cajones and chebutykin. It's been a while since our schedules have meshes and we have all had the motivatory presence to get together, and it was nice playing some catch-up. I got to see some of cheb's art, and it's pretty cool. Unfortunately we had to leave before the wee hours, as I had to get up for a shoot early in the morning. Got home to an answering machine message that there was a snafu, and could I possibly bring lighting equipment as well... which meant about an hour of re-packing, and getting up earlier in the morning. Grumpy me. Heavy lifting.
This morning was tough. Not a lot of sleep after spending most of the night fuming, but awake at 7:00 and in the shower, breakfasty stuff, loading the car, and getting to the KSTP studio by 8:30.
Got equipment hauled in and started an equipment check. It was a good thing I brougfht the sound equipment, because the stuff that they had did not work with the camera. At a professional television studio.
Several problems arose. Turns out that I managed to have solutions for all of them, quickly and quietly. I ended up co-directing and acting as director of photography, which essentially meant I sat and watched a video monitor. Weirdly enough i had several prople compliment me on the visual style and my sense of composition. I also got to meet several very cool people, including a lot of babes in bikinis (which didn't suck), one of whom I know. I also got to meet "Gordon the Gorilla", who is actually played by a woman who turned out to be very cool and a lot of fun.
What could have been a bad experience turned out to be a lot of fun. Going back tomorrow. Downside is that the pace is unbelievable: they are essentially shooting an entire season's worth of shows in two days. We did not stop from 9:00 until 3:30, and it was a little Ed-Wood-ish, get one take and move on.
I don't know how it will look when it's done. There's a lot between here and there, and I'm not doing any of it.
Sleepy now.
