Yes...this is a myspace repost...no, I do love you more...I promise to write back with something racy about my penis later...
--Living out a 5th Grade Fantasy or "No Rob didn't 'Collapse'"--
Okay...so I'm crawling out from under the Rock that was Big Stan fairly beaten, but not defeated. We were trying to make a $15 million dollar movie with about $4 million, so everyone got drawn pretty thin. The last two weeks of the show we were in Stockton, CA, filming at an old prison turned training facility. I really am over Prisons...after spending the last 4 months of my life in them...I'm really, really over prisons...
I'm sure plenty of you heard/saw/read on any of the various media outlets that carried the story the Rob Schneider collapsed on set and was taken to the hospital...yes, that was the movie I was working on and no, Rob didn't collapse, but we did take him to the hospital for the day to rehydrate and relax a bit. What most of the stories failed to mention was that Rob wasn't the only crew member to suffer heat exhaustion in the 107 degree heat...we lost a slew of extras, a Dolly Grip, most of the B Camera Crew, and 2 different Video Playback Operators...yeah, the 2 medics we had around ran their asses off...
Anyway the movie is done and I've got a ton of stories about random crap that happened, including one particuarly good ones about getting yelled at by a naked Rob Schnider and seeing WAY too much of David Carradine in his tighty whities...but such is my life, I suppose. The best experiences actually came from working with the athletes on the show. If I were a sports nerd, I'd probably have geeked out a lot more on set...but yeah...not my cup of wax, really. Though if I ever need anyone taken out, I'm now buddies with Chico Corrales, Don Frye (my old pal from Honor, back for another go round), Randy Coutre (who really is the nicest man alive), and Big Bob Sapp...bring it!
So yeah, we ended up going through 4 first ADs on the show...which is a good thing, because I spent about half the show as the 2nd AD, and that's the credit that'll show up in the credits...yippie!
I took the long road back from Stockton, CA after picking up my still favorite Lady, Ms. Elizabeth Kushman, at the San Fran Airport. We spent a couple of really relaxing days in the Bay City, visiting recent transports Tim & Jenn and seeing the city. Great chinese food in chinatown...which you'd think was a given...but they had this walnut shrimp in lemon honey sauce that was good enough to make you want to kill your mother...after a few days there we travelled down the PCH on one of the pretties drives in America. If you are watching a car commercial and the VW (or whatever) is on a curvy road by the ocean...it's the PCH. tres romantique...word.
I was in LA passed out from exhaustion for about 3 days, when I got a phone call from David Cluck, one of the 4 ADs from STAN. We offered me a sweet 2nd AD job in New Mexico on an as of yet untitiled Paramount movie about people running from a killer virus. The plus side: Awesome movie, awesome cast, killer dough, and a chance to work on a movie with a really good script and a solid director.
The down side: Spending the next 9 weeks in New Mexico away from the woman I love, skipping out on family vacation (again), and having to miss 3 weddings that I had planned on going to...er...
The plus side, dear friends, is that I may actually have a spare second to update this thing on a more than quarterly basis...or course I'm cutting that out of my usual 8 hours of mandatory make-out time...which makes me sad...but such is life.
This is the biggest show I've worked on since Geisha and it's not going to say PA after my name...it's a huge responsiblity, a giant career move, and exactly what I want to be doing. For the first time I'm facing what could be a huge part of my life in the next few years, I'm going to be away from my home for 1/6th of the year...it's almost like going to half a semester of college.
I'm really going to miss my girl. We've had an awesome time the last few months, and things just keep getting better. I hope that she doesn't toss me to the wind because of all this...she's the best thing ever...
So lets see...none work related stuff...
Xmen: The Last Stand was okay...I have a lengthy list of problems with it, but there were some cool moments (i.e. young Angel filing his wings, Beast doing anything). I'll reserve the laundry list of compliants for Kenshiro and friends...all the LA crew is sick of hearing me rant about it.
