From SUNY to Jack's Studio

Yesterday was a busy day. An old college buddy from my SUNY alum days called on PilotGirl Productions to shoot studio shots of a NYC model for Glamour magazine. It had been nearly 20 years since Dan and I teamed up for a gig and this would be the first without a professor grading our work. It was a surreal experience.

I arrived at Jack's Studio just in time to score a free spot near the freight elevator. A bunch of stage hands offered to help, a first for New York, push my equipment onto the lift. My poor car gets the stuffing beat out of it everyday and yet, for a Chevy, somehow (no thanks to my mechanic) it keeps up with me.

I arrived in Studio room 7 to the smell of bacon and scrambled eggs. Dan had made a point of catering the whole affair with the best breakfast I could have asked for. That alone made the 3 hour drive down in the middle of the night worth it.

Jack's Studio is a photographers dream come true. A blank canvas all painted in bleach white, 2 cyc walls, 13" ceilings, tons of voltage, a makeup and dressing area, free wi-fi, chairs, couches and, this is the best part, a 5,100' room with a view of Manhattan and the Hudson from the south, east and west. It was a sweet place for an assignment.

Then again I'm a shooter of video and unlike photographers, I need silence. In NYC, that's a rare commodity at a premium price. Instead, anytime a helicopter or garbage truck or police car drove by I had to quiet the talent. The model was nobody you'd know but soon to be seen in front of several clothing shop windows, like Express, H&M and Ann Taylor.

The friend to Dan's right is the talented Miss Dina Pace of Pace Productions. Between her, Dan (graphic designer extraordinaire) and myself, our favorite Mass Comm teachers at Suny Plattsburgh would have passed us with flying colors.