So after Philly we hit the NYC. This sucked at first because the only place to camp with our production RV is in Jersey, and I don’t mean someplace close in Jersey, I mean like in the heart an hour away from NYC (with no traffic) BTW have I mentioned yet that I fucking hate tolls! Yeah, I am green at driving around the east coast, and boy does the budget feel it when I have to pay these damn tolls!

So we check into our campground and set up camp. Load up our production vehicle and trailer and head for the city. Earlier in the day during the drive up from Philly McGlocklin and I broke off and headed into the city to pick up our permit from the Mayors Film Office. They were cool, and even helped us change up our permit to get some additional shooting in on that evening. Now after meeting up with the troops in Jersey we were back to the city.

I was pretty dang excited to be in NYC, I always look forward to seeing friends away from home and we were going to be interviewing Shalleen, a friend of mine from FC, who moved to NY to attend acting school. The city is also important because that is where Amy and I met for the first time, so I was looking forward to stopping in at some of the places I went to when she and I met. However the shoot would turn to be more complicated that I could have imagined and I stuck to work and no reminiscent sight seeing…

We met up with our NYC crew member/ PA, a friend of mine from home Nicole Curtis. She had the rest or our permit and parking passes that she picked up earlier in the week. We found a place to park not too far from Times Square and after surveying the situation loaded the hand truck with gear and went to set up.

Michelle got a table set up on the sidewalk on Broadway and we established our shooting location on an island in the middle of Times Square. Gear was ready and everyone was excited, but there was no one to shoot. Not that TS was empty, but with the thousands of people walking the streets, no one wanted to be in the movie! Of all the friggin places! NYC, tourist and locals galore, but asking people about marriage was like pulling teeth from a great white who hadn’t eaten in a week.



Finally after some gang wrangling people floated to the top and we got some good footage. A couple of kids 19 years old and just married, I thought and still think they are nuts, but best of luck to them, they are positive and happy. The most fun interview was this cat who kept staring at us shoot throughout the night. After a couple of interviews he came up to me and started asking me questions. His name was Speedy, a cigar chomping New York bachelor who has been single his whole life and had plenty to say about it until I asked him to be in the movie. Another interview came and then Speedy was off.

Later I caught Speedy chatting up Michelle over at her booth and ran over to see if I could convince him again… he finally caved, call it my wit, charm, but god if it was my good looks I will be afraid, we gave us an interview as only a New Yorker could. Chompin’ on his stogie. Making points, some strong, some not, but all with authority and a Cheshire grin accompanied by an occasional camera mug.

Anyway after trying to get some tricky jib shots as the night winded down, we decided to call it, wrap the shoot and head back to JERSEY! At 4am! But not before I got some NYC pizza. We found a 24hr place that Matt, my old housemate, and I ate at when we were in town. I must admit at 4 am the flavor choices weren’t the best, and the pizza probably sat a bit, but damn, it was good. So we loaded the troops, bellies full and I drove us back to camp.



The next morning I knew was going to be rough. We got in late and were supposed to be back in the city by noon. But, we slept in a bit (till 10am) and then I made sure not to hurry anyone as they prepped for the day. In fact with a Home Depot by our camp ground I had David get some parts he needed to build a roof rig he had been talking about making for Lexi (the Pathfinder). But then the shit hit the fan.

We were supposed to get night shots of NYC from the top of the Empire State the night before but our time got bumped a day cause of red tape. So as I formulated the day’s events Charlie popped a gasket. Most of the rest of the crew were up for the Empire shoot this night even though it couldn’t happen until 2am. No one was jumping for joy about the time, especially after a short night of sleep after a hard day of work, but Charlie wasn’t having it. He got on my computer and started looking for flights home. “Not enough sleep”, “Cramped quarters” and “Not enough alone/ personal time” were his reasons for freaking out.



