Day 18 Shooting- Plastic Man

The weekend looked like a wash, Michelle text me last minute to let me know she was sick and I know Stu was devastated since hes been waiting to get back to his character for 2 months,  The only other thing I had lined up was Jarrett’s jogging routine for Saturday morning.  Marisol was also sick so we haven’t met up yet to discuss the palm reader part and I made the mistake of offering the part to Jill because I wasn’t hearing back from Marisol.

Among the highlights of the week:

Got drunk at Boardners because I had to fill my 15 dollar minimum on the credit card.  The beers were only 3 bucks so I made the leap to Rum and Cokes to jack up the tab.

"Can I ask you something," I said to the bartender, "IWould it be a bad idea to switch to a Rum and Coke after having a beer, isw my stomach going to flip-flop on me?"

She answered with the quicker/liquor rhyme- I can’t remember it now, but she didn’t seem to care one way or the other, so I ordered it anyway….then I switched back to beer…then to vodka….then I ate a urinal cake.

No, but my taste buds were pretty pissed at me and she put a lot of rum in the drink so finishing more drinks seemed like an impossibility- it was too strong.  I even bought a pack of cigarettes so I could just get the fuck out of there, which was totally unecessary.  I was only there to ask about shooting and I ended up getting a business card when the night was through.

I hung out with Stu and Christiane the night shooting was canceled and we laughed it up for a few hours, sitting around at the apartment and  wandering around Best Buy.

Work just sucked- I had the lousiest snack bar shift in months- I know it gets bad when I’m actually considering quitting on the spot- I usually don’t think about that when its busy, but we were so low on help and managers were dragging their ass to do anything it felt like torture and it was really testing my limits.  I can’t say how much of a relief it was to go back to retail Saturday night.

Saturday morning Jarrett arrived at my apartment ten minutes early in his Plastic Man jogging outfit.  Plastic Man is this sort of obscure super hero, but  Jarrett’s outfit is a shoo-in for Plasstic Man- you can watch the trailer to get an idea.

We picked up some energy bars at 7 Eleven and then drove up to Runyan Canyon (dog park) to hike a little bit.  Walkers laughed it up at Jarrett’s appearance and dogs frequently sniffed my bag and tripod.  I think they were a little too close to pissing on me too when I was sitting on the ground, trying to get a low angle of Jarrett tying his shoes.  I love dogs, I was thinking about Hoser who is really old now since we got him in ’97- I wonder how long he has left.

Jarrett told me about his father- he has all these problems- blod clots, he’s has lupus forever- other shit too and a doctor told him he has 5 years give or take.  It really sucks and Jarrett is dealing with it I can tell- be a cold day in hell before I see Jarrett fall apart, but he was understandably grim going over it.  His dad is really cool though- I stayed with the family for Thanksgiving once in the Bay area- they own a bakery and I had the best food in any Thanksgiving ever- incredible cooks.  Plus he recorded the, "Sun Never Sweats" theme song for us and we had an amusing correspondance through e-mail for awhile.

I got an extremely wide shot of Jarrett about a hundred yards away on an opposite cliff where a bench/incredible view is and I called him on the cel phone to let him know I’d wave my arms vigorously to cue his action.  During the take he ran to the edge of the cliff and did arm twirls while joggin in place, then he through his arms up like a deliberate Rocky pose.  In front of some bewildered hikers too, it was hilsrious.  Took awhile to call each other back because the signal was bad, but I got him to agree to one more take.  He played it bigger and it was more hilarious than the first, plus the shot was gorgeous.

We took an hour off and ate at this great vegan place.  Andy was busy studying and doing laundry, but he said he could help us get some tracking shots from his car if it didn’t take long.

We went down to Andy’s and I popped out of the sun roof to his car, filming Jarrett jogging behind us, beside us, etc.  Took only 15 minutes.

Then down to the Miracle Mile area to the old aquaduct I used to film with Kalani.  We hopped the fence and Jarrett did a roll when he hit the ground awkwardly.  We discovered the water was still shallow but the floor was layered with green slime, too slippery to walk on.  To the left of the actual tunnel was a dry strech with giant puddles so we crossed the stream to that section.  Reminded us of the T2 motorcycle chase- very similar stretch of concrete in front of us.

Anyway, amusing what one can get away with in Los Angeles without a permit.  Sunday was also a perfect example of that.

-Marty-