Did a commercial over the last few days. Now normally, a commercial shoot can be tough, but not like this. Most the time, things go great IF you have a professional production company. Let’s see, where do I begin?
I can’t mention the client right now, but we shot in Van Nuys and Glendale in over 100 degree heat with a 1st AD (Assistant Director) that seemed to get his jollies out of yelling at people. ‘Scuze me, did I say yelling? I meant to say “Lecturing,” THEN yelling.
When you do a commercial, there are key things that are essential. Like, if something goes wrong, there has to be a Medic on set. By law. UNLESS, the production is too cheap to pay for one and not tell anyone. Mistake #1.
Then, in the heat (and wonderful air from all the fires we’re having) using the yelling tactic to get people to do what you need them to do only makes them do it worse forming the stress, and…. Mistake #2.
Then, people started to get hurt.
Grip Dood #1 slices his head open in a grip truck on a piece of steel. Ouch. Off to the hospital. Grip Dood #2 breaks his wrist doing grip stuff. Ouch. Off to the hospital again. Stunt Actor gets stung in the mouth by a bee in his 7up. Lip swells to gargantuan proportions. Out for the count. Am I done? Oh, no… not even close.
Actor #2, playing a scene on the tennis court gets nailed by a tennis ball,.. close to his OWN balls. Gets pissed, walks off the set. “Why is the Director beaning me with balls?” …was his only comment. That was after he threw a key prop up into a tree to retrieve a frisbee, only to have that key prop get stuck 20 feet up. THEN, he gets bitten by a red ant on the hand. You startin’ to see a pattern?
Am I done? No. Not just yet. Lead Actor #1 is setting up a scene as a food stylist walks up to heat a piece of food on a table set with a steamer. A steamer shoots out scalding hot steam to instantly heat food. Sometimes water. And in this case, a lot of water. And,… as she trips towards the table….
Water shoots out of the tip and lands on the arm of Lead Actor #1!! Giving him 2nd degree burns! Off to the hospital. And what did I do as all this was happening over 2 days? And what does this have to do with cars?
Nice Lincoln, eh? Sweet.
So, the guys at the 2010 DIECAST SUPER CONVENTION want me to invade and spread car goodness… and cause a wee bit of nasty trouble. …Well, twist my leg, yo. AND…. I’m off to Vegas in February!! If you want to come to SinCity and get in on the insane car cool culture too….
…Then, DO IT. Hotel info and all that stuff is in the links. Let’s do coffee.
For the longest time, green vehicles have been associated with ugliness. Although, social consciousness has risen quite a bit, there’s still room for design aesthetic to marriage with green. And so with that in mind, off we went to PLUG IN 2009 to see what was being done.
The primary focus of the show was infrastructure. (How will the world change to fit the need of green vehicles?) There were a lot of really great solutions and great things to look at, although as I said, still plenty of room for the “cool factor.” I was really impressed with what we saw there. Here’s some goodies…
Plug In retrofits for the Prius at only $900.00. With additional battery life! Electric HUMMERS! Long Beach, Sacramento, Santa Monica new infra-structure for Electric cars. Electric Grid delivery systems. Chevy Volt systems. Home Plug in’s for 2010. Nissan, MINI and Honda Electric Cars. A great Electric Truck with a unique look….. kinda. A new concept vehicle is called the IDEA. (Fleet leaders and industry experts were given a preview of the IDEA on April 8, 2009, at a customer reveal.)
All in all, PLUG IN 2009 was a real success with a real purpose. check out their website and get an education. There’s no point now at hiding under a rock. The automotive industry is going green. Either get in the game, or sit on the bench.
Interesting stuff going on. As I write this (and listen to Alter Bridge), I ponder design in general. And that brings me to the question, “What the hell does ponder really mean anyway?” Like, do people really use this word still? I’m Pondering…. Maybe we should send it to the JunkYard for words? Like, “heathen,” “thou,” or maybe “economy.” (If I hear the word economy one more time, I’m gonna start an Uzi revolt.)
Wait. Ok, where am I? OH! Car Domain!! DESIGN OF THE WEEK!!! RIGHT!!! Here we go…
1. THE BENTLEY MULSANNE
Kinda expensive. Kinda luxurious. Kinda bad gas mileage. BAD ASS. This is the car you want to roll up to the beach in. 9′ Longboard on top. Trunk fulla wetsuits, sexwax and extra bikinis. …I’m just sayin.’
2. THE GT CROSSOVER CONCEPT
What IS this? …Um. …Ok, what can I say about this weird inline 2 seater? It’s kinda not right in a whole “not right” sorta way. BUT, you have to respect design. My cup ‘o hot chocolate may not be your cup o’ hot chocolate. And THIS? Is not my cup o’ hot chocolate.
