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Owl Portraits

by Jen
written by Jen
Owl Portraits

I’ve always wanted to try photography with live animals.  Last week I had the pleasure of working with an exotic animal handler in Toronto.  My friend Nick and I teamed up on this photoshoot, as he had been wanting to shoot a model with a giant python.  I like snakes, but my personal request was for them to bring a gorgeous Eurasian eagle owl named Ruby to our shoot.

Eurasian eagle owls are one of the largest owls, and could kill a small deer.  Ruby literally took my breath away when I saw her.  Firstly, she’s huge.  Secondly, I’ve never seen an owl up close before, and it was pretty amazing.  She sat on my arm and I was able to pet her.  It was a really cool experience.

Here are some portraits I took of Ruby, as well as Ruby with a model, Camille.  The makeup artist for this shoot was the amazingly talented Nikkie Gatto.

Eurasian Eagle Owl by Jen Grantham

Eurasian Eagle Owl by Jen Grantham

Owl on woman's shoulder by Jen Grantham

Owl on woman’s shoulder by Jen Grantham

Eurasian Eagle Owl by Jen Grantham

Eurasian Eagle Owl by Jen Grantham

Owl on woman's shoulder by Jen Grantham

Owl on woman’s shoulder by Jen Grantham

Eurasian Eagle Owl by Jen Grantham

Eurasian Eagle Owl by Jen Grantham

Stay tuned for future shoots with live animals!

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Makeup Before, During & After

by Jen
written by Jen
Makeup Before, During & After

Way back in Spring, Stocksy put out a creative brief of requested subjects, and I got an idea to do a photoshoot where I took photos of a model before, during, and after makeup being applied.

Well, I’ve been dealing with a concussion for the last 4 months, so this shoot got put on the back burner until a couple of weeks ago, when I met Camille, a cute model with blue hair, and Sidonie, a kickass alt makeup artist.  We shot this series in my downtown Toronto studio.

You can view the whole shoot in a gallery, and photos can be licensed from Stocksy (promo code JEN20 gets you 20% off).

Before - No makeup by Jen Grantham

Before – No makeup by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist applying makeup to model by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist applying makeup to model by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist with blush and brush by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist with blush and brush by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist applying false eyelashes to model by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist applying false eyelashes to model by Jen Grantham

Collection of colourful makeup by Jen Grantham

Collection of colourful makeup by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist applying eyeshadow to model by Jen Grantham

Makeup artist applying eyeshadow to model by Jen Grantham

Hairstylist curling model's hair by Jen Grantham

Hairstylist curling model’s hair by Jen Grantham

Model checking makeup in mirror by Jen Grantham

Model checking makeup in mirror by Jen Grantham

Model with blue hair in harsh light by Jen Grantham

Model with blue hair in harsh light by Jen Grantham

View the whole shoot on Stocksy in this gallery! 

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Behind-the-Scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

by Jen
written by Jen
Behind-the-Scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

Since October, my friend John Kruusi and I have been running a food blog called Crustcrumbs.  We shoot a variety of different styles of food in the different scenarios in which you would eat it.  Sometimes it’s delicious food, like a big turkey dinner, and sometimes it’s… well, not so delicious.  Like actual recipes straight out of housekeeping magazines from the 70s, made by our favourite local Toronto comedy duo, Terrific Women.  We’re nearing the end of 70s Week on Crustcrumbs, so I thought I would share some behind-the-scenes photos from our shoot.

The Terrific Women are Linda and Joy (Sara Hennessey and Steph Kaliner), two feminists in 1974 who have their own public access cable program.  We wanted to keep up the crappy 70s no-budget look with questionable lighting, too many patterns, and macramé monkeys.  Oh, and the food.

Behind-the-Scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

They’re the Terrific Women, and today they’re entertaining.

John did an amazing job finding inspiration for all these (gross) recipes, making everything, and styling the food so it looked like it came straight out of a 1970s clearance bin cookbook.

