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NY Times: One Person’s Trash Is Another Person’s Lost Masterpiece | By CAROL VOGEL | Published: October 23, 2007

“It’s hardly a place you would expect to find a $1 million painting.

But one March morning four years ago, Elizabeth Gibson was on her way to get coffee, as usual, when she spotted a large and colorful abstract canvas nestled between two big garbage bags in front of the Alexandria, an apartment building on the northwest corner of Broadway and 72nd Street in Manhattan.

“I had a real debate with myself,” said Ms. Gibson, a writer and self-professed Dumpster diver. “I almost left it there because it was so big, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Why are you taking this back to your crammed apartment?’”

But, she said, she felt she simply had to have the 38-by-51-inch painting, because “it had a strange power.”

Art experts would agree with her. As it turns out, the painting was “Three People,” a 1970 canvas by the celebrated 20th-century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo that was stolen 20 years ago and is the subject of an F.B.I. investigation.

Experts say the painting — a largely abstract depiction of a man, a woman and an androgynous figure in vibrant purples, oranges and yellows — is in miraculously good condition and worth about $1 million. On Nov. 20 it is to go on the block at Sotheby’s as one of the highlights of a Latin American art auction.”

…Read the rest…

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The 2007 Photo Plus Expo was this week in New York City.

It’s always an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and business associates and see if there is anything new and interesting in the way of photo gear.

Speaking of which, one of my latest pieces of gear is the Leica D-Lux 3 digital camera, which I bought (in addition to Leica’s reputation for fine craftsmanship and innovative engineering and design) on the merits of its ability to shoot 16:9 format.

Why is 16:9 aspect ratio important to me, you might ask?

I produce a significant number of panoramic photographs in the course of my work as a location scout, many of which, in the past, have required a considerable amount of time and work in post to assemble using multiple frames of traditionally formatted photographs. For many purposes, the single frame 16:9 photographs from the new Leica will serve to provide sufficient area coverage as to eliminate assembly after-the-fact. Yippee!

Photograph made at the 2007 New York City PhotoPlus Expo using the Leica D-Lux3 Camera, 16:9 Aspect Ratio

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I had seen this around on the web for a while, just getting around to posting about it:

Location Scouting Template pdf gif

From the Coherent Visuals Website, author of the book, Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking.

I usually just take off on a location scouting job with my cameras, a compass and a notebook; the Location Scouting Template seems a little more organized, I might try it next time out.

…rambling…

Curious if there is a little script or program for location scouting notes that could be used in a pda? …not that I was ever that much of a “pda person”… I bought a Handspring Visor (obsolete?) a couple of years ago and seems like all it ever did was sit in its recharger cradle (the rechargable battery seems to be “kaputt” now…replacement available? cost? (I heard they were expensive?), if I took the Visor out I would always seem to forget I did that, the battery would run down, I’d lose all my phone numbers and addresses and I’d have to set it up all over again and synch it; it just never quite fit completely into my “modus operandi”.

A lot of times I have to take a laptop location scouting anyway and I have an address book in that, phone numbers of any immediate importance get scribbled down in notes or are in my cellphone…

My latest “gadget” is an Ipod 80gb which seems to have an address book and calendar but I haven’t really played with those parts of it yet, been pretty busy getting my music loaded in it. …but the Ipod is *Great*!- I’m just lovin’ it!

-RH

The New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcast (MOFTB) publishes a monthly newsletter which features news about the film office as well as other news of interest to the film and tv production communities.

I particularly like the regular Location of the Month section of each month’s newsletter, in which a city-owned property (such as perhaps a building) or park or New York City neighborhood which may be available as a filming location is highlighted.

The City of New York makes many properties available for filming at no or nominal cost in the interest of promoting filmmaking and economic development for the city.

Use of the various properties is often directly administrated through specific city government agencies depending on the property(s) in question, however, the film office can be quite helpful in directing filmmakers to the appropriate agency.

The current newsletter may be read online by following the link above; free subscriptions via email are offered as well.

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BizBash, an event-planning resource website, has recently begun a series on its different city and regional websites, which include New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Florida and Toronto entitled BizBash Location Scout Archive (link is for New York- Location Scout Archive for other cities can be found under the “Venues” tab(s) on each city’s respective website).

The Location Scout Archives showcase interesting and / or remarkable local venues as well as including relevant featurette stories of interest to event and party planners, i.e. What Event Planners Want, all in a “blog” type format.

As a New York City area based location scout, I find the series interesting and valuable as I often receive requests for locations for film, video and photo shoots that might include public venues such as restaurants / bars, catering halls and other types of venues such as perhaps, museums or private clubs and it is always good to keep abreast of what’s opening (or closing) as well as “what’s hot or not”.

Occasionally I receive requests for locations for public events as well.

Related | BizBash RSS Feeds

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If you were (are?) a fan of the Sopranos (like me!), you might be very interested in this website (The Sopranos on Location) I found which has a theme based on the locations used for filming the aforementioned long-running and award-winning cable-tv series which aired new episodes beginning 1999 till June 2007.

I always liked the show personally and altho I never had the opportunity to work on the show (somebody on their production team called once but the call was interrupted and whatever was to be discussed between us never happened…) the show was always of interest to me professionally (as a location scout), as the majority of their filming locations over the years were in the New York City - northern New Jersey area, often just minutes from my office and places I drive past on a regular basis.

The Sopranos on Location website includes many production photos describing many of the local locations used for filming the show as well as various stories by property owners and fans of the show regarding their encounters with the production.

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