Monday, January 12, 2009

Settings: Part 6

I'm can't resist playing my favorite game with this one...

Climb into your imaginary director's chair and tell me: if this door opened in a scene of a movie, what would you find inside?

26 comments:

Cafe Observer said...

The offices of the Glimpses of So Pasa website. With 10 employees, & Laurie holding court. A pseudo-TMZ operation for the local So Pasa area.

Anonymous said...

A: Can I hep you, suh?

B: Is this 1908 Meridian?

A: Nah suh, that'd be across the street.

B: You got a printing press, I see.

A: That don't mean it's 1908.

Hilda said...

Too tired to play (it's Monday night — as Garfield says "I hate Mondays"), but I do love that bright red door!

Halcyon said...

It looks too bright and cheery to have anything dastardly going on behind that door... but then again!

Judy Williams said...

Can you believe I'm drawing a blank? Red is my favorite color too. I'm a total loser today. :~P

Will keep up to see what others have to say. Looking forward to Yak's take on this one.

Mister Earl said...

Oops, did you guys just repaint or am I on the wrong block?

Midnight
one more night without sleepin' -
Watchin'
till the morning comes creepin'.
Green door
what's that secret you're keepin'?
There's an old piano and
they play it hot behind the
green door
Don't know what they're doin'
But they laugh a lot behind the green door.
Wish they'd let me in
So I could find out what's
behind the green door.
Knocked once
tried to tell 'em I'd been there
Door slammed
hospitality's thin there.
Wonder just what's goin' on in there.
Saw an eyeball peepin' through a smokey cloud
Behind the green door
When I said, "Joe sent me,"
Someone laughed out loud
behind the green door.
AII I want to do is join
the happy crowd behind the
green door.

Yakpate said...

Pan of empty room...

Sound of woman sobbing...

Zoom in on distraught young man holding a clipboard and a book of color samples...

Close-up of woman's tearstained face. She reaches out to young man and says...

"But Dominic, you promised me it would be a nice BRICK red!"

Knoxville Girl said...

all I can see are the wonderful geometrics - squares and rectangles and lines and angles... And red at the center of this universe, as it should be. I guess I was born to be a set designer, not a screenwriter.

Dixie Jane said...

Newly opened jewelry store. No bars on windows yet. No sign. About to be robbed. Jeweler on site who can repair, enlarge, decrease size of any ring. Display of fine jewelry. Tempting. But these are tough times. Must not linger. Lucky to escape before robbers arrive.

dbdubya said...

Behind the door is the closed office of the Daily Planet, put out of business by the South Pasadena Review. There's a counter by the front door and behind it several empty desks, each with a dusty Royal typewriter. Along one wall is a private office with windows that look out over the news room. That was the office of Igor Horeschevsky, the final editor who wrote the paper's obituary. In the back of the building, barely visible from the front counter, is an old printing press. A few copies of the final edition, dated September 25, 1964, are laying on the front counter.

Thursday Girl/Hollis the Cat said...

I love all the lines in this picture! I probably shouldn't have read the all the comments before commenting, because now I can't get the newspaper office idea out of my head...so I'll just second that idea...

Anonymous said...

An artist' living in a store front studio. You'd be met by a cat. Probably a tabby.

San Diego Farmgirl said...

I'm gonna go with entertainment industry business. Maybe a boutique special effects studio. I'm guessing behind the door you'd find exposed ductwork, concrete floors, 20-something dudes, their dogs, and lots of lots of computer cords.

You can tell it's entertainment because of the clearly marked street address for food deliveries and couriers, yet no business sign.

Anonymous said...

I see an artist in this store front studio. I saw this photo earlier today and pasadenaadjacent wrote before I did.

The interior is minimal with the floor painted a glossy grey. Walls are a bright white with the artist's work hanging in the long space. The art work has minimalist inluences combining primary colors and earth tones with strong linear elements. The artist is at work on a new piece and doesn't look up when the door is opened. The door is often left unlocked in anticipation of visits by fellow artists, students and collectors.