He started making demands and trying to adjust the schedule so it could fit his mood, but as his thought process consumed the moment our logistical shooting hours dwindled. We were supposed to, at the latest be back in the city by 3pm to set up a location for a interview for SOM, but now it was 2pm and the argument raged on. Finally, oddly the winds changed and suddenly Charlie was cool with the whole situation. I don’t know if it was him cooling down after a long night, or realizing that the rest of the crew was up for the shoot except him, or maybe the idea of seeing Central Park gave him a place to spread out for a bit and clear his head; but all of a sudden he was gung-ho-lets-go. So…

We readied the vehicles and headed for the city… with the RV too. Yeah, a 29-foot RV in Manhattan, I have pictures to prove it, it was pretty cool. The looks we got as we rolled through town. Because of the RV, we had to take the George Washington Bridge into the city and drive through Harlem… there are no words to describe the looks on peoples faces other than priceless. They looked like they were dreaming, the best part… McGlocklin manned the wheel like a New Yorker and owned the road, it was awesome!



We arrived at central park at 5pm, the time we were scheduled to begin shooting… Our interviewee was on her way and we hadn’t even reached our location in the park. We found a picturesque spot and Mc Gloclin set his shots. When Shalleen (our interviewee) I double checked the framing and then went for a walk.



The interview went great, or so I was told, and we all went to dinner. Ian split after the interview ended (an hour late) to have dinner with his sister who lives in town. The rest of us followed Shalleen’s lead to find some grub. It didn’t take long to figure out that 8 people trying to find a dinner spot at 8pm in Manhattan is pretty damn hard, so we split up. I wound up eating some killer Italian with Shalleen and an hour later the whole crew met back up to find Ian in X’s Sq.

We picked up #1 and did a driving tour of NYC while capturing B-roll with our new roof-rig. Got some cool shots, drove by Ground Zero, Battery Park, Wall St. etc. and by the time we had done a few loops through X’s Sq. it was getting close to 1am so we dropped of Charlie at the RV and headed to the Empire State.

It was pretty cool up there. Just us crew… no tourists and it was FREE! We set up our lights and cameras; I collected my thoughts of the day and monologued away. It was a pretty emotional monologue, so much so, I didn’t really want to do a second take, but advice from the crew said one more time, so I pushed through my thoughts again. We packed up the gear; slowly the days work taking its toll at 3:30am, took one last look over the coolest city ever and headed back to Lexi.



We met up with Charlie, and hit the road a couple hours out of town into Connecticut to sleep. Everyone in the RV, me in Lexi, nestled with my sleeping bag, a bandanna around my eyes and a thunderstorm outside. ZZZzzzz

     Boy-oh-boy have we been busy. So much shot, so much seen, one crewmember gone, and a new one arrived all in the span of 12 days. So sit back and strap yourself in because I have 100 miles until we reach Chicago to get what’s in my head onto the internet, and get my blogy-blog updated….

So the last blog got us out of Florida. Nice state, a sexual state, need to get back there with Amy, we didn’t get to do any of the nightlife, but I bet the dance floors are HOT-HOT-HOT!

We headed for Savannah Georgia next. A cool riverside location called Riverstreet, we got set up for our interviews and got the production rolling. It was amazing; as we would shoot HUGE ocean cargo ships cruise down the river to unload their goodies. It was so odd to be talking about marriage with someone and then stop and just watch these ships pass not, 200 yards from the bank. Pretty cool. We wrapped Savannah and headed for DC.



With all of our permits in order we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial for our first interview location. It took about 30 minutes of getting lost in the DC turn-abouts and traffic circles before we discovered where we should unload our equipment. That was fffffrustrating! Once unloaded we began set up and a couple (originally from the Netherlands… I think) said they would do an interview, so I got mic’ed and we were ready to roll when Red came up to me and said the cop’s have asked you to move your car. So there I was faced with the choice, lose this interview or move the Pathfinder… I got a ticket.



The interview was worth it, I felt a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in talking to people who were raised in another country and have lived on 3 different continents, so their views were interesting to learn from. After they had completed the interview and I finally moved the Pathfinder (and ticket) it became a bit of a struggle to find more interviewees. It got hot, I mean scorching. The kind of hot that at your core you know you should be inside a cool dark place. But we tried, got one more interview and then decided to move the shooting angle 180 degrees so we could have the DC Reflecting Pool as a backdrop, but the heat got the better of us after the switch and after 30 minutes of trying to coerce interviews out of heat-stroked tourists we wrapped the location and got some lunch.

