models when a shot called for it.
We did bring in a special “Leg Model” for one shot.
Leg and arm models were usually a bit older, maybe in their 30’s, but still had great limbs and the good ones always had work.
Watching a fashion shoot is fun because they will do anything to make the clothes fit and look right on the model.
They will cut a suit coat right up the back or use spring clamps to pull fabric tight.
Weights might be added to the hems of skirts to pull them down just right.
Food shots are also surprising in what they do.
Lard is sometimes used in place of ice cream and turkeys are basted in dish soap and cooked just enough to give then just the right color and texture.
There was a story that someone tried to eat a turkey after a shot and got very sick.
We all liked it when there was a shot with fresh fruit and veggies because everyone got to take some home after the shot was done.
Like in Theatre, the result only has to look right from the front and point of view of the camera lens and if is not seen then it may not be there and products might be (usually were) enhanced to look good.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
LIRR
Commuting every day by train was a new experience for me.
The trip took an hour and a half each way plus another 20 minutes by bus or subway to get from Pennsylvania Station to where the Photo Studio was on Park Ave.
I got up each day just before 6:00 AM and rushed to get the 6:20 Train; we would cram onto the old diesel engine train and stand for an half an hour until we got to Babylon where we changed to the newer electric trains.
With everyone else I would run to get a seat for the next hour in to City.
I had become a Dashing Dan, a regular commuter on the Long Island Railroad.
I got up each day just before 6:00 AM and rushed to get the 6:20 Train; we would cram onto the old diesel engine train and stand for an half an hour until we got to Babylon where we changed to the newer electric trains.
With everyone else I would run to get a seat for the next hour in to City.
I had become a Dashing Dan, a regular commuter on the Long Island Railroad.
If I had time I would get a coffee and butter roll from a coffee truck (roach coach) at the train station.
Once I got to work two hours later I would stop in to coffee shop on the ground floor of our building for another coffee and a toasted bran or corn muffin and then go upstairs, punch in and then wait for something to do.
If I did not have any work leftover from the day before I would wait in the little shop/office drink my coffee and read the paper until the designer and account reps came in and figured out what needed to be done that day.
There were days when I was never called to do anything until after lunch and just hung out.
There are people who have commuted 30 years or more on the LIRR, but in my year I experienced many different things.
Of course we were often late for any number of reasons: Rain, Snow, Ice, Wind, and at times it seemed that even Sunshine on a clear day would cause delays.
Once I got to work two hours later I would stop in to coffee shop on the ground floor of our building for another coffee and a toasted bran or corn muffin and then go upstairs, punch in and then wait for something to do.
If I did not have any work leftover from the day before I would wait in the little shop/office drink my coffee and read the paper until the designer and account reps came in and figured out what needed to be done that day.
There were days when I was never called to do anything until after lunch and just hung out.
There are people who have commuted 30 years or more on the LIRR, but in my year I experienced many different things.
Of course we were often late for any number of reasons: Rain, Snow, Ice, Wind, and at times it seemed that even Sunshine on a clear day would cause delays.
There were times that the train hit something on the tracks, equipment failures, a fire on the train and someone having a fatal heart attack in the smoking car.
You do not want to be at a train station after someone has been hit by a train.
I did not make it to work that day.
You do not want to be at a train station after someone has been hit by a train.
I did not make it to work that day.
One the same day that someone died on my train and i was late to work, two other people were late getting to work because someone had a heart attack on their train or subway.
I tried to make good use of my almost four hours on the train each day.
Sleep was always welcome but I would often read books or any of the number of newspapers left on the train coming home at night .
It was reading an article in one of those newspapers about public school districts banning certain books that made me want to read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and then most of his other books.
Sleep was always welcome but I would often read books or any of the number of newspapers left on the train coming home at night .
It was reading an article in one of those newspapers about public school districts banning certain books that made me want to read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and then most of his other books.
After a short time I could even read while riding on the subway and remember laughing out loud at parts of Vonnegut’s God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.
