Chapter 47 – The Bough Breaks
by Leesa Dean
Argh! So the celeb bailed on us. This past week has been beyond frustrating.
The celeb is a friend of my producing partner who double checked the day before that we were still on for last Sunday’s shoot and even went to the celeb’s house to pick him up an hour before start time (to give a wide window) and…the celeb wasn’t there.
My producing partner called me immediately and I knew something crazy was happening cause he called vs. texting! I had to jump on the phone with the studio and try to juggle things. Long story short, the celeb had decided last minute to “go out to lunch with his wife.” Apparently, “out to lunch” being the operative words. It was really pretty insane. He said he could make it “later.”
Luckily, we’re working with a small studio, the guy has been been really accommodating and he didn’t charge me for the time, even though we had to cancel/reschedule last minute.
Apparently, the celeb currently has some “issues.” *Sigh*
It was pretty crazy and it sent us both into a frenzy. We even concocted Plan B, where we would shoot at my producing partner’s assistant’s place that evening (she has a small green screen set up and it getting her shooting chops together in Brooklyn). With Plan B, we wouldn’t rebook the studio only to have the celeb bail again and maybe it would work out? I was pretty skeptical. My producing partner, felt the celeb would pull through. After all, they were good friends.
No dice. Celeb agreed to Plan B (“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, yeah, I definitely can do it this evening at 7?) and, right out of a B movie (which is NOT how we came up with the name for Plan B, btw), I was literally on the subway platform heading out to Brooklyn for the shoot, the train one minute away (in NYC they now tell exactly when the train will be arriving) and my producing partner calls. Celeb went AWOL again.
I was disgusted (though not surprised). My producing partner was shell shocked. And shocked. He had never seen this side of him. I mean, this was his friend, so he felt betrayed–plus he had been running around all day to try and make the shoot happen.
We talked the next day and came up with Plan C: Since we both LOVE the new material, versus banging our heads to get a celeb to do it, we’ll get one of our regulars to pull it off. Bottom line: the material trumps all–or it should at this point. Right now, running after celebs seems like a waste of time and I don’t have the stomach or time for it. Bottom line: we just want to have the product possible.
So onward we go.
Thanks for posting, LB & Munchman!