The Mojave Airport

Dear Reader

It is a cold windy morning at the Mojave Airport, just east of Hwy 14, in the town of Mojave. Our site representative is leading us on a one-lane dirt road. The high beans reveal the twist and turns of the road, I am the last vehicle in the caravan, I make a sharp left turn, and then I position my motor home next to the other vehicles. I drop the jacks, and then I let the slide-outs out.

Mojave airport is not the usual airport, there are no gates or ticket booths, it is just one huge runway with lots of parked planes. There are a number of private hangers, repair facilities and a fuel station. The Mojave airport is a place that the airlines store their old planes in a mothball state. It is also a place that is used for many car shoots, commercials and feature films. Take that scene in the movie “Speed”, when Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock try to escape from that out of control bus. The bus hits a cargo plane and blows up; it is suppose to be LAX, one problem, LAX does not have mountains from the west, there is a little lake called the Pacific Ocean. The closest mountains are north east of Los Angeles about forty miles. Though the Producers would have love to shoot that shot at LAX, the FAA said “no”. A little movie magic and the Mojave Airport is the perfect substitute.

We were shooting a commercial for a big Japanese car company. It was a two day shoot, the first day it was just a couple of people to set up the shot, so they did not need me, the second day they really needed me, the airport was hit with gale force winds. Anything that was not tied down flew to Barstow eighty miles away. This was typical weather for late spring, cool and windy. There are numerous helicopter pads on the airbase, with various views; to the west are the Tahippi Mountains, a favorite with producers. The movie “Water World” was shot at the airport, they bought in a huge water tank and blue screen, add a little movie magic and you would think they are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

As the day wore on, the winds increased, the crew came into my motor home to access the Internet, and watch the latest news updates. I kept the coffee and tea brewing all day long. Our caterer had his own motor home and he kept the crew very happy.

The town of Mojave is several miles away, with plenty of lodging, dump stations and affordable restaurants, for any size crew. One is not going to find any high end dining in Mojave, but you will find a Starbucks. Mojave is located about two and half hours from Los Angeles, if one is tempted to speed on highway 14, think twice, even in the early hours the CHP patrols the road, looking for speeders and drunk drivers.

The Mojave Airport is the perfect location for your next shoot.

Los Angeles to Seattle in a night and a day

Dear Reader

It takes me about twenty-two hours to get from Los Angeles to Seattle driving about sixty miles per hour, that may sound slow, but when your vehicle gets about seven and a half miles per gallon at 70 miles per hour. At sixty miles per hour I can up to nine to ten miles per hour. At this speed the CHP pays little attention to me, I can enjoy the ride, listen to my XM radio, drink some coffee, call some friends, access the internet, take a long nap, text some friends, make a cake, the usual things a California driver does while driving.

On this trip I had a night and a day to drive to Seattle, normally I like to take two days at twelve hours a day to get to Seattle. I drove until I was tired, I stopped at a rest stop, and in fifteen minutes I was sound asleep. I was on the road at four in the morning, the sun was slowly rising, it was time to find a truck stop to fuel up, I had driven about two hundred miles I was on ¾ of a tank. I pull in to a TA, the truck stop is filled with every imaginable tractor-trailer, the smell of burning diesel fuel fills the air, and the sound of diesel engines idling produced a constant roar.

By noon I was passing through Sacramento, the traffic was light. I was starting to get tired; I pulled into the next rest stop and took a power nap. By twelve-thirty I was on the road again. At five in the afternoon, I was eating diner at a Pilot Truck Stop in Roseburg, Oregon. I had burn through a hundred gallons of diesel fuel by the time I reached Jubitz Truck Stop in Portland. It was eleven thirty, I had driven about eight hundred miles, I was tired, and my eyes would not stay open anymore. I top off my tank, parked my RV in one of the stalls and breathe diesels fumes from all those idling trucks all night long; I did not need to take hit from my can of “LA Smog”. I set my alarm clock to wake me up at three in the morning. By four I was on the road again, at six-forty-five I was at a rest stop in Tacoma, I met Roger there, he would be driving RV number two, I was driving RV number one and Dave would meet us at the location in his Class C production motor home.

