Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #139: The Cabin Movie Shoot Day 2

1. I began the fourth day of my time in rural north central Pennsylvania by downing an energy drink and trying my best to wake up quickly before exiting the motel room to head over to Wellsboro to meet the rest of the crew. I found it amazing how fast my body will wake up when I have fun and exciting things on my schedule. If it was a typical work day, my body would have been like a Ziploc bag full of oatmeal. Yet, there I was on that morning, very tired but fully awake because of the adrenaline that kicked in as soon as my eyes opened. Each filming morning required me to be at Director Mark’s house in the next town over from where I was staying by 8:15am. No matter what time I managed to fall asleep, I was alive and kicking by 6:30am at the latest.


2. This was the first day that we would all be heading to the cabin to shoot. We were lucky in that Mark knew someone with a cabin nearly in the middle of nowhere. They were willing to allow us to use it for nothing. We had gone a few nights earlier to clean the cabin to get it camera-ready. That day, we packed up gear, loaded the food I had bought at Walmart, picked up anyone who needed to carpool, and started the journey to the tiny township of Osceola. I thought Mansfield was small, with a population of just under 3,000. Nothing prepared me for Osceola. Its population is under 600. On each of the drives out to the cabin, we would pass by many dilapidated houses. These looked like if you got a flat and needed to ask for help, you’d be shot before your foot touched the grass on the edge of their property. In fact, there was one time when Mark had to stop to wait for another car to catch up. I was carpooling with him. I was on my guard as we parked in front of one of these sketchy houses. When a person stepped out onto their porch, I was ready to duck and cover. There were never any issues with anyone on the drives out to the cabin, but it felt like the threat was always there.


3. A daily highlight on my drives, not only to the cabin, but just around where I was in Pennsylvania, was the fog and clouds. The elevation in the area ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, and so there were times, especially in the morning, when the fog and clouds would be right at eye level or just above. We get tons of fog on Cape Cod; the spring is the worst of it. However, I hadn’t seen it hovering just off the ground, the same with the clouds. I couldn’t get any photos while I was driving, but managed to grab one while on a drive out to the cabin on that first day of shooting. It won’t do justice to how cool it was, but it’s better than nothing. Mark told me that the fog/clouds and the heat lightning that I found so exciting were so routine that it didn’t even faze him. I guess it’s the same as how I feel about the summer traffic on Cape Cod. No, wait, that’s never exciting or fun.

Looking at the fog on the horizon traveling toward Osceola.

4. The cabin itself was an interesting character not only in the film but for my trip in general. I mentioned the obnoxious amount of stuffed animals inside, and not the cuddly ones kids have on their beds. We arrived and, first off, had to turn on the power. This would come into play a few times throughout the shoot. There was a breaker for the pump, which allowed us to have running water. Not wanting to overdo it, we would only flip the switch for short bursts periodically when we needed to use water or the bathroom. I was honestly fine with just wandering off behind some bushes, but I know that’s not for everyone. We unpacked the food and set up the props, lighting, and scenery we needed. Even though we were only there for two full days, it did feel like we were arriving at an Airbnb. There were a few perishable items we brought: meat, cheese, and bottled water, so we had to shove them in the fridge. Surprisingly, the fridge was full. We didn’t get too excited, though; it was mostly condiments and copious amounts of beer, which I am sure the cabin owners had counted. There would be some time to explore the cabin thoroughly, but once we had everything settled, it was time to dive right into shooting.

A pano shot showing how isolated we were.

5. It’s funny, regarding the trip in general, I can tell how busy the days were by just how many photos and videos I got. This day was the busiest by far, with the following day being only slightly less busy. It should come as no surprise that, since we were shooting at a cabin roughly a mile from anything that the cell reception was nearly nonexistent. I would get flashes of one bar of service, but it was never anything that allowed me to post any updates on social media. I was, for all intents and purposes, off the radar for two entire days. I still shot a handful of videos on this day. I even began uploading one to Instagram around 10:30am. By the time we left the cabin, which was close to 9pm, that story was maybe 30% uploaded. I ended up canceling that upload and throwing all of the footage up once I got back to my motel room and civilization.





6. Being that we had a small cast and a small budget, I had a feeling that I might end up with a role or two in the film. One came about by my own foolishness. I was checking over the script while still on Cape Cod, and on the first page, in the very first scene, I saw that there was a character that I never cast. It was another friend of Will, the main character, who is being given the lowdown about why he was quitting his job. Since I was pressed for time, I decided to just record those lines myself, so that was my first role. Secondly, I took on the role of an investigator near the end of the film. This was relatively small, so I wasn’t too worried about remembering lines. This role was memorable because it came with a costume. Mark’s son Anthony, who is such a sweet person and a very talented visual effects person, brought this hefty trench coat with him. I agreed to wear it in my role as the investigator. The trench coat was memorable for two reasons. For one, it was 85 degrees and humid, so wearing it was like having a portable sauna. Secondly, it was too big. I looked like a five-year-old who got into daddy’s clothes. All I could do was laugh when the cameras weren’t rolling, of course. I was so inspired by the incredible acting jobs that Cody and Jeff did that I took on some extra lines and lightened the load for Michael, who played another police officer. A funny thing that won’t come through in the film is that my character was interacting with Cody’s character in a scene. The only issue was Cody had to run home to let his dog out. So we shot my scene with me interrogating an empty chair off-screen. I got really intense too. I hope I scared that invisible ghost I was yelling at.

7. As far as my roles in The Cabin go, we save the best for last. My third role ended up being that of the mysterious creature that stalks the main character. Coming into the shoot, I don’t think any of us had a clue who would be in that role. I had brought the outfit for the creature from my own closet. Anthony had made the mask. So we had the creature costume but nobody to play it. I didn’t need to have my arm twisted too much to play the role. For one, it had no dialogue, just a lot of growls, grunts, and howls. Also, it was another perfect full-circle moment. When I used to make skits with my friends with my camcorder in the 1990s, I enjoyed being a bit of a stuntman. I would fall and throw myself around to make things look good. Granted, I was now 30 years older, but how much different could it be? The answer was very similar but also very different. I had to get made up in the monster garb, which included a horrifying mask with one tiny eye hole for sight. There were also copious amounts of blood to make me look as gross as possible. A fun little issue came after nearly every scene where the neck of the mask needed to be tucked back into the collar of the shirt I was wearing. I looked a bit like a cross between Jason from Friday the 13th Part 4 and Sloth from The Goonies. The setup was all good to go, but could I pull off being the creature?


8. Yes. But seriously, we shot the initial monster scenes at night, and so with very little vision I had to basically use The Force to make my way around. This included crashing through a door, killing one person convincingly with no real way to see them, and then viciously trying to bash my way through another door. I was told that my performance terrified the others. Mark said as he was filming that he thought I was going to really break the door down, but he didn’t want to stop me. I left blood all over the cabin, some of which we wouldn’t find until it was time for us to pack up and leave. The initial crashing through the door was nuts. I went all out. Not being able to see much in the dark and with a quarter-sized eye hole made it easy for me to appear to be wild. I was throwing chairs, growling, and causing utter chaos. The only downer was one guy whining that I got blood on his shirt. It’s like, you’re acting in a movie; nobody forced you to come. Later on, as we were all leaving, we saw him pulled over in his vehicle, changing his shirt. He must have had a date that he didn’t want to know what he was up to. I would have another crack at being the creature the next day, but we’ll get to that when the time arrives.


