I am currently unemployed. I just finished working on the Untitled Nancy Meyers project. I was an assistant set decorator ( Buyer)  on the film for 7 weeks. It was a great experience working under the talented hands of our lead decorator,  Beth Rubino. It was a tough job filled with a lot of drama and turmoil.

 My job was primarily to facilitate the decorating of the "Village Bakery" set that was built at the Picnic House in Prospect Park, coincidentally, 2 blocks from my home in Park Slope. It was a lot of work.  In the film, the hero character, Jane, played by Meryl Streep owns a sucessful bakery/gourmet store/coffee bar and restaurant ( think  Dean & Deluca and Pain Quotidien) located in Santa Barbara Ca. 

The picnic house was used really as a stage - Everything was built although the front and back wall were used. It was an amazing set that required a lot of continuous replenishing - fresh flowers, vegetables and fruits. And of course baked goods galore.  It was a heady, fun and stressful experience, but one I enjoyed immensely. It was great to be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Meryl Streep and Steve Martin, two of my favorite stars. I was certainly starstruck. But also reminded of the mundanity of the everyday life of filmaking. So laborious.  I had the prvilige to observe Ms. Streep on set and was impressed by her professionalism and patience. I watched her do take after take of a seemingly mundane scene - Her first  meeting with "Adam" played by Steve Martin.

I was introduced to so many amazing sources from working on this film - from fantastic upholsterers, fabric resources, pottery makers, restaurant  and kitchen suppliers. The list goes on and on. I will share some of these in the days ahead. 

It is good to be back home, taking care of my daughter who is 4 years old. I was away from her a lot for the past 7 weeks. I have a full time babysitter who is fantastic, but it is clear that my daughter missed the attention of her mommy. And now I have been paying the price. She has been moody and quite demanding of my attention. Lots of whining and misbehaving. Things are finally calming down after being with her consistently for the last few days. I have enjoyed being able to take her to school each day and picking her up as well as observing her in her dance and music classes after school. More later...