John prepping food for our shoot.

John in the studio kitchen prepping food for our shoot.

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Prepping the sandwiches for “Pineapple-Ham Spread.”

We even had a designer make custom 1970s-style labels for some of the bottles and cans.

Behind-the-scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

Custom designed food labels by Sarah Wright.

Behind-the-scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

Steph & Sara getting ready.

Behind-the-Scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

Tristan, John & the Terrific Women.

Behind-the-scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

Our backdrop & counter setup.

Since we were doing two things at once – me shooting stills and Tristan Gough shooting video – we had to figure out the lighting.  We had to decide if we would set up both video lights for filming and strobes for still photography.  Since we weren’t going for a professional, polished look with the photos, ultimately we decided to only light for video, and I took photos behind-the-scenes with my sound blimp like on a film set.  Shooting during filming presents some challenges, but it always makes for some great natural facial expressions:

Behind-the-scenes with Terrific Women and Crustcrumbs

Cooking with Linda & Joy is always fun.

So far this week, we’ve posted recipes and videos for Mai-Tai Cocktails, Minced Clam Cheese Dip, Pineapple-Ham Spread, and Pepperoni Salad.  If you visit Crustcrumbs tomorrow, you’ll find a classic 70s dessert.  Spoilers:

What goes in here?

What goes in here?

 

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Kenneyville Premiere 2010/10/28

by Jen
written by Jen
Kenneyville Premiere 2010/10/28

I haven’t updated in way too long!

Here are some pictures from the Kenneyville premiere on October 28th, 2010 at The Royal in Toronto.

(Look familiar?)

A bunch of protesters showed up at the theatre…

After the premiere, there was a Q&A with the cast and crew, and then everyone headed to Tattoo Rock Parlour on Queen West for the after party.

I love this cast & crew picture.  From L-R, Nick Maiorino (Marshall), Alexander Narizini (Art Director), Kelsey Oluk (Kim), Dylan Argument (Sound Mixer), Irena Angeloutsa (Victoria), Brooks Hunter (Writer/Producer/Director), Vincent Galvez (Writer/Producer), and Josef Malonzo (Ben).

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Kenneyville: Day 2

by Jen
written by Jen
Kenneyville: Day 2

Here are some behind-the-scenes movie stills from Day 2 on set of Kenneyville!  On Friday we filmed in a creepy barn in Cobourg, Ontario.  It was a really cool set, and Sean Samson was there as a Makeup FX Consultant.   He just finished working on Saw VII, and built a drill so we could drill into Vanessa’s head.

Writer/Director Brooks Hunter and Cinematographer Pasha Patriki.

This is Michael Scratch as the film’s villain, Adrian Black.  Really nice and talented guy – I didn’t get to meet him during phase 1 of shooting.


Sean Samson prepping Vanessa Broze‘s head for drilling!


Ewwww.

The effect looked really cool, from what I saw on the monitor.  Can’t wait to see it in the final film!

This Friday we’re filming a huge fight scene with multiple bloody deaths.  I’m very excited.

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Kenneyville: Day 1

by Jen
written by Jen
Kenneyville: Day 1

I’m back on the set of Babe with a Sword, only now it’s called Kenneyville.  We’re spending 4 days this month filming new scenes.   The film originally wrapped last September, and you can see some behind the scenes shots from phase 1 of shooting here.

Yesterday, we filmed at a motel in Shelburne, ON (about 90 minutes North of Toronto).  It was great to see everyone again!

This time I’d like to get some shots of Vanessa Broze not being tied up and/or duct taped on the back of a truck.


See: examples from last September.

Doran Damon Okkema (who plays Donovan), Vanessa Broze (as Kelly/Megan), and writer/director/producer Brooks Hunter.


Vanessa tied up with Brooks Hunter, Director of Photography Pasha Patriki, and Dany Gehshan (as Charlie/Patrick).