9. Throughout our time out at the cabin, I tried to manifest a nature encounter. I saw a few deer, including one that walked into the front yard to eat apples. There was a rabbit that really seemed to enjoy hanging out in the back yard by the shed. Those were all well and good, but what I wanted was a black bear. Oh, I’m sure if I had been jumped by a bear I’d have regretted asking for it, but I never got the chance. I didn’t go all out and start playing bear calls on my phone or anything, but we were in the middle of nowhere in bear country; I mean, come on. A few times I wandered up into this clearing behind the cabin hoping that I’d sneak up on a bear foraging for berries. Yes, I did think to myself how stupid and dangerous it was, but damn it, I wanted photos of Yogi doing stuff. The closest I got to a black bear while in Pennsylvania came when I was walking the bike trail earlier in the week. I heard some noises coming from maybe 20-30 feet in the woods off the trail. I figured it was either a group of squirrels or maybe a deer. Mark said it was more than likely a bear since they like to forage for food in areas like that. I never saw it, so there’s no proof, but Mark lives out there and would know better than me. Therefore, I am considering it a near-miss with a black bear. In the future, the story will evolve into me fighting for my life against the bear, which is why I was unable to get any photographic evidence.


10. There were several hilarious moments during our shooting at the cabin. One that only became funny after the fact was as follows. It was broad daylight, but we needed to get some night scenes done. This required some lighting trickery, including shooting day for night, which will mostly be applied during post-production. A more practical way to make day look like night is to cover windows with something black. We had a sheet that would do the trick. First, Anthony and I tried taping the sheet over the window from the inside. This was a failure and included us losing the tape as soon as we put it down, despite neither of us moving from where we stood. It ended up being wedged between the mattress and the side of the frame. We even sent Michael outside to see if somehow we dropped it out the window. The next bright idea was taping the sheet to a pair of lighting stands outside and raising it up to block the window. The sheet was taped, but as soon as we attempted to lift it, everything unraveled, and the sheet fell to the muddy ground. Yes, the ground was soft and muddy, which made everything else harder. Finally, Mark found a ladder, and we were able to nail the sheet to the window frame. It ended up being like a scene right out of the Three Stooges. It took five of us about a half hour to get that sheet in place. We nearly forgot to take it down when we were leaving too. I could only imagine the cabin owners showing up and seeing a window totally blacked out. They’d probably have started wondering what type of movie we had been shooting.

Three Stooges Seal of Approval

11. Being on a tight budget, you have to become creative. I wish we had a more robust budget to use on props and effects, but that wasn’t the case for The Cabin. In the script, there is a scene that includes the main character finding the dead deer. Sure, we could have found stock footage of a deer to put in post. But what made more sense was grabbing one of the many, many deer heads off the wall and using it as practical effects. I grabbed one, which weighed next to nothing, and brought it outside to lay in the grass. It ended up working perfectly. Cody came around the corner of the cabin and spotted the dead deer, brilliantly shot by Mark. In the script, it is supposed to be all bloodied up, but that probably can be done in post-production. We just needed the one shot and then to get it back on the wall no worse for wear. My greatest fear was that I had hung it back up improperly and that it had somehow fallen off the wall and been destroyed. I figure if that had happened, the cabin owner would have called Mark, and at least as of this writing, I have heard nothing about damaged deer heads.

The one in the middle was used in the film.

12. After a long day of filming, you can get hungry. Sure, we had a lot of food that I got from Walmart; that was part of the budget after all. But finger foods like granola bars, donuts, bags of chips, and even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches don’t fill you up unless you eat a ton all at once. I had been picking at stuff when we had the chance, so by the time we called ‘cut’ to end the day, which was close to 9pm, I was starving. As I was in Mark’s car, being brought back to his house where my rental was, my wheels were turning as far as where I could go to grab something quick for dinner. I only knew a few places along my driving route back to the motel. One was a McDonald’s located maybe two minutes from the motel. I decided, why not? I was technically on vacation, right? Something exciting, but also troublesome for me, that I discovered was the fact that I could pay for my food through the app using Venmo. Not only was everything slightly cheaper than on Cape Cod, but now I could just click one button, and it was paid. I grew up in the analog age of the 1980s and 1990s. Most things I learned about now require fewer steps, which I don’t mind. I think if you grew up before technology took over, you appreciate the advances. If you are born into a world where everything is simple and convenient, you likely don’t appreciate it. I didn’t think about that much while enjoying my late-night dinner, though. All I could do was eat and hope that my adrenaline wore off soon enough so that I could get a relatively good night’s sleep before another full day of filming.

I became very familiar with this spot

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #138: The Cabin Movie Shoot - Day 1

1. This was my third day in rural North-Central Pennsylvania for the shooting of my feature film debut, The Cabin. It was also the first official day of filming. I had arrived during the late afternoon on Tuesday after driving 450 miles from Cape Cod. The next day was mostly spent laying low and exploring a little. By the time Thursday arrived, it was all systems go. Unlike a typical ‘vacation,’ I had to be awake and out the door as if I was going to work. Mark, the director, wanted all of the necessary cast to be at his house by 8:15am. For me, driving from Mansfield to Wellsboro, the next town over, took roughly 15 minutes. Luckily, it was pretty much a straight shot on Route 6. The drive ended up being a regular occurrence, so I got used to the amazing hills. You really could fly down some of the hills. I know I got up to over 60mph at times. I have no idea how people drive up them during the winter months. The hardest part for me, besides just waking up at 6:30am on my vacation, was fighting the urge to pull over and get photos of the beautiful countryside scenery. It was literally all around me. It was especially hard when I passed a beautiful fountain on the green near Mark’s house. It took me until my last day in Pennsylvania before I finally got my photos and videos of that location.


2. I arrived thinking I’d be late, but I was actually earlier than most. Those of us who were there exchanged some small talk. I might do a lot of public speaking for my books and record weekly podcasts, but still deep down I am an introvert. Initiating conversations is not my strong suit. This is exacerbated when I am surrounded by people I don’t know. Mark, I had met a few times, so I was at least comfortable around him, but most of the other cast was new to me. As the shoot went on, I got more comfortable with everyone, but that first day I spent a lot of time being quiet, listening, and speaking when spoken to.


3. This shoot was a full-circle life moment for me. When I was in high school, I spent my savings on a Sears camcorder. I wanted to be a filmmaker. In those days, though, it was a lot of very loosely developed skits that I performed with my friends. There were no scripts. It was ideas like I thought I was a dog, and my friends took advantage of that with hilarious results. As a writer, I am all about symbolism. My plan for the first day, and more specifically the first shot, of The Cabin was to have something that tied it back to those camcorder days of the 1990s. A few years ago I found the red flannel shirt I used to wear all of the time in high school. It still fit, and didn’t disintegrate when I washed it, so I brought it along. I did get a smirk or two when I put it on, as it was humid and in the 80s when we were filming, but I didn’t care. I didn’t even take a photo of myself in the shirt on the set. The moment was only for me to symbolize that I had not given up on that high school dream, and in a small way, I had done right by my teenage self. I sat on the stairs in my red flannel as Mark yelled ‘action’ to begin filming The Cabin. It was a simple scene of the lead character coming home. Cody, the actor who played Will (the lead character), walked through the front door and past the camera. Nothing explosive, but I made sure I was rolling with my own camera as this scene played out. It was a seminal moment in my life. I did, however, take the flannel off not too long after since it was still a hot and humid summer day.


