MOVIE PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIOS

For your inspiration, I've got two movie photography studios that I love-and wouldn't mind having or living in for that matter. The first is from one of my favorite movies-Hearts in Atlantis (2001)-the main character in this Stephen King story is a photographer. David Morse plays "Bobby Garfield", a working photographer that is brought back into his past with the arrival of a baseball glove he hasn't seen since his days as a youth. The symbolism of the glove? Well.....got to get the movie to find out! The movie opens with Garfield in his studio, behind a Hasselblad (the same camera used to photograph my wedding) hard at work. Something about the shutter sound of a medium format camera that makes me salivate. The studio has a skylight which provides lots of ambient light, lots of storage, stands, tables, and all the things a photographer needs to create. I looks like there is a darkroom area in the back, where he would develop his days work, of course.

The second studio comes from that funny, quirky romantic comedy "The Truth about Cats & Dogs" (1996) starring Uma Thurman (Noelle), Janeane Garofalo (Abby), and Ben Chaplin (Brian). Thurman and Garofalo play people that just meet and try to keep a secret from professional photographer Ben Chaplin. Thurman plays a supermodel and Garofalo a animal psyciatist that get caught up in a "brains over beauty" situation. {Authors note: Give me Garofalo over Thurman anytime...just sayin'} Ok.....I'm getting to the studio! A huge expanse of space, and layed out to perfection. Here, Ben Chaplin's character, like David Morse's character, lives and works in his warehouse style studio. Again, a darkroom area under the living space, with kitchen close to a dining and conversation area for entertaining clients. Large studio strobes loom in front of a huge backdrop that square off the photographer's work area. Several studio essentials placed around-stools, apple crates, toolboxes, equipment storage-to complete the look of a well worn and worked in photography studio. The camera of choice is a 35mm film Canon [looks like a F model, which you can still get for around 150-450 dollars], well guys it was a 1996 movie, but I like the fact we are able to see there was life well before digital cameras. A great scene in the movie is when Chaplin goes to the refrigerator to get some sweets left over from a shoot. Thurman not big on cakes and candies-like any supermodel watching their weight of 95 pounds-refuses the offer at first, when he opens the frig it is full to the brim with film, which we will discuss. Does film need to be refrigerated?

So enjoy....go rent them or put them in your Netflix queue. If you have a studio something like these I would love to see it.....virtual or in person. Give me click, I could feature it here so us Shade Trees can see how your livin'. (and shootin').