This whole time Charlie was getting the oil changed in the RV. A whole nother issue when we realized that I had the company credit card and checkbook, and the RV repair shop was an hour away. After explaining how the entire DC production would have to halt for me to drive an hour to pay for an oil change Charlie paid with his own money, which was reimbursed when he met up with us to eat some mid-day grub. Man, noting is easy on this production.

After lunch, we decided that the park location we were supposed to shoot at (Dupont Circle) didn’t have any good interview prospects. (Lot’s of men playing chess and vagrants napping in the shade) So we decided to try and get some shots at the White House –gorilla style-.

We parked and headed over to the front lawn, and to my surprise were only stopped by one guard asking what the cameras were for. It took a bit to find an interview, but we got set up and made the shot with a nice view of the Presidents pad in the background. Nicely done, we all rolled out of DC exhausted, but happy about our days work.



The next day we headed to Philly. We found a place to stay and after a delay of trying to manage the vehicle situation the crew headed into downtown, while Charlie took the afternoon off for some personal business.



We got some cool shots of the “LOVE” statue and then got kicked off the property… oops, guess someone owns the fountain and didn’t like the crew filming away. So, after we got that interview we headed to Geno’s Philly Cheese Steak place and settled into one of Philly’s staples. To be honest the Cheese Steak sandwich is a lot simpler than I imagined it to be. A few slices of meat, a glop of hot cheese wiz (yep… cheese wiz!) both set in a hoagie roll. I put some hot sauce on mine, and it was so freaking hot, it burned as it went down the pipes to the stomach.



After eating we met a couple that we could interview and got them ready to shoot when a windstorm came out of nowhere. Literally, we were ready to say “Action!” and leaves and garbage came blowing up the street with like 30 mile an hour gust… and it wasn’t letting up anytime soon. Lucky for us, the night manager Mike was kick ass and let us do the interview inside at the VIP booth. So we moved the production into the belly of Geno’s and got the shot. Tons of thanks to the Geno’s crew, cause that wind turned into rain and our gear doesn’t like to get wet.

     We couldn’t find anyplace to stay in Miami so we headed to Homestead our next day’s shooting location, only a half an hour south. Because of budgetary reasons we couldn’t afford a RV park and even though a few of the crew wanted to chip in their own money and get a spot, they ultimately were outvoted. So we decided to stay the night at Wal-Mart. All was good, we found food to eat in the store and cooked it up in the RV and watched Predator (the production crew’s most quoted movie on this trip).

As it became time for bed he heat sank into the RV when the generator was killed and the AC shut off. For safety reason that we were instructed to not sleep with the gene on because of carbon monoxide poisoning. I was so exhausted I fell right to sleep, occasionally rolling over to notice how sticky I was because of the humidity, but always back to sleep. Early in the morning, around 2 am, I awoke to mumblings back in the RV bunkhouse. As I feel back asleep I heard people coming and going from the RV. Later Ian #2 (Lindl) woke me up to ask if he could turn the AC on. I said I didn’t mind but reminded him of the whole poisoning thing.

I could tell people were restless, but my lack of sleep and pure exhaustion kept me in bed.

The morning came and you needed a jackhammer to break the tension. As I was working at the laptop trying to establish the days schedule Mitch (Michelle) told me the crew wasn’t interested in working unless there was a confirmed RV park established for the night. I could tell they had spent most of the night cursing the heat and probably me. Trying to appease, I got right to work searching locations. 10 minutes later Mitch asked me to step outside for a production meeting. “Trying to find a place to stay”, I said, we should do it inside since that was where I was working, in a huff Mitch left to talk more outside.

A few minutes later, the crew sat inside and told me how frustrated they were because they didn’t get a good nights sleep (something I haven’t gotten since the trip began due to the freezing temperatures of the AC). It was pretty heavy, for the first time I felt a cold stab of steel shoved though my chest as the entire crew looked at me as the cause of their misery. The last thing the Captain of a ship wants to do is unite the crew against him, but knew there still needed to be a firm grasp on authority and I stuck by my decision simply because I suffered through the same elements and did my best to sleep though it.

