The Battle of New Orleans
Standing in a phone booth in the parking lot of of the Lewes Liquor store, it sounded a little shady, but in all honesty, about half of the things people say to me at the beginning of a job sound that way. People call me to find things they can't find themselves, or to oversee a situation they know is going to get out of control and they'd rather not get their hands dirty.
The guy was telling me that the job was in New Orleans, it involved a motorcycle chase, there was already a stunt coordinator on board, and he and I would set the whole scene up, then, he, the voice on the phone, would swoop in and direct the thing. Pretty straighforward.
I'm going to need a couple guys I said. I always say that because it's always true, especially if I'm going to be so far from all regular sources for things. Everything's harder on the road.
He paused, well you can probably bring one, at a hundred, maybe $150 a day. I let him know that I was going to need technicians that I know and trust and their rates were way above that. And I need two of them. Lemme get back to ya, he said.
I should have been excited, hell, it sounds like a paid vacation on the heels of my regular vacation. but I didn't like it- it wasn't a movie or a TV show, it was an "Introduction Video" for a new CEO of a big computer company to be shown at its annual meeting in New Orleans. It was an Event, a dirty word in my biz. These guys are known to be sketchy, unaccountable, prone to stiff you on the bill if you're not careful...
When he called me back, he had changed his tune: you can bring two guys, we'll fly you down.. What about our tools I interrupted? It was agreed we would rent a minivan, pack it with gear and ride down a day early. This was probably my first mistake.
My second was hiring a guy I'll call Jason. This guy had been my protege a while back, by which I mean he pestered me into hiring him, volunteering on a pay-less indie film until I owed him a favor and got him into the union and onto a big movie. Now his true nature was coming out more: lazy, surly, drugged and drunken and quite possibly mentally ill. But on the plus side, he was available.
So he, myself and the great white shark, Kevin Quick, piled into a rented minivan and drove 18 hours into the heart of darkness, the city that stews in its own crapulence and where corpses wash into the streets when there's a heavy rain, you guessed it..New Orleans.
(part 2 coming soon)
The guy was telling me that the job was in New Orleans, it involved a motorcycle chase, there was already a stunt coordinator on board, and he and I would set the whole scene up, then, he, the voice on the phone, would swoop in and direct the thing. Pretty straighforward.
I'm going to need a couple guys I said. I always say that because it's always true, especially if I'm going to be so far from all regular sources for things. Everything's harder on the road.
He paused, well you can probably bring one, at a hundred, maybe $150 a day. I let him know that I was going to need technicians that I know and trust and their rates were way above that. And I need two of them. Lemme get back to ya, he said.
I should have been excited, hell, it sounds like a paid vacation on the heels of my regular vacation. but I didn't like it- it wasn't a movie or a TV show, it was an "Introduction Video" for a new CEO of a big computer company to be shown at its annual meeting in New Orleans. It was an Event, a dirty word in my biz. These guys are known to be sketchy, unaccountable, prone to stiff you on the bill if you're not careful...
When he called me back, he had changed his tune: you can bring two guys, we'll fly you down.. What about our tools I interrupted? It was agreed we would rent a minivan, pack it with gear and ride down a day early. This was probably my first mistake.
My second was hiring a guy I'll call Jason. This guy had been my protege a while back, by which I mean he pestered me into hiring him, volunteering on a pay-less indie film until I owed him a favor and got him into the union and onto a big movie. Now his true nature was coming out more: lazy, surly, drugged and drunken and quite possibly mentally ill. But on the plus side, he was available.
So he, myself and the great white shark, Kevin Quick, piled into a rented minivan and drove 18 hours into the heart of darkness, the city that stews in its own crapulence and where corpses wash into the streets when there's a heavy rain, you guessed it..New Orleans.
(part 2 coming soon)
posted by eric at 5:51 PM
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