When Coleman Outboard motors called needing a promo for their new line of boats, we knew that we would have to pack our survival gear and head into the wilderness to find the perfect location. Either that, or call a really good location scout. We opted for the latter, mounted our steel horse (on a steel horse we ride…) and headed up to Lake Mary, near Flagstaff, to check out the goods. Fortune was smiling on us - the lake was full, and the surrounding woods were just coming into their Spring bloom . This was exactly the look we were after, the classic “great outdoors” setting for this iconic brand. A week or so later, we had wrangled the necessary permits from the US Forestry Service (hint – it helps to have a location scout who is chummy with the head park ranger), and we were ready to go. We returned to Lake Mary with a small flotilla in tow and proceeded to enjoy a hectic but satisfying lakeside ramble.

We normally shoot in LA but don’t engage in the whole East/West throw-down.
We consider ourselves to be bi-coastal. We’re happy to swing both ways which is what made one recent coast-to-coast project so perfect for us.

Our bodies set for 3 hours earlier, the New York leg of this project induced in us an extreme caffeine dependency that knew no bounds. Thankfully, one of the locations we needed to track down was a coffee shop, so we could essentially kill two birds with one stone. Only one of the birds was dead- the neighborhood coffee shop. Hip and slightly grimy, presumably there was a time when these were on every corner. I don’t have to spell out what’s on every corner now. Sure, we saw a few cool places, but cramming them into our shoot schedule and budget just wasn’t working. Often with locations it’s a numbers game. It has to be the right place, the right price and have the right specs, availability, etc. More is more. In the end, we ditched the coffee shop idea since it wasn’t integral to the creative and was turning out to be more of a hassle than it was worth.

Sitting at the Film Commission’s offices later in the week, I noticed something a little incongruous. All around me were hipster NYU students making ready to craft their indie films (I could tell because they wore cool hats). But wait, what’s that they’re clutching? Could it be a cup of corporate Joe? I guess the independent spirit can only stretch so far. I sure hope they don’t need a unique neighborhood coffee shop as a location, because they’ve been totally bucked over in the last decade and are mostly out of business. This is one thing the Coasts have in common. Thankfully, we make commercials and are not required to have strong principals. When it comes to coasts and coffee we are completely indiscriminate– as long as we keep waking up to this...

We had one day. We got one take. We made a kick-ass spot. That’s how we roll when we have to.

And we had to. Broadcast legend Ken Venturi was our spokesperson, and when there is a celebrity on set, they drive the train (or the ball in this case). Mr. Venturi is a super-busy guy and for one day we got to share his very tight schedule. The fact that he is old school (read professional in the extreme) is undoubtedly the principal reason we were able to pull off this ambitious shoot day. We sure as hell couldn’t get lucky on anything else.

Here’s the thing about a golf club where membership fees and the price of a house are on a “par” – you can’t bribe anyone. I resorted to pleading when I was told that the golf carts we had held were released to important members in need of wheels. We ended up with two maintenance carts that had to be shared with the maintenance staff. The jib op was not impressed and continued to be unimpressed for the duration of the shoot. And who could blame him.



The good news about the client being a member of this exclusive golf community was that we could get in at all. The bad news is that no one at Morningside cares about showbiz. We had to take the servant’s entrance. But first, we had to park two lots from our load-in destination. This incidentally, was impossibly far from where we were shooting. Then there was the Jimmy Jib. In order to convey the magnificence of our location, we needed to be able to see it. We also had to get in on Mr. Venturi to connect with his heartfelt endorsement. It was a creative challenge that needed a jib arm that would allow us to sweep over our “big” visual assets and get into our much smaller hero shot in just a few seconds. And it needed a prompter - that went on the fritz seconds after the first rehearsal. Those familiar with prompters will feel no surprise at this. It could not be powered by AC and it was hot. The batteries (yes there was a backup) just didn’t cut it. After about 30 longish minutes, the incredible crew had MacGyvered a solution that made the prompter mostly work.

Thankfully we barely needed it. Mr. Venturi needed exactly one take. He absolutely, totally did it perfectly, but as mere mortals, my DP and I wanted another crack at the jib move. Which is what we got. One more shot.

Some productions are an exercise in craft and some are an exercise that feels more like safe-cracking. The clock is ticking; the prize just needs the right combination to pay out. With many hands and steady nerves we hit the jackpot about 10 minutes before the sun set behind the beautiful hills of Rancho Mirage.