No matter how capable I was of dealing with the situation, the fact was that my crew had suffered and Ian #1 made the strongest point that a basic need of sleep wasn’t being met and if the basics aren’t covered respect is lost and the work will suffer. That combination made me jump because it could definitely lead to an abrupt end of a production, something I can’t have happen. So, we did our best to compromise. Red found a location for the night, in fact, Mitch got us booked with a camping spot through to Washington DC. 3 nights ahead of schedule.

The toughest choice was deciding not to shoot at our scheduled location for the day, the Coral Castle. The only true location in our route that stands as a monument to love, it was built single handedly between 1923 and 1951 by Ed Leedskalnin as a tribute to his lost love. It was one of those places Amy was really proud to find in pre-production, and I thought it was definitely relevant to the film. However, because of the condition of the crew, I thought it was best we pushed on and tried to stay on schedule. And I am glad we did, because of construction and a car accident involving a semi truck it took us over 2 hours to get though Miami. Can’t say I like the freeways much in Florida, or across the country, lots of toll roads, and it’s weird for me having to pay to drive somewhere. Anyway me made it, late, but safe to that evening’s destination of Savannah, Georgia and settled to sleep.

After having some time to reflect on the whole day’s event it has become easy to let myself off the hook for the whole blowout. After all, it was a group decision to not stay at an RV park, and I was looking out for my crews best interests by following instructions and not having the gene run all night. For my crew, I think they got a taste of how bad it could be, and that allows them to appreciate the smaller things we get. Now I just hope we have enough funds to get back home! So the adventure continues.

     We rolled into Atlanta on the 11th to see my buddy Jay for an interview for SoM. My first impression of the city was his neighborhood. Brand-new, and filled with architectural variety. It turns out the entire development was created with the environment in mind by a company called Earthcraft. Super cool and each house had its own flavor. Not riddled with that cookie cutter sort of feel I am used to seeing the developments have back at home. They even have a coffee shop around the corner that is part of the community. The place was so clean it like it was a movie set.

At any rate his house is clean, modest, with Indian influence in the décor, it bread sophistication with comfort. There were a few empty spaces on the walls, but he promised me that artwork was on the way. Anyway the best part was that I got to see Jay. Since he lives in the ATL, it’s hard to get to wrap with him often. We got to play catch up a bit, talk some shit on the homies and then it was right to work. The team turned his living room into a sharp set for the SoM interview, even Jay was amazed at all the equipment and how we were shaping light and adding texture to the space.

While the SoM interview took place, Charlie and I went grocery shopping. Got a bunch of grub and then headed back. Our timing was perfect, right as we returned my friend Greg’s girlfriend Tiffany (from the ATL) arrived and Michelle stepped out of the house for a post interview smoke. So it was off to dinner with the whole lot of us.

Jay’s wife Ang had gotten home and it was great to see her, we figured the last time we might have hung out was actually at their wedding 5 years ago! Man, I still don’t think that can be right, but if it is WOW! How the time can fly.

At dinner I got caught up on all the Greg/ Zebrahead (his band) gossip from Tiff and dropped into a great conversation about LAS with Ang. She gave me some good food for thought on the insights and experiences she and Jay went though, having dated for 12 years before they decided to marry. We talked about the fundamentals of marriage and even though our conversation echoed of the many I have had thus far, she had an eloquent way of shaping her words to make them more poignant. It’s not hard to see why Jay loves her so much. After dinner it was a short set of goodbyes and back to the house to sleep.

The next morning I said to Jay and Ang as they went to work, my troops showered and we were off to Miami… a measly 9-hour drive. We didn’t quite make it and wound up spending the night outside of Orlando. A couple nips of GJD (Gentleman Jack) and I was out.

The next day we arrived in Miami at about 2 in the afternoon. It was pretty chaotic trying to find a parking spot for the RV and trailer. We found a small side street without parking restrictions and decided to load the trailer and pull it with Lexi (the pathfinder). After a bit of searching we found a good shoot location and began to set up. One the trailer was offloaded I spent at least 45 minutes driving around looking for a big enough parking spot. The one I finally found was less than 100 yards from our shoot location. The gear ready to roll, Michelle with an interview couple on the chopping block and then… drip.

