{"id":462,"date":"2005-10-30T20:31:05","date_gmt":"2005-10-31T03:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=462"},"modified":"2008-01-26T10:00:23","modified_gmt":"2008-01-26T17:00:23","slug":"safety-diver-for-the-movie-the-marrying-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=462","title":{"rendered":"Safety Diver For The Movie “The Marrying God”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I worked as a “Safety Diver” for the American Film Institute’s student production of The Marrying God.<\/p>\n

Instructor John asked if I wanted to work on a student film as a “safety diver.” <\/p>\n

It paid $150 for the day and I would get experience working in movies; I agreed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The movie was being filmed at this run down, tweaker and hooker motel off of Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

We were suppose to supervise the filming of a pool scene that was to be shot above the water and below.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Someone in the crew had the brilliant idea of throwing leaves and dirt in the pool to make the underwater scenes “seem murky and dark.”<\/p>\n

That really screwed up their visibility.<\/p>\n

Having taken pictures underwater myself, just the fact that you’re filming through water makes in “murkier.” <\/p>\n

John later told me that there’s a powder that the movie studios use to throw in water to give the water a denser look, but it settles quickly and won’t ruin the visibility long term.<\/p>\n

We had our doubts from the beginning that they would even get the shot that they wanted because the visibility in the pool was only one or two feet.<\/p>\n

The Assistant camerawoman was “Natasha” who was a certified SCUBA diver and filmed the underwater portions; she was young and hot and a little bitchy towards us until she figured out we were there to help her and not give her advice or direct.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Lighting Engineer had a rip in the butt of her pants which was added entertainment; as my brother later put it, “That’s how she’s going to keep her job.”<\/p>\n

\"Me,<\/p>\n

The Production Director was a busy man yelling all the time and trying to keep the filming on schedule. <\/p>\n

There was always something to delay the filming in one way or another.<\/p>\n

\"Filming<\/p>\n

They started to film the pool scenes just before lunch. <\/p>\n

John made sure the actresses and crew didn’t drowned, I made sure the tanks stayed filled with air and provided any other needed support, equipment placement in the pool, underwater equipment recovery, etc.<\/p>\n

\"Filming<\/p>\n

The pool was filthy and the water was cold. <\/p>\n

I really felt sorry for the actresses who were very young and had no protective clothing – except one had a short wetsuit that was custom cut to fit under her costume.<\/p>\n

We took a lunch break for an hour – catered with Mexican food. <\/p>\n

“Wow!” I thought, “I get $150 and a free lunch. Isn’t Hollywood great?”<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Me on Sunset Blvd in full SCUBA gear… nobody even looked.<\/p>\n

After lunch, some of the crew that was working in the pool refused to go back into the water.<\/p>\n

“Union rules state that we have to let our food digest for one hour after eating before touching water again,” one of the crew informed the Production Director.<\/p>\n

John had to explain that the thing about eating, swimming within the hour, succumbing to cramps and dieing is all a wives’ tale.<\/p>\n

The crew finished their smokes and it was back to work.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The youngest of the actresses wasn’t very cooperative. <\/p>\n

She was cold, in dirty water and didn’t want to go very deep to hold her breath for the underwater scenes. <\/p>\n

Most underwater scenes were filmed in four feet of water; she almost freaked out when she had to do a surface scene over the deep end.<\/p>\n

“They should have heated the pool and not thrown all that dirt in,” John said.<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/p>\n

They finished the pool scenes just as the sun was going down.<\/p>\n

John and I packed up as the crew worked in to the night.<\/p>\n

Great experience, but my brother’s stories of dealing with Hollywood have scared me away.<\/p>\n

Here’s a write up on “The Marrying God” at the Internet Movie Database:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/title\/tt0496349<\/a><\/p>\n

The movie website is here:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/marryinggod.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I worked as a “Safety Diver” for the American Film Institute’s student production of The Marrying God. Instructor John asked if I wanted to work on a student film as a “safety diver.” It paid $150 for the day and I would get experience working in movies; I agreed. The movie was being filmed at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19,9,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}