Too many nights my diner was a slice or two of pizza and beer I would pick up running through Penn Station to catch my train.
I was aware of class snobbery on the train when I would come home with a little sawdust or paint on my work clothes.
The Wall Street suits did not like to sit with us Blue Collar Workers.
Friday nights in the summer was always fun because in addition the regular riders the Boys of Summer would be going out to their summer houses on Fire Island.
They would have bags of groceries, some little dog with bad skin and sometimes even one of their mothers came with them.
The only time I saw all of the classes mixing on the train were those guys standing between cars smoking some “Wacky Tabacci”.
The Wall Street suits did not like to sit with us Blue Collar Workers.
Friday nights in the summer was always fun because in addition the regular riders the Boys of Summer would be going out to their summer houses on Fire Island.
They would have bags of groceries, some little dog with bad skin and sometimes even one of their mothers came with them.
The only time I saw all of the classes mixing on the train were those guys standing between cars smoking some “Wacky Tabacci”.
I remember one time that I saw somebody that I rode with all the time off the train and I could not place who they were or where I knew them from.
It was an interesting time, but I glad that I had only to do it for one year and also very happy that I was no longer riding the train when the next year there was someone taking random shots at people in Penn Station.
It was an interesting time, but I glad that I had only to do it for one year and also very happy that I was no longer riding the train when the next year there was someone taking random shots at people in Penn Station.
My time in the train was interesting but the Photo Studio would offer many more stories.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Vogue-Wright Photographic Studio
I had been out of Grad school for just a year and had worked various free-lance Theatre jobs in NYC, New Jersey, New Hampshire and on Long Island, but at the end of August 1981 I started working at Vogue-Wright Photographic Studios in NYC.
My brother, a photographer in the Studio, had told me that things were not getting done on time because the carpenter that they had was just a bit too laid back and not a take charge kind of guy so I had sold the president of the company that I was just what the Studio needed.
I was brought in to add a little more planning and construction expertise to Studio and worked with the company designer to figure out how to build the sets needed for the wide variety of photo shoots that the Studio did.
I do not know what they told the other carpenter, I was never really his boss, but the designer would talk to me about the different projects and I would pass it on to him.
He did not seem to care and did what he was asked to do, more or less, often less.
There was a lot for me to learn about how things were normally done.
The Studio was on two floors of our building with the 15th floor being where most of the full size room sets where put up and the 18th floor had the offices and Fashion Studios.
We did some unique shots but most were simple table top set ups with seamless paper, fashion shots in front of walls and many room shots.
The JC Penny catalog was our biggest client, but with did work for Brooks Brothers, Spiegel, A&P Food Markets and numerous other small shots.
The typical set-up was just two intersecting walls, with a gap for lighting and sometimes window.
The designer would pick a paint color that matched one of the highlight colors in the product that they were selling.
We seemed to do an endless supply of bedroom set-ups with every color and pattern of linens that they sold.
We used hard covered, Hollywood or TV style flats.
Traditional Theatre flats were made with 1x3 pine lumber frames with canvas skins.
Hard cover flats use the same 1x3 but attached on edge and covered with ¼” ply back in 1981, but today Luan Ply is used.
It was at the Studio that I started using Drywall Screws for the first time.
The screws had only been around for a few years and had been designed for attaching Drywall (Sheetrock) to metal studs.
The original screw teeth were fine and often would pull out of wood, plus the steel used was brittle and would easily sheer.
The birth of the cordless electric drill, and that everyone is always looking to make things easier, the use of Drywall Screws caught on fast in both Theatrical and General Construction.
As the use of the screws caught on, manufactures made improvements in both the steel used to make them and the screw threads.
If you go to Home Depot or Lowes most of the screws you would find are called deck screws and it is hard to find the original style meant for steel studs.
Back when I first started working in Theatre if we wanted to use screws we would have to drive them in by hand or use a Yankee Screwdriver.
