My shoots tend to be fairly produced. This is neither a good thing, nor a bad thing, but it is a thing – a thing that needs to be dealt with. When the gods of production design are on your side, all of your needs can be satiated at one of New York City’s venerable prop houses. The gods, however, can be a fickle bunch.
A couple of weeks ago I set out to Queens with my Prop Mistress, Tanya Seeman, in search of a Vanity. A few years ago we would have stayed on the island of Manhattan but, like most creatives, the oligarchs in charge of the city’s skyrocketing rents have effectively exiled them to the outer boroughs.
For those of you who have never stepped foot into a prop house, I urge you to do so, immediately. They are wondrous places. It’s as if your crazy Aunt Betty had both the budget and space to actually collect everything she ever wanted to. They are massive and they are filled, packed, stuffed…with stuff. Big stuff; little stuff; stuff you know you need; stuff you didn’t know you needed, but now you do; stuff to get you by; stuff to inspire you – George Carlin would have had a field day.
We assumed we would be able to rent everything we needed for our upcoming shoot, a noirish look at desire for my Pulp! series. Principal among the items we needed was a vanity. But it couldn’t just be any vanity, it had to be from the 30s or 40s, preferably Art Deco and it had to have OOMPH. The kind of vanity that you’d see Veronica Lake luxuriating herself at while gazing at you seductively.
There were none…
There was everything else we would need, phones and trinkets, bottles and atomizers, jewelry boxes, powder boxes, button, brushes and bows… They even had the tufted stools for her to sit upon. But no vanity, at least none that was suitable.
So what’s a boy to do, you ask? What every intrepid New Yorker in need of something does – search Craigslist. It turns out that, in CT, there were several good candidates to choose from and one that just jumped out at me. After a bit of haggling, it was mine.
It needed some work, but we didn’t want to do a full strip and restore, so we just cleaned it up, oiled it down and put a couple of fresh coats of a clear satin finish on it. The draw pulls are fabulous, but the brass was completely destroyed and the pieces needed to be replated. But, for the magic that is Hollywoo… er, photography, a bit of metallic gold paint did the job quite well.
It took a few days of work, but I’m happy with the results.
I think Ms. Lake will enjoy it – now on to building the rest of the set…