We were finished by four in the afternoon, we drove back to Tacoma, there’s a Casino just north of the city, great food and plenty of parking for our large motor homes. I stayed in the North West for the rest of the week, getting caught up with my paper work and getting information on my next job.

Part two, my ride back home on a train.

Gas Works Park-Seattle

Dear Reader

One of my favorite parks in Seattle is Gas Works Park, located north of downtown Seattle next to Lake Union. Gas Work Park was built in 1906 to manufacture gas from coal; in the 1950’s the plant became obsolete because of natural gas. In 1975 the land was opened as a park; because of toxins in the Lake Union, wading or swimming is not allowed. This is unfortunate because the lake is beautiful.

On a partly sunny afternoon last Thursday (5-20-2010), the sun peek through the clouds, the wind was brisk and few boats ventured onto the rough waters of Lake Union. To the uninitiated, Seattle is surrounded by water, the Puget Sound to the West and south, Lake Union to the north, Lake Washington to the East. The park is unusual in the sense, it was not designed initially to be a park, the boiler house is now a picnic area; there is a beautiful grass hill that has a spectacular view of the city. When the sun sets, there is an orange hue that lights up downtown Seattle, the perfect background for a romantic comedy. Gas Works Park is one of my favorite parks on the West Coast because of the view from almost every angle. Even on a rainy day the park has a moody appearance; surreal, I think Federico Fellini could had shot a master piece film at this location; with the random objects scattered along the park, including the boiler room.

Last summer I was working on $5 Cover, when I was introduced to this park, it was sunny and warm; Seattle had just experienced a record heat wave. Lake Union was crowded with sailboats of every size. We were shooting one of the bands on the shore, the sun was setting, the director could not ask for better light.

On this shoot we were filming a music video for the Seattle Sounders, it was festive, like a soccer game. There were over a hundred extras, including the Sounders marching band. An intoxicated bystander, an attractive young lady, decided to disrobe in front of the camera, that was not planned and it provided a great story, the “lady” did not make the final cut; this is a family friendly music video that will run during games, her appearance was not family friendly. We shot in the wee hours of the morning, at 2:30 am; the video was finished.

At four in the morning it was time to head back to Los Angeles; I had twenty-four hours to make it back. I enlisted the help of one of the best motor home drivers in Los Angeles, Fred Masino. I was up all night, so Fred drove the first leg of the trip, I set up the bed, but soon I realized I was too wired to go to sleep. I set the GPS to Jubitz Truck Stop in Portland; I would fuel up the motor home and get some breakfast. In Ashland, Oregon it started to snow, but not like my last trip back home in early March in which I was almost forced to chain up and endure forty miles of driving snow. This time, the snow stops before we got to the California border. At 2:30 in the morning we made it back to Los Angeles, I would get three hours of sleep before I was due to start my next job. Note to myself; don’t do this again, learn to say "no".

Seattle (SMP)

Dear Reader

It is late afternoon, the Grape Vine is behind me, and it is so named because Interstate 5 winds down the grade like a grape vine. In winter time this pass at 4000 feet turns into a winter wonderland, that means the Grape Vine, the main artery north and south out or in of Los Angeles, closes, usually for a few hours, sometimes days. I live about fortify-five minutes from the Grape Vine, so if I want to play in the snow, I do not have to travel very far for such an experience. The San Joaquin Valley is on my horizon; this is some of the most fertile land in California for agriculture. The ride from the bottom of the Grape Vine to Sacramento is very boring, I use this time to make a sandwich, take a nap, access the Internet, it is amazing how advance cruise control is today.

My goal tonight is to make it to the Flying J, just south of Sacramento, I stop a couple of times to top off my tank and stretch my legs. Around 9 pm I pull into the Flying J, there are several motor homes and trailers parked there for the night. It takes me about five minutes to set up my bed and about fifteen minutes to reach a deep sleep. The reason I like the Flying J, it is very RV friendly; most J’s have dump stations with fresh water, motor home supplies, fuel and a safe place to park overnight.

