Bowling for Dollars

Laptop damaged during a run to put out a (metaphorical) fire on set has led to the borrowing of another laptop while the first is being fixed, which has led to connection problems and an inability to post my blog.  This is the fourth attempt to write my blog and actually save it to a hard drive and then upload it. I hope this works this time.

Last week of the show.  For the past few days we’ve been occupying a multi-million dollar mansion with a multi-million dollar view of a rambling lake nestled in forested hills.  Birds sing from the trees all day, and two red tail hawks and one eagle have been tracing circles in the sky spying on us as we bustle about with all our large, shiny equipment far below them.

It is a testament of sorts that we are so involved in our jobs that we have no time to be envious of the house or its owners.  In fact when they show up at the end of the day, we are slightly annoyed: “Who are these trespassers interrupting our work?”  They, in turn, are apologetic, skulking through their own home and watching in wonder as we rush about doing incomprehensible things with mysterious equipment.

Today, a day past my original blog entry, which is now lost to the cyber-void, we are in Big Al’s Bowling Alley, and there is a smaller bowling area next to the filmed area, so members of the crew have been quietly absconding with free bowling shoes and bowling a few frames in between camera set-ups.  Are there a lot of jobs out there where you still get paid even if you spend most of your day casually bowling whenever you feel like it?

JP, our sound guy, is a legendary bowler, who brought along a huge black bag with his own bowling ball engraved with “Venom” and “Hammer” on its dark green, angrily mottled surface.  I, on the other hand, have never bowled, except for one time in elementary school.  I wasn’t going to bowl this time, either, but JP, sitting in his sound cart right next to the bowling alley, told me to get my bowling shoes on and go for it—I think so he can live vicariously through us as he looks longingly over to those of the crew who are not confined to sitting in a sound cart for the entire day.

It’s great fun to have the run of a place like this, whether you bowl or not.  There are video games in one area, and lots of tables and chairs to get comfortable.  My first job of the day was transforming the copyrighted video game sign ”Wheel of Fortune” into something not copyrighted, of my own choosing.  I strategically placed some colored vinyl and lettering to make the lights spell out ”Wheel of Snoopy”, which is the name of my toy stuffed dog who has been my longsuffering companion (having lost an eye and all of his fur) since I was two, and who has already played a small part in this movie and in others (but that’s a story for another blog)—

Blog paused here: RUNNING AWAY!

Blog resuming here: I’m back.

I just got called to find some high heat paint and spray some lights for our gaffer and crew.  Did it, and now I’m back trying to complete this blog and upload it while I have the chance to hop on to Big Al’s free wi fi, before I’m called away again for another painting task.

So, my apologies for the scattered and short entry this time.  I’m just happy to get this into the site before I entertain another laptop problem…  We head for the beach tomorrow where we will finish out our week shooting with the actors for three days.  More on that adventure to come.  Oh, and more about my dog Snoopy’s film career in a future blog.