Sand In My Shoes

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my friend Greg became involved as a performer in Slim. The Gravel Pit scene was one of his character's shining moments. I believe all the script had for this scene was one line. Something like "Baghead chases Slim, they have a big fight, and Slim finally wins". With so much clear direction for the scene (haha), most of the sequence was improvised.

My friend Annie knew of a large gravel pit in the area that many people used for 4 wheeling. The location was perfect. We were there mid afternoon, and the sun seemed right in the perfect place in the sky. The center point of this location was a massive metallic structure complete with conveyor belts and tanks. Surrounding this structure was cast off pieces of metal and hills and hills of gravel. The area was perfect for wide shots of characters running and not seeming to get anywhere.

Climbing up these piles of gravel proved difficult. You had to run fast enough so that you would make upward progress before your feet would sink in the gravel. It also meant you had to run the camera up like that to get shots from on top of the piles of gravel.

The funniest memory I have of that day is when Slim's hat fell off the catwalk at the top of the structure and onto a conveyor belt below. In my Slim costume, I was too bulky to climb down and get it, so Greg had to sneak down and retrieve it.