At 5:15 the next morning I am on the road again, a full tank of fuel and some beautiful country ahead of me. I decide to set the cruise control to 60 to conserve on fuel, for the next eight hours I will be traveling through several passes, unlike my last trip to Seattle, snow should not be a factor in my trip. I fuel up in Weed, California; I will not fuel again until I reach Portland. I can go almost 1000 miles on tank of fuel, usually I fuel up every quarter to a half of a tank, the reason, if I let the fuel tank get under a half, I cannot use my generator and also I do not want the injectors to suck up debris on the bottom of the tank. At 3:30 in the afternoon I reach my destination, Jubitz truck stop, just north of Portland. This is the ultimate truck stop; there is a truck wash, truck repair shop, a restaurant, a clinic, a post office, a store, a movie theatre, a barbershop, a hotel, everything one would want in a truck stop. My motor home was covered in bugs, so I decided to have my rig washed, next I top off the tank, then it was time to fill up my tank, my stomach. I dined on ribs, coleslaw and baked beans, my waitress convinced me to try the apple crisp with whipped cream, and it was awesome. Though, I was tired I decided to see a movie, I watched “Wild at Heart”, I really liked this movie, and I understand why Jeff Bridges won the academy award for his performance in this movie.

If I had wanted to, I could have made it to Seattle that night, my shoot was not until Monday morning and I did not want to pay for an extra day at an RV park, so this why I decided to stay in Portland. After a big breakfast, as Willie Nelson says, “I’m on the road again”, by 11:30 am, I pull into one the few RV friendly fuel stations in Seattle and top off my tank, in fifteen minutes I was in Bellevue. The rest of the afternoon, I clean the RV and pick up supplies, as a light rain falls from the sky.

In my travels the worst traffic I have even been in; is in and near San Francisco, a month ago, it took me four hours to travel sixty miles, according to the “locals” this is normal. In Seattle, no stranger to traffic, the commute to the EMP in Seattle, took me less than thirty minutes to travel sixteen miles, of course I left at 5:30 in the morning, the same trip would had taken me an extra twenty minutes. Last week in Oakland, it took me an hour and a half to travel 6.4 miles; part of the problem is the tollbooth. This is the twenty-first century; tollbooth should be in museums, not on bridges, which brings traffic to a crawl. I think some smart person like Steve Jobs should be employed by the State of California to solve this problem, maybe the “toll pad”? Actually there is FasTrak, unfortunately, it seems most people do not take advantage of FasTrak, instead most pay cash.

A myth about Seattle, Seattle gets a lot of rain. False, Seattle averages 37.1 inches of rain, that is less rain than Atlanta, New York and most of the Eastern Seaboard. Today the weather is a combination, cloudy, rainy and sunny. I set up the motor home, made coffee and get the crew situated. We are located in the parking lot of the SMP (Sound Music Experience) museum, if one has never been to this museum, one should visit it. Seattle is known for music, and this museum exemplifies the music scene in Seattle and how it has influenced rock, folk, jazz and classical music. I could not have asked for a better location, there is also the Space Needle, the children museum, the monorail, which takes you to within walking distance of Pike’s Market and a water front view of Puget Sound. Across the street is the Duck tour; I am not talking about water foul, rather a bus type vehicle that travels on land and water for a two-hour tour of Seattle and the surrounding area.

What makes the SMP so interesting is the design of the building created by renowned architect Frank Gehry, who also designed the Disney Center in Los Angeles. The building is supposed to look like a guitar with a lot of round angles and hues. From a photographic perspective the building gives an abundance of options for shooting. Our team spent three days at this location, with no shortage of background ideas.

I have a music video the next day and back to Los Angeles for my next adventure.

