Jen and some dummies

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Originally uploaded by i_eat_ny.

So it's been a month since I've written; time flies when you're an American Gangster. Thursday morning was insane, so it was great to get to set after two hours of Long Island traffic. Luckily Jen was driving with Hakim in the back amusing himself with songs and impersonations. The location was the Nassau colliseum where the 1971 Madison Square Garden fight between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frasier was being recreated for the movie. We had rented 600 dummies and 300 extras to fill up the huge arena. Of course, I forgot my camera, but Hakim was nice enough to shoot these photos. It was a hoot to see the dummy handler pick up five dummies with one hand and throw them on the floor. Because the dummies were all men, our set decorator said being in the seats was like being in a gay men's club. These men reminded me of the Bionic woman doll my sisters had whose face came off to expose a head painted with wires and machinery. Some of the dummies' faces and wigs were falling off, but all this can be fixed in post. It will be interesting to see what the CGI people do as far as motion and filling in the gaps.
On a food note, we had just missed lunch, so we only saw the craft service table which was stuff from Costco. But we rode the freight elevator up with one of the TomKats catering guys, he looked absolutely exhausted. I asked him what time he had to wake up to make the donuts and he said 12. Twelve midnite to make the 7am call. Seriously, the catering department has the hardest job. They have to be the first ones at the location ready to work and they're always the last ones to leave. Hats off to them.