On Thursday I got to the airport around 1 p.m. for my 2:20 flight and of course, it was delayed. About an hour after we were supposed to be in the air, they finally started boarding. Home free, right? Um … wrong again. Once about half of the plane was loaded an announcement was made that there was a mechanical issue and everybody would have to disembark while they fixed it, which would take about an hour. This is when panic began to set in. My connecting flight in Houston was leaving at 9:20, at the current rate, we weren't supposed to touch down until 9:45. I immediately got on the phone to my producer who connected me with their travel agent and we frantically tried to find a way to get me home and in my own bed that night. However, I quickly became resolved that it just wasn't going to happen and got booked on a back-up flight for the following morning. So, there I was standing in line with about 50 other people trying to get new boarding passes when they once again began boarding the plane. However this time there was a sense of emergency. It was now 4:15 and if the plane wasn't loaded by 4:30 the crew became "illegal." I had no idea what that meant, but I knew it must not be good, so I jumped out of line and got on board.
For the next three hours and 20 minutes I prayed my luck would continue and my connecting flight in Houston would be magically delayed. Once we touched the ground I ran to the first monitor and there it was … hallelujah, my 9:20 p.m. flight was now an 11:20 flight! It was only a little after 10:00 but my traveling companion and I immediately headed to the gate to see if we still had seats. About halfway to the gate I stopped to double check another monitor … yep 11:20. Then my co-worker checked five seconds later and in those brief moments it had switched over to 10:15. Without hesitation I pulled out my best OJ Simpson impersonation (the Hertz commercial, not the killing) and busted into a dead sprint (poor choice of words, sorry). Out of breath, I made it to the gate with literally moments to spare and luckily—a seat.
So after spending about three hours preparing myself to wash my underwear out in the sink with hotel-issue shampoo, I was headed home, finally making to my final destination a little after midnight, only an hour later than my original arrival time.
OK, so travel aside, it was a pretty cool trip. Our original location for the shoot became unavailable the day before we left, however as an alternative we shot on the Paramount lot along with several other famous sites like the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Chinese theatre.
In between shoots and some editing, I also got to head down to Venice and Santa Monica for a little sight seeing.
To see a couple more shots I took (including some of the incredible Julius Thomas III, a WSU alum and the star of our shoot) go here.
