My good friend Dagny Looper is a 2nd-year film student at NYU. This month she shot her pre-thesis film ‘The Lipstick Stain’ in NYC and Upstate New York. Originally she had planned to shoot in Arkansas just before Christmas, and I told her that if I was home in Houston at that time I would try to come help with the shoot. Eventually she realized it was much more feasible to shoot it in New York, and she found enough locations that resembled Arkansas (as a Texan I figured there couldn’t possibly be any place on earth as backwards looking as Arkansas, especially not in the great state of New York) to make it possible. Just before buying my plane ticket home to Houston I checked in with her and she told me she was in desperate need of a gaffer. I really wanted to help with the film, and I figured a little side trip to NYC on the way home to Houston couldn’t hurt, so I offered up my services. Well, only my gaffing services. And in the end my photography services as well, as the still photographer Dagny had lined up could only come for half of one day’s shoot. Below are the production stills I shot, along with shots of the crew busy at work.