In this week’s episode, we take you behind the scenes of our recent adventure filming the pilot for Arthouse in Scott’s hometown of Chicago. From navigating the bustling urban landscape to dealing with unexpected equipment malfunctions, our journey was anything but straightforward. We even faced a COVID scare that threatened to disrupt our plans, but through teamwork and determination, we emerged victorious. The footage captured is truly stellar and a testament to our passion for this project.

For more information, please visit https://notrealart.com/filming-arthouse-pilot

The Not Real Art Podcast is intended for creative audiences only.

The Not Real Art Podcast celebrates creativity and creative culture worldwide.

It contains material that is fresh, fun and inspiring and is not suitable for boring old art snobs.

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Greetings and salutations, my creative brothers and sisters.

Welcome to Not Relart, the podcast where we talk to the world's most creative people.

I am your host, Phil.

Faithful, trusty, loyal, tireless, relentless host.

Sourdough coming at you from Crew West Studio in Los Angeles.

Well, I tell you what, it's the last week of the month, so what does that mean?

Means we've got an auditorial for you.

Yes, I'm gonna get on my soapbox here and talk about something that's been on my mind.

What is that something?

Art House.

Is that something.

Something that I've talked a lot about this summer and you've heard a lot about, I'm sure.

And we just got done shooting the pilot episode in Chicago, so I want to tell you all about that.

And you know, so many of you have been so of the project.

Some of you even donated money to our crowdfunding campaign.

And so you, you absolutely deserve to know how it all went in Chicago.

So I'll get into that in one second, but before I do, of course I want to thank you for tuning in.

Your loyalty means everything to us.

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Free of advertising, free to use, free to consume, et cetera, et cetera.

And so please consider making a tax deductible donation today either@notrelart.com or arturial.org and check out all the other cool stuff Arturial is doing.

They've got their hands on a lot of projects.

Yes, of course.

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Amazing artist interviews, video series, like remote free educational videos in the not real art school.

So much great healthy nutritious stuff for you.

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It's all there, so go enjoy it.

So thanks for, thanks for coming.

We're going to get into this little auditorial and as I said, I want to tell you about our time shooting the Art House pilot.

So it has.

I can't believe that it's done.

It was quite a summer getting ready for this thing, as you very well remember, as we have been promoting and talking about it for our crowdfunding campaign.

And it, you know, it's just been a busy summer getting ready for this thing.

And so the fact that we were in Chicago and did, you know, we were there seven days, five days of shooting, two days of kind of initial last scouting, last prep.

I arrived in Chicago the evening of August 10th, Sunday night, Monday the 18th, and Tuesday the 19th.

We did some last minute scouting and last minute prep because we started shooting on location on Wednesday the 20th, and we shot our first artist interview and did our artist studio visit in the suburbs of Chicago August 20th.

Then we did artist number two.

I'm kind of keeping the names of the artist coy.

I'm going to just kind of.

I'm going to be coy about that.

I don't know that I want to reveal their names quite yet, but three amazing artists.

And so we did.

We focused on artist one on Wednesday the 20th, and we went overtime.

It was a long day, lots of challenges, but we overcame them all.

The team's amazing.

And so we killed it in the suburbs on the 20th.

In the city.

We were in the city August 21st, interviewing artists number two in their studio.

And, you know, there are always challenges.

I mean, whether it's sirens going by in the middle of a great shoot and then you got to cut and wait for the fire engine to go by because, by the way, cities are noisy places and Chicago is no exception.

And this particular artist lived on a very.

Or worked on a very busy corner.

And.

But there are challenges because of course, you know, there wasn't enough power.

We had to bring in generators.

There was no air conditioning, so we had to bring in air conditioning.

And, you know, just all these little logistical challenges.

Thank goodness the weather cooperated.

It rained a lot on August 18 and August 18 with lightning storms and things.

But the weather broke for us and it was wonderful.

Not too hot, not too humid, sunny and dry.

And so we were able to just, you know, folk put our heads down and focus and get a ton of work done.

So we interviewed artist number two in, you know, downtown on that Thursday all day shoot.

On Friday, August 22nd, we interviewed the third artist and, you know, did her interview, you know, you know, focused our cameras on her work and her art making and it was amazing.

And we're shooting out of sequence and, you know, and so then on the fourth day of shooting that Saturday, the 23rd we were sort of visiting the buyer's home and meeting the buyers and learning about their tastes and their budget and their house and where they going to hang the arts.