Nothing interrupts the artist's trance-like concentration.
Light filters through the frosted glass on the windows. A larger door is toward the back of the studio to be used for taking works in and out for exhibitions. Classical music is playing on the stereo - the only furnishing in the spare space except for a telephone and two chrome chairs by the bookcase which holds monographs on old and new masters with reproductions of their drawings and paintings. The atmosphere feels sacred like that in a church.

There are notes and sketches pinned to the wall near the easel that holds the current canvas and a shelf holds many jars of oils and varnishes, brushes, pencils and various drawing supplies. An open portfolio is near the entrance for visitors to view, as they know that an artist is never to be interrupted while at work.

Anonymous said...

built like a brick shi...Oh, I'm getting you and Petrea all mixed up.

Judy Williams said...

I do know one thing... there is a space heater in the corner as you walk in the door. It is abandoned but newly painted, with freshly varnished hardwood floors. The front door has a new coat of red paint and visible street numbers, hopefully to draw in someone with life and vibrancy. The owner of the building is off to the right, walking down the sidewalk with a sign "Office/Studio for Lease." in his hand, ready to tack it to the lattice grating on the door.

Mister Earl said...

Judy - The space heater image reminds me of when I went to the bookstore Shakespeare and Co. in Paris in 1977. The owner, a crochety old guy and a descendant of Walt Whitman, was heating up some lentil soup on a space heater that was under his desk. He took a taste and spit it out because it was too hot. Then he got up and removed some flowers from a vase and used the water from the vase to cool his soup. Yuck!

Maybe that guy is behind the red door.

Unknown said...

Balloons being held hostage.

Ken Mac said...

Spencer Hayden and Robert Mitchum, working on a 40s Chevy, getting ready for a heist. But they don't know that Kirk Douglas has their number. Tonight, the cops lie in wait, the crooks pull up the bank, guns fire, our noir guys are toast. They find guns and plans here, at this garage. OK!

Wayne said...

Secretly Laurie's favourite game is trying to get me to make a fool of myself.

Once you pass through the red door you find yourself transported to 1928. The room is cavernous with multiple rows of gray steel desks. There are so many desks in each row that they seem to stretch to infinity. Each desk has a brass banker's lamp with a green shade sitting in front of a green blotter. Sitting at each desk is a fellow with a white shirt, plaid bow tie, red suspenders and matching sleeve garters. They continue entering figures in a ledger with their right hand while working a calculator the size of a car battery with their left. The noise is quite deafening and no one looks up.

At the front of the room, smack in the centre at a desk exactly like all the others, sits a secretary (visualize Madonna as a redhead with smaller breasts). She is holding a phone to her ear, looking straight ahead but not acknowledging your presence.

On closer inspection there appears to be a large dagger sticking out of her back.

END OF ACT 1

Anonymous said...

B: Okay, well. I'm sorry to have disturbed you.

A: Aw, at's okay.

(B notices secretary seated behind Royal typewriter. The secretary is pale. Her facial expression frozen in horror.)

B: Say, is she alright? (points to secretary)

A: Who?

Jilly said...

Smell of wet fish - it used to be a shop selling fish and NOTHING will get rid of that smell. Now it's being renovated into a trendy cafe but long way to go yet. Inside, two workmen, having a cigarette break and talking about the girls they hope to meet tonight...

Laurie Allee said...

Good people, I am delighted by your brilliance! Are you sure you don't want to put together a production company? These are marvelous. (And way better than my first thought which was that the door opened to a bridal store specializing in red wedding dresses...)

My old film school self is happily sated and inspired.

Til tomorrow!

Tanya Breese said...

Barney and Andy with Barney half sitting on the desk and Andy behind it....love that brick work!

Jane Hards Photography said...

I'm sorry you know my imagination usually runs riot, but JT'S balloons held hostage floored. Love that kind of humour and the Hopper line ans colours of this image.

Anonymous said...

another burned-out industry/west of la brea newbie moves into town...