Thursday, August 13, 2009

Guerrilla Dreaming

So after the zombie dream I go back to sleep and have another short but interesting dream. This time I'm on a guerrilla film shoot with good'ol CSULB colleague Jeff Miz and a group of the usual cohorts. We all meet on this dirt road at night and Jeff explains that we don't have any permits to shoot but that he wanted to get as much as possible before we get kicked out. Sounded simple enough so we jump into our cars and follow Jeff but we have to travel 5mph so as not to kick up too much dust on this dirt road and gain the attention of the authorities. Suddenly the dirt road became a paved road and the paved road became this upper middle class neighborhood of expensive track-homes. We park our cars just outside the gates that lead into the actual neighborhood and gather our equipment. I guess I was the camera op because I had my Canon 5D Mark II camera with me, although I never specifically knew why I was there or what crew position I was in. So in gearing up we end up in this Quicky-Mart (that happened to be right outside the upper middle class neighborhood) and although the Quicky-Mart was closed, this female clerk in her pajamas came out to greet us. She's nice enough to ring up some items for us so I decide I want a pack of Swisher-Sweet cigars and a long beef jerky (maybe it was a Slim-Jim). Then just as she was going to retire I ask if she could ring up a bottle of water. So we're ready to roll and we jump the iron gate and sneak our way through the neighborhood. We decide to make base camp on a bushy slope in between a line of houses so that if we look down the hill there would be a row of backyards and if we look up the hill there would be another row of backyards to the track homes. So as we're hunkered there, cold and damp, Jeff walks down the line telling us to be quiet and get ready, as if he's the brigade commander of a military assault on an enemy position. I get my camera ready not knowing what to expect and then all of a sudden Jeff starts shooting fireworks into the sky like a mad man. As the bursts light up the sky in blues and reds the crew goes into chaos - there's a lot of "holy sh..." and "What the f..." Jeff on the other hand is laughing like a mad man and yelling at us to start shooting with the camera. But everyone is just in a panic and desert their positions, including me. I'm running like a bat out of hell down the street if this suburban neighborhood and stop. Out of breath and sweating like crazy, I take a moment to look back and realize that I can't leave Jeff behind. So I find an empty box tossed out with the garbage cans that were put outside on the curb. I hide my equipment in the box and run back to where the fireworks was still blazing. Unfortunately that's when I woke up so I have no idea if I rescue Jeff. I have no idea if the cops came and arrested us. I have no idea if my equipment in the box was thrown out with the garbage.

No comments:

SKYguy76 Current Tweet