4. Nature was everywhere in Pennsylvania, even in the backyards of a typical neighborhood. I mentioned in the last blog about the deer that enjoyed sleeping in Mark’s backyard. On this day it was time for the groundhogs to shine. I mean, it is the home state of Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous groundhog, so of course they’d be everywhere. There was one that was hanging around a shed that we would end up using as another cabin for the film. I wanted a photo of it, and doing so through a window wasn’t going to do. I gently turned the back doorknob. It clicked ever so faintly. That was enough for the groundhog to scurry under the shed. Damn survival instincts kicking in. I eventually did get a photo of it, through a closed window.

It didn't want to stick around for a close-up.

5. The first morning of shooting was exclusively at Mark’s house. It was easy to have it double as the main character’s house. We took care of a lot of miscellaneous scenes that required me to do a lot of reading lines. Before leaving Cape Cod, I had recorded a series of scenes for the film with friends acting in the film. They’d all have been interacting with the main character, Will. Little did I realize while recording those scenes, where I did the lines Will would say, that I’d in turn have to do the same thing on the opposite side once I was in Pennsylvania. I had to read dozens of lines for Cody to keep time as Will. My voice started getting hoarse, which was pretty funny. I said to Mark after that there was a reality where we could layer my voice as Will speaking to my voice as each of the four characters that I recorded while on Cape Cod. I guess if our budget had been that small, it probably would have been close to that situation. Me as every character, just with different clothes and wigs. I found myself apologizing to Cody many times during the shoot for the long strands of dialogue he had to read. The joke I made was that The Cabin was just a remake of Cast Away, except instead of Wilson the volleyball, the sidekick was a pocket recorder. Cody really was 75% of the film, and he killed it in every scene he did.


6. The highlight of the first shooting day was our journey out to the Grand Canyon Regional Airport. It was a 10-minute drive from Mark’s house. We were lucky enough that a man who worked there was allowing us access to his Cessna plane for some scenes. It was a hot midday when we arrived. The scenery was amazing with the elevation. I was smart and put on some sunscreen, figuring that with my luck I’d get burned and then be miserable for the rest of the time there. We waited probably 15 minutes, wondering where our man was. We had knocked on doors and looked in windows, but it felt like we had been forgotten. Then, from a distance, we heard a motor. It got closer, and we spotted a red motorcycle. It pulled right up to us, and slowly the driver pulled his helmet off. It was a man in probably his mid-70s, definitely a surprise. His name was Skip, and he was the one who was gracious enough to allow us access to his plane. Not knowing how long we had, I was a madman, shooting as much video and photos as possible. I made sure to chat with Skip so that he could be included in the behind-the-scenes extras on the eventual DVD. It was another surreal moment as he pulled the Cessna out onto the airstrip and allowed us to begin shooting our scenes. I hung back and let Mark direct and Cody and Jeff act. It was weird at times because we were all there because of something I’d written, yet I’d often stay in the background and let the people with experience do their thing. Not everyone at the airport knew what was going on. Some guy in a pickup truck came barreling over to where Skip was standing and asked what was going on. They seemed to be fine with it, and we were allowed to keep filming, but momentarily there was a bit of panic as we thought we might have our time cut short. In all, everything went off without a hitch. We got all of the shots we needed. I got to get photographed inside the Cessna. There was even a plane that landed while we were there. I got that video and have sent it to Mark for possible inclusion in the film. We left the airport feeling enthused about the project, and it had only been a few hours of shooting. There was a lot of daylight left, though, and we had another location we needed to get to.

In between takes at the airport.

7. The Cabin is not Mark’s first rodeo. He has directed more than 100 films in his life, many of them shot around the Wellsboro and Mansfield areas of Pennsylvania. He knows where to go and what to look for as far as locations go. It was my first rodeo, but I was lucky to have Mark. I put my total trust in him as far as bringing much of my original vision for The Cabin to life. So when we left his house in the mid-afternoon to go shoot at Hills Creek State Park, I knew nothing of where we were going except that Mark said it was perfect. The spot he chose was the Beaverhut Boat Ramp, about a ten-minute drive from his house. Naturally, being a rural area of Pennsylvania anyway, this location was deserted. It was meant to be a stand-in for a secluded lake in Northern Canada, as was in the script. This was one of a few areas where the echoes when the actors would yell were mesmerizing. The sun was dancing in and out of thickening clouds, and I hoped that my sunscreen would hold on. It ended up being an eventful shooting location.

A perfect setting.

8. Cody, being the main character, was in nearly all of the scenes. With the film taking place over nearly two weeks, there were a bunch of wardrobe changes. We also tried to shoot all scenes in the same area at once, even if they took place on different days in the film. This meant that Cody had to change clothes repeatedly. At Mark’s house, or even later at the cabin, he had a clean and sanitary place to change. At Hills Creek, it was either change out in the open or hide out in a pretty putrid outhouse. I know how nasty it was because I had to use it at one point. I am sure it was checked on every now and then, but it felt like if I dropped anything on the ground in there, I’d have just left it behind rather than pick it up. It wasn’t as bad as some porta-potties I’ve seen in my life, but it was not a place I’d wanted to have needed to sit down in.


9. Just a friendly reminder, if you’re going to turn over something in the woods, be it a rock, log, or a canoe, be prepared that there might be something living underneath. For one scene in the movie, we needed Cody to act like he had just canoed across the lake. Luckily, there were a few overturned canoes on the shore. Unfortunately, the one that we chose had occupants. When Cody flipped it right side up, he immediately recoiled. Slithering around under the canoe was a pair of garter snakes. Now, honestly, these are small. The pair were probably only between 2 and 3 feet long. Cody doesn’t like snakes, so he was not happy. I, on the other hand, was practically falling over myself to get photos and videos. I knew they were harmless, and I didn’t intend to hurt them, so it was a win-win. In an interesting twist, one of the snakes had milky blue eyes. I thought maybe it was blind. After researching, I found out that it was because it was getting ready to shed its skin, and fluid builds up around the eyes to allow easier shedding. I didn’t try to pick the snakes up or anything. I have done that in the past to freak out other hikers. This time it was just filming them and being surprised that they stayed around the canoe despite there being a bunch of people around. Maybe they had eggs buried under there?

Ol' Blue Eyes

10. Our time at Hills Creek was almost finished when we got an unexpected guest. A few vehicles had passed by on the nearby road, but none had ventured into the parking lot. That was until a park ranger came rolling down in his white SUV. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut and let Mark do the talking. The guy was friendly and curious. He even said we didn’t have to tell him what we were doing. Mark was open about us shooting a movie. The ranger said he was new to the job but thought it would be wise to reach out to someone in charge to make sure it was okay. Mark said he would, but that was just to make the ranger feel like he’d done his job. When he mentioned that the film was a script I had written, the ranger started asking me questions about my work. I was surprised that I still had a few old business cards in my wallet. I gave him one, but as of this writing haven’t heard anything from him. The other funny part of this interaction was Mark explaining that we were going to be shooting much of the movie up at a remote cabin. He even gave the ranger the road it was on, inviting him to come on out and see. For the entire time we were at the cabin, a running joke we had was whether the ranger would end up showing up. He never did, unless it was long after we left. I mean, we didn’t say how long we’d be there. Sorry to him if he showed up later and the place was deserted.


