Now that the episode has aired I can finally share this!
Last November my talented (and gorgeous, HELLO) friend Becky was selected to participate in the first ever episode of Underground BBQ Challenge, hosted by Chef G. Garvin.
This is Becky
With only a theme, a location and $1000, she and a team of 3 of her most reliable dudes threw a party with live entertainment for 100 people. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, she was competing against ANOTHER Brooklynite for a $10,000 prize!
I participated as one of her party-goers and I even got to help with the decor by painting a carnival sign before the big event. As evidenced by my display of teeth below, I was very excited to be a part of the fun.
Check out this music video that I assisted on for Elin Ruth, directed by Magnus Göransson.
Catchy song, no? I bet you’re ready to watch it again so here are some insider production notes to entertain you along the way.
0:14 The bar scenes were shot at Claret in Sunnyside, NY
0:18 That handsome devil to the right of Elin is her husband!
0:27 See that fancy hat she’s wearing? That’s just one of a number of fancy hats that have a habit of appearing on peoples’ heads when they’ve been drinking. Exhibit A.
0:33 SMOOCHY SMOOCHY. To get this scene, the director practically had to crawl under the covers with them. Ooo la la!
0:36 Claret’s owner, Justin, played the part of the bartender.
1:04 This was shot on the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.
1:10 At 5’9″ I’m no shrimp but both Elin and her husband clock in at over 6′ tall. In this shot, I’m just off-screen jumping and throwing feathers around like crazy to get them high enough to rain DOWN on two people who are significantly taller than me. (I am also simultaneously having a heart attack about getting in trouble for littering the street with lovely white feathers.)
1:15 The following gorgeous views were shot on a roof deck that was over 39 stories up!
1:18 Elin’s own bathroom (and toothbrush).
1:53 I don’t think this scene was on the schedule but when half of the train car we were in cleared out, Elin and the director sprang into action to take advantage of the great shot.
1:58 Another New York landmark, the Flatiron building!
2:12 Well, hello little squirrelio. Another unexpected but great moment. I had recently been accosted by squirrels in this park for nuts (yes, I am an old lady that carries a bag of nuts around with her at all times) so we put a nut in Elin’s hand and tried not to let the squirrel steal the show.
2:22 Real talk. Standing in a room, tacitly watching someone bawl their eyes out is a hard thing to do.
2:56 Director, Magnus Göransson, pulls a Hitchcock and makes a cameo as an irritated bar patron.
3:12 Look, ruffians outside the bar! (And I’m one of them!) In an effort to be authentically tough, I smoked a cigarette for this part and promptly made myself ill. ~METHOD ACTING~
So there you go, I hope you enjoyed it!
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Today’s stop-motion round-up is entirely videos created by my talented friends Andy and Anthony for Illy using the Vine app.
Are you guys on Vine? I joined the other night but haven’t posted anything yet. Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t support Vine videos yet so you’ll have to click the images below to see the action.
Rachel Crawford of the lovely MadeWeekly food tumblr decided to make the leap into video and contacted me to make some art for her project. I was thrilled to be included and it turned out wonderfully.
I’ve been informed that this PES piece is in the running!
Also, it is the sequel to Western Spaghetti.
He is one of my favorite animators. I love these videos and I hope he wins!
In other news, looky looky, I’ve added an improvement! Now you can see my 5 most recent tweets in the sidebar from the homepage (you won’t be able to see them if you came to this post via an email subscription) —->
And they look great all packaged up and ready for shipping.
I’m so sick of fighting Paypal to make buttons though, it’s time to take the Etsy plunge. Check this space for updates on when these and all the other cards will be available on Etsy…
Here’s a fun project that I recently completed, the results of which were of course, very hush-hush. My friend Joy is pregnant with twins and wanted to reveal the genders in a fun way. We went with scratch-off and it was a complete success!
One girl…
TWO GIRLS! Good luck to the parents (you may need it)!
This first video isn’t technically stop-motion, it’s timelapse, but it was so beautiful and simple that it inspired me to share it with you IMMEDIATELY.
The artist is Alice Ninni.
The infamous (and NUDE, consider yourself warned) Amanda Palmer.
create 