THE SKID “Anything for My Angel”

My Angel was very near to completion when we discovered that we were in need of a certain sound effect. That sound effect was the screeching of a car’s tires. This screeching would be put on the audio track precisely at the time when our lead character, Brad Curtis was losing control of his car in the rain during our opening scene. Actor, Tim Blore who played Brad Curtis suggested that we attempt to use his old, rusty, red suv to possibly recreate such a sound. I agreed. So we hauled out the camera and the audio equipment into our front yard, set it up and watched as Tim crawled into the beast. We each had a walky-talky because our street has occasional traffic. I wanted to communicate with Tim and let him know when “the coast was clear”. Tim drove away and was now completely out of my view. A car down the street turned the corner toward us and so I contacted Tim and told him to wait. Soon everything looked perfect. So I pressed the button on the side of the walky-talky and told him to “GO FOR IT!” I held the boom out towards the street. I soon saw and heard Tim’s new four wheel red rocket barreling down our quiet suburban neighborhood. As he got closer I literally back up between our two cars in our driveway. Yes, I was nervous. Tim was just a house away when he slammed on the brakes. It was a perfect skid and by the time he had stopped he had a skid mark the length of the house to the south of us, the length of our house and half the length of the house to our north. Now you know where we got that skid sound early in the movie.

THE REVV

In order to use "REVV", my Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and the Harley-Davidson logo in the film, we needed to get permission from the Harley-Davidson company. Their main concern was that the good name of the Harley-Davidson company was not disrespected in any way. So, they asked a lot of questions about how the logo and the bike itself was to be portrayed in the movie. I answered as professionally as I could in my role of " Production Assistant" for Five Talent Films. I felt no need to tell them that I was also the actor who was riding the bike, and the owner of the bike as well. After all, that would make us sound like a tiny little production company and maybe they wouldn't have time for us. Eventually, the rep from Harley-Davidson, started asking questions about the bike itself. Well, now this was getting fun, I love talking about my bike! (Even if the guy doesn't know it's mine.) It eventually came out that we were discussing an eight-thousand dollar Harley with fifteen-thousand dollars worth of chrome, modifications and custom paint added. He finally hit me with the big question. "Who in the world would put fifteen-thousand dollars worth of extras on an eight-thousand dollar bike?" All I could say was "Well, the owner, while being a heck of a great guy, is just a little eccentric." We got permission.