11. It was getting close to 5pm on the first day of filming, but we still had another location to go to. This time it was the university in Mansfield where Mark worked. He was able to set up an abandoned laboratory to look like a hospital room. This was necessary for a few scenes near the end of the movie. The irony of this location was how close it was to the motel where I was staying. It was literally a 3-minute drive away. This would have been amazing for me when we wrapped shooting for the day, if not for the fact that we carpooled. After we got done, I had to be driven all the way back to Mark’s house to get my rental car and drive back basically to where I had just been. The scenes in the abandoned lab were fun. It was a battle finding outlets for the lighting, but everything seemed to work out for us during the shoot. As producer, I spent a lot of time managing the script. This meant that as the actors were going along, if they needed a line, I’d provide it. A lot of the shoot consisted of me asking Mark what I could do to help. This was all new to me, so I needed to be coached. For one scene, an actor, Michael, was playing an investigator. He had a lot of dialogue explaining some in-depth plot points. He had some trouble remembering all of the lines, which was understandable with how long the speech was. In order to put him at ease, we set me up in his line of sight with the script so he could just read the lines without it looking awkward on camera. This university location was another where I didn’t really have time to stop and soak it in. Luckily, I got a few shot videos of the laboratory, but those were interviews for the DVD extras.

A creepy vibe

12. When I am on road trips, one thing I enjoy is visiting stores that we don’t have near me on Cape Cod. I find them as exciting as attractions you’d find on TripAdvisor. I’ve already mentioned Sheetz. Another such place was Weis supermarket. There was one right on Route 6 on my drive back to Mansfield from Wellsboro. Needing something for breakfast the next morning, I stopped in. No, it wasn’t anything game-changing as far as a grocery store. I actually ended up stopping in a few times. Their flavored seltzers were good. I looked through their à la carte section, energy drinks, and barbecue sauces. Why the last one? Because many years ago my all-time favorite barbecue sauce, Cattlemen’s, was discontinued at every local store near me. I hold out hope that maybe some obscure market still carries it. Thus far, I haven’t found it anywhere. Now, to be honest, I can order it off Amazon, and I have several times. But I like the potential excitement of finding it in the wild. Much like with Sheetz, I got myself a few plastic bags with the store logo on them. Yes, I don’t spend loads of money on souvenirs; I just get plastic bags.

Yes it was an exciting visit

13. The first day of shooting ended with me returning to my home base motel well after 9pm. I had my Weis seltzer and stopped by McDonald’s, which was only a few minutes from where I was staying. No, it wasn’t the healthiest eating habits while on this movie shoot. Then again, it wasn’t the point. My entire reason for being in rural Pennsylvania was to film The Cabin. It wasn’t to hike, or run, or sightsee; it was for the movie. It kind of took the pressure off me as far as extracurriculars went. I didn’t have to feel bad about eating terrible, or needing energy drinks to get me in gear early in the morning. None of that mattered. If I ended the day feeling good about the work we all got done, then the day was a success. I could always amp up my diet and exercise heading into the fall. I wasn’t always going to have an opportunity to produce a feature film based on a story I wrote.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #137: The Cabin Prologue

1. For weeks leading up to my departure from Cape Cod to go produce my feature film, The Cabin, everything was smooth. The fundraiser went off without a hitch; I got my hotel, rented a car, and we hired the whole crew. In my mind, this was the next natural progression in my creative journey. The last five years have been one long road of continued growth. It’s funny how, despite all of the things I just mentioned, the old insecurities came creeping up the day before I was to head out. It was like the Imposter Syndrome and the little negative voice in my head decided to make themselves known. When I woke up on Monday, I felt this tension and these nerves that hadn’t been there even the night before. It was as if the reality of the situation finally stepped to the front. The voice was asking me if I knew what I was getting myself into. It asked who I thought I was, trying to do something new and challenging. It tried telling me that I would be found out and this project would fail. I have had to battle these demons of self-worth and self-confidence for way too long, and this is no different. I have been told every step of the way that the script I wrote is good. We have everything set up to make the best film we can. I have the funds, the place to stay, the car, the time, and yet despite all of that, the voice still came calling. I had to take a step back and reassure myself that I deserve this opportunity based on all of the hard work and sacrifices I’ve made throughout the years. It’s almost as if the closer I get to this new, exciting opportunity, the harder those old thoughts push back. Only when I open that door and step through will those voices shut up. They won’t do it on their own. I have to make them by believing in myself.


2. To time things right, I had to put off doing my laundry until the day before I left for Pennsylvania. I wanted to make sure I had all of the clean clothing possible for the movie shoot. No need to stop at some dollar store and buy shirts made of recycled paper. This meant that those extra days without doing laundry saw me wearing clothes I haven’t taken out of the closet in a long time. Thankfully, I do have enough that I didn’t run out. I suppose there are some guys who have enough outfits to last a handful of days, and if anything goes wrong, they’re stuck wearing an old T-shirt they’ve been using as an oil rag for years. The only downside to waiting to do laundry was the sheer size of the load. The laundromat I go to doesn’t have a good spin cycle to rinse the excess water out of the clothing. This means when I take them out of the washer, they weigh a ton, sopping wet. You do get a workout having to carry the basket. In total, to get that load of laundry done and fully dried, it took about 2 ½ hours. Lucky for me, all I had to do on that day was wash clothes and pack. If I had made any plans, they would have needed to be postponed. Telling someone you can’t meet them because you’re doing laundry sounds like a lame excuse because you don’t really want to see them. Next time I do a huge load like that, I’ll have to weigh it to see just how much of a workout I get when carrying it.


3. Once everything was packed and ready for the long drive out to Pennsylvania, the last thing on my list of things to do on Cape Cod was checking for a few things for the trip and the shoot itself. This meant going to Dollar Tree and Ocean State Job Lot. Hey, I’m not looking to gash the movie budget by getting expensive items. Mark, the film director, asked me to look for cheap clothes we could ruin for the film as well as some LED lights for a few scenes. As is typically the case when I go to these stores, I wandered around looking for any deals I didn’t know I needed. I got a cheap T-shirt for shredding but found myself interested in some of the other clothes. I literally just mentioned above that I didn’t want to get such clothing for my regular wardrobe, and yet here I was on the edge. I will say that teenage me would have scoffed at shopping at Job Lot, or as my Nana used to call it, ‘Odd Lot.’ Now, I find the savings more appealing than caring what some rando might think of whatever I get. I got a cool travel bag for toothpaste and things of the like. The piece de résistance, though, was buying unknown-brand energy shots at both Job Lot and Dollar Tree. They would no doubt come in handy on the long drive out. Eventually I had to remind myself that I could always come back again once the movie was done being filmed.


4. The anxiety was in full-court press Tuesday morning as I got ready to leave for Pennsylvania. Despite checking repeatedly, I still believed that I was missing something when packing. I finally had to accept that everything was good and leave. I was a little early when I got to my mom’s. It was there that I was leaving my car for the week. Leaving it at the airport wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, something like $80 for the week, but $0 is way better. It’s a good thing I was early too because it took a few minutes at the airport to figure out where to go to get my rental car. My sister Ashley, who drove me to the airport, had to circle the parking lot a few times while we figured out the protocol. Eventually she parked in front of the main terminal of the Hyannis Airport while I ran in to check. I was renting through Budget but got rerouted to Avis. The terminal was empty, as I guess not too many people are arriving or departing from Cape Cod on a Tuesday morning in September. The actual process of getting the car was easy and took a few minutes. I had wondered how many people went to the airport to rent a car but didn’t come in via plane. Surely I can’t be the only one. Oh well, they didn’t ask any questions, so I wasn’t sharing any info. Shortly after, Ashley was helping me toss my luggage into the backseat of a pretty sweet Honda Accord. Of course, it began to rain once I was ready to drive, but we’ll get to that in a moment. I was very grateful that my sister took time from her day to drop me at the airport. The money I saved alone on parking and an Uber probably covered the gas and tolls on the trips out and back.

