| The first scene calls for a garbage
truck, and it would have been wonderful to get an
official city truck. The bureaucracy of the New York City
Sanitation Department can prove to be a little difficult
to deal with...especially when the dollars aren’t
there. One morning in October, I throw myself into the
midst of san-men. On the outskirts of the city, trucks
are lining in a queue to dump their loads, and I go from
truck to truck, hoping to convince the garbage guys to be
in a movie for a couple of hours...just so I can get my
hands on their precious truck. They’re all scared
they might get caught, but there are still plenty of
trucks in the line, until Mister Sanitation Security
comes along and kicks me out. If there’s one thing that determines a low-budget production, it’s compromise. The original vision of using a real city truck was not going to be possible, and it was time to make a deal with a private company. I pop in on one during the 9th of November, and the owner is surprised about my proposal. “How did you find out about us?” He asks. “From the Yellow Pages,” I reply. “It’s going to cost me $250 to pay my driver,” he says. Huh? Aren’t his drivers on salary? No, there’s some sort of union thing. I don’t quite follow, but I tell him I don’t have the money. “If you want your truck in the movie, you’ll have to pay for it.” Epilogue: His truck is in the movie. |
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© Take Twelve Productions 2002