Art & Soul Back at the Oscars l Brian Smith Pictures

Art & Soul Back at the Oscars

Back in LA to shoot ‘Art & Soul’ for The Creative Coalition during Oscar Week. Takes me back to where the project started a year ago. HUGE thanks to Kayla Lindquist, director of Sony’s Artisans of Imagery program, for dropping a little 3-day shoot in my lap and then helping every step along the way as it grew into something much, much bigger. In the last year, we’ve now shot 18,563 images of 153 celebrities and counting…

DAY 1 – WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3: Took our usual 8:35am flight to LAX. Love flyin’ Business class in the Triple Seven. Yeah! Just traded seats so I could sit with my wife. The guy I swapped with didn’t mind. He got to sit next to Anna Kournikova. Though my wife is is probably the only woman on the plane who isï¿½ hotter. Fired out a few more invites for our shoot. Terrill Owens is sitting a few rows behind us.. Oscar-bound T.O.? Mimosas before takeoff…Decide to watch The Blind Side first to get in a Oscar mood followed by Couples Retreat and The Invention of Lying...flight smooth…landing on time. Picked-up our car, circled back for Kayla Linquist landing from JFK. The we all head to the Andaz Hotel on Sunset to check-in and set-up our shoot. Then just enough time for dinner at El Cholo before Wednesday night’s event at our hotel was a party for The Cove so I got to see my college buddy director Louie Psihoyos making his third stop of a busy pre-Oscar evening. Very proud of you, Louie! Then we caught up with The Cove co-director Fisher Stevens and celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch from last year’s Art & Soul shoot. Between drinks, Robin Bronk corralled Evan Handler (Californication) and Domenick Lombardozzi (The Wire) and dragged them down the the studio.

DAY 2 – THURSDAY, MARCH 4:

Our day started off with Joel Warren and Edward Tricomi of Warren-Tricomi Salons who have provided our 20 hair & make-up artists through out this shoot. Brian White, James Kyson Lee of Heros, Adrianna Costa Hollywood 411, Summer Altice, Bitchslap’s Erin Cummings, Grey’s Anatomy McHeartthrob Jesse Williams, Gilles Marini, Melissa Manchester, Aaron Staton of Mad Men, an incredible shoot with the irrepressible Alan Cumming, followed by Iceland Actress Anita Briem.

Grabbed a quick bite at the Hotel the set up again to get ready to catch stars from that night’s party for “Precious” which thanks to great celebrity wrangling by Georgi Page and Dennis St. Rose brought us comedian Eddie Griffin, Jr., Oscar-nominated Costume Designer Sharen Davis, Obama-classmate Hill Harper (a former Iowan…who knew?),”Precious” director Lee Daniels, Elise Neal, 24‘s Best President Dennis Haysbert, we talked about my favorite photographer Irving Penn with J. “Miss J” Alexander sporting rings by Penn’s daughter, Oscar-winning songwriter Siedah Garrett, The Blind Side‘s larger than life Qunitin Aaron looking very dapper and Geoffrey Fletcher, Oscar winner for Best Screenplay for “Precious”

DAY 3 – FRIDAY, MARCH 5:

Feeling drained from the night before when we started the day with Jason “Wee-Man” Acuna of Jackass fame, Desperate Housewives’ Kathy Joosten, 90210‘s Greg Vaughn, Scott Krinsky Chuck, TCC founder Stephen Collins, then just enough time to sit on the couch for an interview with premiere.com‘s Red Carpet Roxi Manning, back to it with CCH Pounder, Charlayne Woodward, Portia Doubleday lovely in Youth in Revolt, then we staged a Wings‘ reunion of Steven Weber and Tim Daly, Nia Verdalos and Ian Gomez My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Camryn Manheim, Richard Kind of A Serious Man, Chazz Palminteri, Dash Mihok, dragged Dana Delany and Rachael Leigh Cook from previous shoots back in for more shots simply because they both looked sooo good, then on to Masi Oka of Heros, Bond villain extraordinaire Rick Yune, Kathy Najimy, Ty Burrell, Richard Schiff, Mekhi Phifer and Aaron Paul

CREDITS:
My Biggest thanks as always goes to my lovely wife, stylist Fazia Ali who makes sure everyone always looks great! Thanks once again to Sony Artisans of Imagery director Kayla Lindquist for finding and supporting this wonderful project and Sony’s Linda Barger and Paine PR’s Krys Grondorf for getting the word out and lining up so many interviews to talk up the project, The Creative Coalition executive director Robin Bronk along with TCC’s Barbara Horvath, Briana Mulherin and Dennis St. Rose, Al Silvestri and Georgi Page of Hachette Filipacchi Media and to David Manning and Gianna Valintina of A-List Communications once again put together a great lounge.