beach shoot

Shot our last scene for Mermaid today. Went to El Matador beach and risked shooting without a permit. We had no choice. It was too late to pull a permit and we need this shot. The weather was amazing. Bright sun and about 75 with no wind. Big rolling waves gave us a hard time as the tide was much higher than the last time we shot here. Had to wait for the tide to drop a bit so the shots will match.

We bundled all our gear into blankets and an ice chest to avoid detection and took the long climb down. Our theory is that the park ranger like most car bound policemen won't bother to actually expend the energy to hike down to the beach. If they are going to catch you it has to be easy for them, meaning in the parking lot.

The shoot was longish but not too bad and the setting more than made up for it. Chris did most of the directing on this project so I more or less did some sun bathing. On the way back up the cliff Chris and I went first with the cooler and good thing to. Right there was the ranger. Chris went back down the hill to keep the camera from coming up while I waited fro the ranger to leave. Soon enough the ranger left and we were in the clear. It seems so stupid..like we are really doing something wrong by shooting on the beach. But I'm sure if they didn't regulate it it would be like a freaking circus with camera crews all over fighting over the prime spots etc.

mission accomplished. On to post work.