A pleasant surprise

I'm home.

The trip back wasn't bad at all. Thankfully - everytime I fly internationally - get to go business class. This may seems crazy - considering the cost of my flights adds up to the more than the cost of my production - but it makes such a huge difference. When you change day and night - you really want to arrive feeling relaxed and refreshed - not wedged between the fat man man and the stinky guy for 14 hours straight.

Sadly - I did have to drive the 3 hours from Chicago back home - in a car without heat, no less. I've found that its really not bad to be in the car for an hour at a time - but for three - I arrive home with my nose running and shivering.

But thanks to Presidents day - I get to spend the day with the family. There is a ton of snow outside, piling up - but it's nice and warm inside.

I ended up in bed with my dog and my daughter last night. My son was projectile vomitting - thankfully no head spinning - and ended up on the couch with my wife.

But here's something strange and fun.

Two or three years ago - when I was just getting into bed with the people who eventually would be with me when my film completely fell apart - I flew out to Utah to work with the guy who would eventually be one of the producers on the movie. Which eventually fell apart. But at the time - neither of us knew that.

He was producing - or as his title now reads - co-producing - a movie called the World's Fastest Indian - with Anthony Hopkins. He sent me the script - written and directed by Roger Donaldson - and I thought it was nice - but didn't see what the audience was.

If you haven't seen or heard of it - the movie is the story of Burt Munro - true story - of a guy from New Zealand who - in his 60's - makes his way to the Salt Flats of Utah with a motorcyle he cobbled together and breaks the land speed record.

Its a fairly inspirational story - stretched out for two hours.

My friend asked me to come out and work - and since I was broke and starving - with no idea it would still be another year and a half before my film would eventually fall apart - I took him up on it.

While I had been producing and directing for 12 years at this point, my friend knew nothing about me really - except that I had this script. I was assigned to another friend of his who was the Production Supervisor for the Salt Flats sequences.

The climax of the film takes place on the salt for Speed Week. We had over 300 vehicles coming from all over the country - most of which were there on the salt in the 60's when the film took place. The people bringing these cars were all vetrans of speed week and were totally excited and fun people to be around.

I was assigned to take care of them and then cars - and make sure that every shot was full of stuff. I worked pretty close with the Production Designer - and I even would sit at the monitor and watch the shots with the director and then redirect the background to fill it more.

It was a heck of a lot of fun - and I really enjoyed myself. Anthony Hopkins was a great guy - making time for everyone and just being very very pleasant.

In the end - while they wanted me to stay on - I spent a little over two weeks there. My son's birthday was coming and I needed to get back.

What's strange is: I never watched the movie.

My friend kept asking me - and I never picked it up.

Funny thing is - it played on the plane yesterday. And yes - it does have a lot of charm - and yes - Anthony Hopkins is great - but yes - I still am not sure who the audience is for it.

But strangely enough - in the end credits - even in the plane version where things fly by at the speed of light -

There I am. As a Production Coordinator for the Salt Flats.

My first big screen credit.

Hilarious.