This was what it looked like, except mine was gray.

5. Speaking of tolls. Because this was a new adventure, I wanted to try a few new things. I’d never rented a car for a trip, so driving a pretty new one with a touchscreen display was an immediate luxury. I also wanted to try a different navigation app, so I went old school with MapQuest. It all seemed fine at first. You get to pick out an avatar to move across the map while you drive. I picked someone who looked like he was from Lord of the Rings. I just kept calling him Gandalf. It was my choice to keep the toll option turned on while driving. It was already 450 miles, and I figured that was the fastest, so I could spend a little money on tolls to speed things up. What I didn’t expect was MapQuest not only bringing me to the toll road, the Mass Pike, which was expected, but also taking me off and back onto it. It was like they saw the toll option on the app and wanted to see how much they could rack up for me. I yelled that Gandalf was screwing me over, which wouldn’t have made any sense out of context. I had no clue what my toll bill would be. They do everything by license plate now, and you get a bill sent. That leads to another issue you may have guessed. It’s not my car, so it will be the rental company getting the toll bill. I am sure they will just use my card to pay for it, as I would expect. I do wonder if I can get a receipt so I can see just how much I paid. Oh, and I got rid of MapQuest and went to an old reliable in Waze. That whole getting me on and off the Pike twice was weird. I plan on keeping the toll option off for the drive home as well.


6. I have driven in all of the bad weather. Rain, snow, storms, wind, so when the weather report said some rain along my driving route, I was prepared. What I wasn’t prepared for was a near-death experience. For a while, going through Western Massachusetts, the rain was basic showers, nothing to be too concerned about. Then as I crossed into New York, it changed. Showers became sheets of rain. It was like a whiteout to the point where my windshield wipers were almost useless. The final straw for me came when I came up on a ramp after stopping at a rest area. I was merging, but the rain was so dense I could hardly see the semi truck barreling down. I was in the middle and didn’t know whether to slam on the brakes or gun it. I gunned it, and that truck was coming up fast. All I thought was, ‘man I should have gotten the insurance on the rental.’ I was sure the truck was going to knock me into the guardrail. Luckily, I sped up enough, and the truck driver was able to get into the other lane, so a tragedy was averted. That incident convinced me to pull over and wait out the heaviest rain. My thoughts of arriving in Pennsylvania early went out the window. But hey, I arrived alive, which I think is more important than arriving early. The rain ended up staying moderate much of the way, only really stopping when I was within an hour of my destination. Naturally, as soon as I parked at the motel, the first sound I heard when stepping out was a loud boom of thunder.


7. To answer a question I asked after a 450-mile drive in one day, yes, you can get symptoms similar to jet lag when driving. It’s known as travel fatigue, but oh boy did I have a bad case of it upon arriving. Driving that far, stopping only 3 times, and having to white-knuckle miles of road due to serious rain left my brain resembling a fried egg when I got to my motel room. I texted my mom at first so she wouldn’t worry. Then I texted Mark, the director of The Cabin, so he knew I arrived. He wanted to meet up and start going over logistics of the shoot. My brain was trying to escape through my ears by this point, but I mean, I was in PA for the movie, not a vacation. I was hungry and a bit dehydrated, so trying to listen and formulate thoughts was tough, but I did my best. It was mostly catching up, going over the shoot dates, and planning some of the smaller minutiae that might fall through the cracks. Lucky for me, the following day was basically the one ‘vacation’ day I’d have. We didn’t have plans to do anything related to the movie until later in the afternoon. This gave me plenty of time to hydrate and relax. I don’t know for sure, but I think that it was the most I had driven in one day since I drove to Florida in 2005. On that trip, I got into Southern Virginia in one day from Cape Cod, which I think is over 600 miles. I was so hell-bent on beating the time that MapQuest had said for my arrival and was way ahead until the rain hit. Now I am gleefully anticipating the drive back home, part of which will be at night, and I am sure full of jet lag the next day. Oh wait, sorry, travel fatigue.


8. Travel fatigue made the choice of what to do for dinner much harder. My brain didn’t want to form coherent thoughts, so I did a lot of staring at local maps and various restaurant websites. In order to get the blood flowing again, I needed to just get moving. A half-mile away was a Sheetz, which is a convenience store chain in the Northeast. I decided to walk down there, which allowed me a cool view of Lamb’s Creek. There are more than 800 Sheetz locations, but none in New England, so when I am out in their neck of the woods, I stop in. It’s the same thing with Wawa. Not sure why, but visiting stores I can’t regularly see on Cape Cod is thrilling to me. Their claim to fame is having an actual cooking line there to make food. This isn’t like reheating pizza slices or microwaving egg sandwiches. No, this is an actual line with people working. I say all of that and didn’t order anything. I grabbed typical things, drinks and snacks. I did make sure to get enough stuff that they had to give me a plastic bag with their logo. Yes, they had branded merch in the store, but that costs money. It’s far easier to have them give me a bag that I can keep and eventually forget where I got it from. I am sure before I leave, I will be back to Sheetz. I saw a few brands of things I want to try. Yay, visiting a convenience store is exciting to me now. Man, I’m old.

9. My mind was set on having Chinese food the night I arrived in Mansfield. There were two places close by; it was just a matter of deciding which one. Mark made sure to let me know that the one located a block away, Lucky Star, was the better one. By this point it was dark out, but I had only had a protein shake during my 450-mile drive, so I needed to eat before I crashed out. Rather than drive literally 500 feet, I again just walked. No, I didn’t have PTSD from driving in the rain; these places are literally within walking distance. Mansfield is a college town. A very small college town with a population of under 3,000, but it is a college town nonetheless. So it has a walkable Main Street with lots of stores clustered together. When I went down to order my food, the streets had a charm to them. There were string lights on either side, and even though it was now September, there were still families and groups of friends out walking. I felt right at home. Two things about Lucky Star: their food was great, and the price was lower than similar places on Cape Cod. It was a win-win. I got sesame chicken and also a take-out menu as a souvenir. The portion size was also amazing. Lifting the bag was like a mini workout. I will say that the travel fatigue was a killer. I was eating and expecting to immediately feel 100%, but I was just a puddle. I was able to eat and stayed up until maybe 10:30pm, but my body was desperate for sleep. I was so tired that the bed, which was a little too firm for me, didn’t hold me back. I crashed and enjoyed the one day of being able to ‘sleep in.’ The rest of the week would be earlier wake-ups and longer days than a typical workday on Cape Cod.




10. The rain continued into the next morning. In fact, it was more heavy thunderstorms. My plan of walking a nearby bike trail went up in smoke. I used that extra time to go to the closest Walmart and gather supplies for the crew that Mark had laid out. This Walmart was a big one. It was made more impressive by the rolling hills surrounding it. As I walked toward the entrance, a huge bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a crackling roar of thunder. A guy walking out asked loudly, ‘Who angered Zeus?’ That was pretty funny. Inside, it was a typical Walmart, although larger and cleaner than most I’ve seen. The people, though, fit right in with what you think of as Walmart folk. Not all, mind you; most of them were just ordinary people, but you had a good group of stereotypical odd folks wandering the aisles. I think it was the most I’ve ever bought at Walmart with food and drinks for the next shooting day or two. I went to self-checkout because, of course. A woman was working there, or more like watching me check out. I don’t know if she ever even looked at me while I was there. When I rolled the cart away, there wasn’t even a sound. I guess she’d have noticed if I stole anything, so why bother to interact with customers?


