Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Game Changer - Bridge Props


Needless to say, it was a slow month, work wise - I did get to do two commercials. One for a trendy fruit drink which involved building sets upside down to accomodate puppeteers who used their arms as their legs - need I say more? Should be a very interesting spot.

Then another spot for a pharmaceutical to boost men's virility - And I'm not talking Viagra. So two very different jobs.

The fruit drink job involved small 3/4 size sets to accomodate puppets to be dressed as fruit. As mentioned, they stand upright, but their hands are their legs.

If I didn't feel pressure to earn a living, I might have been glad to have spent most of the month at home and not out fighting the elements - snow, ice storms and all around nasty weather.

Most of the work for the Pharm job involved looking online for appropriate couches and chairs - It was a quickie. I was hired on a friday for a shoot the following monday - It's amazing how quickly one can gather props these days without even getting up from one's chair and computer -

Lots of quick searches on West Elm, Pottery Barn and Bridge Props

Bridge Props, a teriffic new york prop house ( located in Williamsburg Brooklyn ) that has all of it's inventory well photographed and on line - I have never had the need to enter the actual prop house - Virtual visits are all it takes. -

One finds a magnificant selections of sofas, chairs, tables, case pieces etc along with an impressive selection of cleared artwork - Cleared being the operative word since artwork is a very sensitive issue when being placed in a commercial, film or television sets.

Matt Hennessy's Bridge Props has certainly proven to be a game changer in the world of set decorating. He was the first to comprehensively set up a virtual furnture prop house, in New York at least.

The selection of furnishings at Bridge is impressive and stylish. From the modern furniture selections - the Eames, the Corbus the Barcelonas - to more traditional fare - Crate & Barrel sofas, George Smith knock offs and the like- He's got it all covered -

Bridge keeps everything in pristine condition so you never have to worry about something arriving dirty or in poor condition.

All in all a fantastic selection, and a pleasure to deal with.

The other amazing thing is that he has quantities of pieces - So if you need to decorate a hotel lobby, for example, there are a dozen matching leather sofas. And I happened to notice he has 306 matching french style dining chairs - Perfectly suited for an elegant restaurant set or maybe a wedding.

I definitely give Bridge Props two thumbs up.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Those beginning of the year freelance blues...

It's the beginning of the year and I'm having the freelance blues.

I'm wondering from where the next job will come from? Who should I call? and who will call me? What should I do? I'm trying to remember who I worked with last year, and sending people emails and texts, and gasp, calling them on the phone...

It's a hard time of year - the first week of january - the long vacation proceeded by... no work.

It's times like these I wish I had a full-time job to go to - to put my feet up on my desk - to go out to lunch - to email friends and look at websites - and of course, to do some work.

It's just hard to be freelance the first week of January -

because I have them old first week of the new year freelance person's blues...