We look off to the ocean and a huge grey storm cloud is moving our way. Drips to drizzle, then to a sudden downpour we disconnected the cameras and sound and humped the gear to the covered patio of the Carlyle Hotel. 15 minutes later the rain stopped but we were soaked. Don’t get me wrong; it was like 100º and 100% humidity so the rain felt great. But wet film gear is bad and we spent some extra time making sure all our circuits were dry; then it was on with the show.

We wound up getting 3 really cool interviews. Each couple had some good lines and insight; personally I can’t wait to see them in the final cut. We wrapped the shoot and drove around South Beach collecting B-roll. With David getting a birds-eye-view through the sunroof we were suddenly jarred when the sirens of a MBPD whaled at us. Everyone dropped their cameras and grabbed seatbelts. The roller came up beside us with a smoken’ girl in the passenger seat and proceeded to do his best authority grunts about safety and having someone out the roof, then he sped off (to his date… I assume).
That pretty much ended Miami, and with no local RV lodging we decided to get a jump on the next day and drive to Homestead, home of the Coral Castle.

     So I realized I have fallen behind in my blogs and didn’t write about getting to see my family in Oklahoma. I tell you what, more so than anything that anyone has said to me yet to persuade me to marry, seeing how great all of my cousin’s families are really got me thinking. Dillon, Tyler and Melodies families are all so wonderful, the kids are great, polite and play together like family (duh). Plus when I talked to my cousins, they all had insightful things to say about marriage.

One of my favorite quotes about marriage came from my cousin Melodies husband Gene, when I was talking about to possibility of marriage I said “Well, I might take a swing at it.” Gene stopped me abruptly with a serious chuckle and said, “Cory, I think you better reword that, ‘cause you don’t take a swing at marriage, you commit.” Sure enough, that thought is still ringing in my ears. Well at any rate, the feeling of being around family, even so far away from home made me much more fond of marriage, it also made me want to move to Oklahoma to raise a family.

The next day after trying to get an interview for Sociology of Me from my Aunt Bell and Uncle Dean fell through (my Uncle caught a rough case of pneumonia and didn’t have the strength to talk) we stayed at an RV park close to Meers, OK. The RV park owner Mark Skinner had a lot to say, having just moved back to OK after living in Cali. for 10 years. He said simply, “Moving his family to OK helped save my marriage.” He made the example of how everyone, even kids are so well mannered, addressing people as Sir and Ma’am all he time. The safety of he area was also a big factor to him, although the homes tended to be more spread out, the neighbors talked more and watched out for each other. It really got me thinking, but I don’t think I could really ever give up my Cali. roots. I am too big a fan of the sun, surf and variety of life. But hey, maybe one day I’ll get me a little homestead of a ranch to live on a few years later on life. Guess it maybe sooner if these films do well. Till next time…

    
Yes it is this sticky in Memphis...

The shit really hit the fan in Memphis. After a lengthy heated discussion of the relevance in visiting one of the birthplaces of Rock ‘N Roll we arrived to find our location had been stripped from us. We had permission to shoot Graceland from the street but after getting a verbal confirmation of being able to shoot at Sun Studios (where Presley, Cash, Lewis and more recorded) we were suddenly denied as we arrived in town. This sent the crew into a tailspin and forced some serious troubleshooting. The problem was solved when Amy found Beale St., Memphis’ version of Bourbon St. More drinking, but this time mixed with killer BBQ! We didn’t have time to get permits so we manned up and shot the whole thing gorilla style. It was OK, not quite the style or creative vision I am hoping to fill the film with but, just enough to help tell the story. Like I was telling McGloklin earlier today, we were making lemonade out of lemons we just didn’t have quite enough sugar to make it taste great. I did hit a new level in my personal monologues, I touched on some parts of me and my relationship that seem awkward to say aloud, much less potentially share with the world.

Well, that was Memphis… more work, less play but the job is getting done.

Later today I get to see Jay, Ang. & Tiffany, legally not family, but close enough in my heart, I’m hoping to get a little soul rejuvenation.

