Oh hey look there I am

Mr. Hollywood part two

Hello once again, I hope to not bore you this time around, and sorry for the delay, work calls and I hope to post a bit more frequently.

So, the stands are packed, I am packed and wired at 3:30am even after going to bed at 11:30pm. Mind you my flight is for 6:00am I have a one stop over. I should mention that I am leaving not one woman in my apartment but two that will be mope-y till I return. One being, of course my girlfriend. Hope and the woman my cat Nubbins. Hope might say the ‘other woman’ is my computer but I am not that bad…*Note: peanut gallery please keep it down I can hear you mostly chuckling and one groan from over there.*

So I arrive at the airport with my father driving me in. I make my way to the ticket counter, there is hardly any lines this early in the morning. I pop my Credit Card in and get my bag onto the scale, its overweight. I figured this would be an issue since I have tools, props and of course clothing in there. The gentleman behind the counter says there is a $100 fee for the bag being over 70lbs. He politely says, “if you can put anything in any other bag that would cut the weight down below 70 the price drops to $50. I quickly open up my massive orange case and pull out a stack of underwear (yes they are clean since Hope did all the laundry). I put it them into my carry-on suitcase and make it close. Another airlines employee walks up and makes comments on my cases (they are matching hard shell cases that are bright orange). She mentions to the gentleman behind the counter that I am riding First Class and that the luggage fees are waived for the cases (except the weight issue). *Note: I was figuring on having some sort of issue with my tools and what not going through security of my checked luggage thankfully there was no issue.” I pay the man $50 so that i can get a ‘heavy’ tag put onto the larger of the two, I get my receipt and head on up to the security queue.  I quickly fly though security since I’ve been flying since I was 5, I might have been younger I don’t remember, I was also on a plane shortly after 9/11 when I went to visit my parents on Thanksgiving.

I am now waiting in the sitting area near the door which will lead me on my big trip out to the farthest west I have ever been. Before I get too comfortable I go and grab a popular science magazine and a sprite. I sit back down and read for a bit, I hear some noise up near the desk near the door to go to the jet way. I slowly peer up from my magazine and find that its somebody from my working past. (He/She will remain nameless to protect myself and them, I think.) Funnily enough he/she was one of the people who fired me from my only two jobs that I've been “let go from.” They don’t pay any acknowledgment to my presence (but then again I was hiding behind a pillar in the waiting area.). Apparently he/she wasn’t flying first class, and they tried to get themselves bumped up to it. I giggle, because if it wasn’t for them letting me go I would never have been able to fly first class out to L.A. nor have worked on a full length feature. I quickly text both my girlfriend and my mother who had just gotten her new iPhone 3gs. they are both giggling with excitement and is probing me with questions until I board the plane.

I get queued to board the plane for first class, I am 2nd in line, I grab my seat in the plane (it is odd to go back to assigned seating since I have been on Southwest for such a long time{their seating plans are based on how soon you get checked in online and then you are corralled, it is then only at that point you are able to grab any seat on the plane (except the pilot and co-pilot’s seats)}). As I sit I pull out my magazine and soda and put it in the seatback in front of me. I never have sat in first class for such a long flight.

I did sit in first class only once before when I had a snafu, I was flying from Pittsburgh, PA back to Manchester, NH. the pilots couldn’t land in NH since it was “too stormy” and the plane had to divert back to Pittsburgh. Some people had decided to drive from New York where we landed up to NH. I jumped back onto the plane and flew back to Pitt, and waited for another flight to NH in about 2hrs.

As I get comfortable in first class I look and open all the armrests and what not near me, I play with everything till I get a sour look from one of the flight attendants I quickly put everything back. At that time I see him/her enter the plane and sit across the isle from me, they still pay no heed to my presence. I think the only reason why they did not recognize me is there was a larger gentleman sitting in the seat that blocked me directly from the isle.

I nap on the plane. (sorry for not having it be exciting)

As I deplane, he/she is in front of me and heads quickly to another section of the airport we land at. I pull out my ticket and see that I need to get to the other wing of the airport to get to my final leg out to L.A.

As I wait in the area for my flight I make phone calls and send out text messages. I have news that the stands can make it out to L.A. just in time for comic con and what not.

I board the plane and sit down for a long quite flight, I settle in I grab the dvd player, headphones and dvd case and include them in with my magazine and soda in the seatback. I fall asleep once we takeoff and zone out. I awaken when there is a flight attendant asking people what they want to eat. I am a bit perplexed its been a long time since I’ve had a meal on a flight. I order a chicken breast sandwich, it also comes with a fruit cup. I eat on real china with real metal utensils, the wonders of first class!

