A CAR WRECK, A FIRE, AND A MOVIE BACK-LOT

Just wrapped on a three week shoot of a TV movie based on a book by famed novelist Sandra Brown. I can't tell you the name of the book/movie and post photos so I'd rather keep the name a secret and let you have a look at what we did.

We had two of the nicest producers I have ever worked with on any show. I would work with them again in a heartbeat and am very happy to say that I will be working with them again in a week.
Sandra came to set for two days and was just lovely. A gorgeous woman with a fabulous southern accent, and very sweet. She was excited to be there and to have a small cameo in the movie. I have to admit that it was a bit distracting for me because every time I heard someone say "Sandra", I looked up from my notes to see who needed me and, nine times out of ten, they weren't talking to me.

We had a couple of other exciting days as well. We rolled a car and we set fire to a building on a movie back-lot. The fire was pure movie magic with fire bars, smoke, and a few gasoline bombs. We had two genuine ladder trucks there and eight or so real firemen joined the background performers. It made for a very fun and exciting last night of shooting.
Now I have one week to prep for the next show - a Christmas movie. Like I said, same lovely producers, same great D.O.P. - my friend Kim, and most of the same crew. I am looking forward to it.

Monday I go for an interview for a 22 part kids series = work until April. PLEASE PICK ME! I will keep you posted.

My view from the process trailer as we tow the car with our lead actress, Jaime Pressly inside. The car is on a platform which also has some lighting attached. The camera guys are below the monitors on a lower level of the truck that tows the car. I am seated with the AD, Gaffer and 2nd Camera Assistant on the top level, which is actually the generator that runs everything. Below me is Kim, our D.O.P. on the left and Gary the Director on the right. In the background you can see a Mercedes and this car will come right up to the back of the trailer and, on camera, it will appear as if it is bumping it. It will also swerve beside the car and, again, on camera, it will appear that it is side-swiping the car on the trailer (which will appear to be driving on the road).

This is now the car being driven off of the road.

The car is airborne. As you can see, the angle of the car does not match the picture before and that's because it is from a previous take where the car did not roll onto it's roof as planned. It took three attempts to get it to roll. What was amazing is that, apart from it not rolling twice when it should have, it just started right up and was driven back to the top of the hill - after the front tire that blew out on the landing was replaced each time. It's a Toyota Camry. If you have a teen who has just learned how to drive and you want them in something virtually indestructible, go for this car. It won't flip over, even when you try, and it just keeps on running despite the abuse. Amazing. I told the producers that they should send the outtake footage in to Toyota and they could make an advertisement out of it: "A film crew in Canada tried to flip a car for a stunt. It took three attempts...."

Once the car was upside down, we needed it to burst into flames. This was done by the SPFX (special effects) team. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will see two of the team behind the trunk of the vehicle. Brave men!

One of our two gorgeous ladder trucks. Boy that siren was LOUD!

One of two large fireballs created by the SPFX team to blow out the windows of the building, which were made of safety glass. Stuntmen were running in and out of the building while the fireballs went off. You can't see them in this picture because they are already inside.

Currie Graham - our wonderful male lead, and me right after he was show-wrapped. I will really miss working with him. He is hysterically funny and kept us all laughing all of the time. I really hope I can work with him again soon. Just an all-around great guy, from what I could tell.

Here's a few shots of the back-lot I took. The entire street is fake-fronts on both sides of the street. I have put up the back of the apartment building and the back of the 'Limelight Nightclub' so you can see what it looks like, behind the scenes, as it were.

WEEK ONE ON A DOOMSDAY MOVIE

Just finished with the first four days of shooting our doomsday movie. I can't tell you the name of it and post photos and I want to post photos so the name will have to remain a secret.

We spent the first day out in Abbotsford at Fraser Valley University, mostly indoors which was nice as it is unseasonably cold out. The second day we were at the Hilltop Cafe just between Langley and Aldergrove. I haven't been in this cafe before but have seen it in several movies, most prominently in The Butterfly Effect. Walking in is like walking onto a specially built set. It's right out of Hollywood. We had several scenes to film outside before we did the interior diner scenes. It was cold and drizzly all morning, then the wind picked up and started to blow the tents about. They were quickly weighted down with sandbags, but not before the one at crafty blew right over.

We were setting up for our third scene outside when all of a sudden it began to pour rain like I've rarely seen it come down here. It was sideways and heavy, almost tropical in it's force. A decision was made to move inside and start the interior work. I gathered up my things and tried to wait for it to abate some but it just wasn't happening so I made a dash for the door and got completely soaked. Thank goodness for my big down coat! We just got a blocking done and suddenly the rain stopped and the sun came out. So back outside we went. We had just nicely got everything set up for the outdoor scene when it clouded over and began to hail. It was some of the heaviest hail I can remember seeing. There was talk of going back inside but hail doesn't usually last too long. Someone told a story of shooting out in Aldergrove last year when it hailed for 45 minutes and we all hoped that wasn't going to happen today. We gathered under the tents to wait it out and it lasted about 10 minutes. Everything was covered in hail and the vehicles we were shooting had to be wiped down. Later, when we were done with the outside scenes, we were packing up when the wind started blowing again and the tent I was in, sandbags and all, lifted and then blew away - right over my head. Everyone ran over to see if I was okay, and I was. Just really windblown. Kim, the DP, mentioned that I might want to pat down my hair as it was standing on end. The next day I was wearing a hat and he drolly asked me if it was due to the 'hair trauma' I suffered the day before!

The last two days, we worked at a place called Jamestown. It's a huge acreage that was purchased by a family of stuntmen and turned into a movie backlot. There's an old western town that was originally used in a Scary Movie that was a knock off of The Village. It was later moved and added onto to make a western street for a TV show. There's also a huge field and this is where we filmed for an entire day. It was a very soggy field and by the time we were done with it, full of muddy ruts. It was an exciting day full of the SPFX (special effects) department blowing stuff up. There was also a great stunt where a car drove off the road and down a ravine.



Yesterday we shot in the forested area of the property, up a big hill in the trees. We had a late call because the last scenes of the day were at night. We were deep into those scenes when we lost all power and were plunged into inky blackness. Not a light anywhere, not even the moon. It would have been terrifying except that there were 75 of us there. Soon little mag lights and head LCD lamps were piercing the dense wall of nothingness with tiny circles of illumination; one in our tent, thanks to a locations PA. I fumbled in my bag for my work light and soon was back at making my notes. It took about 10 minutes for the electrics to find the problem and get us back up and running. An hour later it happened again, and resolved much quicker. It seems it was so damp on the ground that the safety kicked in and shut 'er down.

All part of a day on set.


1)'B' camera awaits the crash. 2)Jeep goes over ravine. 3)Working in the mud. 4)Volcanic ash (shredded newspaper) is liberally sprayed about

all photos displayed with producer's permission