5 Days Down

And what a 5 days it was. There were ups and downs, but the most impressive and important thing is the camaraderie that I felt from everyone involved (until the last day that is... I'll get back to that). But what a wonderful team we managed to assemble. Grads, undergrads, pros, and folks that are just friends of friends... they all came through and helped me make my little movie... which feels like a big movie. With only two shooting days left, I'm very confident we'll get everything we need.

On to that whole "last day" thingy I mentioned up there yonder. Coming down the mountain from Garnett Ghost Town is not a hard road, but it is windy and CAN be dangerous. What it really is, though, it REMOTE with no cell phone reception. So, the person in the rear kind of depends on the people in the front to look out for them at the bottom. On this day, I was the last one down the hill. TO THAT END came my driver's side front tire blow out. BOOM!

I swerved a little and managed to pull the car over. Had I been on one of the switchbacks... shudder. So I got out of the car and waited. Surely the two cars not fifty yards ahead of me would stop for their captain... right? Wrong... off they went. Later I was informed by my producer that, at the bottom of the hill, he wondered where I was as he tore off onto the freeway.

So I waited. Nothing. I changed the spare tire at the risk of the car rolling on top of me from the incline. Got into the car and took off. Surely goodness and mercy would follow... no. The spare goes flat. I get out of my car. It's cold. The sun is going down. I'm in the middle of nowhere Montana and the crew I had praised not an hour earlier had left me for the buzzards.

By some strange twist of fate, I decide to look at my cell phone for the time and realize that I have ONE BAR OF RECEPTION! WOOHOO! I call my wife, she screams at my crew through MY cell phone, then leaves home to come get me.

Eventually we get the truck down the mountain and I'm safe at home. But guys... COME ON!!! I'm guessing my motto is leave no one behind and their's is "captain goes down with the ship!"