I just arrived in Los Angeles after 3 weeks in Vancouver where not only did I teach body percussion, advanced tap and hip hop, but ended up extending my stay to shoot an instructional poi spinning DVD with Too Much Fun Pictures Inc.. And wow... just wow. The past week of my life has been one long extended state of bliss where every day I wonder how I get so lucky to do all the things I do! First of all, Too Much Fun is a top notch film company. The director is the most sought after steady camera operator in Vancouver television and film. He and his business partners, Tirra and Graham, all happen to be raw foodists! So I stay with them in their gigantic house way up in the picturesque Vancouver mountains, eating raw food, choreographing and scripting during the day, and holding production meetings during the wee morning hours when they are home from work. Cliff owns all his own equipment (obviously) and we shot two full 12 hour days this weekend where the first day, in the studio, we had - count them: four cameras on every shot including him on steady cam and a full-on crane (the one that does those huge aerial swoops - it took three people to operate and looked like a living dinosaur when it honed in on you). They made me look like a movie star! The 15 person crew were out of this world accommodating, patient and enthusiastic to work a great shoot. I think they had fun on this particular project too - craft services were all raw, so I know everyone was feeling gooood. The next day we filmed fire in a skateboard park. Two saucy BC fire spinners, Steve and Natalie and I toughed out the Canadian November weather - none of us had ever seen ice on fire equipment before that nite. Then (drum roll please....) I arranged to shoot possibly the most well known, most talented fire spinner in this hemisphere; Nick Woolsey. Yes, I am star struck and he will be on my DVD! Finally, after two hours of sleep, I hopped a plane to Los Angeles where another unknown adventure now begins.

The best part of the entire story is we did this all in only 2 weeks time. I'm not even kinda kidding.

0 comments Links to this post