Extra Credit Movie Madness

You may be wondering what I learned today. So I will tell you.

The question: how long does it take to film one single-block chase scene for a Bruce Willis movie?



The answer: ALL DAY AND COUNTING!

I thought it was loud when I left for work this morning after about an hour of the tireless, polite, Hollywood crew repeatedly filming a motorcycle weaving through fake traffic


. . . (complete with fake cop cars) on the road below my windows.



I came home from the office TEN HOURS LATER to the same scene in repeated rotation, this time filmed by two helicopters.


Both flying right outside, I mean right outside my window.



Over and over again.



I feel for the extras who've been wearing these stupid clothes and walking on the same spot for nearly 12 hours.



I feel for the motorcycle stunt drivers. (Okay, so that's a reflection of my flowery blouse in the photo, but if you squint you can see the tough guy on his extrasuperspecial loud bike in the bottom of my shot.)


But mostly I feel for the fake drivers who've been moving their cars forward ("ROLLING!") and backward ("RESETTING!") over the same half a block all day.

I don't need to tell you the catties are traumatized.

Not so the people in my neighborhood, including this young man staked out on top of my dumpster, enjoying the view. I tossed in some cat poop on my way to the office this morning.



Tomorrow: filming includes a burnt-out city bus and prop trash in my parking lot on the other side of the building. I was relieved to find my (deeded, in my name) parking space unblocked and free for me to park when I arrived home.




That's a wrap!

(Except it's not. Poor little guy downstairs has just yelled "Rolling! Action" for what must have been the eleventy billionth time for today! I attended three multi-hour meetings and changed massive quantities of curriculum while these dudes shot one short scene. What monotony, movies! Who wants to finish writing my dissertation about the Indian versions for me now while I take a nap?)