Real or Fake?

Can you tell?  Test yourself on some of the desserts that filled the "Greetings" bakery set...

GREETINGS Film Stills

"GREETINGS", 2010

Director: Leah Farrell
Producer: Mike Urann
DP: Jay Flats

My Art Crew:
Art Director: Sam Rhymes
Construction Coordinator: Jake Spivak

Here are some screenshots from a short film project I did a few weeks ago for some friends and fellow Emerson College Alumni. The story is about a guy named Nelson who we see test lines on girls he meets at his favorite neighborhood coffee shop, much to both positive and more commonly negative reviews. We later discover that Nelson is actually a writer for a greeting card company...he's in the pursuit for a smile versus a phone number or date (though, that might be an extra perk of the job). We shot it over two separate weekends, one day at PattiCake's Bakery in Alta Dena, and one over at the Eyeboogie offices in Hollywood.  I'll post the "before and after" later, as the bakery was quite the transformation.  I'm so excited how warm and colorful it looks on film.  Our DP Jay did an amazing job really highlighting all the art department touches we placed on the set.

Faux brick panels and curtains were mounted to cover up a mirrored wall.  All the pastries and pastry stands/boxes were made from painted foam, cardboard, beads, candlestick holders, plates and other reclaimed items.    I taped parchment paper behind the glass pane windows on the kitchen doors to add a frosted effect...and to hide the fact that our crew was standing right behind it with all our equipment.

I did the graphic coffee cup painting behind Nelson (Jay Sharrons) to tie in with the color palette of the curtains and accessories, as well as to soften the brick texture of the wall.  The most important thing it needed to do was subliminally (or blatantly) say "We serve coffee here!".  The location was primarily a bakery so I used every opportunity I could to cheat the coffee shop elements.  My favorite touch: the gumball machine filled with coffee beans =).

The menu boards behind Tom (Mark Fernandez) were actually huge windows looking right into the back of the kitchen.  I cut black foam core to size, used pastel colored chalk to write out all the drink and pastry menu options, sprayed them with fixative, and gaff taped them to the glass.  Since the windows were partially inset as well as framed out with black moulding, they look like they were made for the wall, you can't even tell!

My Art Director Sam is a guru at making fake food.  It's his passion and I didn't mind setting him loose on this project.  He built the fake cakes on display behind Nelson...all made out of painted foam, cardboard, scrap material, and spackle/wall caulking material pipetted through decorative pastry tips. They are amazing!

I wanted the bakery to have a slightly feminine aesthetic, as it's sort of a hunting ground for Nelson.  I dressed up plain metal bar/cafe tables with a few girly touches.  Made the framed menus a for more formal touch than your typical paper menu tent.

View from behind the counter.

The cream and sugar counter.

Behind Julie (Paula Marshall), I did a fresh bread shelf as well as the corkboard bulletin board, which hid yet another window into a messy room.  Painted foam core also served as a front counter panel, with a little bit of custom made Patticakes merchandise we created.

I created an updated Patticakes logo, trying to tie in the original design elements that appeared along the pre-existing ceiling border.  Printed a bunch of the logos out on adhesive paper, cut them into little stickers and put them all over the to-go cups.

Nelson's office (filmed at Eyeboogie).

I heart subway signage.

Created the logo for "Special Moments Greeting Cards".  Kind of reminds me of "(500) Days of Summer" =).