CSI Miami

I dread “upscale” gigs with my Viper. I absolutely dread them. I may have an upscale car, but I am very far from being an upscale person. I can eek out hip and trendy or business casual, but upscale makes me very nervous.

And apparently, on this particular show, they needed everyone in yellow, green or white… Three colors I just don’t own. The only green I’m inclined to wear on a regular basis is camoflage. The only yellow I have are three car T-shirts and an electric yellow, long skirt suit from 1986–with shoulder pads like a football player. And white…well, I’ve got tons of T-shirts and a few ugly, draping polyester dresses from the late 70s-early 80s. (Think Falcon Crest…Dallas…Dynasty…yeah, eww is right!)  So, when I had to come up with something for this gig, I was utterly terrified and lacked a helluva lot of confidence in what I was wearing let alone what I brought and I just really felt like the gods were conspiring against me.

But the casting director said production was more interested in our cars than in us…so maybe I wouldn’t get yelled at by wardrobe, hair and makeup people for not having what the call required. Good golly, I was hoping so…

I showed up. I parked. We all waited for awhile. We moved our cars. We lined up so the director could pick and choose who was going to walk through frame. (I silently did cartwheels in my head because I knew I wasn’t going to be used. I didn’t look anything like the other people there.) I of course wasn’t chosen, but they loved my car. We moved our cars again and they wanted my Viper right in front. We ate.

After lunch, the Director, AD (Assistant Director) and DP (Director of Photography) were so excited about my car (some of the crew even thought it was a production vehicle, not a background car!) that they had me put it in a different spot so they could do this really great dolly shot along the side of it.

I love it when whatever car I bring inspires the production guys. I absolutely love it. Of course, that means my car can never be seen again because it got a close-up, but whatever. It’s always fun to see the guys get excited. “Can you put your car over here and I’m gonna do this dolly shot and sweep up from here so we can see your car there and be able to get all this other stuff in frame and it’s gonna look really neat and thank you for bringing it because this is gonna be awesome…”

Of course, that’s always the first shot of the day and my car gets to be in deep background the rest of the day. Not that I’m complaining. I just see a pattern and think it’s a blessing and a curse every time it happens.

So, needless to say, after moving my car out of frame for the second shot, all I did was sit in holding and read a great book about Medieval life. I got about half way through it because it was so awesome I didn’t want to put it down.

Next, we were signed out and I went home…taking somewhat of a long way because I’d seen my fair share of traffic this past week and didn’t want to sit in any more even if that meant circumnavigating the globe to get home. Plus, I was in a friggin’ Viper. It doesn’t do 5mph willingly!

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