Midnight Train to Dallas
Shreveport, LA - I consider myself retired from the film industry. The hours are outrageous, and I actually make more money playing the piano five nights a week. But, occasionally there is the allure of revisiting the adventure again. When I worked on The Year One every day was a new adventure. I even ended up in the desert with that production in the middle of several bizarre scenarios/adventures. The most bizarre moment was the time my dad came to visit and ended up sitting at the dinner table at a Chile's with Vinny Jones, of all people. If you know anything about my dad, and anything about Vinny Jones, it was a recipe for a disaster. I sat in bewilderment throughout the entire meal trying to figure out just how the heck that had happened.
Luckily nothing did happen, but it was a testament to the fact that when you work in the film industry you can never be sure of what might happen. So, when I received a phone call the other day from my friend Adam about one day of work, I took the bait. I had a feeling as mundane as the task sounded, it might hold an adventure.
I was not disappointed.
The job was to pick up a man named Avi Lerner from the airport in Dallas. Point A to Point B and back to Point A. Easy cheesey. Avi Lerner just might be one of the most powerful unknown men in Hollywood. He has produced almost 300 movies, and is the head honcho at Millenium Films. His resume on IMDB.com is laughably long. I didnt know much about Avi accept that he once cussed out Robert DeNiro for taking too long to get ready for a scene, which says something about Mr. Lerner.
Mr. Lerner had season courtside tickets for every Laker's game. So, come to find out, he was going to go to a Laker's game, catch the red-eye to Dallas, where I was going to pick him up on Thursday morning and drive him to Shreveport. The problem? His flight was scheduled to arrive at DFW airport at 5:45 a.m. Now if you do the math on that from Shreveport, I was leaving early, no matter how you sliced it.
Production had given me a slick black Suburban with leather seats and a full tank of gas and wished me luck. His flight was coming in Thursday morning, so ultimately I decided the best thing to do was leave as soon as I got off work Wednesday night. So, after I finished playing, I went home, changed clothes, gathered up and drove to Dallas.
As an aside, I have made the run from Dallas to Shreveport....and Im not making this up...probably a minimum of 60-70 times since I moved here. I did it 27 times just on the Oliver Stone flick that I ran film for. Throw in a few holiday trips home and other trips and what you get is an intimate knowledge of every exit, every gas station, even every pot hole. (No lie.) needless to say, I know that road to Dallas.
I arrived at DFW airport around 2:30 a.m. and after some sleuthing and Indy-car type driving, I ended up in the parking garage of Terminal D. I had planned my trip with the intricay of an Apollo moon mission. I was to arrive at the terminal and sleep in the car for two hours, whereupon I was to retrieve said movie producer and return to Shreveport. What I failed to include in my calculations was my hyped Red Bull induced state.
When people talk about thte glamour of Hollywood, no one ever mentions things like sleeping by yourself in a Suburban in a parking garage. That would totally shatter the illusion I think.
Try as I may, I simply couldn't sleep. I finally got around 45 minutes of sleep but then awoke at 4:45 a.m. completely wide awake. I gave up, went into the terminal to brush my teeth. And then was suprised by Mr. Lerner, whose flight had arrived thirty minutes early.
Avi Lerner has a deep, resonant voice. He is from Israel originally, and didnt talke much to me. He has a lot on him mind, I think. In fact, he fell asleep about thirty minutes outside of Dallas and left me in perfect silence, having to drive a perfectly straight rode for three hours having had less than an hour of sleep. Worst of all, he had his arm on the console which prevented me from getting to my Red Bulls. It was one of the most challenging drives I've had in all my experiences as a professional driver.
But I made it.
I spent the rest of the day shuttling Mr. Lerner around to various meetings. I got one thirty minute nap in around 2 p.m. I took him to the Shreveport airport around five, where he was taking a private plane to New Orleans. Then, believe it or not, I showered, changed and went and played the piano for five more hours at 2Johns Steakhouse.
When I finally got to bed, it was around 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. I had gone almost 41 hours on basically an hour and a half of sleep. It was more adventure than I bargained for.