San Francisco Part I

Dear Reader

As I made my way up California St. in San Francisco, I felt like Captain Kirk in Star Trek, “Scotty full power ahead”, “Captain I’m giving you everything she’s got, but I don’t think the ship can take anymore.” My 8.3 Cummins engine was running at full power, the mighty Ambassador struggled to climb the 15% grade. The light changes to red, I engaged the parking brake, hoping it would hold the 34,000-pound RV in place, it does. The light changes to green, I throttle the engine to 1500 rpm, I release the parking brake, and the motor home slowly gains speed. The Allison transmission changes to second gear, the engine roars to life as I pass four cylinder cars huffing and puffing. I turn at Taylor Street; on my right is Huntington Park, an oasis in a city made of high-rise buildings. I am in Nob Hill, a place one can spend $8,000 a month on a flat, the well to do call this place home. The people of Nob Hill are very friendly; they did not mind our film shoot. One middle age Asian woman thought her dog was a kid, as she swung her dog on the swing. Tourist and regulars with their exotic dogs walked by, the bells from Grace Cathedral rang out, today is Sunday, as churchgoers run up the stairs for service. Parking is illusive in San Francisco, the church provides parking for their guest at a bargain price of $11, I indicate “bargain”, parking in SF can easily exceed $40 a day. And that $8,000 a month apartment does not include parking, that is another $300 to $400 a month. This is what makes SF such an expensive place to live.

We move to our next location, a park on Greenwich Street called the George Sterling Memorial Park, just off of Hyde Street. The park has tennis courts and a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The parking lot is on a suicide slope, normally I would go all the way forward and then cut my wheel hard left, the incline was so steep, I felt the motor home would continue to go forward and not stop until the front of the RV collided with the wall in front of me. I decided to stay put, we only had two shots and then we would wrap for the day, I cloaked my rear wheels. The sun was slowly starting to set, in a magnificent hues of orange and yellow, in the center of the Golden Gate Bridge was the sun fading to black. Two crew members guided me out of Greenwich Street, and onto Hyde St, a street famous for the San Francisco cable cars, since I was backing up, I needed my guides to block traffic for me and watch the rear end of the RV. A car decides to enter the park just as I back up, bad idea; my spotters dissuade the driver from that thought. I carefully pull out into the busy street, blocking traffic for a moment, I pull forward, I made the maneuver in one arc, damn I’m good.

I engage the exhaust brake, as I navigate the roller coaster like streets of San Francisco, in fifteen minutes we arrive back at the Palomar Hotel on 4^th street, I drop off my crew and head back to my base in Oakland.

Technology and Me

Dear Reader

When I first started working in the entertainment industry some twenty-five years ago, the world was analogue. In the last ten years, at least from the photography world, I have seen film slowly disappear and digital become the norm. Most commercials, music video, TV and features are shot and edited in the digital format.

My job as a transportation vender has changed too; I had to learn to embrace technology to ascertain the needs of my clients. WiFi is a necessity, wireless printing and remote faxing is expected. In the “old days” the late 1990’s, Motorola had an analogue phone that was connected to an inverter at the handset an RJ 11 connected the phone to a fax machine. The system worked, the phone line was not stable, and one had to resend a fax several times, especially if the signal was weak. Today we use Tulare, a digital to analogue inverter. It is the only unit I am aware of that allows analogue signal converted from a digital signal. When I approached the cellular companies regarding such a device, “they” referred me to “Kinko’s”, they did not understand the needs of the entertainment industry, the “industry” shoots in remote locations. Faxing original documents is essential in some cases, especially when one needs a signature. PDF and jFax are changing that need, however, there are times when an original document is important, and that document needs to be sent or received. Matt from Hot Spots (818 340 5481) handles my technology needs, specifically wireless. In the mid 2000’s we used an archaic device known as the junction box, it was green, with two LAN ports (networking ports) with a Verizon PCI card installed, the card used the older 2G network protocol, the best speed I was able to achieve was 500 kilobits per second. The average speed was more like 200 kilobits per second, considerably faster than a 56K modem, but if you had three or more computers on the same network, the network would come to a crawl.

Today there are a number of routers on the market, my personal favorite is the Cradlepoint; Cradelpoint makes several different devices, from the PHS300 Personal WiFi Hotspot to the more robust MRB1000 Mobile broadband ‘N’ Router, which I have. To be able to access the web almost anywhere is essential, I still feel there is a way to go in terms of getting true broadband speeds. I am hoping Verizon, AT & T, Sprint roll out their 4G networks soon, with nation wide coverage, even in remote locations. I might be dreaming, but the cellular carriers brag about the speed of their networks, but when I can access the internet from a third world country at T 3 speed, something is wrong, at best on location I can barely achieve 1 megabits.

