I drove from my Air B&B to the Stella Arbelaéz studio where James Parris would be spending the day gathering shots for his Procrasticare short. After having her phone stolen by a Procraticare worker. Stella returned to her artist’s studio and paced the room annoyed. When her nerves were settled, she began to make marks on her canvas for the first time in a long time. Her annoyed expression turned to pleasure as the marks began to come together.
Before shooting began the set needed to be completed. Jennifer Gwynne Oliver brought along a friend who was an expert on movie history. He and James got along great. Jennifer worked for Disney Feature Animation Florida and without being asked, she realized that the set needed to look more lived in. She gathered some art books and a Tiffany lamp along with a bowl from another room, and arranged them on top of the flat files behind Stella. I was pleased that one of the books she picked out was my book, Urban Sketching the Complete Guide to Techniques. Probably no one seeing the short film will see my book, since it is likely out of focus but at least I know it was there.
Between shots, I walked behind Stella adding smoke to the set for a romantic glow of atmospheric perspective. The painting on the canvas was largely completed beforehand. I oversaw making sure the canvas had plenty of gesso, and Stella painted the abstract Pink and Blue pattern that James had made for the shot. I think the pink and blue art was an homage to another animated short film James had done called Pink and Blue .
At one point Stella threw an entire bucket of pink paint at the canvas. Though there were clear plastic drop clothes, she was so enthusiastic that paint went all over the room and beyond the drop cloth. Some paint even got on my sketch. After the paint spatter scene was over, I got on my hands and knees and wipes up stray puddles of paint off of Stella’s grey concrete floor. I do think there are hints of pink of the floor to this day.
Movie lights were scattered all around the set and James moved them as needed for each shot. James kept his hand-held and stabilized camera moving and the studio was a super active space. Stella has assembled a giant 14-foot-tall puppet in this studio space and she created Eco printed table runners for the Orlando Museum of Art in this space. She wasn’t acting when she was working in the studio as an artist.
The Procrasticare short is still in the editing bay. Special effects are still being done for the content that is seen on Stella’s phone screen. I’ll be excited to see the final edit and to see if the audience laughs where expected. Audiences are all unique. Some might laugh out loud while another audience is stone faced and neutral.
