I’m such a tease.

Uh oh, you can find me on YouTube now…

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=mjm4621

We were all set to film Conan tonight but God had another plan. Sunday night we had filmed in a parking lot under the Loop 202 freeway and were supposed to pick it up tonight. When we got there, we were trapped. Even under a 5 or 6 lane highway, the wind and rain still got to the car. Luckily, we didn’t start setting up when the winds hit. Gaumont met us there a few minutes later and the 3 of us took refuge in his car.We stayed there for about half an hour before we headed back on the road back to Gaumont’s place. We saw lightning strike some sort of power device and shoot sparks about a quarter mile away. The lights of the Mill Avenue bridge also blacked out along with the park lights. And, when we tried to leave, we had down power lines (below) crossing our path. We took the long way out of the park.Driving home, we witnessed some crazy motha fuckin lightning that you have to see for yourself. Of course, I was rolling the entire storm. Wow, maybe Arizona can be fun.

The past week has been wicked busy. Amidst finishing up the filming for Conan, Mike and I decided to participate in this year’s 48-hour Phoenix Film Challenge upon being asked by a few of our film friends to join their team. Basically what happens is you are given a genre, a line, and a prop you have to use in your 3-minute film at 7PM Friday night and the final product is due back 7PM Sunday night to qualify for awards. Then, about a week later, they have a screening at the local Harkins theater and announce the winners who are then highlighted in the real Phoenix Film Festival in 2007.Tensions were running high, but some how Brian managed to make the deadline with exactly 1 minute to spare.Even with a huge accident.Tom and Tom were the leads. No, they didn’t plan on wearing the same exact thing that day. The Tom to the right is a local actor who acts in several plays and musicals around town and is also a member of the Early Bird Special sketch comedy troupe. Our genre, however, turned out to be horror/suspense. So, I asked all the cast and crew to give me their best scared/scary pose. And… well… just look at them.This one is particularly frightening.

I’m starting to think that all the unpleasantness ASU is/has caused me may not just be the sick and twisted coincidences and practical jokes the Fates seem to play on me. Really, I’m starting to think there’s someone hidden in the dark caverns 100 feet below the surface, playing his phantom organ, watching his monitors, waiting, watching, looking for me to step on campus. Then BAM! He strikes. It’s really the only reasonable explaination.

So here’s the story this time:

Decamp and I were visiting campus tonight around 9:30 PM looking for a dirty alley or an industrial looking corner to film Conan at. Not two minutes after we find the perfect place, a dark shadowy figure appeared behind us, smoking his cigarette, standing, watching. I felt a chill; the wind seemed to howl. I turned around, saw this man, and wondered: is he going to say something or just stand there, watching us? Finally, I turned to him.

“Good evening” I said.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“Just scouting out possible locations to shoot a short film.”

“You’re not allowed to take pictures.”

Sooner than you could say “f$(@& y(&% A$U” he had DPS on the phone, gave ‘em my description, and after about 15 minutes (great response time DPS), they showed up. I stuck out my hand to introduce myself. The cop hesitated for an akward minute (probably to make sure I didn’t have a magic-fun-buzzer hidden under my palm) and we exchanged a greeting. Of course, he was reasonable, rational, and understood what we were doing. He ran my ID just to make sure.

“Markowski. Molly Aardvark Reynolds Kitten Owl Wolly Sandwich Kitten Icecream… 10-4.”

Everything checked out (except the parking tickets). Just kidding. That’s at another college. He gave me back my ID and reassured us that it wasn’t illegal to take photos on campus (as the man who reported us had assumed because of all those “copyright rules”). I thanked the two of them for making sure we filmed on campus with permission.

“Always best to do things legit.” I said.

“You can imagine our concern–what with all the terrorism and all.”

The man gave us a phone number to call in morning regarding film permits and permission and we left. Okay, maybe my memory might be a little more biased than what really happened but that’s still what happened. Oh well, I was starting to think this project was going a little too smooth anyway. After all, we got kicked off locations far more times filming Hobos in Space than we have this……… so far.
Oh yeah, so Mike and I were scouting out locations for filming all day today. As always, check out the production photos at:

http://www.michaelmarkowski.com/images/conan/