But that's over for now I have returned to my normal routine of playing the piano every night. I have no idea what adventure Hollywood will call with next, but I'm sure by that time I will be ready for another .
That's the story of my life...
Luckily nothing did happen, but it was a testament to the fact that when you work in the film industry you can never be sure of what might happen. So, when I received a phone call the other day from my friend Adam about one day of work, I took the bait. I had a feeling as mundane as the task sounded, it might hold an adventure.
I was not disappointed.
The job was to pick up a man named Avi Lerner from the airport in Dallas. Point A to Point B and back to Point A. Easy cheesey. Avi Lerner just might be one of the most powerful unknown men in Hollywood. He has produced almost 300 movies, and is the head honcho at Millenium Films. His resume on IMDB.com is laughably long. I didnt know much about Avi accept that he once cussed out Robert DeNiro for taking too long to get ready for a scene, which says something about Mr. Lerner.
Mr. Lerner had season courtside tickets for every Laker's game. So, come to find out, he was going to go to a Laker's game, catch the red-eye to Dallas, where I was going to pick him up on Thursday morning and drive him to Shreveport. The problem? His flight was scheduled to arrive at DFW airport at 5:45 a.m. Now if you do the math on that from Shreveport, I was leaving early, no matter how you sliced it.
Production had given me a slick black Suburban with leather seats and a full tank of gas and wished me luck. His flight was coming in Thursday morning, so ultimately I decided the best thing to do was leave as soon as I got off work Wednesday night. So, after I finished playing, I went home, changed clothes, gathered up and drove to Dallas.
As an aside, I have made the run from Dallas to Shreveport....and Im not making this up...probably a minimum of 60-70 times since I moved here. I did it 27 times just on the Oliver Stone flick that I ran film for. Throw in a few holiday trips home and other trips and what you get is an intimate knowledge of every exit, every gas station, even every pot hole. (No lie.) needless to say, I know that road to Dallas.
I arrived at DFW airport around 2:30 a.m. and after some sleuthing and Indy-car type driving, I ended up in the parking garage of Terminal D. I had planned my trip with the intricay of an Apollo moon mission. I was to arrive at the terminal and sleep in the car for two hours, whereupon I was to retrieve said movie producer and return to Shreveport. What I failed to include in my calculations was my hyped Red Bull induced state.
When people talk about thte glamour of Hollywood, no one ever mentions things like sleeping by yourself in a Suburban in a parking garage. That would totally shatter the illusion I think.
Try as I may, I simply couldn't sleep. I finally got around 45 minutes of sleep but then awoke at 4:45 a.m. completely wide awake. I gave up, went into the terminal to brush my teeth. And then was suprised by Mr. Lerner, whose flight had arrived thirty minutes early.
Avi Lerner has a deep, resonant voice. He is from Israel originally, and didnt talke much to me. He has a lot on him mind, I think. In fact, he fell asleep about thirty minutes outside of Dallas and left me in perfect silence, having to drive a perfectly straight rode for three hours having had less than an hour of sleep. Worst of all, he had his arm on the console which prevented me from getting to my Red Bulls. It was one of the most challenging drives I've had in all my experiences as a professional driver.
But I made it.
I spent the rest of the day shuttling Mr. Lerner around to various meetings. I got one thirty minute nap in around 2 p.m. I took him to the Shreveport airport around five, where he was taking a private plane to New Orleans. Then, believe it or not, I showered, changed and went and played the piano for five more hours at 2Johns Steakhouse.
When I finally got to bed, it was around 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. I had gone almost 41 hours on basically an hour and a half of sleep. It was more adventure than I bargained for.
But that's over for now I have returned to my normal routine of playing the piano every night. I have no idea what adventure Hollywood will call with next, but I'm sure by that time I will be ready for another .
That's the story of my life...
posted by Winston A. Hall at 10:37 AM
1 Comments:
Back on the blog. Mama C and I are very old now, but we will be interested in keeping up with Winston. You must read Amy Yorks blog from Russia. Awesome.
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