And you know, and so that was largely what that fourth day of shooting was.

And then that last day, that fifth day of shooting, we were on a couple different locations.

We did Carmen Acosta standup.

Our new host, Carmen Acosta, she killed it.

We did her standup and then we also shot the kind of so called decision making scene where the art buying couple tells Carmen which artist of the three they select and, and want to acquire their work.

And so it, it was just so fascinating and cool to kind of shoot these things out of sequence and how they all connect.

And you know, Chris, you're trying to manage logistics and costs and production so you have to shoot things out of sequence to keep a schedule and keep things, you know, tight in a five day shoot.

And of course there were curveballs and challenges, not the least of which was a Covid outbreak on our production crew.

Oh yeah, Covid.

Remember that?

It's still around and who knew?

But Chicago is having a bit of a flare up there and a few of us got zapped and that was an interesting ordeal to manage.

But everybody rose to the occasion and handled it like champs and professionals and we were able to to bob and weave and, and get it done.

And you know, and then we celebrated, you know, at Gibson's for a steak dinner on our wrap dinner on that Sunday night, all the amazing team came together to celebrate.

And I'll tell you what, I just want to do a major shout out to my team.

They are incredible.

Our director, Laura Patterson.

Our DP Brian from Bada Bing Productions in Chicago.

Shout Out.

Bada Bing.

Our showrunner, Stacy Snyder.

Our producer Dana Cook.

Our producer Wendy Marabella.

Our host Carmen Acosta.

I mean everybody just killed it all the camera guys, the lighting crew, the sound guys, just everybody brought their A game.

Just a world class team.

And you know, Chicago is such a great city.

Everybody's so hardworking and generous and fun and friendly and just, you know, wants to do a great job, takes great pride in what they do.

And so it was great to be working with the Chicago crew.

Great to be back in Chicago.

I haven't been downtown like that for seven, eight days since I lived there back in the 90s.

I moved to LA in A1.

So it's been 25 years since I've been able to just kind of live downtown for a week like I used to.

And so that was lovely to be back in the city.

City I love.

Beautiful, beautiful city.

And man, is that Chicago river teaming with life and fun these days.

We didn't have the Riverwalk back when I was there, but anyway, the crew, the Chicago crew was incredible.

The artists were so generous.

The couple that Austin and Mei Ling, the couple that, you know, bought art from one of our artists, they were easy and phenomenal to work with.

And so I just, my heart is full.

Just, I couldn't be more delighted and more grateful and just, you know, satisfied and, you know, mission accomplished.

Right?

We got.

The footage looks incredible.

I just have to tell you, I might have buried the lead, but the footage looks amazing.

It's really.

The crew really nailed it.

Now we're of course in the post production process, starting to edit and cut things together and, and you know, make the, make the pilot so that we can go out and try to sell the damn thing and, and raise money for it.

So we are just chomping at the bit.

We're, we're still working hard.

But I tell you what, that week in Chicago, the week of August 18, we were kicking butt and just killing it over there.

And the footage is just phenomenal.

And so I'm just so proud of our team, proud of everybody involved and grateful and proud for your support.

You guys have been with us all along the way, listening to me talk about this project.

Everybody loves this project.

It's like the right idea at the right time, you know.

What, what, what, what?

What could be wrong about a show about real people meeting real artists to buy real art without breaking the bank?

Right?

What.

What could be wrong about that?

That's just nothing but goodness.

So I am thrilled, I'm grateful and very, very happy with how things went.

You'll be, you know, seeing photos and we'll be teasing things and, you know, releasing things and posting things.

So, you know, stay tuned on our IGs and on our blogs and if you're not following us on Instagram, by all means, follow the art house show on Instagram.

You can follow us at Art House TV show.

Art House TV show on Instagram.

And of course, there'll be updates@notrealart.com and there will be updates at Arterial.

We have a ig.

Please follow us at Arterial World on IG as well.

And of course at not Relart World on ig.

You know, look for updates.

Things are all happening.

It's a beautiful, beautiful project.

People love it and we just can't do it without you and your support.

And so I just wanted to give you a quick update.

You guys have been so patient and kind after all these months of talking about this project and so I just want to let you know that we killed it.

Mission accomplished.

Footage.

Footage looks great and we're feeling very, very good, super stoked and I can't wait for the future on this one.

So that's it.

I just want to give you a quick update and I guess with that being said, I'll sign off.

Sourdough, over and out.

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We'll be back soon with another inspiring episode celebrating creative culture and the artists who make it.