Superman - I HATE Superman, but Brian Singer made a decent movie about him. I wish Mr. Apt Pupil would have graced X-3 with his presence, but I understand. Great character driven flick with some cool action sequences (but no fighting...reasons I hate superman No. 415: he has NO good villians to fight...the movie was light Superman vs. the giant rocks...really). Beautifully shot, well acted, but I still have Supes and that's that...
Pirates - HOLY CRAP WHAT A SWELL MOVIE! Seriously, this is what both the preceding movies WISH they were. GREAT characters...best villian in FOREVER (Bill Nighy is amazing)...an intriguing twisty story that values and builds on the first movie while darkening it's tone...it's the perfect Empire for this trilogy...I'd go one, but I don't want to have to change my pants, again. Also keep an eye open for my Big Stan pal Jim Cody Williams as a fisherman that tells Will a story about Jack...well done, Cody, well done...
I've seen a ton of other stuff, but I figured I'd chime in on the big three...
If you haven't seen or read Satre's play No Exit...I strongly recommend it. Other Stan alum Salvatore Xureb invited me to a stellar production of it here in town. I don't go to enough theater, largely because it's easy to step into crap out here...but this was well worth it. Good brain food.
Blankets and Hack/Slash are my new favorite graphic novels...along with the new walking dead, which throughly kicked my head in.
Oh...and the mother F'in world cup! I was lucky enough to have a TV that got Univision in the AD trailer, so Joe and I stayed as updated as we could on the games. What a cup! The US blew it...though the Italy game was a joke...I hate that they won...GREAT games for the most part...loved France knocking out Brazil...not that I like France, but yeah...okay...so speaking of France...WHAT THE HELL WAS WITH THAT HEADBUTT?!?! I'd love to know what that Dude said to Zidane that would make him throw away the last game of his last cup...and maybe even part of his legacy...anyone hear anything?
Okay, I'm off to start on the HUGE list of crap that I have to get done before I leave forever...
Keep your phones on kids, because I owe you guys calls and I'm making most of them this week...
--Living out a 5th Grade Fantasy or "No Rob didn't 'Collapse'"--
Okay...so I'm crawling out from under the Rock that was Big Stan fairly beaten, but not defeated. We were trying to make a $15 million dollar movie with about $4 million, so everyone got drawn pretty thin. The last two weeks of the show we were in Stockton, CA, filming at an old prison turned training facility. I really am over Prisons...after spending the last 4 months of my life in them...I'm really, really over prisons...
I'm sure plenty of you heard/saw/read on any of the various media outlets that carried the story the Rob Schneider collapsed on set and was taken to the hospital...yes, that was the movie I was working on and no, Rob didn't collapse, but we did take him to the hospital for the day to rehydrate and relax a bit. What most of the stories failed to mention was that Rob wasn't the only crew member to suffer heat exhaustion in the 107 degree heat...we lost a slew of extras, a Dolly Grip, most of the B Camera Crew, and 2 different Video Playback Operators...yeah, the 2 medics we had around ran their asses off...
Anyway the movie is done and I've got a ton of stories about random crap that happened, including one particuarly good ones about getting yelled at by a naked Rob Schnider and seeing WAY too much of David Carradine in his tighty whities...but such is my life, I suppose. The best experiences actually came from working with the athletes on the show. If I were a sports nerd, I'd probably have geeked out a lot more on set...but yeah...not my cup of wax, really. Though if I ever need anyone taken out, I'm now buddies with Chico Corrales, Don Frye (my old pal from Honor, back for another go round), Randy Coutre (who really is the nicest man alive), and Big Bob Sapp...bring it!
So yeah, we ended up going through 4 first ADs on the show...which is a good thing, because I spent about half the show as the 2nd AD, and that's the credit that'll show up in the credits...yippie!
