This shoot was a watershed for me. My wife, Stephie worked all night in the driveway of our NJ home with clamp lights painting a backdrop that looks like a big piece of dark brown leather. We put the backdrop up in the alley behind the Carlos City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, in the same alley they had filmed “On The Waterfront” years ago. I stood Buddy Valastro (Cake Boss) out there and told him to cross his arms and just keep looking at me at we sifted flour on him from a ladder above him. There was something wonderful that happened in the middle of the shooting.

I had this feeling that I knew how I got there, I knew what I was doing, and I knew where this was going. It was just a brief realization, but I had never had that moment of clarity while shooting before. This was an assignment for TLC ads with my favorite creative director, Dan Cavey.