Photo-Shoot for Moon Over Manhattan: Behind the Scenes - PART I

CAST LIST

Primary Cast:
Denika - Lauren Steinmeyer
Cash - Orion Talley
Lexie - Angela Scherrah
Phin - Mark Knight
Liam - Richard Mark Jordan
Inari - Amanda Arma
Marlen - Tomer Versano
Zane - Robbie Skadal

Secondary Cast:
Demyan - Jerome Champigny
Shade - Mateo MacDermant
Dmitri - Kevin Jones
Rachel - Rachel Grundy
Brush - Cedric Jones

Make-up by Niki Quinn
Photography by Vince Lingner
Sword Choreography by Mark Rosenthal


WHAT AN AMAZING DAY! I couldn't have asked for much better of weather for this time of year in NYC so, thank you God! It was sunnier than my photographer would've liked but, alas, all in all...it was quite lovely out; sunny and 65 degrees with only a little wind.

Here's how the day went...

I was up at 5:30am on Oct. 17th and let me tell you...I'm used to getting home at 5:30am and going to bed after going to the club...not getting UP at 5:30am so it was a wee bit rough on me. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way though.

Lauren and Robbie showed up at my place at 6:15am and by 6:30am we were off to Dunkin Doughnuts to buy 2 "Box of Joe" and some doughnuts for the cast and we hailed a car and off we went to Central Park.

We arrived at 81st and Central Park West by 7:09am and as we started into the park we got a text from Niki (Make-up Artist) and we collected her and off we went up the hill to Belvedere Castle. We commandeered a corner near the look out point so we'd not be in tourist's way and were set up and doing make-up by 7:30am! Here's a pic of Niki doing Angela's make-up:



As we began to do work on Lauren I hear Niki say "O.M.G." and I'm like, "What?" and then I turn around and say, "O.M.G." I'm so sorry I don't have pics of what I'm about to tell you but we didn't want to encourage them...so to speak.

I turned around to see two men, possibly in their early 40's, both dressed in normal attire but...they each had on a orange and black striped witch hat that had wild looking orange hair sticking out from under them (same orange as the stripes and obviously part of the hat). They were obviously wasted...and it didn't take long for them to spot us (as we were the only other people there at that hour) and they offered us beer. That's right, 8am and they had a mini-keg with them of Heiniken I believe and they were basically still up from the night before...enjoying the sun rise in Central Park...with us. LOL! Oh dear...they were a sight! We were lucky they decided not to "hang" out with us and went on there way to sit on the steps and sing and yell out drunken think like, "Oooh myyyy Gahhhd...I lost my iPod!" over and over...but usually it was just the "Oooh myyyy Gahhhd"...repeated. :)

They left by the time 9am rolled around so it wasn't a problem for the last half of the cast who showed up, but it was funny for those of us who watched the sun rise over the trees at Central Park. :)



Slowly but surely the group started to arrive. I'd scheduled them in broken up intervals so as to not cause actors to sit around with nothing to do as best I could...but know this, there is always downtime for the actors and models for something like this. Why? Because we can only do make-up on one or two people at a time. But I think we did pretty good and getting folks done quickly. We started with wigs, moved to make-up, then tattoos.

Yes, tattoos! Because the characters are supposed to be covered in a lot of urban tribal tats and my actors obviously were not, our Make-up goddess air brushed them from stencils she made prior to the day. Here she is putting some on Lauren:



While getting ready my behind the scenes photo guru, Robbie Skadal, was doing video and photos...as was I...I'll put them on the left or right as I continue to tell about the shoot. A HUGE plug for my friend Jet Berelson's store, VAMPIRE FREAKS for loaning us some of the clothes you see in these pictures! Most are from the store, either bought or lent. So if you like what you see you should visit the site! http://vampirefreaks.com/


Originally I'd not thought about make-up, like a fool, until Vince mentioned it and then I realized that he was right. Niki's work, as you will see from the final pics, is amazing work and I hightly recommend her. Great to work with, on time, professional, great with the actors/models, takes initiative, and comes through 100%. Her site is http://www.wix.com/nikiquinn/niki2 . She's just lovely to work with!

And for those of you who don't believe in make-up making something amazingly different, let me share these photos with you...this is Robbie, who plays Zane. We did a before and after Pics of him.

Also should mention our amazing photographer, Vince Lingner. Vince is a man of many talents; from acting to photography to set design/construction and the man can sew!
I should also state, that since my Stage Manager for the project ended up getting ill and her replacement bailed on me I had to really focus on timeline and technical things so my "creative side" was having a lot of trouble coming to the surface. Vince would ask "What do you want?" and my mind would go blank. It was wildly frustrating and upsetting to say the least, but Vince was my hero...as he often has been...and when I said "help" he jumped in with both feet and was just fantastic with getting shots we'd discussed before. Many thanks and hugs to that man are due in abundance! :) xoxo

So, on to the shoot itself, yes?

We started with group photos at the castle and it took everyone a bit to feel comfortable and fall into the groove but by the time we were done with the second pose they started to really get into it and have fun. We did pictures of not only the group but also of some singular shots so that the website can have a photo for each character description.

Here's a great one of Phin and then Cash:



Here is a candid of Jerome and Mark (Rosenthal)...enjoying the sun as they wait to be needed as well as pics of Tomer, Cash & Denika at the top of the castle, Richard getting his war paint on, a close of of Lauren (Denika), Angela as Lexie and Amanda as Inari!







When the shoot started we really were some of the only people at the Castle but once we hit around 10am, when the Castle opened, tourists started to flood in and it didn't take long for them to start asking what we were doing. I forsaw this so I brought some of my business cards and told the cast if they were asked just to tell them the truth and give them a card. A few people asked to have their picture taken with some of the girls (no big suprise there, they looked hot!) and by the time we were doing the tattoos for the 2nd half of the shoot and the actors/models were getting changed and ready to move to our other location we had a group of really wonderful ladies talking to us and taking some great photos. In fact, one lady got an amazing shot of Lauren I secretly hope she emails me. :) I asked her but alas, if she lost my card I'll never see it. *sigh* Oh well.

We changed clothes and up and moved to our second location...which will be PART II of my Behind the Scenes blog...but before I go I shall give you one of my fave group shots from Belvedere Castle: