Preparing for a Filming Day - Making a video to share with you all is grand fun...and a lot of work! I'm often asked, "What's it like behind the scenes?" Those close enough to the Portland Creative Center are welcome to stop by to see the studio set. Visitors are always a surprised by just how small it really is! For those of you that can't just "drop in", it's time to share a bit of the behind-the-scenes preparation.
Once we have a theme and film date set, the first step is the gathering of flowers. This lovely collection of green blooms is from florabundance.com. I love their quality and reliability plus, they have so many varieties to choose from. I also use local growers, out-of-state wholesalers and floral auctions to find just the right flowers and foliages for each project. Here in Portland, we are quite lucky to have a fabulous wholesale market. (To make you jealous, I'll let you know it is just 5 miles from us!) pdxflowermarket.com
Next, I gather a collection of supplies to work with. These come from all over - wholesalers, retail stores, my house, the storage shelves at the warehouse and borrowed items from friends. To be honest, there is so much "stuff" I have to purge periodically. It is amazing how props, vases and treasures seem to multiply. It takes 1-2 days just to gather materials, write the script and stage the materials. At last, we move into the studio for filming. For each 60 minute DVD, we will spend about 6 hours in the studio.
I say we....David is on hand for every minute of filming. He runs the lighting, sound and camera. He likes to think he is the director as well. Personally, I think I do most of the directing. Guess we'll just take turns on that one.
When the camera is off, David joins me in the design preparation. You see me design on film to a point and then, when the camera is off we finish up the arrangement so you don't have to watch one flower after another after another after....there are only so many minutes you can sit and wait for me. This lovely garland is from the Wedding Inspirations DVD, Citrus Weddings.
After the filming is done, David photographs all the finished arrangements on a light table for use on our web site. If you look close, you may recognize that wreath on the light table from the Wedding Trends 2012 DVD.
At the end of the day, we have film ready for edit and beautiful flowers to enjoy. Time for a wrap party and celebrate the completion of a film day. (MORE BLOGS)