05.27.07
On the Set: Days Five and Six
Day five had us heading out to Queens for some establishing shots of the neighborhood for the Hitman. I met Ninjascott and Lydia out at the van - the drive though Manhattan a reminder of why we choose to do this kind of work, watching the midmorning bustle of deliverymen, office workers and cabbies.
We got to location, which was smack dab in the middle of Guidoland. Every car had some kind of hip-hop blasting out of sunroofs, you could smell the hair gel from miles around. Since it was daylight and very little of the shots included dialog, I was handed a bounce board and was set to aim them at our actors. All in all, a pleasant gig, requiring little more than me standing still, turn a piece of foamcore around…
We also grabbed a few shots in a laundromat, again a quick easy affair. The old couple that ran the place sat outside watching us run in C-stands and large lights, while Megan, the makeup artist stained a t-shirt with fake blood.
The tough part of the day came when we found that our last scenes were going to be delayed by the last actor - who foced us to sit around waiting for darkness and when he got off of work. Nothing is more fun than staring at the same street for 3 hours watching the sun go down. Fortunately my friend Shannon the Baker called and alleviated my boredom by providing snarky comments and her own tales of being a PA and other horror stories…
When the Hitman arrived, we instantly sprang into action - using the roof of tha van to shoot from and using the headlights to bounce light off of - wrapping with near military precision. In order to blow off some steam we spent a few hours at a beer garden, downing pitchers of Spaten and trading lurid stories…
Ironically, last day of the shoot started right near my former job. I had the advantage of knowing where every coffee shop and deli in the area was a detail the crew richly appreciated. We set up simple shots utilizing our actors as “talking heads” simply using bounce cards and filming them ‘confessional style’ like every reality show in the universe does.
My last effort on the shoot was at a church we were using to film the ‘Wedding video’ and the scenes where the groom is found passed out on the steps - the church itself was beautiful, and the sun outside made everyone relaxed. I had to leave early, as I had planned to fly out early the next morning - and I bade my farewells to everyone, a little bummed it was over.
Because I was leaving, I also had to turn down three other set jobs, offered to me by Gene, the key grip and mentor on set. A shame really, because I find that I enjoy this work more and more - the exercise, the constant location changes, the instant bursts of creativity when called for, the cameraderie and the jokes…
Plus everyone always talks in obscure movie quotes, a geek’s paradise. I think I could really get into this…
