Sunday Filming

We filmed the "Ma Ubu and Gyro get chased by an angry mob" scenes today at the Connecticut Street Armory. Brian wisely asked permission beforehand, and the police officer who pulled up almost immediately to ask just what the hell we thought we were doing ended up sticking around for the duration of shooting. The combination of a small, strangely-dressed crowd, rolling video cameras, lit torches and police cruisers outside a military facility probably made passers-by think it was a poorly-timed political protest. Brian and Holly might disagree but I thought the shooting went quickly and smoothly, which is a very good thing because it was cold, especially after the sun set. We got several takes of each scene filmed. At one point, while running toward the camera to escape the angry mob, I heard a loud "whoosh!" behind me. It turns out that one of the tiki torch wicks had launched a good twenty feet into the air like a rocket. The air between the cannister and the holder had heated (and expanded), creating enough of a pressure difference with the outside air to launch it quite a distance. Fortunately the torch had been upright at the time. Any chances of it being a fluke were dispelled about a minute later when two of the other torch wicks launched simultaneously. That's when Holly put safety first and decided there would be no more running with tiki torches. I wasn't needed for the woods scenes so I watched from inside the heated car as they filmed Ma Ubu running from the still-angry mob. It looked great from what I could see and I think the finished video will be a lot of fun.