3. THE LEATHERMAN WRATH
I like this, despite that fact that you can’t really tell exactly what it is. Part Cyborg, part Harley, part… hula hoop. It just looks bug-like and cool. And that, my friends, is what belongs on the street. BRING IT!
4. MY REACTOR NUCLEUS
Now, I just got this the other day from REACTOR. It’s so cool, it should be a car. (In fact, I think there’s a button that transforms it into a Ferrari California. Pretty sure.) But, this watch is a clear statement that automotive design affects ALL design. And that’s cool.
5. THE JAGUAR MARK 21 LIMO
Yes, Limo. And since it doesn’t look ANYTHING like a Jaguar, it’s fair game for my design dissection. But THIS, is the most cool cockroach car I’ve seen in a while. The doors gullwing up and you step inside to Jaguar heaven. And what IS Jaguar heaven? Ahhh,, …….gggrrrrrrrrrr….
6. SV9 COMPETIZIONE
Yes, in Italian, SV-9 means CORVETTE. Wait a tick… I think it actually means Bad Corvette. Or maybe Ripoff. I forget. At any rate, the Corvette,… uh, I mean SV-9, looks sweet. So sweet, that it reminds me of a car that the late GM use to build before they imploded. Now,… what WAS the name of that car? It was like a bird, or a fish. Started with a “C,” I think….
Oh, yea. Corvette.
Cold. Harsh …and Scary. Like my Garage.
Over the weekend, it was my buddy Mike’s birthday. So, we grabbed a hold of him and headed to Duke’s in Malibu for some chow via a shiny classic. Only to find more shiny classics!
But, the thing about Mike is that he loves cars and loves to surf. And when someone loves things like surfing that much, then good things happen. Case in point? As we sat down to a cozy nooked table at Duke’s Barefoot Bar, up walked a legend. Ladies and Gents…
Gidget.
Yes, sitting right with us for about 15 minutes was the one and only “real” Gidget from the 50’s. We sat and swapped surf stories, classic cars and life at the beach in the heyday of the Beach Boys. It was awesome.
Now, I’ve been surfing since about ‘91, so by no means an expert, but to have this happen on your birthday was a real treat for Mikey. And he’s been a beach bum forever! But also, Gidget is the reason that my wife, Kathie, started surfing in 1965. (She’s to the left, next to our buddy, Bob. Bob’s a sculptor in the movie business.)
So, it was cool to sit with a legend of the beach, have a veggie burg and cruise the classics.
What a spectacular event!
This past Friday was “THE WORLD FAMOUS MALIBU GOLF CLASSIC” where hundreds of people converged for fun, golf, cars and babes. Hollywood Stars even rose from the grave to attend this puppy! And with great sponsors like REACTOR WATCHES, LEI LANA, DUKES OF MALIBU and BIOMETICS, the festivities rocked.
There was a performance by the hot new artist Hannah Mulholland, Megastar Humphrey Bogart (Celebrity Impersonator, John Tobin) and a slew of MOVIE CARS from the bad boys of STAR CAR CENTRAL. They brought in cars from Starsky and Hutch, Herbie, Vanishing Point and Adam 12.
All in all, a wild event with Golf Kart Drifting and awesome play action. A “Fireball Tim’s WORLD OF CARS” episode will appear here in the coming weeks, but check out last year’s episode here.
The new episode will have all the golf, drifting and a few completely outta control Golf Karters… (Yes, I’m serious.) Big thanks to all who attended and made a huge difference for the charity!!
If you can’t see the gallery of photos, click here.
Or heaven as the case may be….
I was talking with my super cool Webguy, Don Burnside, the other day, mentioning how I spend a lot of time talking with people online. Hundreds actually. And when you deal with that many people, things have to go easy. Really easy.
But, some of the ASN’s (Automotive Social Networks) suck bigtime. (Check Don out btw, he’s awesome if you need a lightning fast and easy website!) It can be frustrating to find a network that is cool, and with cool cars, …and is USER FRIENDLY. The last thing you need is to see a really sweet ride and want to make a really sweet comment …only to have the network do a brain fart.
Yea, I know it’s a complex concern, but there IS an answer…
I stick with the ones that work good and fast, are designed well so that I can see the bitchin’ machines easily, and especially the ones where the people have good attitudes. My favorites are,… the newbie FUELTOPIA in Europe, STREETFIRE and Facebook. And of course, right smack here at Car Domain. (Come by and check out the others, though.)
Fueltopia is a great group of folks that love cars and causin’ a wee bit of trouble across the pond. Some seriously cool rides, but a great interface that’s easy and fun to use. Streetfire has the best videos on the web, including crashes and all around stupid car tricks and Facebook is just plain easy to use and to create a page. For yourself or even for your car! And that’s Cool.
Sharing your rides is the culture. People love to be inspired by car coolness, which is a big reason why I like meeting people and experiencing their passions. get your ride online and show it to the world. It’s what we do.
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