PRODUCTION DIARY - MIKE WELLS IN MIAMI 07 May 2008
Mike Wells from London-based HLA was in Miami to produce Simon Ratigan's new Sony spot, Foam City. Having survived a car crash on the first day, the production team counted their blessings on a complicated shoot.
1 March 2008Downtown Miami at 10pm on a Saturday night. The first day's shooting is done. It's always a relief to get day one out of the way on a shoot like this. It's logistically challenging and we're dealing with an entirely unknown quantity (no foam yet, just huge, beautiful bubbles). We decide to find a restaurant for a quick debrief and a look ahead to tomorrow. We all pile into a minivan: Simon, me, DP Bob Pendar-Hughes, line producer Ira Brooks, production manager Dan Carter, First AD Jon Mintz and editor Bruce Townend. With our adrenalin still running after a day's packed schedule, there's noisy chat - then someone screams. There's a split second (but, strangely, enough time to wonder 'why the scream?') before a massive, crunching, deafening impact to my left. Glass is flying everywhere. It seems as though everything has gone black, but we are still moving. Then another impact, from the front this time. There's complete silence. Bob groans from the front seat. Some of us are moving, while others seem completely dazed and are still coming round. My side door (away from the impact) slides open and we roll out into the street. Jon is mumbling "Call 911, call 911, give them the cross street," behind me. He's far more compos mentis than I am at this point - typical first AD. Slowly my mind starts to come back to me and I'm able to realise that my phone is somewhere in the back of the vehicle. By this time other cars are stopping and people are calling the emergency services. Both front doors of the van are jammed shut so neither Bob nor Ira can get out. The rest of us stand or crouch, dazed, on the sidewalk, clutching various parts of our anatomies. We have come to rest under the skirt of a tall building, neatly slotted between the steel upright that holds up the traffic-light gantry and a concrete post that supports the building. Two massive concrete planters have impeded our progress and have prevented a direct head-on through the plate-glass window of the building. That was the second impact. The cause of the first - a huge Ford 4x4 truck with a mashed front - is lying sideways-on next to the minivan, with a third vehicle behind; it had obviously piled into the rear of the Ford. Thank god we didn't roll, or hit either of those uprights, or it would have been a very different story.
Mike Wells from London-based HLA was in Miami to produce Simon Ratigan's new Sony spot, Foam City. Having survived a car crash on the first day, the production team counted their blessings on a complicated shoot.
1 March 2008Downtown Miami at 10pm on a Saturday night. The first day's shooting is done. It's always a relief to get day one out of the way on a shoot like this. It's logistically challenging and we're dealing with an entirely unknown quantity (no foam yet, just huge, beautiful bubbles). We decide to find a restaurant for a quick debrief and a look ahead to tomorrow. We all pile into a minivan: Simon, me, DP Bob Pendar-Hughes, line producer Ira Brooks, production manager Dan Carter, First AD Jon Mintz and editor Bruce Townend. With our adrenalin still running after a day's packed schedule, there's noisy chat - then someone screams. There's a split second (but, strangely, enough time to wonder 'why the scream?') before a massive, crunching, deafening impact to my left. Glass is flying everywhere. It seems as though everything has gone black, but we are still moving. Then another impact, from the front this time. There's complete silence. Bob groans from the front seat. Some of us are moving, while others seem completely dazed and are still coming round. My side door (away from the impact) slides open and we roll out into the street. Jon is mumbling "Call 911, call 911, give them the cross street," behind me. He's far more compos mentis than I am at this point - typical first AD. Slowly my mind starts to come back to me and I'm able to realise that my phone is somewhere in the back of the vehicle. By this time other cars are stopping and people are calling the emergency services. Both front doors of the van are jammed shut so neither Bob nor Ira can get out. The rest of us stand or crouch, dazed, on the sidewalk, clutching various parts of our anatomies. We have come to rest under the skirt of a tall building, neatly slotted between the steel upright that holds up the traffic-light gantry and a concrete post that supports the building. Two massive concrete planters have impeded our progress and have prevented a direct head-on through the plate-glass window of the building. That was the second impact. The cause of the first - a huge Ford 4x4 truck with a mashed front - is lying sideways-on next to the minivan, with a third vehicle behind; it had obviously piled into the rear of the Ford. Thank god we didn't roll, or hit either of those uprights, or it would have been a very different story.
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