joeycake: design

a cure for insomnia

Friday, June 1, 2012 • design, DP, LA

DP and I accompanied some friends last night to view a documentary at LACMA about the painter Gerhard Richter. Elvis Mitchell, a film critic and public radio celebrity, introduced the film by saying, "You're in for a real treat!" He went on to say it was remarkable how the filmmaker was unrelenting at times. That she held the camera on her reluctant subject and patiently waited for his reaction. "You're really gonna squirm in one particular part," he said, which made me (throughout the entire movie) keep thinking is this the squirming part??? Is THIS??

Not ten minutes into the film I saw a head bobbing in my peripheral vision and turned to see that the older lady sitting next to me was fast asleep. I elbowed David and gave him a get-a-load-of-that head point and thought ha ha! I caught that lady sleeping! Well. Not five minutes later karma's boomerang came back around. And it sprinkled sleeping dust on its return trip.

Unfortunately, while there were some really beautiful parts watching Richter in process in his studio, overall I found the film a cure for insomnia. It was such a quiet movie, subtitled and with no narration, and there were long stretches with no dialogue where the camera would just hold on an abstract painting for like 30 seconds. And then someone would start speaking phrases in German that sounded not unlike a spoken lullaby.

I kept trying to stay awake for the special squirming moment and decided that the only squirming I would experience was trying to find a comfortable sleeping position in my movie seat.

When we got out into the lobby afterward:

Me: "Wow. What a movie, eh?"

DP: "Yeah. I thought it was spectacular. Riveting."

Me: "Huh. Really? Which part?"

DP: "I loved what he said about not believing in gimmicks."

Me: "Hmmm.......remind me??" (SINCE I WAS SLEEPING)

He loved it, bless his heart. I suppose I'd have enjoyed it too it if I'd had a few shots of espresso on hand. Either that or a fluffy pillow.

xoxo,
jolie

P.S. We had dinner at Ray's and Stark there at LACMA and I cannot recommend it more. They gave us homemade Oreos with the check!

P.P.S. The pictures above are of the Chris Burden installation 'Urban Light' in the LACMA courtyard. So pretty:)

P.P.P.S. David is not a permanent part of the installation.

short shoot

Thursday, June 9, 2011 • design, food, LA, The Biz

I had The Most Fun last weekend shooting a fantastic Romantic-Comedy short film. My wonderfully talented and lovely friend Gloria is a TV writer and prolific playwright and I've been lucky enough to act in several of her one-act plays and monologue shows (and even one of her episodes on "How I Met Your Mother") over the years. Now she's starting to put them on film. I could not be more excited.

This one's called BLIND and it's about two people looking for love on a blind date.

We shot in the coolest space. One entire wall was covered with this amazing painting. It was originally on the exterior wall of the building next door and then covered up with plaster in 1929 when it eventually became an interior wall. When the current tenant began renovating the space, he broke away some of the plaster and found it, an ad for Catalina cruises in the 20s. His theory is that whoever plastered over it gouged little holes in the brick so it would adhere. Isn't it cool looking? I couldn't stop taking pictures of it...