It was a Friday afternoon when I got the good news. My flight out of Los Angeles to Albuquerque was scheduled for the next day. I had spent the prior two days trying my best to fight off a panic attack as the final days of pre-production for my documentary about controversial photographer, Joel-Peter Witkin, were counting down fast. There were many loose ends that I needed to tie up before my trip to New Mexico.
There was insurance that needed to be paid for, and most
importantly, a mutual friend named James in Albuquerque who had agreed to
supply the lighting equipment, was missing in action. My executive producer, BC
Furtney, had been trying to contact him for a few days to confirm our rental
reservation for the equipment, and he wouldn’t answer his phone or call back.
This was a problem and we needed a solution quickly.
While Furtney worked frantically in his office in
Pennsylvania to track down other lighting sources in New Mexico for last-minute
quotes, I was hitting up companies in Los Angeles to secure the insurance. Anytime you plan to rent equipment for making
a film, most businesses will require you to have insurance for your production
needs. I had been sitting with an insurance agent for over an hour, making
revisions to a quote. After making some
changes I was given a new quote that was twice as much as I expected. I told
the guy I would be back the next day to pay for it.
In the meantime, BC and I were constantly on the phone
going over the lighting and insurance issues.
All of the new estimates for equipment rental were not sitting well with
me. Again, numbers were coming in that were twice what I had budgeted for. We
settled on a new lighting company and were on our way toward solving the
problem.
Friday morning I returned to the insurance office with
money in hand. I talked to the agent about what could be done to shave off some
of the cost. We reworked some numbers and changed the address from mine in Los
Angeles to BC’s in Pennsylvania. The number started looking much better and I
paid for it.
Shortly after getting home Friday afternoon, I got a call
from Furtney letting me know that James had finally called back. Apparently he
had lost his cell phone earlier in the week and had gotten a new one in the
mail just in time to hear the voicemails from BC. Things were starting to look
a lot better as our original equipment rental agreement was back on track.
I had spent the rest of Friday evening packing and
preparing for my trip, making sure all my paperwork was neatly organized.
Flight information? Check. Insurance information? Check. Release notices and
contract? Check. Interview questions? Check. I was ready.
I planned to go to bed early that night as I needed to
wake up around 4am. Living 80 miles north of LAX with an early morning flight,
it was absolutely imperative that I get a good night’s sleep. It was around
midnight when I finally got my eyes closed, and I managed to sleep through my
alarm by an hour-and-a-half. I awoke with a gasp.
This was the start of a Saturday I would never forget.
Stay tuned for the next installment "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Albuquerque (Part 2)."
- Thomas Marino
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