11. An interesting, and probably fitting, thing I’ve noticed since I started my journey off Cape Cod. The sights and music remind me of people from my life. It’s like I have been driving through previous chapters of my life as I am on this road to a new chapter. There were tons of moments like that on my drive up to Pennsylvania. Passing places that somehow sparked memories of old friends or family. Sure, I was playing my music on the drive, but it still seemed to capture the right emotions of this journey. It culminated while I was in Walmart. My favorite Grateful Dead song, Eyes of the World, came on. It’s an 18-minute jam, and a fairly odd choice to play at a Walmart. But it reminded me of an old friend, Dan, who I worked with for years cooking. He was a writer, and he pushed me to be a better writer, mostly to stop his trash talk. That never would work. That really put the icing on the cake for the symbolism part of this trip. I am fulfilling a dream, shedding parts of my old self, and also trying not to lose the essence of who I am. It’s having one foot in the future while keeping one eye on the past. I wanted to make sure I noted this phenomenon before I forgot about it in a sea of filming days.




12. As soon as the rain stopped, I was itching to get outside. I went to a nearby ‘bike and hike’ trail. One thing I noticed was how it immediately got insanely humid as soon as it wasn’t raining. It was still cloudy and maybe 75, but I was sweating pretty good after only about fifteen minutes. In total, on the trail, I walked a mile. There were more spiders than people. I did manage to spot a cute brown cat but only got a fleeting glimpse of it. I think it lived in a house right off the trail. The big thing I wanted to explore was an abandoned old bridge that crosses the Tioga River, which the trail runs along. I wasn’t desperate enough to walk the 2.5 miles in each direction, though. Nope, I drove out to where it was to hike down. Seriously, it was in the middle of nowhere. I passed vultures and crows eating a dead deer. There is an overgrown road leading down to the bridge. It’s now referred to as the Graffiti Bridge and has been closed since the mid-1970s. It is obviously covered in graffiti, which is where the name came from. I was hoping to see a live deer along the riverbanks, but sadly only that poor dead one along the road. The walk was totally worth it, and I got tons of photos and videos of it. I briefly thought of not walking onto it but figured if I didn’t I’d regret it the instant I got back to Cape Cod. It was very peaceful and way less creepy than expected based on the photos.




13. We unofficially got down to business around 4pm on Wednesday. Mark came and picked me up from the motel, and we went to his house located in the next town over. The plan was to start formulating a plan for the movie shoot while awaiting the arrival of the rest of the cast. I quickly made friends with Mark’s dog named Django. He was very old and had limited mobility. Mark even said that this past spring his family thought they were going to have to put him down. But he was there, still kicking. For me, filming a movie was all brand new, so I made sure to sit under Mark’s learning tree and ask loads of questions. One thing that hammered home that I wasn’t on Cape Cod anymore was the wildlife. To save money on the budget, we planned on using a beautiful larger shed in Mark’s backyard to stand in for a location in the film. So I am looking out of the back door and thinking about whether deer ever come through the yard. As if he were psychic, Mark mentioned that he gets a lot of deer in the yard. I laughed and then jumped back when I spotted a lone deer walking out from behind that shed. I don’t think the deer is psychic, but stranger things have happened.


14. Dinner was an event. I went with Mark. We picked up his son Anthony, who lives a few minutes away. The plan was to go meet a few others from the cast who had arrived and were staying in another hotel in Wellsboro. As we all got acquainted, or reacquainted, in the parking lot, we decided to go eat at Pizza Hut. It was convenient because it was literally a block away. For a moment, I thought Mark had said ‘Frog Hut,’ which got me intrigued because it was a place that, when looking for food on this trip, looked interesting. It was right across the street from Pizza Hut, so from our table I could see it. I hadn’t eaten at Pizza Hut since I was in high school, so it was very full-circle on this trip. There were six of us at a big table; the rest of the restaurant was empty when we got there around 5pm. The server was really friendly, and we all ordered. Then the positive coincidences continued. Someone ordered a pepperoni pizza. That’s not the coincidence. No, the server came out with a large pepperoni pizza that someone had made by mistake, and she asked if we wanted it for free. Well, you can guess what we said. There we are with all of our meals plus a free large pizza. It ended up becoming part of the food for the film crew the next day. As we laughed and told stories, the server came back and said they had made a mistake with someone’s food. She brought the mistake out, and the person who ordered took it, but then she also said they were remaking it. In the end, we got two free items. It was as if they knew we were making a movie and they wanted a positive write-up in my blog. In reality, it was one cook who made mistakes. He actually came out and apologized. We were all fine with it since it resulted in free food.

The Frog Hut

15. The Cabin wasn’t just the title of the film. It was also the largest shooting location. In order to have the film appear as isolated as it needed to be, Mark found a cabin in the middle of nowhere. I don’t use that phrase lightly. To get to it, we had to drive 25 miles north, near the New York border, to a very small and very rural town called Osceola. When I say ‘rural’ I mean like sparse houses, and of the ones you’d see, half of them looked like the people would shoot you and turn you into a skin suit if you put a toe on their property. It was one-part terrifying and one-part exhilarating. The cabin itself is owned by hunters, and oh boy could you tell. There had to have been more than 20 stuffed deer heads and deer skulls, all over the walls and on various tables. There were also stuffed squirrels, a turkey, a black bear, and probably other animals scattered about. Our job on that first trip out was to clean it enough to make it camera-ready. This meant some sweeping, covering up objects that didn’t fit with the movie’s theme, and blocking areas to fit upcoming scenes. Blocking just means getting the scenery set, like moving a bed back so we could get a clear shot of the bed where the main character in the film is supposed to be sleeping. It probably took us longer to drive out to the cabin than we were there cleaning. It was a mix of rustic, modern, confusing, and horrifying. It would prove to be home for us all for the entirety of two days of the movie shoot.

What the buck is going on?

16. We ended up making that long and lonely drive out to this cabin three times. The first time was the most memorable. It was around 6:30pm as we got deeper into the drive. I kept hoping I’d see a deer, or even a bear. What I got was lightning, and lots of it. When the rain had stopped that morning, the humidity began building. By the time dusk rolled around, it was in the mid-80s. As Mark explained it, heat lightning was a common occurrence in that area due to a similar weather pattern. On the drive out, as the sun sank behind the surrounding hills, I became fascinated with the lightning. I shot video and photos trying to get bolts of lightning. This lightning never let up. It was literally like 15-20 flashes per minute for probably three hours. That is not a stretch. It was amazing. As we got near the end of cleaning the cabin, I again wanted some lightning photos. Behind the cabin is a pathway that leads to a big clearing up a hill. There was a birdhouse on a high pole, and I thought a photo of the lightning behind the birdhouse would be money. None of the photos captured the lightning bolts. It was around this time that all of our phones got the emergency alert: tornado warning. Here we were in the middle of nowhere as it got dark, and now there was the potential for tornadoes. I turned my back to the lightning and shot a video of me explaining what we were doing and the tornado warning. All the while, the pink sky behind me was exploding with lightning flashes. It ended up being one of the best, and most surreal, experiences of my life. Once we had cleaned the cabin to Mark’s satisfaction, it was time to leave. We drove the dirt road out as the lightning made the sky look like a movie special effect. If I didn’t have the videos, I wouldn’t have believed it. There didn’t end up being any tornadoes. We also didn’t see any weird people out there, at least on that first day. The first day of the movie shoot came next, and we all had to make sure to be at Mark’s house by 8:15am. Luckily, the first scenes to be shot were inside his house, so it was shaping up to be a good way to ease us into filming The Cabin.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #112: March Weather, Repeating Timelines, Cape Cod Adventure, etc.