I took the long road back from Stockton, CA after picking up my still favorite Lady, Ms. Elizabeth Kushman, at the San Fran Airport. We spent a couple of really relaxing days in the Bay City, visiting recent transports Tim & Jenn and seeing the city. Great chinese food in chinatown...which you'd think was a given...but they had this walnut shrimp in lemon honey sauce that was good enough to make you want to kill your mother...after a few days there we travelled down the PCH on one of the pretties drives in America. If you are watching a car commercial and the VW (or whatever) is on a curvy road by the ocean...it's the PCH. tres romantique...word.
I was in LA passed out from exhaustion for about 3 days, when I got a phone call from David Cluck, one of the 4 ADs from STAN. We offered me a sweet 2nd AD job in New Mexico on an as of yet untitiled Paramount movie about people running from a killer virus. The plus side: Awesome movie, awesome cast, killer dough, and a chance to work on a movie with a really good script and a solid director.
The down side: Spending the next 9 weeks in New Mexico away from the woman I love, skipping out on family vacation (again), and having to miss 3 weddings that I had planned on going to...er...
The plus side, dear friends, is that I may actually have a spare second to update this thing on a more than quarterly basis...or course I'm cutting that out of my usual 8 hours of mandatory make-out time...which makes me sad...but such is life.
This is the biggest show I've worked on since Geisha and it's not going to say PA after my name...it's a huge responsiblity, a giant career move, and exactly what I want to be doing. For the first time I'm facing what could be a huge part of my life in the next few years, I'm going to be away from my home for 1/6th of the year...it's almost like going to half a semester of college.
I'm really going to miss my girl. We've had an awesome time the last few months, and things just keep getting better. I hope that she doesn't toss me to the wind because of all this...she's the best thing ever...
So lets see...none work related stuff...
Xmen: The Last Stand was okay...I have a lengthy list of problems with it, but there were some cool moments (i.e. young Angel filing his wings, Beast doing anything). I'll reserve the laundry list of compliants for Kenshiro and friends...all the LA crew is sick of hearing me rant about it.
Superman - I HATE Superman, but Brian Singer made a decent movie about him. I wish Mr. Apt Pupil would have graced X-3 with his presence, but I understand. Great character driven flick with some cool action sequences (but no fighting...reasons I hate superman No. 415: he has NO good villians to fight...the movie was light Superman vs. the giant rocks...really). Beautifully shot, well acted, but I still have Supes and that's that...
Pirates - HOLY CRAP WHAT A SWELL MOVIE! Seriously, this is what both the preceding movies WISH they were. GREAT characters...best villian in FOREVER (Bill Nighy is amazing)...an intriguing twisty story that values and builds on the first movie while darkening it's tone...it's the perfect Empire for this trilogy...I'd go one, but I don't want to have to change my pants, again. Also keep an eye open for my Big Stan pal Jim Cody Williams as a fisherman that tells Will a story about Jack...well done, Cody, well done...
I've seen a ton of other stuff, but I figured I'd chime in on the big three...
If you haven't seen or read Satre's play No Exit...I strongly recommend it. Other Stan alum Salvatore Xureb invited me to a stellar production of it here in town. I don't go to enough theater, largely because it's easy to step into crap out here...but this was well worth it. Good brain food.
Blankets and Hack/Slash are my new favorite graphic novels...along with the new walking dead, which throughly kicked my head in.
Oh...and the mother F'in world cup! I was lucky enough to have a TV that got Univision in the AD trailer, so Joe and I stayed as updated as we could on the games. What a cup! The US blew it...though the Italy game was a joke...I hate that they won...GREAT games for the most part...loved France knocking out Brazil...not that I like France, but yeah...okay...so speaking of France...WHAT THE HELL WAS WITH THAT HEADBUTT?!?! I'd love to know what that Dude said to Zidane that would make him throw away the last game of his last cup...and maybe even part of his legacy...anyone hear anything?
Okay, I'm off to start on the HUGE list of crap that I have to get done before I leave forever...
Keep your phones on kids, because I owe you guys calls and I'm making most of them this week...