I regress, technology has allowed productions to connect with their offices, download their files in almost real time, video conferencing, and access the web from a smart phone or a computer. My job description has changed too, not only am I a motor home driver/owner, but I am IT consultant in a loose sense. I need to understand my network and assists my clients get online, and stay updated on emerging technology, like the Apple iPad and other products. Fortunately, I know a lot of smart people who keep me apprise of the new technology. I do not consider, nor am I a trained IT engineer, but I understand how my wireless and non-wired networks work. I learned something as simple as inadequate amount of RAM installed on a computer, can prevent someone from wireless printing.

In today’s world it is what you know that separates you from the competition.

El Mirage Aviation Warehouse

Dear Reader

Aviation Warehouse in El Mirage, California; is acres and acres of everything aviation, from helicopters, to mock-ups, all sorts of planes from prop driven planes to jets. There are burned out shells of military and commercial aircraft, even a Russian helicopter used in the Tom Hanks movie “Charlie Wilson War”. I could not stray to far because I had a job to do, which is to stay with my motor home and help out the crew.

My call time was 6 in the morning, according to Google Maps, an hour and half drive from North Hollywood, my base. I decided to give myself twice that time to play it safe, I am glad I did, there was a five car pile up on the I-14. I arrived at the yard at 4:45 AM and pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the crew. Mark the owner of Aviation Warehouse and a friend, arrived at 5:30, and opened the gate. I hung out with Mark until the crew arrive about forty-five minutes latter, the Producer was surprise to see me waiting for them, but I explained I missed the accident because I left at 3:15, she was impressed. Because the yard has soft sand, I decided it was safer to remain on the shoulder of the road, which has steel grating. I am glad I listened to my instincts; one of the big five-ton trucks got stuck in the sand. My motor home weighs 34,000 pounds or 17 tons; I am always skeptical when driving on terrain that is questionable and with good reason.

The sun was slowly starting to rise over the foothills, revealing snow on the San Gabriel Mountains to the south. There was an abundance of life all around, desert flowers were blooming, a creek that was normally dry, had water flowing. One could hear coyotes in the background, and birds of prey flying above. Aviation Warehouse is not really a warehouse in the sense that it is not a big building, rather it is acres of fenced off open land with every imaginable plane and helicopters, and as I wrote many are striped down and some are whole.

After I knew my crew was set up, I decided it was time to explore the grounds, of course I had my camera and I took a ton of pictures. Since I am aviation illiterate, Mark guided me through the grounds and explained to me what I was looking at. For instance that helicopter next to my motor home look like an Apache helicopter to me, but it was a Russian attack helicopter.

The interesting thing about movie magic is the use of static objects. This is where blue screen or green screen (known as Chroma key, a technique that takes two images, one image is removed usually the background and another image is added) composing comes into play. One of the shots involved the talent flying a plane, the cost to rent a plane, the pilot and other such cost would have been expensive, a simple green screen and a composite shot, one has the picture.

I had a chance to do a little skydiving with some friends; it is the latest fad, skydiving without a parachute. I positioned myself at the end of the ramp, the green screen in front of me, and I jumped. A second latter I touched ground, this was the most exhilarating feeling, of course the plane was only a few feet off the ground, but for a few spilt seconds I was airborne. My feet touched the ground, the audience applauded me, or were they applauding that truck driver who finally gets his pick-up out of the deep sand. On film I would look like I had actually jump out of plane thousands of feet off the ground.

The day was coming to an end, the director got his shots, “it’s a wrap,” he says. Suddenly a whirlwind of activity ensues. Men and women scurry to put their equipment back into their trucks and cars. Since I am driving the production motor home I will be the last to leave. It is expected, the first to arrive, the last to leave, fortunately it will not be dark when I leave, the location has an easy turn around point, therefore I will not need a spotter to assist me when the producer allows me to wrap.

If you are interested at shooting at Aviation Warehouse or you need aeronautical props call Mark 760.388.4215. For multiple day shoots at this location or nearby El Mirage Dry Lakebed, Victorville is about thirty minutes south/east and has excellent lodging and restaurant accommodations. At the intersection of highway 395 and Palmdale Rd there is a grocery store and eating establishments. For film permits and more information call Sheri Davis 951.779.6700 ext. 231 or Dan Taylor at 951.779.6700 ext. 223.