Did you know that Oktoberfest is a big deal in Tulsa? It is. Real big. And, fun fact, it was at the Tulsa Oktoberfest, or as I like to call it, "The Tulsa State Oktoberfest," many years ago that a bunch of totally sober people got together and created that abomination of human-expression-through-movement known as The Chicken Dance. Yup, THE Chicken Dance. Now, I hate to brag (no I don't), but if the chicken dance had been invented in NYC I can't help but feel that everyone would be all, "Yeah, well you can't win them all," about it, but Tulsites are so proud of it that...and I want to make it very clear that I'm not kidding about this at all...the theme of this year's Tulsa State Oktoberfest is "Poultry in Motion." More importantly, everything that you've read here today up until this point was exactly what was running through my mind while we were shooting on the Tulsa State Oktoberfest fairgrounds right up until the moment we were warned to keep an eye out for scorpions because, and this is a direct quote, "I've been killing them all night, but they're still all over the place." Scorpions. Now, I'm not real good with the whole "being educated" thing, but I'm pretty sure that scorpions are something that was made up for a Roger Corman movie and don't actually exist. However, just to err on the side of caution, I spent the next few hours being 100% positive that I had scorpions crawling up my pant legs. Also, I dare any of you to tell me that you've ever asked a colleague the following question : "Hey, do you want me to check the toilet stall to make sure there aren't any scorpions?" Because I have. And this is in a major city in a state that I'm pretty sure is part of the USA. However, just so I don't leave you hanging, there weren't any scorpions in the toilet stall. But, still...
Anyway, we were there to shoot a pivotal scene for the movie in which the two leads share a tender moment as the sun rises over the Tulsa skyline. Only problem was that after standing around and prepping (looking for scorpions) for a few hours, a storm front moved in at the last second and completely destroyed our shot of the sunrise. I, of course, blame Clooney. Regardless, we went home feeling a bit dejected. For those of you that don't work in production, let me clue you into something: indie films are scheduled within an inch of their life. There is rarely enough time to get most of what you want shoot, never mind extra time laying around in case you need to reschedule something. So, on top of dealing with the fact that we lost an entire day due to Super Su, Kali, Mary Mary Why You Buggin, and Teresasaurus Rex deciding to throw up for twenty-four hours, now we had to find time to re-shoot the sunrise scene and just hope that it didn't rain again. And, scorpions. Don't forget the scorpions.
Oh, have I mentioned how we had two cars that constantly wouldn't start and lost the keys to one of the ones that would? No? Well, I certainly can't get to everything.
Back to the point, though, everyone sucked it up, headed back out there in the middle of the damn night and once again stood around waiting for the sunrise. And magic. Amazing sunrise. One of the best. We nailed it. Although, there was little time for celebration as our lead actress and I both had to immediately leave for the airport as to not miss our flights back to civilization. (Okay, I'm slightly exaggerating about my flight. I did have time to go to the House of Constant Sorrow and take a shower before going to the airport.)
Oh yeah, let me tie up a few loose ends...
And the final Golden Driller Award went to...
It was a tie! Both Kristy and that kid with red hair deserved the award, so they both got one. They were possibly the world's greatest PAs and we totally couldn't have gotten the Tulsa portion of the film done without them. Okay, yeah we could have, but it would have been way tougher without Kristy. So congratulations, Kristy and kid with red hair!
I have to be honest, that dog really started to get on my nerves, but how could I ever stay mad at her after saying something like that? I ruff you too, stuffed dog. We'll totally hang in LA. First round's on me.
Okay, on a serious note, I'm still not far enough removed from the Tulsa leg of Home, James to give a serious wrap-up of it. And given that I'll be on a plane in 30 short hours to rejoin the crew in LA for more shooting (don't even get me started on the shoot I flew back to NYC for...woof) I figure I should just hold tight until a massive wave of inspiration (drunkenness) strikes and I can do the story justice.
Teresasaurus Rex is a stupid nickname. I can do better than that. Sorry for dropping the ball on that, T.
Lastly, the Amazing Rick "Hollywood" Dacey and I will be at the Red Lion in Silver Lake on Wednesday night. Not for any particular reason, but it's been a few days since I've made fun of him to his face, so why the hell not. You're all invited. Come on, if you think this stuff is pointless and juvenile in print, just wait to see what it's like in person! But seriously, we'll be upstairs hanging our heads and muttering about how pointless life is. Good times!
No comments:
Post a Comment