Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Fizz photobombs Hollywood

I started out my morning with a shopping trip to the Strip for bread, cheese and cheesy bread. When I was getting the bike unlocked and ready to roll back to work, there was a police officer at the corner where Fizz was locked and I noticed Penn Ave was completely devoid of parked cars and there were college-aged kids running up and down the street with walkie-talkies and muttering to themselves in the harried tone that I know all too well: The stressed-out angry underpaid movie set production assistant!
I liken P.A.s to rabid border collies, snarling and biting at movie extras like a mass of wayward sheep. I know the venomous tone of a P.A. when I hear it.

I'd somehow wandered onto the set of a Will Smith movie as the police officer told me. He was there to keep traffic off Penn Ave. I struck up some conversation with him.
I took my time and talked with him about bike theft rings in Pittsburgh and what dead-to-me bike shop is contributing to it, rumors about stolen bikes being shipped overseas, out of the Pittsburgh area... (yikes). Cyclists crashes, movie sets, bike cameras, Brooks saddles... wow, what an interesting conversation and so good to get a cop's insights about bike theft rings.
By now, the cameras were rolling and on the back of a truck driving down Penn Ave filming cars drive up it. The 'Star' vehicle was an enormous vintage 80's boat of a car like a Buick, Olds or Cadillac. As they passed, I realised we were in the shot. I was wearing the bright pink vest I had the lights on the back of my helmet turned on. Oooops. They'll do that scene 4 or 5 times, hopefully they use the footage of me, Fizz and Officer Chatty who was wearing a yellow hi-viz vest.


The movie does not yet have a title.
http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/movies/2014/10/17/The-story-behind-Mike-Webster-concussions-and-Will-Smith-s-movie-set-in-Pittsburgh/stories/201410170088








Later in the day I came back from a ride and bumped into 3 of my co-workers, they're all on a exercise kick and it's good to see them out moving around on their lunch hours instead of sitting and smoking. Two of them now own Fitbits and we compete voraciously against one another to get the most steps in each day. Love it.

I took a run at them on the the bike with a faux snarl.


3 comments:

  1. I love how that guy was 1. walking on the wrong side of the trail 2. oblivious to the fact he was going to get run over by a bike lol. and 3. not caring to move out of the way

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, that guy was homeless and either inebriated or mentally ill (somewhat hard to tell from the video). I can excuse wacky behavior on the trail from him.

      Delete
  2. Dodge the walker. Play that game twice daily!

    ReplyDelete

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