My accident with a Yankee Screwdriver in High School I documented in a previous post.
Whenever I think about it I have to stop and find the small scar on my arm.
It is still there.
When I took the job I was not sure how long I would stay there, I did not want to give up on Theatre, but it was a good paying job with good benefits and it was the best offer I had at the time.
I will chronicle some of the more interesting events that happened to me over the next year in the Studio, around the City and even on the train ride to and from work each day.
.
My brother, a photographer in the Studio, had told me that things were not getting done on time because the carpenter that they had was just a bit too laid back and not a take charge kind of guy so I had sold the president of the company that I was just what the Studio needed.
I was brought in to add a little more planning and construction expertise to Studio and worked with the company designer to figure out how to build the sets needed for the wide variety of photo shoots that the Studio did.
I do not know what they told the other carpenter, I was never really his boss, but the designer would talk to me about the different projects and I would pass it on to him.
He did not seem to care and did what he was asked to do, more or less, often less.
There was a lot for me to learn about how things were normally done.
The Studio was on two floors of our building with the 15th floor being where most of the full size room sets where put up and the 18th floor had the offices and Fashion Studios.
We did some unique shots but most were simple table top set ups with seamless paper, fashion shots in front of walls and many room shots.
The JC Penny catalog was our biggest client, but with did work for Brooks Brothers, Spiegel, A&P Food Markets and numerous other small shots.
The typical set-up was just two intersecting walls, with a gap for lighting and sometimes window.
The designer would pick a paint color that matched one of the highlight colors in the product that they were selling.
We seemed to do an endless supply of bedroom set-ups with every color and pattern of linens that they sold.
We used hard covered, Hollywood or TV style flats.
Traditional Theatre flats were made with 1x3 pine lumber frames with canvas skins.
Hard cover flats use the same 1x3 but attached on edge and covered with ¼” ply back in 1981, but today Luan Ply is used.
It was at the Studio that I started using Drywall Screws for the first time.
The screws had only been around for a few years and had been designed for attaching Drywall (Sheetrock) to metal studs.
The original screw teeth were fine and often would pull out of wood, plus the steel used was brittle and would easily sheer.
The birth of the cordless electric drill, and that everyone is always looking to make things easier, the use of Drywall Screws caught on fast in both Theatrical and General Construction.
As the use of the screws caught on, manufactures made improvements in both the steel used to make them and the screw threads.
If you go to Home Depot or Lowes most of the screws you would find are called deck screws and it is hard to find the original style meant for steel studs.
Back when I first started working in Theatre if we wanted to use screws we would have to drive them in by hand or use a Yankee Screwdriver.
My accident with a Yankee Screwdriver in High School I documented in a previous post.
Whenever I think about it I have to stop and find the small scar on my arm.
It is still there.
When I took the job I was not sure how long I would stay there, I did not want to give up on Theatre, but it was a good paying job with good benefits and it was the best offer I had at the time.
I will chronicle some of the more interesting events that happened to me over the next year in the Studio, around the City and even on the train ride to and from work each day.
.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Di and Da
The big story in the summer of 1981 was not the plays that I worked on at Seton Hall University but the wedding of a pretty 19 year old girl to a goofy looking future king.
I watched some of the “Wedding of the Century” on a grainy black white TV in the Theatre office.
Now their son is getting married this spring in another “Wedding of the Century”.
I wish him better luck then his parents.
The final play of the summer was the Tony Award winning play Da by Hugh Leonard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_(play)
It is a memory play set just after the funeral of the main character and as Charlie comes home he finds the Ghost or memory of his father is still at the home.
The play is flash backs to different moments in Charlie’s life growing up that involved his father.
My favorite scene is one in which Charlie is talking with a neighborhood girl who will “go down back” with the boys.
Just as she agrees to go Charlie’s father comes by and ruins the moment.
“Oh, she's a fine girl, from a good family” Da tells Charlie.
Charlie’s introduction into manhood would have to wait for another day.
