Arrivals – Principal Photography commences

Up early today and it turned into a long one.

Tania seemed quite thrilled with the black scorpion she found hanging out on her bedroom wall and called me in to introduce us.  She’s been in New Zealand for some years now, and they have large critters there, so she’s used to it.  I, on the other hand, have a long way to go before I’m going to be even remotely ok with eight-legged creatures of any size.  Nevertheless, I am the director, the producer, and the location manager, the driver, and the production assistant.  Removing dangerous interlopers from our production office/accomodation/main location obviously falls under the responsibilities of one of these job categories.  As the producer, I tell myself as the production assistant to put the scorpion in a breathable container and keep it in a cool dry place for possible second unit photography later in the day.  The PA does so.  The scorpion is small, maybe 6 inches stretched out, 4 inches in his normal fighting posture.

It’s a long drive, 4 hours, from our casa to the airport in Cancun.  Pedro has provided us with a big macho Dodge Ram pickup truck that is a bright banana yellow.  I’m pretty sure we can fit all the actors and crew who are arriving today in it, along with their luggage.

I packed up Alice, my secret name for the Canon XH-A1 camera I’m shooting this thing with, and hit the road with Emma Kehayas.  It’s pretty much just one long straight highway between Merida and Cancun, with a bunch of toll booths.  There’s only one gas station on the entire stretch, and it only takes cash, but I was prepared this time.  (Unlike the first time I made the drive a few years ago and puttered into Merida on fumes.)

We made it to the airport without incident, and picked up our beloved actors Phil Luzi and Emily Andrews in short order at the first terminal, and our hair and make-up key Faye Pawlowski.   Emma got everyone a drink while I headed over to the other terminal to find Robert Fulton, our lead actor.  If I’m not mistaken, this will be the first time Robby has set foot outside of Canada.  I can’t imagine how exciting this will be for him.

When I finally find him, he looks like he’s been beaten up.  Turns out he’s afraid to fly, apparently hasn’t slept in a couple of days, and is spaced out on booze and some kind of prescription to make the flight bearable.  I get him a coffee and a sandwich and tell him to sit down and wait for me to bring everyone over.

I pack everyone into the banana truck, with their belongings locked in the cab, and all the pale gringos in the open bed of the pickup like field workers.  We got some very confused looks from the locals as we made our way around the airport.

Faye set up in the cafe and started prepping the actors.  Emily asked my opinion regarding wardrobe (never my strong suit) and then in typical Emily fashion she changed in the parking lot in more or less plain view.  She’s from the theatre.

My plan was to shoot the scene of the Canadian characters arrival at the Cancun airport.  Just a static master, three lines of dialogue.  Then rush down to the luxury hotel strip of beach to shoot the hardbodies in bathing suits going wild, hopefully.  Unfortunately, the first shot of the movie took a lot longer than expected.  I had trouble finding a discrete location where we would not be bothered by the agressive cabbies and the cops while still getting the airport in the background.  Plus, the noise was awful.  We got the scene eventually, but then got stuck in traffic on the way to the beach and didn’t make it there until after dark, so no go on the beach scene.

We hit the road and headed home, this time with the people in the cab and the luggage in the bed.  We were three quarters of the way back when one of the rear tires simply exploded.  There was a spare, and it would have been a cinch to change it except for two things:  the jack was way too small for the job, and a couple of the nuts on the tire were almost completely stripped.

I know some of us were pretty nervous seeing as how we were on a deserted strip of highway with no lights.  It was pitch black.  Cricket sounds only.  We also appeared to be outside of the cell service area.  Luckily, I had a big rechargeable fluorescent safety lamp with me.  Phil and Rob sprang into action like real men with car trouble and we spent something like an hour and a half propping up the tiny jack with various rocks and working on those stripped nuts.  Finally got the spare on and continued home.

We got back very very late, and Sam had food and booze for all.  We had a mini welcoming party, people got their rooms set up.  The heavy smoking began and we had filled half a coconut husk with butts before bed.

First day of shoot over!

CC