Fourth Day of Bunny

April 1st, Saturday-More Bunny. We began with the now traditional intake of caffeine. This time we came prepared with towels so that Daryl could change without getting his feet wet, rubbing alcohol to clean the inside of the latex mask, walkie talkies, and gaffer's tape. This morning it was threatening to be cloudy and rainy, but it ended up beautiful. The first actor we had was an adult, and a comedian, so it went extremely well and extremely fast. He brought his friend along and he got into the act too. Then Christian made Bunny walk all around the block prancing and dancing. By the time he'd made it around he was hot and exhausted. But because the actors were so good, we were running way ahead of time so when we reached our next location we were an hour early. Nanette, our producer, took a nap in the car while we scoped out a little square. It had little stores, a mah johng parlor, a pretty skeevy wishing well, and paper lanterns everywhere. We were accosted by an older lady who told us that a Dr. Shapiro comes regularly on Saturdays and hands out $200 to everyone in the square. She also said that she was a little bit psychic and that she could tell that Daryl was going to be wealthy, not from a palm reading or a face reading, but from his aura. Well, that's nice. Let's hope it happens. Anyway, the talent showed up, who turned out to be Christian's neighbor and her son, Mac, who's six, but really I think he's more like ten because he's so smart. Mac's dad was also there because we were all going to go out for Dim Sum afterwards. Christian had Mac learn a Chinese phrase which he wanted him to say after his encounter with Bunny. I just find it amusing that Mac actually knows Japanese and Korean, but Christian wanted him to say something in a language he didn't know. The first take was hilarious because as Daryl was approaching Mac, a slew of children ran after Bunny, yelling "Bunny! Bunny! Bunny!" Afterwards Christian got Akiko, Mac's mom to get into the movie as well. And then we had lunch at Empress Pavilion, where I was once again let down by the language barrier. For some reason most people think "meat" when I ask if any of their food has wheat in it. I know it's not going to go well when they refer me to the vegetarian section of the menu. But I can eat sesame balls so I had three and a bowl of rice and steamed vegetables. Mac was so sweet he whispered to me when the last sesame ball was on the table. He wanted to be sure I knew it was still available. Now that is some kid. And then we moved on to Broadway downtown, which was full of people. Christian had Bunny walk up and down the escalator from the subway and then up and down the crowded street. It was fun. I think he walked up and down two city blocks and then Christian asked him to dance around the park. It would have been nice if I could have figured out how to turn on the walkie talkies. On the other hand, it all went very well. Luckily afterwards he let Daryl take the Bunny head off so he could get shots of the feet moving. Daryl was so tired. Afterwards, he said his legs and arms were weak, as if he'd been exercising all day. It's tough being Bunny.

Returning the Rental Car

March 30th, Thursday-Today I have to return the rental car, my little breath of freedom, before 9:30a completely gassed up by Hollywood and Highland. I am late. I try to get gas at the nearest place to us, which is in the wrong direction. The station is full of people. I pick pump #6 and get out of my car only to find that the tank is not on the driver's side. I then move the car to turn it around and someone else pulls up. So I have to pull in front of someone else. This person is not happy with me at all. I try to explain but she just throws her hands up at me. I get out and use my debit card and select pump #6 three times and finally realize that the gas isn't flowing because I'm at pump #2 now. I run into the station and tell the guy who has already deleted it and I start again from the beginning. This time I pick pump #2. It takes me forever to unscrew the tank cap because the previous person who used the car screwed it on abnormally tight, perhaps thinking that they would never need to gas the car up again, because after all, it's just a rental. I put the nozzle in and push the start button and nothing happens. I do this three or four times until I realize that I'm pushing the wrong start button. I finally find the correct start button and put the clip on so that it warns me when it's full. It takes way too long and when it finally clicks off I am relieved. I go to collect my receipt from the machine and can't seem to get it to give me my receipt until I go through the process three times (which seems to be the number of times I need to do something in order to get it done correctly). I finally get my receipt only to have it fly out of my hand from the wind ( I kid you not. At this point I'm thinking, am I being punked? By God?). I chase after it and get it and drive through really slow traffic to the rental place a good twenty minutes past 9:30a. I return the car and wait in line and after they check the car out they tell me that the car is only three-quarters full. (What? Seriously, God, is this a joke?) I'm shocked. I tell them I just came from the gas station and the tank read full the entire time I was driving. There is no way it was only three-quarters full. God was kind to me though, after punking me, and they didn't charge me for it, but I was late, so they charged me for that. I was so angry about the whole thing and when I told Daryl about it he said that's how he feels when he drives. I told him it wasn't about the driving, it was about trying to return the car and get gas! Daryl brought me to The Griddle to cheer me up and it did because they have a fabulous soy chai latte and the best bacon in town. You can't leave that place unhappy, I tell you. Oh, and we saw Ian Ziering there too with his lady friend. They weren't nearly as interesting as the Gunslinger chili which ranked an 8 on the 0 to 10 hotness scale. Daryl had had it before but we are still waiting to see a chili above that number. We especially want to see the 10. It's called the Demon.