     So I am writing this as we are approaching Memphis Tennessee. Last night we shot in New Orleans (pronounced Naw-lens), and the French Quarter captivated the entire crew. But what really was amazing was the fact that pretty much all and I mean ALL of New Orleans is still really messed up. Unfortunately I didn’t take a lot of pictures to post but every neighborhood we went through was tagged and deteriorating. Piles and piles of rubble were stacked everywhere, cars dead on the sides of the road, deserted homes with broken windows. I have never seen anything like it, it didn’t seem like something you would or should see in America.

Bourbon Street was pretty cool; I was amazed by the fact that it is really about the drinking there. A long strip of bars where we actually had to search for a place to find food. We could by a beer, shot or mixed drink every 10 feet either from a bar or walk up cocktail window but food was a bit scarce.

Our original plan to interview Voodoo Priest Mr. Wade (a specialist in relationships) fell through but by his recommendation we were introduced to New Orleans’ main priest John T. Curator of the N.O. Voodoo museum, John T. is a soft spoken man who has a strange soothing gleam in his eye like Santa Claus after a shot of 151. We got a great interview where we spoke about the Voodoo marriage rituals and the devotion of marriage. To my surprise, my Hollywood given knowledge of Voodoo was a bit off. I was expecting to find dead chickens and such, but the roots and practices are heavily mixed with Catholicism making for a strange mixture of religions.



On a personal note N.O. was a bit rough because the signs of fatigue has started to show in my crew. The greenness of experience mixed with the stress of travel has begun to cause arguments, none of which I can’t handle, but I would rather not have to tighten my grip on the production reins too tightly, squelching creativity. Rather I am doing my best to help define roles and encourage professional behavior but that is rough when we are experiencing so much in such little amounts of time. Maybe Memphis will be a bit less stressful on us all.

     Well as we are closing on the end of week two of production, the images we are capturing are coming out fantastic, however the crew is beginning to feel the pressure of the road.

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     Had a long... LONG day of driving yesterday. Leaving Roswell and then taking a break in Amarillo to visit the Cadillac Ranch we had a couple of hours to rest and visit a childhood landmark I used to see with my dad on road trips. After trying to frame out some lookie-loo's from the shots we got 2 great interviews, left the Cadillac’s behind and the journey continued on to Pratt Kansas (about a 5 hour drive) for a good nights sleep. Small note: got pulled over for the first time on the trip, apparently it is illegal to pass an officer or emergency vehicle on the side of the road without changing to the far lane away from them… (See, in Calif. there's never a lane to change to becase of grid-lock, so how was I supposed to know!) Luckily I only received a warning; let’s hope the luck keeps up like that.

Today we drove to Cawker, a tiny town in Kansas that is the home of the Worlds Biggest Ball of Twine. Greeted by Linda Clover, keeper/ greeter of the ball we got interviews and learned the history of the local landmark. A small town in the middle of Kansas, Cawker was filled with friendly down to earth people, who enjoy the easy life. It's a quaint town surrounded by local farms and a great place to spend a day or two if you want to fish, hunt or just relax. On our way out of town we got some grub at Jaybird's Chicken, killer fried birds and burgers made by Kansas' best small town chef. Anyway tomorrow is the 4th of July and we will be hangin in Pratt and maybe trying to make it to Tulsa to see some family. Cheers!

The American Flag with over 600 mini-rockets attached, GOD BLESS THE 4TH!

     We got really tired on the road and wound up spending the night in a place called Dateland. I thought we were in bad shape pulling in the place with no sleep at 2am, then I saw the people running the place. They had way too many hours of nights with no sleep. I am totally convinced that the graveyard shift is bad for the soul.

We got up in the morning and I actually tried working out in the 90-degree heat of 7am. We showered and hit the road to visit my friend Scott and pick up a new crewmember, Ian Lindl, Red’s bro, who was joining us from Wisconsin to operate sound.

We enjoyed Scott’s air conditioning for a while and built our Dykortech Advanta-jib for the first time. Once that thing was built out, everyone started to imagine the cool shots were gonna get. Its first test would be at the Grand Canyon, our next destination so we were off.

We spent the night about 30 miles away from the National Parks entrance. We rolled in so late all the restaurants (only one) were already closed, so it was a convenience store dinner of tomatoes soup and beer, mmmmm. Red, Dave & I decided to get up early and try to film the canyon at sunrise; a great idea if I had of set my alarm at 4am instead of 4pm! I guess we sensed the sunrise though and the 3 of us were up and on the road by 5:15am. We missed shooting the sun as it crested over the horizon but we got a sweet shot of the light moving down the canyon walls as the sun rose higher in the sky.

