Day 167

167/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

Today Tony, Kyle and I went to Pismo Beach for a commercial shoot and met some really cool people (and some rad dogs).  
Random House hired us to make a trailer for one of their new books, The Running Dream. The book is about a young girl, Jessica, who is a track star and must overcome some pretty big obstacles after an accident. Part of the project involved interviewing the author, Wendelin Van Draanen, who lives in Pismo. So the three of us grabbed a ton of gear (we were over prepared, which was really nice), piled into Tony's car and hit the road. After an hour and a half of good conversations and a few rap battles, we exited the freeway. Then we started wondering what this mystery person was going to be like. We knew what her book was about, and what kind of books she wrote, but we didn't know much about her. 


We learned quickly enough, though. After we finally found her house, we pulled down a long driveway and were greeted by her amazing view. 





We stretched our legs and took it all in. We didn't even have time to knock on the door, though. Wendelin, out of excitement (or maybe nervousness), came out to greet us. As soon as I saw the pink strands in her hair I knew it was going to be a good day. She was a ball of energy from the get go, and told us the story about how she came to live in her house. Then she graciously brought us in and gave us a tour. 


For the next 3 hours or so we took the place over. We created a mini-studio set-up in one room for an interview (with some beautiful lighting, might I add), and then moved into Wendelin's office to shoot some more B-roll. The interview was awesome just to listen to, I love hearing someone creative talk about their work, especially when they are so passionate. I felt like I got some privileged insight into the novel (I'm actually excited to read it, I can't wait for finals to be over).  Seeing Wendelin's office was cool, too. She borrowed a couple of prosthetic legs from one of her friends that we got to check out, which were sweet. 


While we were in there, I was looking down, adjusting some settings on the camera. She didn't think I was looking, so she stuck her tongue out at me. What she didn't know was that I'm a quick draw with a camera, and before she could look away I caught her. Surprise!





After all that, we went to a nearby campground to shoot her running with her dogs. I've never seen a whippet before, but these dogs were pretty awesome. They were really calm and really sweet, and they had this awesome speckled-tan coloring that I've never seen before.  To shoot the running we had a kind of mini-steadicam called a merlin (it's that weird curved thing the camera is on). It balanced the camera in space so that it wouldn't jiggle, but I needed a way to keep up with Wendelin running while still being able to pull focus/frame my shot/make sure it was smooth. So I hopped on my skateboard I started pumping away. I'm guessing it was pretty funny to watch, but the shots turned out awesome.


The coolest part of the shoot was, by far, picking Wendelin's brain. I want to do something creative with my life, so it was nice to see someone who has been successful at it. The main thing I took from our conversations is that she stuck with it. It took her ten years and more than a couple of books before she got published, and before that she worked as a school teacher (teaching math, no less!). I'm really starting to think if you do something well, and you do it for long enough, you are eventually bound to get noticed. 

Wendelin and the rest of her family were the most gracious hosts. They indulged all of our curiosities (their house is filled with old cameras, which I immediately fell in love with, and they had a working phonograph which they played for us). She even took some time to autograph some books for us, which was really kind of her to do. It was just such a great experience, and definitely an awesome way to spend a Sunday. It beat studying for finals by a long shot.



All said and done, this was an awesome shoot. I got to hang out with some of my friends, I got paid to do something I love, it wasn't stressful at all, I met an awesome family, and I learned a ton. And, to top it all off, on the way home we stopped and got some delicious clam chowder, and since we wrapped on time I made it home to catch some football!




I'll be sure to post the trailer here when I finish it!