Hydroplaning

March 27th, Monday-OK. It's raining in LA. It's raining in LA and I can barely see the middle line on the road at night. On the road from Burbank to Los Angeles which goes through a WINDING PATH ON THE EDGE OF A MOUNTAIN. That also DIPS at various places. And you know how it rains, and then you're driving and then you try to brake and NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS and your MOMENTUM CONTINUES to move you SPEEDING down a hill TOWARDS A RED LIGHT and then you feel the car moving left into ONCOMING TRAFFIC and you use all of your arm strength to wheel yourself over into the correct lane and then while your heart is beating a mile a minute you all of a sudden STOP just past the line at the red light and in two lanes at the same time. Lucky for me no one else was around. I didn't drive past 35mph the rest of the way home which I'm sure the driver behind me loved. But it freaked me out!

Third Day of Bunny

March 26th, Sunday-Today was the bunny shoot. 8:30a! We got caffeine before we began because, well, who wouldn't? Christian says I'm the photographer and hands me his camera. We tell him that I'm bad with a camera and basically I'm doing it because I'm available and I'm going to be around. So we're off and before we know it, Daryl's undressing in public in Pershing Square in downtown LA. We have a lovely bow tie for him now and he looks great. We shoot lovely little girls fighting over Easter goodies and they are adorable. They love the Bunny. There are some protesters that walk by and they ask us to take pictures of them with the Bunny. Complete strangers seeing us with cameras walk into the shots and ask Bunny to take a picture with them. I have to shoo them out of the way. I'm hidden in the shot behind a walkway wall and guarding the bags. Then there's another set of kids that fight near a fountain and Daryl dances towards them in the outfit. The various people in the park watch with interest. These kids are cute too and in between takes they pretend they are explorers. Christian makes Daryl prance around the park, peek behind trees, hop around, and dance around the fountain. He does a fantastic job. And he's also suffocating in the Bunny head. He asks me to take a picture of him in the Bunny suit with the Sidekick so that he can post it on his blog. (Check it out!) Then we go off to another location and this time we need mikes. The mom and kid actors appear and meanwhile we realize that we're in the middle of a real estate push and there are tons of people walking around taking tours of lofts in the area. Christian is nearly beside himself what with the noise and the passersby. Luckily for us the real estate people don't mind us moving their signs around a bit and are nice enough to get out of the shot when we need them to. In between shots, Daryl gets a small break so we take a tour of one of the lofts which was nearly $3500/month of for a 2-bedroom loft with a tiny kitchen and what seemed to me to be a tiny layout for the price. But then again I'm not going to live right across the street from the Staples Center. We leave the tour early, giggling at how not worth it the apartments were. Then we shoot some more footage of Daryl walking down the streets and then we're off to yet another location where Bunny will be walking with a pinata. Seriously. Here the street is full of children and while the majority of them just want a hug there are a few who just feel like it's ok to take anything out of the Easter Basket. Unfortunately, one of the little children in the movie got really frightened of Bunny, but the rest of the kids were great. One of them loved Bunny so much we had to tear him away so we could get more shots done. Spectators were funny too and many of them asked to take pictures with Bunny, to which he obliged, but at one point Daryl was ready to suffocate and was dying in the suit and this guy unloaded two vans full of children to take a picture. It took forever. Poor Daryl. (More pictures can be found at: http://www.christianwhite.com/BUNNYPICS/)

Daryl's Birthday/Dessert Party

March 25th, Saturday-We thought we were going to go downtown and shoot more of the Bunny, but instead we got a call from Christian saying that half a million people were protesting downtown and that there was no way we'd be able to get through the traffic. I knew that there was a protest, but I had no idea it was going to be half a million people. Christian was mired in traffic for hours. But it was good for me, because I had to prepare desserts for Daryl's birthday. So, of course, me being me, I put Daryl to work cleaning the house while I made the food. I made creme brulee, molten chocolate cupcakes, chocolate souffle, and cream puffs. (All the food was gluten-free.) The big winner was the cupcakes. I am so totally making that dessert again. (And it was so worth the trip to the culinary store to get a cupcake pan and paper liners.) Everyone tried all of the desserts but they all reached sugar overload too soon and I had tons of leftovers. (I hadn't eaten dinner so I made pasta while everyone was enjoying dessert. Because I am crazy.)

I had been a bit tired since I was temping at Disney Channel again. The drive alone is exhausting. But it's really, really nice to be able to visit Daryl when he's at work and have dinner with him. Tomorrow is Daryl's actual birthday, but we will be shooting the video of the Bunny and I don't think we'd have time to really celebrate properly. So, after we cleaned up the party. I asked Daryl if he made anklets for the Bunny suit. He forgot. So we stayed up late cutting fur fabric, safety pinning anklets, adding fabric to the back, and velcroing the head piece to fit more securely on Daryl's head. Collapsed at 2a.

Second Day of Bunny

Marth 19th, Sunday-We went out and took more stills of the Bunny. We discovered that the suit was just a tad short in the legs and you could almost see Daryl's socks underneath the fur. It's almost impossible to breathe through the mask and it's hard to see. Plus, we think he needs a big festive bow tie. We didn't find any at the costume store, nor did we find the extra fabric for the ankles. Luckily today there were no mobs of children trying to steal his basket of Easter goodness. Even though, this time we came prepared with candy.

First Day of Bunny

March 18th, Saturday-Today Daryl was a bunny. Really. Our friend is making a movie about the Easter Bunny and Daryl is the Bunny, complete with fur suit and full-on latex Bunny head. He was nearly mobbed on the street when a bunch of kids spotted him in the outfit. I saw one of them spanking his behind! Cheeky! On the previous weekends when Christian was scouting locations the weather was sunny with beautiful blue skies, but when we were shooting the skies were overcast. Isn't that always the way?