Break a Leg

Editor's Note: If you haven't seen it yet (because I haven't had time to post the blog), what Chad speaks of below is the newest Conversation entitled, "Jen-Avenge" where Jennifer demands justice by challenging David to a duel.

Check it out on YouTube (where we ask you to please, please, please favorite, comment, rate, and subscribe) or right here on our website, under Episodes.

Enjoy and here's the blog:

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Well, as you can see, we've been busy here, at Break a Leg.  Let me tell you what the shooting of the recent conversation Jen-Avenged consisted of:

First, let me re-iterate that I am a whiner and let people know when I feel put-upon.  Now, I usually try to convey that I am kidding when I do this, because I really really am, but I know it doesn't always seem that way.  Anyway...

 It was early Saturday evening when I headed over to the Swambler house to work on the script and the fight choreography for the next day's shoot.  I was planning on spending the night at the house because we were going to get up really early to go shoot.  I pointed out to Yuri that I was giving up gaming with my pirate crew to come do this so he had to get good and drunk with me.  We worked on the script, we had some dinner, we had some drinks, and then we deicided to go play with swords.  The guys live half a block from the VA Hospital in San Francisco and they have a nice big lawn, so we decided to go there are work on our moves.

So this is the scene: a couple of increasingly less-sober guys standing on the edge of a government-owned lawn around ten at night weilding swords at each other.  I should point out that these swords are part of my personal collection and are just for show: they have no sharp edges.  They are also pretty shiney and fancy looking, because you have to have style.

Suddenly a bright light flashes and a voice over loud speaker says in a not-exactly polite way "Drop the weapons and get down on the ground!" We all just kind of froze. The increasingly impolite voice continued his mantra and I heard Yuri say "Is he serious?"  Turns out he was.  Two other vehicles showed up, not black and whites like first, but a couple of trucks with only marginally less official looking gentlemen than our primary spokesman.  They told us we could sit up, took our IDs and asked us just what the hell we thought we were doing.  We confessed to being actors and were working on a scene.  Some of the iron came out of their postures at this and one guys even confessed to having done some bit roles with a few community theater outfits.  I was afraid he was going to start trying to re-enact one of his lines.  Finally they let us go with the belated blatantly obvious admonition of "don't swordfight on government property."

So we went back inside and wilded the night away.

Suddenly somebody was shaking me.  Wow, was it 5am already?  Yes.  Yes, it was.  We got up, showered and generally prepared to get on with the days work.  My mind still wasn't quite awake at this point.  It would only occur to me later that getting only two hours of sleep before a physically demanding shoot was a really dumb thing to do.  We rolled out, got coffee and pastries, and headed up to the Marin Headlands to get to work. 

 If you have never had the opportunity to explore the Marin Headlands, you are missing out on some seriously awesome childhood fun and some pretty amazing vistas.  See, there's all these bunkers and stuff left over from World War II.  There are also some absolutely stunning views of the Bay Area.  It's all a National Park so it's open to the public to go and check out and take pictures of to put in the scrap book.

What it ISN'T open for is people to stand around thinking about filming something for an independent project.  After having been there for about an hour or so, while we're still working on choreography and running up and down stairs, before we've even shot a single second of footage: a park ranger shows up and gives us a ticket for something along the lines of Conspiring To Perform Actions Requiring A Permit Without Having A Permit.  Which is, to use the indecadent street patois of Jimmy Scotch: curse word.

So, we thought about where else we might go do the scene.  I suggested the rolling foothills of Terra Linda, a suburb of San Rafael.  After stopping for some food and sunscreen, and then tromping around in poison oak for about an hour (good call, Jen) we couldn't find a place that worked.  Then Justin aka Chase suggested a place he knew in the Novato just up the street from where he grew up.  This, Finally, turned out to be a great place to shoot. 

We shot for 5 hours.  By the end of that time I could barely lift the 10lb saber I was swinging so wildly at David.  At various points throughout the shoot, Yuri almost impaled Dashiell, Mint felt like he was going to throw up, I could barely stand let along swing a sword, and Tacho started trying to hit on a turkey.

Editor's Note: I did almost impale Dashiell and it was a little terrifying. I was standing under the tree branch and he was sitting on top of it. I had the sword out, waiting to rehearse some of the moves when Dash decides it'd be a good idea to SWING down toward me -- not realizing I'm there. As he swings, we both realize in the span of a milisecond that the tip of the sword I'm holding is pointed right at his belly. At literally, the last second, I manage to move the sword sideways so it grazes his side. We laughed and joked but for a good moment there I was in mild shock because I think I came, literally, within a second of running him through.

Ohh, swords are fun!

Don't try this at home, kids. Back to your regularly scheduled blog...

 Then it was time to go home.  By this time we were so far from where we originally intended to shoot that we were actually closer to my house.  But Smart me: I had ridden with somebody else thinking it would be easier to shoot in the city and then just grab my car and drive home.  Now we had to drive for 20 minutes just to get to where my house is, then another 30 minutes to get back to the Swambler house where my car was parked, then drive another 30 minutes to get back home.

Blessedly, there was beer when I got there.

 And now, your weekly EvsG...