Believe it or not, I am back in Wilmington (“What!? You’re in town!?” my neighbor said, “I thought you just rented an apartment to have somewhere to leave your stuff.”) To be fair, I’m going out of town again today to return next week sometime (date TBD). But for now, I’m here.
This past week has been crazy! Last Tuesday I was interviewed on the Anti-Semantic Show, a podcast by four hilarious but slightly profane guys out of New York. Then on Wednesday I drove down to Charleston, SC to work as costumer on a short film called “Ticket to Ride” written/directed by Matt Allen and Travis Hicks. It’s a comedy about two men who decide to kidnap the convenient store clerk’s cat after he refuses to sell them the lottery ticket that would have won millions. It stars Danny Jones and Bruce Williamson as well as the two directors themselves.
On set – Ticket to Ride
I had to do some serious distressing to practically-new clothing to make it look like it belonged to a homeless person. I filmed myself distressing it and created a time-lapse video. Check it out below!
[Note: having issues uploading the video. Check back later to see it!]
No film project is complete without a few crises here and there. Shaggy, an angry Indian man and owner of Fuel Zone, the gas station where we were filming, decided at the last minute that he wasn’t going to let us use the place for free (I think it had something to do with all the crew and equipment we showed up with…all rented and/or borrowed and with free labor I might add. Apparently he had assumed it was going to be a couple of guys with a video camera. I guess if you look professional, people will assume you’ve got money). But we managed to work out a deal and to prevent Matt from having a heart attack just in the nick of time.
On set at the Fuel Zone for Ticket to Ride
The shoots were all at night and call time for HMU and wardrobe wasn’t until 8pm, so we had a little bit of time during the day to hang out and enjoy the area. I actually dragged my butt out on a jog two days in a row! I even did some yoga at the crew house. Huzzah for sticking to fitness goals. Course, the little bit I worked out hardly made up for how many fattening foods I ate. That’s one thing about set food (or “crafty” as we call it), you’re lucky if you get something other than pizza every day.
Director Matt Allen as Steven, the Cat-loving Store Clerk
MUA Crystal Ghanem testing out the blood splatter
Our longest day was easily Saturday/Sunday. Call time (for HMU/Wardrobe…everybody else was earlier) was 8:30pm, and we all worked straight through till noon on Sunday. Then we headed to bed for a few hours, and showed up later that evening for another 8:30pm call. Whew! What a day! We were getting a little delirious, and Crystal, MUA, decided to practice doing black eyes while I cat-napped. Then I was reminiscing about wrapping turbans for a play in college and decided to turn my scarf into a headwrap. Add a sad face and voilà! Instant refugee look.
Black eye by MUA Crystal Ghanem
Somehow we made it through the last shot, slept a while and then got up for the warp party, where everyone was able to wind down and enjoy themselves after a long week of hard work. Can’t wait for the final cut!
