Saturday, August 01, 2009

Hollywood or Bust

After we returned home from our 4th of July fun in El Paso with our new buddy Gary Fore, it was a time for some R& R.

So as we were kickin it by the pool in the sweltering Arizona heat, the batphone rings. Would the Invader Team be interested in doing a television show? With a quick look at the thermometer hovering around 112* and a gaise at my quickly emptying glass of ice tea, I could not say where and when fast enough.

Ok, not really.

A few phone calls, emails, and faxes back and forth to work out all the details and legal wording and a contract was signed and a date set.

But before the date of the shoot came, I was off to the terrible weather of Orlando to hangout with some friends for a couple of days. Some of you may have heard that there is some "girl" jet jockey out on the east coast. Well in fact there are two, and one of them is my buddy Elaine.

Elaine and her talent jet fabricator husband Chris, (I know it sounds like I am sucking up, but hey the truth sometime hurts!) invited me to come out and check out their brand new baby. No Andrew does not have a little brother or sister, and Nitro is one of a kind, but the brand new Embry Riddle J-85 Powered Jet Dragster.

Now I won't go into all the cool things about it, but this Worthy built jet dragster is sooooo nice and perfect, it makes me want a second car. Hmmm now there is an idea. I better not say anything more right now as my lovely wife does read this now and then, and I don't want to get into trouble with her until it is too late.

So between us, I did not say anything about a second car, or the parts that my buddies down in Florida are gonna help me find, ok?

With the quick trip over, we packed up and headed out west, well farther west anyway. Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped into see Joe and Darlene of DJ Safety. Had a quick tour of the shop, and talked about safety equipment, and of course how we all missed Jim.

When we finally pulled into the hotel for the night, or should I say early morning in the Mojave Desert, we were all pretty tired.

But the dawn and call times were early for the production, so we were up and a fast breakfest and we were ready for the caravan to the location.

The location was at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave California. It is just north of the Famous Edwards Air Force Base, where the great avaition test pilots flew and the X-Planes came from. Mojave Air and Space Port is where the civilian x-planes come from now. Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites (Home of SpaceShipOne, the only civilian plane to reach space resides) as well as the National Test Pilot School and Flight Research is located.

Television has a great legacy there as well. Many television shows such as JAG, Mythbusters, and 24 were film here. Movies too. The films used this location Die Hard2, Speed, Flags of Our Fathers, and yes even WaterWorld were filmed there.

So as we caravaned around the airfield with our escort, we drove to the location located around the aircraft storage area. Or what I would call the aircraft graveyard. Old 707's, L-1011's, 737's 747's and even some old navy warplanes and a F-100!

Our first location was set-up and went over the scene and what the director and producer wanted from us. So we went about getting ready, and the film crew was filming EVERYTHING.

In addition of getting ready, we had to make sure that we did not scratch any sensitive areas, or say any bad words or look at the camera. The last one is the hardest of them all, especially when they are all walking around you and you are trying to get somewhere!

So ok, I am NOT go to talk specifics about the scenes as you all will have to wait and watch the show, but let me say, from all the cameras and direction and different scenes they were outlining and talking about it is going to be cool. The final sequence was sooooo cool, I could not even believe it and was so glad we where there to witness it!

What is the name of this show already you are saying right? It is called WX Proof, and it is produced by NBC for the Weather Channel. They have things that are supposed to be Weather Proof and are put to the test. We were called in to be a destructive force to test an item, and let me just say, they really put us to the test.

After we were finished shooting, we headed back to the warm Arizona desert to get back to our daily grind, until next time.

After down loading the photos from the set, I started emailing them out and checking my email inbox and what did I see????

A link to the Ford Commercial we had shot, "Sound Check". (see previous blog.) All I can say is WOW!

But you can make up your own mind. Click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn1JhzWPmMQ

Post a comment and let me know what you think.

Be safe and Have Fun!!

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