This is one of the most fun sets (okay, the most fun set) I’ve ever worked on.  Everyone is really nice and infectiously energetic.  Also, I love working on films that actually encourage posting pictures online – most productions don’t allow it.  Speaking of which, you can see lots more pictures on the Kenneyville Facebook page.

On Friday we’re filming in Cobourg.  The key prosthetic makeup artist from Resident Evil: Afterlife has created some crazy special effect props.  There will be blood.  There will also be pictures.

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Babe With A Sword: Day 3

by Jen
written by Jen
Babe With A Sword: Day 3

Hello!  I’m writing from Quebec, where I’m working as the stills photographer on the feature film Babe With A Sword.  Right now it’s Day 3 and the cast is siting around a fire watching old vampire movies while the crew is setting up.

We’re having tons of fun so far, with lots of excitement from raccoons and bears to thwarting robberies to throwing cast members into the lake.

Here are a few behind-the-scenes pictures from this week:

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Yes, that is as steep as it looks.

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Director Brooks Hunter with Irena Angelousta, who is playing Victoria.

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Movie-making in a boat!

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Our lead, Vanessa Broze, getting taped up for her big kidnapping scene.

And apparently that’s all the middle-of-nowhere-Internet will let me upload for today.

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Your Heart

by Jen
written by Jen
Your Heart

Andrew has been my friend for over 10 years.  He’s an extremely talented musician who has written literally hundreds (maybe even thousands) of songs.  He is also the genius behind Songs To Wear Pants To and he posted 1 song every day last year on Andrew is Music.

He’s about to release his new album, called “Summer“, under the name “Your Heart”.  I took these pictures earlier this week at the studio where he’s getting ready to film 2 kids’ music videos with his band next week.  I cannot keep track of how many bands Andrew is in or how many albums he is currently working on.  There are a lot.

He’s having a CD/Video release party on September 1st, the details of which you can find on Facebook, here.  The “Video Release” part of the party is for the song “In the Sun” from the album.  Wendelfilm created the video back in June, and I helped produce it!

Here’s a teaser:

And here are some shots from this week.

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Andrew_YourHeart-55

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The Last New Year Theatrical Release

by Jen
written by Jen
The Last New Year Theatrical Release

tlny-screening-1

The Last New Year (IMDB) (official site) is playing at The Royal in Toronto for its last night tonight at 7pm.  I went to see it last night, and it was fantastic.

Since I only started doing film stills in 2008, most of the things I’ve worked on still haven’t been released.  It was very exciting to see something I worked on on the big screen!

They will also be doing screenings in Victoria and Vancouver and I highly recommend seeing it.  It’s a great film that has come a long way since I saw one of the early rough cuts last year.

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The Insignificance of Harvey Recap, Part 2

by Jen
written by Jen

Read Part 1!

On day 9, the snow was up to our knees.  Where was all this snow when it was needed for the luge?

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(Our script supervisor Tiffany Wong trying to keep her pants dry.)

On day 10, we went into Blue Mountain village, which was really nice (and a lot warmer!).  We had a restaurant scene, a scene at the Bark & Fitz pet store, and then miscellaneous shots around the village.

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The next two days were spent on “The Art Farm” in Duntroon, ON, a beautiful farm owned by an arist and a producer.  On the first day, we had a trained raccoon – apparently the only trained raccoon in Ontario.

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We didn’t see many of the farm animals, but the llama did come over to say hi to our locations manager.

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And that brings me to my last day on set.  Day 13, the big strip club scene.  Again, this was a closed set so I wasn’t allowed inside for most of the day.  In the morning, we did some shots outside, and then we had a green screen for a dream sequence scene.

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Our strip club scene was set in an abandoned gas station turned strip club… or strip club turned gas station, I’m not really sure.  Either way, it didn’t look like anything until a few hours before we started shooting.  Brian Garvey and his team turned this abandoned building into a bar, and it looked awesome.

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Overall, it was a great experience and I met a lot of awesome people.  Hopefully soon I will be able to post some publicity stills!

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