1. It’s amazing how much warmer warm temperatures feel when coming out of a cold winter. This week, we touched 60 degrees on Cape Cod. If you had told me it was 75, I’d have believed you. Being stuck inside working all day, I was itching to get outside into the sun once the day was over. I had an important phone call to take, and I decided rather than sitting in my car, I’d hit up the famed Monday Runday track and do some walking while talking. It was almost perfect. The track had a few snowy patches that had not been hit by the sun, but otherwise it felt just like it did last time we did Monday Runday back in October. In all, I walked a little over 1.5 miles and burned around 200 calories. Not bad considering I could have sat on my ass in my car and burned nothing at all.


2. March is the most bipolar month there is in terms of weather. You can get days that are in the 60s and sunny, and within the same week, have temperatures hovering around freezing with the threat of snow. Obviously, that is what we got this week. I think growing up in New England has conditioned me to get out and fully enjoy the warm days of March since it can quickly go the other way. I think April is a bit like that as well, at least at the beginning of the month. It’s only when we get to around the first of May that we on Cape Cod can fully relax and enjoy spring without the looming threat of a secret frost or snowy day.


3. Incredibly, my story of the tough dealings with the editor of the short film I co-produced did not end last week. After agreeing to double the pay of the editor just to get the film finished, this guy decided to get greedy. The next day, he asked for more money again. He asked if I could get the donors for the When Henry Met Henry film to just cough up some more cash for his ‘expenses.’ Like what? We gave him instructions to use copyright-free music and find royalty-free b-roll footage. Not sure what his ‘expenses’ were. In the end, I set a hard line and said he’d get the money we agreed to for editing the film, or he’d get half if he sent me all of the raw footage and walked away. Not a bad deal. I don’t know if he thought I’d roll over at his attempts to hijack the film, but that didn’t happen. He ended up agreeing (yet again) to the money and to get the film done. I wasn’t a complete ass; I did give him an extension on the deadline until the end of March. I will say, it felt good to stand up to someone trying to screw me over. I might have to do it again sometime soon.


4. My niece Sylvie gave me a makeup case cell phone. It’s a cute pink plastic phone with different lip gloss inside. I began thinking of how I could use it in a video. I came up with a story of me being lost in the woods without my phone and remembering the phone she gave me, only to discover that it’s makeup. I went to a local conservation area with ideas for shots that I could then edit into a 2-3 minute funny horror video. Of course, shooting some scenes where I am scared and calling out for help would be best done with nobody around. I got some basic b-roll video as I walked the paths. Then I got set up for a shot of me wandering the woods while my phone was on a tripod, capturing the scene. Right on cue, came an older couple who appeared to be birdwatching. There I am, standing off in the woods, positioning my phone. They were curious, but I just said hello. Thankfully, I didn’t have to explain to them what I was doing. Shooting skits with my camcorder at 17 was cute and creative. Shooting skits, by myself, in the woods, at 48, might end up with a call to the nuthouse. 


5. One of my favorite things to do for my podcast is to craft unique alternate logos and cover art. I try to capture the nostalgic vibe of the 60s through the 90s while also keeping the basic layout of the logo. I made a pair of them in the past week. As you can see, they both have the classic, typical 70s avocado color palette. I went with two uniquely retro backgrounds. One was the faux wood paneling that I fondly remembered from my Nana’s house growing up. The other was one of the oddly paneled tiled kitchen floors. I believe we had this in one of our kitchens growing up. There is another tile setup that was super 80s, but I’m saving that one for a future podcast logo.




6. An interesting phenomenon that happens way more often than I think has to do with where I go for photography on Cape Cod. I will have an idea of a place I want to go shoot, and I’ll go there. No, that’s not the interesting part. What happens is that many times now I go to a place, and the next day I have photos of that same place in my social media memories. It’s like my subconscious takes me to the same places at the same time each year. It happened this week when I went to get some videos of the bridges at the Cape Cod Canal. The next morning, I was going through my Facebook memories, and there it was, a post filled with photos of the same bridges from 2016. I definitely don’t choose to visit the same places on the same days, but man, does it happen a lot.


7. On that photo trip I just mentioned, I came across a massive flock of Common Eiders, which are sea ducks that are usually black and white. They were hanging out in little crevices along the Cape Cod Canal as the tide was flowing out. When I say a massive flock, I’m talking a few hundred. They typically hang out in a cove at the western end of the canal across from Mass Maritime Academy. It was fascinating, and I found myself trying to get close-up video of these ducks. Naturally, they found me as a threat and would fly further down the canal. Once they’d realize I wasn’t trying to hurt them, they’d stop just far enough away. I kept walking toward them, filming them flying away and landing just enticingly close enough that I’d keep going. This game was repeated a few times. I ended up with several videos of duck wings slapping on the water. I guess it will be good for people who enjoy nature sounds and ASMR.



8. On this same one trip, I ended up with five or six great videos in probably half an hour. While filming a ship passing by, I noticed in the distance that the railroad bridge was lowered. It typically sits 135 feet above the water when raised. It gets lowered a few times a day for trains to pass over the canal. I saw it lowered and knew a train would pass by me in a few minutes since the railroad tracks run along the canal. I was at the Bourne Recreation Area, which sits directly under the Bourne Bridge. I had a minute or two to decide how I wanted to film the passing train. I wanted a cool perspective, but also didn’t want to risk damaging my phone or myself. I settled on filming from the platform where people could board the train. I set up my phone on a tripod in the perfect position and waited. I knew the train wasn’t stopping, so I didn’t have to worry about the conductor getting mad that I was faking them out like I was going to be a passenger. The train approached, blew its horn, and passed by. It rumbled with such force that the phone shook as it passed, maybe less than 10 feet away. The video was great except that I thought it was going to be a big half-mile-long train, but it was a little stubby one with maybe four cars. Oh well, I was lucky just to be there in that moment, so I’ll take it.


9. This week, for the first time probably since I was a kid, I had cream soda. Well, actually, diet cream soda, but still. Have you ever had something that you loved as a kid but got away from it? Foods, drinks, activities, maybe music? I can’t remember when I stopped drinking cream soda as a kid, but obviously, it happened at some point. I was at the store and walked past it, and wondered when the last time was that I had had it. Weird how something can be your favorite and then just not. I’m sure as a kid, I loved the sugar of the regular cream soda. I can’t do that anymore; it makes me feel terrible. That being said, the diet cream soda was good, so I’ll be making it a part of my drink rotation going forward. Who knows what the next thing from my youth will be that I bring back? My guess is something to do with a flannel shirt.


10. I constantly have to shake my head at the people who complain about a certain social media site from that site. Like, if you go on Twitter(X) and constantly mention how you hate it there, you know what you do? Delete your account and go somewhere else. It’s not hard. You didn’t sign a lifetime contract to remain miserable on a site you hate. You know how I know this? Because I deleted my Twitter account when I got sick of how much of a cesspool it was filled with toxic scum and bots. It’s the same with a job. Unless you’re under contract, you are not being forced to work somewhere you hate and are miserable. Just remember, you are not obligated to be on social media. I grew up in the 90s without it. If tomorrow all social media sites vanished, it would take a little while to get used to, but I’d be fine. It’s mostly just people who are so desperate for attention that they post how they hate whatever site they’re on for engagement farming.


