Recreating the 1990s

The Notes is a late 90s story, if you hadn't heard! Doing a period piece adds extra attention to detail since you have to watch every single thing that is inside the frame and make sure it matches the time period. I never really saw this as a challenge, but more of an opportunity. The themes presented in the story are dependent upon the time period. I decided to do a fun shoot with some of the props we used to make the story real for the time period. Collecting these was a thrill, but it did pose quite a challenge!

First, I wanted to showcase some art by locals, so here is a piece I love done by my cousin, Alison Wheeler. She is an tattoo artist and her style of fine art blows my mind. You can see her work on my body or check her out on instagram @alisonwheelersst

This piece, along with one other, is seen in Samantha's bedroom in the film.

This is my Pentax K1000 that was given to me when I was about 14. I used this camera through high school and college in the early 2000s. Many of these props, like this awesome camera, were used to showcase Samantha's interests and personality. It's less about time period and more about what the camera itself represents.

This is an actual notebook I used in high school. Call me a pack rat! I have always been really obsessed with composition books. I love how simple and straight forward they are. Nowadays, you can get them in colors and many designs, but back then they were just black and plain. There's something I love about filling the pages of a new composition book!

This is my half sized Martin acoustic guitar. Sadly, it's not vintage, but a guitar was another huge part of Samantha's character. I had originally wanted to use an electric guitar, but the actress is pint sized and a full size guitar would have looked absurd.

Believe it or not, you can actually still purchase these disc man CD players. Man, I never went anywhere without mine when I was a teenager. We wore jeans so large back then, that we could actually fit the entire disc man into the pockets!

This was an incredible find! I was thrilled when my best friend, Azura Meadows, found this vintage phone at Goodwill! I searched for months for the right phone and this one showed up last minute to surprise me. There's a huge connection with phone calls in the film and being connected to that cord that keeps you in the same room during the entire call. It's powerful.

Hanson will not be featured in my film, sadly! But, I can promise you some more dated technology!