Lifes a Bitch When Shooting on the Beach

Well it's been a little while since my post, but that's all because we've been killing ourselves out here trying to finish shooting everything that we need to shoot -- oh and I have pics this time! We still have a lot to shoot, and it's going to be tight, but hopefully we can pull this all off in time.

We've been shooting on the beach for the last few days, and trust me that is a much bigger ordeal than you would think! We had one pretty major mishap on our first day of shooting that brought the crisis-stress level to a whole new high.

The day before the beach we just finished shooting a scene at the airport (more about that later) and being the AD (Assistant Director) and the most responsible one to keep track of all the tapes, etc. I have the footage from that day -- a full hour of tape -- in my pockets. Now on any normal day I where a pair of heavy cargo shorts with lots of pockets so I can hold all the necessary materials in them: notes, pens, markers, tapes, other papers, keys, cellphones, wallet, etc. Come the beach day, I toss on my favorite film making shorts for maximum efficiency throughout the shooting day. What I expected from the boat ride there was that we would beach the boat, then be able to hop off the bow onto the beach and never have to touch the water. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case...

We reach the beach. Waves are crashing violently against the shore. Then boat turns into the waves and people start yelling, "Go Go Go!!" like we're the gawdamn NAVY SEALS or something. The driver of the boat is saying that we have to get off the boat now or else it might flip and shit, so what do I do? I jump the F#$@ off the boat, chest deep into water...

That's when I realize, "Hey, don't I have something in my pockets that REALLY important?"... so that was a shitty start to the day... Well what else can you do now right? So we rinsed it in fresh water and tried to dry it out as best as we could to try and get all the salt out of it. Once that is done, we head out to the other end of the beach to shoot what we need to shoot for the day. And when we come back for lunch, Bert is talking with a couple from Holland who are here on vacation, the only other people on the beach that day, and guess what the guy does for a living! He works a post-production house in Amsterdam, and specializes in restoring damaged video media, just like our water-logged tape!!!

Now this is the point in the day where I'm pissed as hell that I didn't buy a lottery ticket that day because god knows that my chances of winning that would have been infinitely high than that! So apparently, there's a good chance that our footage is going to be alright, we are just waiting on a different HD Camera that we can play the footage back on. If it doesn't work on that, then we're going to send it away to this guy to fix it up for us.

Now for an interlude of pictures:


- I sliced my toe on the cupboard...


- Us (Shab, Me, Luke) planning a shot at the Copper & Lumber hotel/Restaurant


- Mr. Smooth


- Marc-Anthony (our lead actor) and I having a heated debate regarding Icecream Vs. Smoothies


- Thumbs up? Thumbs down?


- Our film shoots could be compared to a well choreographed circus act...


- It doesn't matter how busy you are; EVERYONE has to go out for Halloween!


- Natalie and I, thrilled with the anticipation of having another person audition for Memoirs of the Blue, who may, or may not be literate.

And now for the story about the airport! Yaaaayy!!! :D

Ok, so basically, we got to shoot inside the airport, with a 40-foot cherrypicker, to get a bunch of sweet shots of the planes landing and taxiing on the runway, etc. We even got clearance to film a scene where Marc is working as a baggage handler, so that was pretty cool.

That's all I really have to say about the airport though... sorry if I built it up too much and made you all disappointed, but you know how things go... :D
I'll have some pictures from that day up here some time soon though, I promise! ;)

Anyways, that's all for today.
Peace and karats!