Saturday, October 25, 2003

TITS AND ASS ON THE YELLOW LINE

Saturday

The guys go to Stu Segall to get the phone booth and the rest of us go to the first location: the boutique. There is no coffee and no breakfast. Barry, the owner, looks miserable. Turns out he hasn’t slept because his band had a gig last night. He leaves about half an hour later. Eventually, Laura shows up with food from Jack in the Box. My sister calls me to inform me that the building management is complaining about the phone booth in my parking spot. I call them back and I tell them I can put a fucking phone booth in my parking space, which I pay for, and it is obviously a prop and it is not staying there forever and it is not in anyone’s way. I never hear another word about it again. The boutique is very easy to light and we get those shots really fast. We are way ahead of schedule, so I decide to shoot a sequence I had scrapped: Koko trying on clothes and taking pictures of herself in front of the mirror. We also get a few midget shots in the can and we move on to the next location: Convention Center trolley station.

We set up at the very end and people seem uninterested in what we are doing. Good. Israel shows up in drag and wearing a cape. He is wearing a sequined top and it makes him look flat chested. He asks me if he needs more boob. I say of course you do. What about ass? You have enough ass. Do you like my wig? The wig is fine, you look great as a blond. What about the boots? Fab dahling, the red boots are fabulous. Neil goes for a walk and do some shopping. Melissa and Ivy go to work on the cast while Freddy, Natalia and I set up the first shot. I think they are getting along because I haven’t heard them snap at each other.

Everyone is in a good mood. I scrap the dolly shot and decide to shoot the whole sequence handheld. A drunk woman starts hitting on and harassing Carlos. He is a gentleman, so I send Mr. Manly-Man Freddy to go take care of it. The men getting off the trolley act as if they have never seen a man in drag before. Everytime a trolley passes by, the conductor tells us to stay way from the yellow area and that enforcement officers are on their way. This goes on for a couple of hours, and of course, we ignore the warnings. Neil is beside himself with worry. He needs to chill, but he doesn’t. He thinks we are all going to get arrested and get hauled out of there in a paddy wagon. Laura arrives with lunch, sandwiches from Subway. A trolley cop approaches us and tells us he has had enough with us ignoring the warnings and that he has been trying to cross the street to shut us down for a long time but couldn’t because of the train that was stalled. Whatever, we are finished shooting anyway. Laura tells the cop to give us a citation, which he doesn’t. Neil looks like he is going to have a heart attack he is worrying so much. We eat the trolley station and I decide not to go on to the bus stop location and let everyone go home early and get some rest. We’ll shoot that tomorrow.

Laura and I fall asleep on the couch. She wakes up at 9:00 p.m. and says she is hungry. She wants to eat. Eat something from the fridge. She wants soup. Goddammit, we are shooting tomorrow, can’t we just go to bed? No, I’m hungry. We go to Coco’s. Isn’t the producer supposed to babysit the director, and not the other way around?

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