Friday Photo

Oatmeal
Originally uploaded by Peggy Archer.

A set piece from an oatmeal commercial.

At the end of the day, they tried to give it away, but it was about 12 feet tall so no one could think of where they'd put it.

Sadness.

I saw "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" today.

The movie was okay (part of the problem with seeing movies that you worked on is that nothing's a surprise. I was sitting there thinking "Oh, it's about time for them to get stuck in the shed - boy that was a shitty day"), but it made me sad.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" was the last movie that my friend Keith worked on (he was Best Boy Electric on first unit) before he died of cancer in October of 2004.

That movie was the last time that I got to spend with him. He was so much fun to work with - he had a wicked sense of humor, and only hired people who 'got it', so every day was a riot.

He did a dead-on impression of Eric Cartman, and would launch into these hilarious and completely filthy tirades over the walkie-talkie using Cartman's voice. I ruined more that one sound take on more than one movie by laughing at whatever Keith was spewing into my headset.

I can't do him justice in a blog post, so I won't even try.

He was an amazing person, and I'm so grateful that I knew him at all.

I knew seeing his name was going to make me sad - but as it rolled past in the credits, I lost it and bawled like a baby.

A woman sitting behind me leaned forward, tapped me on the shoulder and said "Oh, c'mon.. it wasn't that bad."

That's something Keith would have said.

Yet another photo

"Deadwood"
Originally uploaded by Peggy Archer.

From the set of "Deadwood", 2004.

"Deadwood" sucked - and I mean really sucked - to work on.
It was shot at Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita (where they shot "Blazing Saddles"), where it was 80 degrees during the day, and 35 degrees at night.

The uneven dirt streets made use of any kind of cart impossible, so everything had to be picked up and carried over muddy, stinky (horse pee smells horrible), rutted terrain. The aforementioned horse pee meant that even when it was 80 degrees, working crew had to wear waterproof shoes and rain pants, or risk spending 16 hours with horse-pee soaked pants, shoes, and socks.

The only thing that kept it from being completely miserable were the crew- they were a terrific bunch of people, and it ended up being fun, despite the hardships.

Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire

The Blonde and I agreed to get the short reedited in order to show it to some huge producer guy who might be able to sell it as a TV show - but our editor isn't available, so we had to find someone else at the last minute.

Someone else is a guy who's edited a few reality shows already and knows what these people want to see, and what they're likely to buy. He's also super cool and we both like him a lot.

He's going to charge two grand for a cut, and it's got to be ready in 9 days.

We have to come up with two thousand dollars in 9 days.

Shit shit shit.

Can I make two grand from Google Ads in 9 days?