After going back and forth from Los Angeles to San Francisco for 6 months and debating whether or not a looping session was necessary, the final cut of the short film Winnemucca: How to Get Nowhere Fast has been released! I do confess, I was privy to an early rough cut and the difference a soundtrack and colorist makes is amazing!
We spent 5 days shooting in San Francisco and surrounding cities and are much obliged to Farallon Restaurant (had oysters for the first time in my adult life), Nini’s Coffee Shop (try the pancakes!), San Mateo SWAT Team (yes, I did get handcuffed), Palo Alto Airport & San Mateo Medical Center. The entire cast and crew was a joy to work with – it was truly a pleasure going to work knowing that everyone was supportive of each other and wanted to make the best film possible!
Towards the end of filming, we had a very adventurous day! It was a late afternoon call time, so I spent the day visiting my brother and his family, eating delicious breakfast creations and building domino towers for my nephew to knock down. Nap time came for the boys and I made my way to work.
I was nearly there when all of the sudden, I started driving through a cloud of smoke. “Wow,” I though, “I hope that person’s ok!” I looked around and suddenly realized that the smoke was all around ME and coming in through the vents of my car! Quickly, I pulled off to the side of the bridge. Yes, the Bay Bridge! Luckily, it was under construction and I was able to pull off onto an old section of the bridge, out of traffic, just before the Treasure Island tunnel (if you are familiar with the area), where my car spewed her liquid guts onto the freeway. First thing I did was call the producer and her know I was in a bit of a pickle.
I let my car cool down for a minute or so, turned the key to be on my way and nothing happened. Despite having no experience with cars, I hopped out to investigate and found a great big puddle of green radio-active looking liquid underneath my car and I thought “Oh dear. This can’t be good…” Then I did what any girl would do – I called Dad. Just as he agreed to come pick me up after the shoot and start looking for a new car for me to buy, a CalTrans tow truck pulled up behind me to save the day! In his opinion, the transmission pretty much burst and in my opinion the car was pretty much worthless now. Being the nice guy he was on the slow day that it was, my CalTrans savior towed my over half way to my shoot location (which was about 5 miles further than he should have according to the City of San Francisco) and found a marginally safe place in the Western Addition to drop my car. Within minutes, the writer Ken was there pick me up and take me the rest of the way.
Then there was the fun at the location – a private house with panoramic views. Really quite beautiful! At some point, there were dogs in house, however by the time we got back, the dogs were nowhere to be found! So there we were, scrambling to get set up for a Magic Hour shoot, looking for 2 dogs and getting my car (who’s fate was yet to be decided) back to the North Bay. Luckily, all things came together, plus we had a very successful shoot at the house.
From there, we headed back to the Farallon Restaurant for a pick up shoot with former Mayor Willie Brown and some much needed wine. Then came the predicament: getting home. Fortunately, our lighting guy Eric lived in the East Bay and I was able to get half way home and Dad was able to come pick me up. What a day!
The following day, I was able to borrow a car to get to the final day of shooting. It was the Trailer Park and Burning Man sequences so, in essence, a grand party by the end of the night!
