Monday, September 9, 2013

Apparently My Life Is One Big WTF Moment After Another



I realize bloggers tend to exaggerate or embellish, so I'm here to say that I really try not to do this. Mostly.

This is relevant because something completely surreal occurred today and it's going to sound like I'm totally making it up.

I woke up to a metric shit-ton of racket outside, and proceeded to find a Hollywood movie set in the woods outside my house.

I've mentioned that we live in The Hundred Acre Wood, and it's pretty isolated here. And when I say isolated, I mean there's a few houses in my immediate area, but everyone's house is on a plot that has a good deal of land around it so we're looking at trees, instead of into each others windows.

Also, it's very quiet. And we like it that way.

We have nothing but woods for miles behind our home. The only thing back there is a hunting camp owned by a sweet elderly couple. There's very little activity except when it's hunting season.

In the past few months there's been more going on with utility companies running lines, some heavy equipment doing who knows what back there. But still, it's fairly quiet.

So imagine my surprise upon waking up and getting ready to log into my computer for work, I heard what sounded like a parade of loud truck engines outside my house.

It turned out it that it was in fact, a parade of loud truck engines right outside my house. They were all idling there, waiting to turn onto the little dirt road next to our property that leads to the hunting camp.

This was highly unusual. I figured they were doing some upkeep work there or having a family function. Or something.

So I listened to to all and sundry going in and out for an hour before the doorbell rang. A relative of the family who owns the camp stopped by to let me know a movie was being filmed. “Oh, like a college thing?” I asked. No, an actual real movie, he says. And they'll be back there for a FEW WEEKS.

For serious.

Okay, well I figured Mr. RelativeToTheFamily was embellishing a bit, and we're talking some “movie” that someone was “filming”, probably being done with the help of friends and family in the hopes of breaking into Hollyweird. It can't possibly take weeks, right?

The Relative mentioned the director's name and what the film was about, and even said to stop by if I wanted to visit. I thanked him, said I work from home and I might stop by later just for fun, and went back to work.

Then I watched a long, loud line of cars, trucks, golf carts, ATVs, equipment, etc. head back into the woods. Dog was going out of his mind barking at everyone and everything. Taking him out for doggy business was getting to be incredibly difficult since all he wanted to do was protect the homestead from these intruders.

So I got that itch in my brain that maybe I should look up this “director” on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Well imagine my surprise when I see that he actually has a number of proper films under his belt, and lo and behold, there's the movie he's filming now, BEHIND OUR FRIGGIN HOUSE.

With actual, Hollywood actors. We're not talking Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, but definitely recognizable actors.

Yay us.

I've been trying to work and take conference calls during all this hoo-ha, and it's been a challenge. Of course, I'm also peeking out the windows trying to see what's going on. Granted there's a good deal of woods out there obscuring the view, but I can see what looks like set building and lots of people running around.

Now I'm wondering what I'm going to do if they're filming and Dog has to go outside. The only way to get him to go is to walk him around the entire property. He's gonna stand there and bark his face off at the crew. What happens if they're filming at night? Are we going to be able to sleep with all this activity? There's strange people milling about everywhere now, which is kinda creepy.

I'm intrigued and annoyed at the same time. I'll have to see what happens tomorrow.

I'm thinking by the end of this I'll be quite happy for Hollywood to go on home.




8 comments:

Bree Mendeja said...

Hollywood for real ?
say, would you like to change places for a while ? haha, just kidding :D

Unknown said...

For real...it's very weird.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

"Babes in the Wood 3" starring Brent Woodpecker, Nina Quickie and Lynsy Bluebells?

Hang around, you might get a walk on part.

Unknown said...

Actually not too far off...it appears to be a bit of a fright film :)

Daughter is wrangling for a part as an extra. Heh.

Spokey said...

Back in college, one of my buddies suddenly got a haircut. That was back when you just didn't do that. He mysteriously would disappear and reappear. As we were in a dorm and generally avoided even going to class this was noticeable.

I don't remember how long this went on, but it turned out that he had gotten an extra part for the Godfather. His grandmother was in it too. Both were in that opening wedding party scene.

It probably helped that he was from Staten Island and his last name was Cordiviola and not Rabinowitz!

I think he was in an army uniform so presumably a war buddy of Michael's. All that excitement only to find that he was left on the cutting room floor. His grandmother was left on the floor too.

But I guess it is exciting. I was in Ireland for the last couple weeks and happened into the village of Cong. I was more interested in the monastic ruins, but this small village ( a couple blocks long) is still buzzing about being the location for the filming of The Quiet Man. There are signs about it. There is a small house with a small poster in a window proclaiming that this house was the house in the movie of "the dying man".

I guess this might seem normal except that it was filmed over 60 years ago in 1952!

Oh, and one other odd bit that I found more interesting. They are also home to the coining of the word Boycott after Captain Boycott.

Unknown said...

Wow, Ireland? That's very cool! It must have been beautiful. It's on our list for someday. But yeah, it's a little weird on those days when everyone descends on the woods around here. It's been fairly quiet most days since, then suddenly there will be a flurry of activity behind the house.

Also - cool trivia on boycott!

Spokey said...

Ireland was pretty interesting. It is green for the most part. The weather was like the tropics only colder. Rained almost every day. But it might rain or drizzle for an hour or two and then the sun would come out. Then it might rain for an hour again followed by sun. And while youse guys had nice warm weather here I was often cold wearing corduroy shirts and a coat that I bought for an Alaska cruise we took a couple years ago.

It also has mountains tall enough that the tops don't have vegetation. I didn't expect that.

There are still tensions over the IRA and such. And if you can find the horse with 2 bullets to the head, there is still a 25,000,000 reward (I can't remember whether the spinner of that yarn said sterling or dollars).

Food was good. Every little village pub had decent soups and brown bread for lunch.

I stood on line for an hour / hour and a half with my brother so I saw the Blarney Stone but wouldn't kiss the filthy thing.

Unknown said...

I'm with you. I'd go see the stone, but I'm not kissing it. Blech.