It's kind of cold, or...

Why are we filming on "Hoth"?












(This is an example of the car we filmed in, albeit it was "Gramma's old-couch-Green" but without the smell of menthols. And sans mulleted redneck)

What: 8 hour casino commercial shoot in Bloomington
When: A really cold, cold night in MN.

I want to get my love of commercial and film work out of the way, right away. I. Love. It. Anyone who frasses about live theatre/street work etc...well I understand. I just love being on set, getting frassed over by wardrobe and make-up. Talking to the crew, PA's, and director. I'd like to think I'm getting better at not asking the other actors/crew about gigs, projects, and shit. Actually, I felt pretty fucking good about asking that we all sit together instead of all over. Finding out the cities that everyone lives. (Even though JC laughed and called Saint Paul "Shelbyville"...that almost knocked me off the table it was so funny) Talking about life, and not the job. You know, it's such a different animal than theater and it's way too much fun for me. That said, I'm gonna focus on some of the frassy aspects of the night that did not diminish our fun, but make good fodder for blogstuff:

Show-up, get made up. Even though I brought some wardrobe the director and costumer wanted me in something different. They settled on a cowboy shirt and collegy baseball under jersey. Very, thin, layers. I frass with the makeup guy (CeeB's, who did a bang up job recently on "Requiem" and was an Ass. Prod of that indie gamer movie "Midnight". Cool thing? He told me he'd call me if he needs any other talent. Le. Woot. Althought the current cast is epic in scope and a veritable phone directory of the professional theatre talent currently working in the t.c.)

Pogmyster and I are the "backseat" guys (shuddup) so we're carted in to film our shit first. I brought my gloves with, thinking that it's gonna be fucking cold eventually so I'd better take precautions. Not so much luck. As we sit in the backseat of the big-ass brougham, and as the camera people frass with cords and batteries and cables that don't work, my feet started to get numb. Pog smartly asks for a "blanket or something" which we get (See? Filmaking magic! To the 'Mad-Sconnie' residents who see this would never guess that this climate-less commercial contained two dudes freezing balls on a leather seat.) Two and a half hours later, we're cut. And rush over to craft services to stand by the portable heater and nibble dried fruit. We're called over after frassin' and shoot some more shit before dinner. We're still freezing. The car is still cold. It's at this point I look outside and the crew is walking around in parka's, hats, gloves, and the wardrobe mistress has a look that says "I'm sorry". They bring over shakeable "warming packs" which we proceed to break open and stuff in our shoes. The shot goes long, as the "Cop" actor who'd "pulled us over" is riffing on what to call us:

"Listen up here Ham-slappers"
"All right Cha-chi, you're in Madison"
"Hey there, Turkey-Lurkeys"
"All right 'amigoooo's'...I got some new for you"

Take after take, we stifled our sniggers.

It went on. After a while we asked the director if we could have a take to "ourselves". So, on the "martini" we get the signal and as dude comes up to the car, we bum-rushed him. Some cop. Poor bastard just ran away. Actually funnier than that, he ran THROUGH the car. Tha's how big that sumbitch was.

Finally, FINALLY we did that cop car POV shot when we heard the last call of "check the gate" and that was that. The costumer informed us that the warming house/changing area had closed for the night so they brought our gear to us so that we could change. Ask me where. That's right, in the middle of the street. At midnight. 34 degree's. Suspiciously, the ass't costumer came sauntering up at the moment we were huddled behind the crew-car dropping trou. Right lady. Thanks for checking on our welfare.

Then it was home, 4 hours of sleep, and another day of days.


The, end.


ps: Dinner was "Vesci0's" Italian. Guys, I refuse to endorse this place. The food was oily-ass. Another thing I could frass about but don't: The one big drawback for baby P on evening/overnight shoots is that you don't have much control over what's being served and it's always late late later than I like to eat. (It's bad for your metabolism to eat late. Whine, I know. When I told the 'Bean what we had, his eye's nearly popped out and he immediately fixed himself some rainbow rotini.)