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Don't hire them. They can't act at ALL!
I finally got the kid's camera fixed, which coincided with a visit from my buddy and poisonous critter enthusiast, Bill. My son, Devin, has been planning a movie for about a year now...it’s slowly coming together. He needs some scenes that are a bit beyond the ability of a fourteen year old with a handicam; a bouncing betty (for those not familiar, this is a land mine that jumps into the air and explodes), blowing up an ATV quad, and a snakebite scene.
Currently titled Arizona Heat, it involves two friends who, while riding in the desert get lost overnight on an artillery range, destroy their machines and blame each other for their predicament. When one of the boys is bitten by a sidewinder rattlesnake the differences have to be set aside in order to save the boys life.
SOOoooo...we went snake hunting the other night and found a western diamondback. It was about four feet long and quite nasty when we captured it. Unfortunately, when we started filming the next morning it was only two-foot six and sleepy.
All Devin wanted was 10 seconds of a rattlesnake...rattling, hissing and running away. If you stumbled across such a snake in the wild (as we did the night before) this is just how it will act. But as soon as you set up a couple cameras it won’t do a thing without an agent.
We tried to get the western angry for about an hour and a half. He must have been from California because all he wanted to do was lounge around and say “Hey, careful with the stick, okay dude?” As the morning wore on we had to give it up or risk the snake’s overheating. We didn’t get what we wanted but we thanked the snake and set him loose where he could pick up a meal.
That night we went out again. The first snake we saw was the same one we had fired that morning. He was a decent enough fellow so we exchanged pleasantries and then parted ways. Moments later we found a sidewinder. Bill assured us this was the more aggressive of the rattlers and we weren’t going to be disappointed. What a show he put on when we caught him; hissing, striking, side winding...
(Devin is operating one of cameras while Bill gives acting lessons to one of the snakes.)
But come morning he wouldn’t move. Think of a plastic toy. We picked him up, shook him some, dropped him a little way, pushed, prodded, poked and shouted insults but he just sat there in his coil. “Go away and let me sleep, will ya?”
Neither of these snakes could find their motivation. That tongue flicking image above is misleading. He just sat there with his tongue hanging out. I think I heard a plplplplplplpltttt once. It certainly wasn’t a hiss. Maybe they heard they weren’t getting paid?
We did get a fair shot of the sidewinder with his rattle going and he slowly side-winded away once. Devin says he thinks he can speed it up and use it. He was disappointed that after two or three hours of rolling on two cameras (Bill used his too) that he couldn’t get the few simple seconds of a snake acting like a snake. Welcome to show biz.
All in all it was interesting. Only my wife got bit. No, not by a rattler. We found four rattlesnakes but what bit her was likely a racer ( a nonpoisonous long thin black snake with a pinkish belly). She didn't seem to mind. My wife's been bit before. She'll be bit again. She likes to play with snakes, mice, spiders, scorpions (we found about 2 dozen scorpions) but show her a cave cricket and she'll head for the high country.
Some of you wonder why I am the way I am? Well, I am just a product of my environment.
So, what did you do this weekend?
I finally got the kid's camera fixed, which coincided with a visit from my buddy and poisonous critter enthusiast, Bill. My son, Devin, has been planning a movie for about a year now...it’s slowly coming together. He needs some scenes that are a bit beyond the ability of a fourteen year old with a handicam; a bouncing betty (for those not familiar, this is a land mine that jumps into the air and explodes), blowing up an ATV quad, and a snakebite scene.
Currently titled Arizona Heat, it involves two friends who, while riding in the desert get lost overnight on an artillery range, destroy their machines and blame each other for their predicament. When one of the boys is bitten by a sidewinder rattlesnake the differences have to be set aside in order to save the boys life.
SOOoooo...we went snake hunting the other night and found a western diamondback. It was about four feet long and quite nasty when we captured it. Unfortunately, when we started filming the next morning it was only two-foot six and sleepy.
All Devin wanted was 10 seconds of a rattlesnake...rattling, hissing and running away. If you stumbled across such a snake in the wild (as we did the night before) this is just how it will act. But as soon as you set up a couple cameras it won’t do a thing without an agent.
We tried to get the western angry for about an hour and a half. He must have been from California because all he wanted to do was lounge around and say “Hey, careful with the stick, okay dude?” As the morning wore on we had to give it up or risk the snake’s overheating. We didn’t get what we wanted but we thanked the snake and set him loose where he could pick up a meal.
That night we went out again. The first snake we saw was the same one we had fired that morning. He was a decent enough fellow so we exchanged pleasantries and then parted ways. Moments later we found a sidewinder. Bill assured us this was the more aggressive of the rattlers and we weren’t going to be disappointed. What a show he put on when we caught him; hissing, striking, side winding...
(Devin is operating one of cameras while Bill gives acting lessons to one of the snakes.)
But come morning he wouldn’t move. Think of a plastic toy. We picked him up, shook him some, dropped him a little way, pushed, prodded, poked and shouted insults but he just sat there in his coil. “Go away and let me sleep, will ya?”
Neither of these snakes could find their motivation. That tongue flicking image above is misleading. He just sat there with his tongue hanging out. I think I heard a plplplplplplpltttt once. It certainly wasn’t a hiss. Maybe they heard they weren’t getting paid?
We did get a fair shot of the sidewinder with his rattle going and he slowly side-winded away once. Devin says he thinks he can speed it up and use it. He was disappointed that after two or three hours of rolling on two cameras (Bill used his too) that he couldn’t get the few simple seconds of a snake acting like a snake. Welcome to show biz.
All in all it was interesting. Only my wife got bit. No, not by a rattler. We found four rattlesnakes but what bit her was likely a racer ( a nonpoisonous long thin black snake with a pinkish belly). She didn't seem to mind. My wife's been bit before. She'll be bit again. She likes to play with snakes, mice, spiders, scorpions (we found about 2 dozen scorpions) but show her a cave cricket and she'll head for the high country.
Some of you wonder why I am the way I am? Well, I am just a product of my environment.
So, what did you do this weekend?
NOW I know why Del named his son 'Snake Bait'.
