Ford (not so) Tough

In light of the recent auto bail out, Ford has some money, and apparently they wanted to spend it on yours truly. I was recently booked on a print job down in Long Beach, as a 'fish shop owner'. This gig had me travel down to Los Angeles Harbor, which is about 20 miles south of downtown. This city is so full of surprise, when I arrived I was completely shocked at how massive our ports are (later I Wikipedia'd it, and found out that LA is the busiest container port in the US).

This was a very small crew, as there were only 4 other models/actors working, the main photographer, 3 of his crew, the producer, and the client (some guy from Ford).

This was my first time working a print job, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I met with the costumer and he had me wear an apron over my flannel and jeans, pretty low key wardrobe. Once everyone was fitted and changed, we were given the breakdown.

Ford is bringing one of their Euro-vans over here to the States for commercial use, (i.e. - flower or food delivery trucks). Being that I was the fish shop owner, I would be meeting the other fisherman down by the docks, and purchasing my goods from them and loading into my fancy Ford fish-mobile.

Set decorators threw buckets of water down around us to give it the appearance that it rained and away we went. The photographer had me and one other guy loading and unloading this white crate in and out of the truck. I think we moved our bodies a total of 4 feet, walking back and forth, back and forth. Then the photographer would say "Okay guys, go take a break" and then we would sit around talking for 20-25 mins or so, then we would go back to work for 5 mins, then break again.

This rigorous schedule continued on for a total of 2 hours or so, until the caterers arrived and I was treated to a taste of home, "Famous Daves" bbq. You see...we don't have Famous Daves in LA, or so I thought, so it was a nice surprise. After lunch, we continued to take some more photos, but most of it was downtime, as the photographer was waiting for the right light with the sun. 2 hours later, he found what he was looking for and we were done.

I spoke with the client in the trailer, nice guy from Detroit. He said that this will either appear in the 2009 Ford catalog, or perhaps at next years Detroit auto show. Being that this was a non-union gig, I won't get any residuals, but I have to say...it was probably the easiest job I ever had to do.