Asheville shoot: Saturday

Saturday:
Call was 7:30am Saturday. Everyone was up and ready to roll on time. On the way to Biltmore Estate we stopped and had a bite to eat at the only McDonalds that has a baby grand piano in the dining room. Chuck gets me an iced Starbuck’s from across the street like a true pal. Our first task is to shoot the Land Rover Experience Driving School so quickly we’re on our way through the gates of the largest privately owned estate in the country. I’ve always enjoyed signing wavers negating the place you’re visiting any wrong doing in your untimely demise or unforeseen dismemberment and this was our first requirement of the morning. In short order we were ready to go after loading our two Land Rovers with gear and people. The Land Rovers were completely stock from the showroom floor and we took them through what I thought was some really nasty areas. We shot two cameras in each vehicle and I held a mini DV getting the driver talking. The LR’s were shot traversing 45 degree left and right facing slopes and climbed equally impressive earthen ramps. We even took the LR’s down a really nasty and muddy, rock and stump bed, it was really cool to see the windshield filled with trail one second and then filled with an unrecognizable path the next. Our lead driver had another tour at noon so we got back to flat ground and did his interview and head back. At noon I introduced the crew to Sarah Thomas the PR manager we’re talking with for our next set up. In the movie Being There Peter Sellers closes the movie by walking on water below the Biltmore House. This was the location for our shoot. Sarah was doing a small piece on the wine at Biltmore Estate and this ended up being one of the set looking set ups of the entire shoot. Sarah stood at beside a small table with some wines and the Estate rested on the hillside just above her shoulder as natural light splattered through the wide deciduous canopy. We wrapped this location in no time and had some lunch. It seams that several of my guys hadn’t seen the Biltmore house so we were allowed to do a drive by. We obviously hadn’t paid so we wouldn’t be allowed into the house but we had free range over the grounds. We took just under two hours to explore some of the gardens, gift shops and grounds and headed back to GPI. Around five we were loading our golf carts and watching the rain clouds gather overhead. We had some frustrating audio issues racing against the impending rain but were able to cover some ground. On number five a key hole in the story the rain finally chased us in doors. We decided to meet in the Great Hall and regroup. We had busted our butts for two days and no one was in the mood to fight rain capturing scenic happenings in downtown Asheville lugging around some $40K worth of moisture sensitive equipment. Once everyone made it to the hall I called that nights shoot off. Everyone relaxed and my waitress took a $14 dollar tip for my freshly delivered ale, without my consent. Scott and I talked about this waitress and developed her plan to its full extent of shucking us of all of our money one by one. We didn’t give her the chance and decided that it was time to eat. We lit out of the GPI and headed downtown. I’m not sure how long we wandered around because I decided that I was no longer the one in charge, at least until call the next morning. We ate at the Tupelo Honey Café and it was a dream. Lovely wait staff, delicious food, and a positively charged atmosphere made for a lovely introduction to the evening. I’ve since found out the place had been written up in Southern Living and the New York Times along with a slew of other periodicals. After our mass consumption of Nirvana like vittles it was time to find some music! Again we wandered a bit even getting some doormen to give our cover charge back because there was no place to sit in one place. We landed in the Asheville Barbeque Company and listened to the Nomadz until the house lights came on. Along the way we fended off the torrid advances of a drunken, nubile, dancing girl and the middle aged chain-smoking lady who was pushing the envelope of public copulation in-between nudging me for a new light. Sometime after 2:30am we closed the evening and set call for 7:30. The first rain shower ended up being the last not dropping much the rest of the night.