Shooting a PSA indoors w/robots

On Monday we resurrected our go-to filler item for this week’s content, a fun little PSA series about robot safety. After shooting for another producer on Sunday, I was reminded to keep my crew happy and my shoot short - with lots of spare time just in case. ‘Just in case’ time can turn into ‘oh crap’ time very easily.

For this shoot we required a beach scene, so I spent the morning scouring the Astoria coastline for a sandy beach. It turns out there is no place on the water that anyone can actually access without a portable ladder, rope, or extremely long legs. The entire surrounding waterfront is unreachable, with a ten-foot cement wall separating the public from the river, like so many zoo animals. Are we being protected from it, or is it being protected from us? This question sprang out of irritation as I turned around several times, trying to find a way to legally park my car next to a leafy State park area.

I had brought a bucket just in case, and it turned out that I’d need it. If the area failed to provide a good shooting location for a beach, we’d just create one in-house. Steathily, my eyes darting left and right, I crossed the park with the bucket and shovel. I looked hard for anything that would pass as beach sand. The river was once again blocked off from the land by a ten-foot drop. Eyeing the sand in the grown-over baseball diamond, I kicked some piles together on my way across the width of the park. On my way back, I quickly bent down as if to tie my shoe, opened the bucket, and scooped in some sand. In the same motion, I kicked in the pile I had previously made. On my way back to my car, I nervously thought of lurking State Park Police people and bad attitudes, maybe how I would explain holding a bucket of baseball diamond sand and a shovel. “This is ridiculous.” was probably my last thought as I stepped into my car and drove off. Free sand is just so hard to come by in the city.

 

By the way, before I continue my tale, you must know that I DID return all of the sand at the end of the day. No blood, no foul. I was just borrowing it, after all.

 

update: I just pulled another 17 hour day for SVU.  Tiiiired.  Have to get up in 4 hours.  I’ll finish this tale, with full video, next week.

=chad