Outrageous Arizona Filming A Scorcher

May 22, 2012
It was a scorcher yesterday, and me and my crazy friends, spent the day shooting video out at Pioneer, Arizona. Thanks to Dr. Buck Montgomery and friends we had some good looks and good actors to choose from. It was a very ambitious shoot with a shot list that topped more than a dozen set ups.

We started at eight sharp and shot in doors without AC in the morning, so we wanted to get those done and "in the can" first. Taped Jana Bommersbach, doing four talking-head segments in the Victorian House, then switched gears for a re-enactment of a Burt Alvord poker game in the parlor (which stood in for a Willcox club room). Finished at noon and had a catered lunch in the Road To Ruin Saloon (which is about ten feet from where I got married in July of 1979). Drank a gallon of water and made it outside at around two to film a horse race. Temperature was at 108 degrees in the shade. This meant it was about 125 degrees in the sun and we were shooting in a big open area. I captured a short segment of this taping with my cell phone. Note all the directors, but also note that the pushiest one is holding the phone:

And here's the second set up of the same scene with even more director's. I guess you could call this the director's cut.


Finished at five on the nose. Long day, but well worth it. Shared a Corona with the executive producer, Ken Amorosano (the last guy in the last shot, above) in the $150,000 motor home. The show has the working title of Outrageous Arizona and we are going to feature the many characters who have made Arizona what it is today.

Next stop Prescott, and then up on the rim, both much cooler shoots to be sure.

"A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of a man."

—John Adams