Shooting In Glendale

Late last year, and at the behest of a friend, I acted in a comedy sketch video for the internet. I made reference a couple of times to the injury I sustained during production, but did not go into the making of the video in any depth. It ended up being pretty funny, which was a good thing considering the unintended sacrifices made in the process of production. Since then, there hadn't been any more videos, due more to logistics than to any fear of a repeat accident. That changed recently, as we went out and shot another on a recent Sunday.

It came together both quickly and slowly in a way. All of a sudden, my friend sent me the material for a ready-to-go video, but it was another couple of weeks before the logistics worked out. I was just absolutely certain that it was the week before it actually was, and was most grateful to be corrected before I showed up on his doorstep ready to act and woke him up. As so often happens, I was super aware and ready then, and just about had forgotten on the day of. Again, I was lucky enough to receive a reminder. I meant to get up early in anticipation of another actor picking me up, but it didn't really work out that way. I left in a bit of a hurry, which happens all too often with me. The only adverse consequence was that I didn't bring changes of clothes or goofy props that I was supposed to. I worried over that for some time, but luckily, it worked out that my mistake amounted to no difficulty.

On arrival, we chatted with my friend's girlfriend (who is a dear friend of mine in her own right) while waiting for our auteur and the rest to arrive. They joined in the conversation and consumption of coffee and donuts, and we gradually got into the discussion of the day's schedule and the shooting we'd be doing. We began with some easy stuff right there, then headed out for a series of quick location setups. The premise was of a road trip, and so a mini-road trip it could be said we took. The day of shooting finished as we returned to our starting point to shoot a flirty car wash sequence with some newly arrived lady friends. That was very much a good time, and an excellent way of wrapping up on a warm summer day with people one likes.

Regrettably, we didn't get to everything we meant to, but that's just how it tend to go. We also came up with some things that hadn't exactly been planned. We improvised a song and some other things, all of which will go along with the realized ideas to make what I expect will be a fine short. It was agreed upon by all that without regard to the completion of the business we had assembled for, it was just a good time. The whole of our little crew broke up there, but some of us were not content with that.

We had eaten a perfunctory breakfast, and some small snacks in the course of shooting, but our stomachs were roiling and demanding something of substance. We had been talking about a place over in Burbank, so there we went. They have baked goods and a lot of Cuban stuff. I had a Ropas Viejas sandwhich, which came with savory plantain chips or some such thing. I paired it up with a highly-praised Potato Ball, and washed it all down with plenty of soda. After that, we lost two more people and the remaining three of us went off to church, playing a bruising game of catch with a football before a very good service. More happened after that, but for once I won't bore you with the details. It was a good day.