An Action-Packed Day

As you know from previous posts, Wednesday was my second day shooting on [redacted]. It promised all kinds of intrigue. Gunshots! Dust storms! Lightning shooting from my arm! Craft services!

The day began for me at 8:30am, when I got in the Prius and, after a pit stop at Intelligentsia, commenced the nearly hour-long drive out to Polsa Rosa Ranch, a 700+ acre site near Acton, CA. The ranch is basically wild terrain that has been dedicated to shooting movies, commercials and TV shows. They have gullies, tableaus, dry riverbeds, a water tank, an airport, etc., etc.. Pretty cool stuff.

When I first arrived, I thought I was on the set for The Sound of Music. This isn't a great picture, but it gives you an idea:

There was snow on the distant mountains, and apparently on the ground at our location as recently as yesterday. One of the wardrobe people told me they'd had to find over 100 vintage coats in the last 24 hours in case the snow didn't melt.

I was pretty amazed at what a TV studio can do when it puts its mind to it. They had basically built a small compound, complete with electricity (supplied by enormous generators) and running water, on top of a vast desert plateau several miles from the nearest civilization. Everything was set to look like the 1960s. Again, I'm being careful about not putting too much info out there, but here are a couple of cool buses that look like they could have been in a movie about the civil-rights movement:

There were, I'd guess, between 150-200 people on set: maybe 60-70 background actors, all in period clothing, plus 5 principals. And the crew: stuntmen, body doubles and stand-ins, gaffers, camera and sound, wardrobe, makeup, props, set and art directors, the show's producers, FX guys, safety consultants, caterers, etc. etc. A HUGE conglomeration of people on a chilly, muddy mesa in the middle of nowhere.

The morning and afternoon were mostly establishment shots of myself and my family arriving at the compound and being introduced to our hosts. Looking around and seeing everything vintage was a real treat. The costumes and hair design were fantastic. We did several takes from various different angles (including a few crane shots) and dodged the ominous weather on the horizon. We had one or two moments of sprinkly rain, but mostly the sun was shining.

I had always wondered how film crews dealt with making marks for actors to hit on rough terrain. You can't really put down tape. Turns out they use multi-colored beanbags:

... which look vaguely religious.

We broke for lunch at 4:30, so a loooong "morning", but a productive one. I grabbed some lunch along with the other 150 people....

... and a quick lie-down, although it was too noisy to get any sleep.

The day had been relatively comfortable temperature-wise (especially when the sun was out), but the night was another story. As the sun set, the wind picked up and our mountaintop went from a sunny 58° down to a windy 37° (which felt more like 20°). It was a wet, raw wind, and staying in it without protection for more than a minute or two set your teeth chattering. Plus, because the night shots involved the dust storm, we had artificial breeze to add to the natural one:

There were four or five of these wind machines on the set. Some of the shots had them as close as five feet away from me. Plus the "dust", which was really more like thick smoke. And tumbleweeds! They'd throw a few tumbleweeds rolling through each take. It was totally "Wrath of God" stuff, as Indiana Jones would say. Here's one shot from the video village:

Note the crane camera overhead, and the goggles the producer is wearing.

My night scenes were with my 9-year-old daughter, and she and I were in regular shirts for the scene. So we had people standing around with coats to throw on our shoulders after each take, and whenever there was a pause in the action, we would bolt for one of the set's propane heaters or, if there was enough time, for a dedicated "warming van".

The night scene also involved me hitting a guy with a bolt of lightning from my arm. There were several effects used to create this moment, and I imagine more will be done with CGI later. But the most fascinating part of it was the moment when the guy gets hit: he is driven back by the bolt. This was accomplished with a stuntman in a harness attached to a cable which was suspended from a crane about 70 feet in the air:

During the shot, I'd lift my hand, and then this guy would literally get yanked back about 15-20 feet by the cable. Incredible. He was clearly a pro, and had various moves he did to leave the ground delicately and land safely. There were a few takes shot from a ground camera which showed him in the distant background and then flying through the air into the foreground to practically land on the camera. Awesome.

I also got shot in the scene, which involved having a "squib", or small explosive charge, placed under my shirt. There are bloody squibs and powder squibs, and this was the latter. When it goes off, it rips a hole in the shirt, and leaves a black, burnt void behind the hole. Less gory, more about the bullet's impact. We went though 6 or 7 squib rehearsals and three different squib takes. The sensation was a little odd (in one take, I felt a little powder from the squib hit my chin), but ultimately felt really cool—I mean, who as an actor doesn't relish the chance to be shot onscreen?

I had to wear earplugs because of the squib. And this meant it was nearly impossible to hear the director. We'd get ready to start the scene, and between the earplugs, the natural wind, the manufactured wind, and the fan motors, I couldn't hear damn near anything. At one point the director was yelling "action!" at me through a megaphone from maybe 10 feet behind me and I still couldn't hear him, so he had to send the 1st A.D. running into my eyeline and waving at me to start.

We wrapped around midnight and I was home by 1am. All in all, an amazing day. By the end of it, everyone was frigid and chapped and tired—but we definitely got some magic in the can. The [redacted] crew are clearly having a good time working on an unusual show, and that infectious good cheer permeated every corner of our set. Alas, I know I won't work with them again (barring some other flashback), but the one day was plenty to chew on for a while.