Looking around the bend, I have zero visibility. Cars are coming out of the tunnel at high speed and they cannot see me either. Traffic is intense... I wait for a small break so I can attempt to run across this three lane road.... fast as I can... Chances of getting hit are 2 to 1...  Am I pushing it too far? I take a deep breath, and tell myself "I'll be just fine"

Boy, I sure hope Johnny Callaway was right about this.

Earlier that day - 3PM - Carlos lands in my day job's parking lot. A young, laid back fellow with a nice smile, he is from Milan and freshly arrived in LA. I am glad he was able to make it at a moment's notice because I need to finish nailing the last two shots of this scene so I can return the car trailer to David. This morning I drove the tundra, towing the deuce, to work. People in my office building must be talking about me... They must think I'm nuts.

They are probably right .

"What's that weird girl up to now?" says Claudia on the third floor, to her co-worker Janice. They both drive SUV (or perhaps Mini vans or even station wagons), have husbands and kids. Apparently, women are from Venus and Faith is from Jupiter . Jupiter is a good planet. Lots of thunder there .

Back to Marco. Jerry arrives and we pack Marco in his car and we promptly depart. We are racing against time (NOoooo.... Let me put my surprise look on - REALLY???) LOL... Today we must nail a tunnel shot on a very busy road and at rush hour no less. Oh and did I mention I am supposed to be the only car on that road, during the 6 second shot?

This is gonna be a long day.

We pull in to the side of the road before reaching the tunnel. I debrief the troops. This battle may get a bit bloody I explain. I am not sure what the situation is gonna be at the tunnel... And whether there is a way to plant a camera there... So let's check it out.

THE TUNNEL

"DAMN" As I look at the road and tunnel, the obvious hits me like a ton of bricks (LARGE bricks)... There is no side walk, no shoulder and the side is a steep slope, not a spot to place a camera and cameraman on the side of this road. This is the point where most people would have called it a day, but not me. I'll be darn if I am going to go home with my tail between my legs. When there's a will, there's got to be a way.

"I'm gonna go scope it out, You guys stay here, where it's safe"

To scope it out I will have to cross that road and run up the side of the road up to the tunnel. I will have to run fast because cars are driving up the windy road at a very fast speed. Some even think it is fun to RACE up that road. Litterally. Crossing is very dangerous and running up to the tunnel is no better.

I finally see a small break between cars and make a go for it. Running as fast as I can I end up on the other side and up to the tunnel, desperately looking for a safe spot to land, so I can get my ass out of the traffic's way.

Finally a little flat spot in the hill. There is not enough room for two people to stand, but for one camera and a man, it should do.  Yes... The angle and distance are right, this WILL WORK !!  - If I can get my cameraman and filming rig here  in one piece, that is...

And so it was that Marco and I ran across the curve and made it alive to the other side and then up to the little spot, with all the gear. We then quickly set up the camera, I picked my lens, adjusted exposure, shutter speed, framing etc and explained to Marco what I had in mind. then I left him there in his little safe spot and ran back across the road... ("Why did the chiken run across the road? Cause it was probably making a film LOL)

For the shoot, I will have to cross back and forth and run up and down that road no less than 10 times !! I keep thinking I am going to get hit by a car today, that I am crazy, that I should give up... But find myself runnning across the road once again... With near zero visibility.

 THIS SUCKS!

Oh but that's not the only thing that sucks today. Today, I also have to drive through that tunnel no less than 20 times, trying to time myself in between heavy traffic. I even time the nearby traffic lights to figure out how much time I have in between red lights to attempt one clean run. Meanwhile, Marco is also sweating bullets. He has a challenging shot to do and his pan must be perfect. 

I have to turn around twice each pass, and both places I am turning around at are illegal turns.  I risk having a car plow into my rig and my deuce on it... Oh boy oh boy... I am not enjoying myself.

To time the shot, we have our walkie talkies.

Murphy's law: The lack of reception of communication devices will be proportionate to how badly you need to communicate.

Needless to say in our case, we desperately need to coordinate the shot and have ZERO reception, neither with walkie talkies nor cell phones.

 X 2

Each time I turn around, I have to back up the trailer into narrow residential streets and hope to not have a car plow into me. Fortunately, I'm good at towing. Heck if I don't make it as a filmmaker, I can now apply for a big rig driver job. Yeah, that's on top of my moving company job : I'm gonna be rich!! HAHA!

But then again, I'll probably kill myself today on this road, so I won't need any job at all .

Each pass we take, we run into a problem. Usually, a modern car will sneak into the shot. It is now 5PM and there are cars everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE.

This is going to be a looooong shoot.

Pass after pass, we try and pass after pass, we FAIL.

Jerry offers to go down and keep an eye on upcoming traffic, while I have the downhill traffic figured out to a T, cause of the red light pattern.

JERRY - "OK Faith, I have a red light down here now... There's a silver BMW coming up your way and it is clear after that.. I repeat CLEAR" ... Of course his message sounds more like: "OK Faith keiruygf We are fgherigf dfruihtr after dfkhsgh BMW hjgfdurtyr" because reception sucks.

But I think I got the idea, so after the silver BMW, I make it a go.

Oh wait. I forgot to mention that for the shot to look good I will have to drive in the MIDDLE of the two lane road, meaning, be neither in one lane or the other... And no matter how much I floor the Tundra, it is afterall towing a trailer and deuce up hill and little shit cars with grouchy office job people in them are catching up to me before I get inside the tunnel. And they can't figure out why the hell I am driving in the middle of the road, taking up all the space and ...

"You #%^%$$$^% ###  !!!"

They yell at me, eloquently, using elaborate words I am not at liberty to repeat on this fine blog site...

Some give me the finger. Others just honk and yell... Usually I would be upset but I honestly don't give a rat's hemoroidal ass right now. I simply DON'T CARE. I only have ONE THING on my mind  and that is to

GET THE SHOT.

ME: "WHAT?"

MARCO (repeating himself on the cell): "I said we got the shot!"

ME: "Are you sure?

MARCO: "Yes!"

Another suicide run across of the road and up to the camera confirms my hopes.

WE GOT THE SHOT!!!!!!!!!!   

And we are both still alive to celebrate!

The celebration takes place at the local mall. Food court, cause we're poor. We are poor but happy. We got the shot... Oh yeah!!!!!!!! WE GOT THE SHOT.

And I am alive to tell the tale!

After the quick dinner break, we head out to get a night shot. This one will be very easy, not much traffic where we are filming. Ironically, I set up my camera in front of a film school LOL...

Showing once again that the only real film school is out here in the street, DOIN IT.

Oh YEAH.

Below: A shot that could have claimed our lives.