The lead character of Da was played by the Director/Department Chair and Charlie by Rudy Hornish, a local actor who had just finished working on the film Ordinary People.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395183/
Rudy told a story about how after he won his Oscar for directing the film, Robert Redford sent certificates of thanks, with mini Oscars printed on them, to everyone who had worked on the film.
They loved their Irish Theatre at Seton Hall and one of the directors who was there in 1981 is still working there today.
http://www.shu.edu/academics/artsci/seton-hall-theatre/
In addition to the summer job I had also applied for a full time job working at the University.
The interview for the full time job was during my second week there.
They gave the job to someone with more experience but at the end of the summer, just before I left, the Chairman told me that he enjoyed working with me and maybe he hired the wrong guy.
As it turned he was right and the other guy was fired before the end of the first year.
They had their chance but I was moving on to other things by then.
My older brother was working as a Photographer in NYC and told me that the studio that he worked for was looking for someone like me to be like a technical director building sets for the different photo set ups.
I took a trip into the city and met with the president of the company and sold him on the idea that I was just what he needed to save his studio, or at least make it run smoother.
They offered me the job at $250 a week plus medical and dental benefits.
This was about $50 more than the junior Photographers starting wage so I guess they really wanted me.
So at the end of the summer, with no other leads on Theatre jobs, I started working full time in Manhattan at Vogue Wright Photographic Studios on Park Avenue near Union Square.
Living back with me parents on Long Island, I would commute on the Long Island Railroad for the next year.
Those train rides alone could fill another blog, but highlights of my adventures in the Photo World are soon to follow.
I watched some of the “Wedding of the Century” on a grainy black white TV in the Theatre office.
Now their son is getting married this spring in another “Wedding of the Century”.
I wish him better luck then his parents.
The final play of the summer was the Tony Award winning play Da by Hugh Leonard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_(play)
It is a memory play set just after the funeral of the main character and as Charlie comes home he finds the Ghost or memory of his father is still at the home.
The play is flash backs to different moments in Charlie’s life growing up that involved his father.
My favorite scene is one in which Charlie is talking with a neighborhood girl who will “go down back” with the boys.
Just as she agrees to go Charlie’s father comes by and ruins the moment.
“Oh, she's a fine girl, from a good family” Da tells Charlie.
Charlie’s introduction into manhood would have to wait for another day.
The lead character of Da was played by the Director/Department Chair and Charlie by Rudy Hornish, a local actor who had just finished working on the film Ordinary People.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395183/
Rudy told a story about how after he won his Oscar for directing the film, Robert Redford sent certificates of thanks, with mini Oscars printed on them, to everyone who had worked on the film.
They loved their Irish Theatre at Seton Hall and one of the directors who was there in 1981 is still working there today.
http://www.shu.edu/academics/artsci/seton-hall-theatre/
In addition to the summer job I had also applied for a full time job working at the University.
The interview for the full time job was during my second week there.
They gave the job to someone with more experience but at the end of the summer, just before I left, the Chairman told me that he enjoyed working with me and maybe he hired the wrong guy.
As it turned he was right and the other guy was fired before the end of the first year.
They had their chance but I was moving on to other things by then.
My older brother was working as a Photographer in NYC and told me that the studio that he worked for was looking for someone like me to be like a technical director building sets for the different photo set ups.
I took a trip into the city and met with the president of the company and sold him on the idea that I was just what he needed to save his studio, or at least make it run smoother.
They offered me the job at $250 a week plus medical and dental benefits.
This was about $50 more than the junior Photographers starting wage so I guess they really wanted me.
So at the end of the summer, with no other leads on Theatre jobs, I started working full time in Manhattan at Vogue Wright Photographic Studios on Park Avenue near Union Square.
Living back with me parents on Long Island, I would commute on the Long Island Railroad for the next year.
Those train rides alone could fill another blog, but highlights of my adventures in the Photo World are soon to follow.
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