I watch Wall-E and enjoy it once again. All while watching it I begin to get jealous since the Derrick guys had gotten the chance to head to Pixar studios and screen Mystery Team for them. After the film and food, I sleep my way across the country. try not to put the second half of that sentence in its own context. I get interrupted about halfway through the country there is a kid bouncing in and out of the seats behind me. I thought it was just one, sadly I was mistaken, it was a brother and sister duo. We all know how they can act in a confined space.

We land, it was a good flight, pretty good food and I took some photos.

Well I need to get ready for the day after playing security guard for the film equipment at the motel we are filming at I guess I need to continue this into more than just two blogs. So Have fun and keep waiting!

posted by Nick L. @ 8:57 AM 1 comments

Mr. Hollywood and other names my family gives me.

OK so I guess I should post about my trials and tribulations of how i got to LA and what not. So here it goes..

I once worked on a small independent feature called 'Mystery Team’ back in the spring/summer of 2008. I kind of new at the time that this was going to be a good movie, I did not know it would lead into something like this. During ‘pre-production’  and i use it loosely since all i did was run around looking for set pieces and building the Stands and paint the bikes (i did more shopping than building and painting). When I found this job it was on craigslist not thinking much about the title (it was Art Department PA) I thought, hey its work its cool if I work in some guy/gal(s)  studio working on some sort of big project. never in a million years would i figure it would be a actual Film let alone one with some up and coming big named actors and actresses. I loved working on the film and all the people that I was involved with after shooting I asked Dan (the director) if he was ready for a sequel, he just laughed. ( I am sure he was more worried about working on the editing stage of post).

Fast forward to November of 2008. I get a call from Derrick Comedy (the comedy troupe behind Mystery Team). They tell me they want to work with me on a few shorts since they are still itching to do more work on camera. We set up a meeting the day after Thanksgiving for a meeting and they said hey we would like to give you a sneak peak of the film. I am ecstatic at this point, I get to see my work on film. (mind you I was a bit perturbed/worried  that this was being shot on the RED I never figured that my stuff would be blown up to super highdef {4k resolution if you want to know}). Well we have the meeting at my fathers sign shop, (who also provided signs and printed items for the film as well), They tell me that they can’t show me any of the footage from the film since it has been locked up. I inquire, By whom? their response is Sundance Film Festival. At that moment I fill my shorts with the biggest BM I could possibly imagine. While still in shock Meggie (executive producer extraordinaire) tells me they will get me a ticket for the film if I can make it out there. I sit there in my metaphorically soiled pants and ponder for just a moment. I quickly snap out of it and we get on with the meeting.

Its now January 2009, I am still jobless and just completed a Half-Marathon at Walt Disney World (13.1 miles), our family decided to do a second one after i suckered them all in for our first one in ‘08. My mother said to me in the summer of ‘08 that if the film made it to Sundance, she would foot the bill to get me out there, well needless to say I called her on it. I was thankful enough that she had a spare round trip ticket, and the hotel was a decent price for the location(Park City, UT) and for the time that Mystery Team would be screening. I see the film and enjoy the film thoroughly it makes me happy to work on something that I believe will be a huge hit and I am glad I got to work on it and got to know everybody rather well. 

During the spring I work on smaller film projects to get some money in the middle of April/may I find out that Mystery Team has gotten picked up by Lionsgate Indie film division called Roadside attractions, I am excited for them and also the news that they will be releasing the film nation wide this fall. During this time I get a call from Meggie, I start shaking like a little dog that has not seen its owner in months and almost pee trying to answer the phone. Meggie says they need to bring the stand out of storage to take some publicity shots, I immediately say yes not knowing what I was getting myself into. During my time of packing up their items for the photo shoot from their storage location, Meggie tells me that they are going to be having a panel and booth at San Diego Comic Con and that they would like it if I came with them to the Con. I stare at her blankly for about a minute or two (it seemed like about an hour), during this time she said that since they have some funds available that they would pay my way out there (still with the blank face, my mind fully turns to goo, ala the hulu ads), I eventually spit out the word YES! I continue packing up the truck and we head on over to one of the locations were we filmed so I can set up the stand in the same location and have the photos taken (apparently the studios require something like 400-500 stills for some reason or another The derrick guys and myself had no clue this was needed so they did not hire anybody to photograph). During this time I am awash in a dazed and confused moments. It quickly turns back into 2008 and we are still filming we all have a blast.

It is now July I have the stands packed and ready for transport I have ticket in hand and I will continue the story of my journey to LA tomorrow, but for now leave you with just this one photo titled, yes its really real now.

posted by Nick L. @ 9:22 AM 2 comments