The rest of the crew arrived and we got the gear ready. As stealthily as we could we moved our camera equipment to a lookout spot (even the jib) and set up our shot. Tried to keep everything on the DL since the park service didn’t exactly give up permission to shoot the canyon. We got a couple of good interviews and a lot of great jib shots, packed up the show and moved on.

The crew split in half, one group getting Monument Valley & the other traveling through Hopi Indian country. Both crews got some sweet shots, but the night’s drive finished in Gallop, New Mexico late at night with the only place to sleep being a Wal-Mart parking lot. The next day put us on the road to Roswell to do some alien huntin’.

Our timing was perfect thanks to producer Amy back at home. We arrived during their annual Alien Festival. We got some fun shots of their parade and a couple of great interviews with local artists and alien enthusiasts. From there it is on to 2 of my favorite Kitsch spots, the home of beautiful women (Pratt, Kansas) and THE WORLDS BIGGEST BALL OF TWINE!!! Ahh, aint that America…

     This was pretty cool for a place to shoot. My buddy Sean used to live around here but I haven’t hung out around here in many years. The place hasn't changed but all the faces have. Sean ruled the area back in the day with all of his SD homies and we did out best to tear up the neighborhood when every the OC gang would come and visit.

At any rate we are here for very different reasons today. No beers (damn it!) just good ol, movie making. Alas, before I get into how the day's shoot went let me till a quick story of the night before. We (the crew: Ian, Michelle, Red (Colleen), Link, Dave, & me) and a few of my friends all came by to help us pack, have some beers and wish us luck.

My buddy Chris T. who has dipped his wick in the film biz once or twice, had plenty to warn me about. Alot of silly blah, blah, blah, only because it was the usual pep talk stuff you say to yourself before a shoot. The odd thing was hearing him say it, I mean, I had thought about the trouble shooting issues he was mentioning several times, but hearing them out loud rang the same bell but in a different key. It got me thinking and... It got me worried. There are 5 people depending on me for the next 50 days, soon to be 6, I am confident, but am I strong enough, and creative enough to keep them confident?

Those thoughts were put at a magical ease with the most peculiar sighting. While talking to a couple of buddies from my Speakeasy days, we looked to the sky and saw a huge, and I mean HUGE white owl flying overhead. Now, Fullerton CA is not a place known for it's exotic birds, so the 3 of us jaw's slacked to the ground let out a huge sigh in anxious agreement that it was on. No longer would I question my choices, or fear the fate of these films. This is the right thing. So I was then mentally and physically set to mark on the starting block and ready to dive in.

Now, back to Mission Beach... The day was gorgeous, sunny, nice breeze, good surf and girls in bikini’s everywhere. There was a good share of issues, which is to be expected on day 1 of a production. With no sound operator, it was up to us to master the sound package and get good levels. Red did a great job of that. I-McG and D, had to jump into the new Canon XLH1 packages headfirst. That took a bit longer, but the payoff was clean and professional. The thing that caught me the most off guard was that, here we were, in a beautiful beach tourist spot, tons of people and the only ones who wanted to be in the movie were drunk & stoned beach bums. Plenty of couples passed by but few were biting. Finally we reeled in a couple of kids probably 17, and they were in "love". His name was JC and he had taken a Sharpie and written “I Love Sandra” on his chest. Now... that is devotion, a deep, deep 4 month relationship, not quite ready for the commitment of a tattoo but proud enough to tell the world for a day how much his GF means to him.

With our first candidates cast we continued to troubleshoot set-up problems and an hour later were ready for our first shot. However, we had lost our talent. They weren’t answering the phone messages Michelle was leaving. Fortunately we had collected several other couples and day one was underway.

It was interesting talking to complete strangers about the broad spectrum of love and marriage. They had some good stories, some different stories. I would have to say for day one, I got a bit of what I expected, but more of what I didn’t. Variety was definitely the word for the day, and a fantastic theme that will no doubt live within this production.