11. Few things are more fun for me than exploring the lesser-known and hidden pathways of the Outer Cape in the offseason. Venturing out to Wellfleet and Truro in March allows you almost total freedom to go wherever and see whatever there is to see. I hiked through the downed branches to visit the Jenny Lind Tower located in the woods near the old North Truro Air Force Base. I wanted some video of the AFB, so I headed toward the chain link fence behind the tower that surrounded the base property. I thought I might be able to follow the fence back to my car. It was mostly true. I got some footage on my way, but also had to bushwhack through a lot of brush. I had a chance to slide under a gap in the fence to get onto the base property. After being sliced and diced by broken branches and thorns, though, I figured with my luck, I’d end up gutting myself sneaking under the fence. Despite it being March, I ended up with several small ticks on my pants. Thankfully, I noticed one and did a more thorough check. Those dang things are going to be a menace this summer.

12. Another adventure from the same trip was something on my ever-dwindling Cape Cod bucket list. Close to a beach in Truro, there is an FAA beacon on a hill. I am being intentionally vague about its whereabouts since I don’t want to get anyone in trouble if they go to seek it out. I ventured through a small but worn path that led up the hill and eventually to a clearing where the beacon stands. I had noticed the location on Google Maps and had wondered for years how to get there. I decided during this trip to wander the parking lot of the beach, looking for a path. Once I found it, I made my way uphill, making sure to stay low and as inconspicuous as I could. I made sure that when I emerged from the clearing, for as much footage as I got, I stayed far enough away. You don’t want to get too close, just in case cameras are rolling. Even if you just take photos from a distance, staying on the edge of the clearing is the wisest move. Getting to see this FAA beacon checks off one of the very few places I have yet to see on Cape Cod. The biggest one remaining is Monomoy Lighthouse in Chatham. We’ll see about making that happen.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #92: One Brain Cell, It's Me Shawn, Papa Gino's Meeting, etc.

1. While entering the supermarket, I caught the sounds of the excellent 1980s song ‘Take On Me,’ by A-ha. Growing up in the 80s, there’s no way I wouldn’t know the lyrics. It sounded different because it was an acoustic version of the song. A woman working one of the registers stopped ringing up a customer to loudly complain about how whoever was singing was ruining the song. She then kept complaining by saying the original is such a great song (truth) and these people should leave the song alone. I had to laugh to myself because the version of the song was an acoustic version BY A-ha. So this lady was shouting into the air about how A-ha was ruining A-ha’s song. I didn’t bother saying anything because she looked like she gets lost in a closet, so trying to explain what I just wrote would have fried her brain cell.

2. Ladybugs are supposed to be good luck, and you can make a wish while holding one and let it fly away and maybe it will come true. That being said, we had one inside at my job. I caught it and brought it outside. I made a wish and let it fly away. Only it flew right back and landed on my shirt. How far does the ladybug have to fly away to break the plane of the wish? Is it like crossing the goal line in football? It was crawling down my shirt so I ended up bringing it back inside with me and putting it in one of our plants. I’ll have to try again to make another wish on it this week.


3. In a follow-up from last week. I did in fact make a behind-the-scenes video for the When Henry Met Henry film. Last week I mentioned being halfway through recording on my webcam when my recording software decided to crash. Later that same day I took my phone and my selfie stick and did a walk and talk. I went to the local bike trail so that I could have some fall aesthetics and nature while discussing the filming process. I was pleasantly surprised that the vast majority of the video went off without a hitch. Granted, there were a few people on bikes but I just paused the video as they approached. The low light of the recording was the pain in the ass kid on his little dirt bike riding up and down the power lines right off the trail. That was an editing challenge. The highlight was the walk itself but also the blue jays yelling as I walked. I find recording at my desk boring and only do it when necessary. If possible, I will try to be outside, or at least somewhere different to give each video its own personality. Speaking of which, here is the finished When Henry Met Henry Behind the Scenes video.

4. Since giving up alcohol 5 years ago, I mostly drink flavored seltzer water. One beverage I will indulge in every now and then is birch beer. If you’ve never had it, the drink comes from the sap or bark of birch trees. I can only describe its taste as a mix of wintergreen with a hint of cinnamon. I can’t remember who in my family liked it, but it is from them that I first tried it. In trying to stay relatively fit in my late 40s, I will drink the diet birch beer, usually from Polar. A liter bottle runs 10 calories. Having drunk unsweetened drinks for many years now, I can tell when something is loaded with sugar. This week I got some birch beer and, within two sips, knew it was regular and not diet. A liter of the regular birch beer runs 410 calories. That’s a big difference so I sadly didn’t finish the bottle. Then, when I went to get diet Birch Beer I saw why I made the mistake. The regular and diet and right next to each other in identical bottles but the kicker is the color. It’s white letters on green-ish white background. I literally had to pull the bottle close to my face like I was 90 to see if it said diet or not. Oh well, at least I got the right one that time.


5. When I go for a walk or run, I wear big over-ear headphones to really get immersed in whatever music or podcast I have going on. That means that I also need to pay attention to my surroundings since the headphones can cancel out any noise. That came back to haunt me this week, but not in a bad way. So I was on a walk and going around the periphery of a golf course. No, I didn’t get hit by a ball. I was walking and I felt something slam into my right arm. This scared the hell out of me and got my heart rate jumping. I spun around, not sure what I’d see. What I did see was the cutest white Golden Retriever. It was a few hundred feet from its owner, whom I did see slowly walking up. The dog must have gotten so excited to see me but when I paid it no attention due to my music, it decided to really let me know it was there. And yes, before continuing on my walk there were copious amounts of belly scratches for the dog.


6. On a break from working, I grabbed my phone, selfie stick and my yearly mini-pumpkin and headed to get some photos. I ended up at the Cape Cod Canal and started wandering around the grounds snapping photos. Everything was normal until I started walking along the water, headed for a marina. I saw a guy fishing and he gave me the side-eye. At first, he joked to me that my photo would be better if his ‘fat old ass’ wasn’t in the way. I smiled and he said, ‘hey it’s good to see you again.’ Now I was confused and asked, ‘really?’ The guy said, ‘yeah it’s me Shawn. I saw you here before not that long ago.’ I told him it definitely wasn’t me, but I was polite and wished him a good evening before going for more photos. No idea who that guy was, or more importantly, the guy who looks like me who is creeping around the canal. Maybe it’s old me from the future coming back to take photos at the canal.

One of the photos taken along the canal.

7. This week, the NBA and the country have been rocked by a gambling scandal involving, as of this moment three people. Damon Jones, who was an assistant coach. Chauncey Billups, who is the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers and a former Boston Celtic. Lastly and the one that has raised my eyebrows is current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier. For those who don’t know the story here is a link to an overview. The reason Rozier got my attention is that he’s accused of point shaving. Basically, betting on the under on his own stats and then allegedly feigning an injury, or having an ‘off night’ to win money on those unders. One NBC Boston analyst mentioned Game 7 of the Celtics v. Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2017-18 Eastern Conference Finals. Rozier went 2-14 from the field, including 0-10 from 3-point range in 36 minutes of play. The Celtics lost 87-79. My mind immediately went to Rozier intentionally having an off night to win his bets and cost the Celtics a trip to the NBA Finals. Maybe it was just a coincidence but with Rozier’s gambling history, it seems like it sadly could be possible. I’m not saying the Celtics would have won the championship. Hell, the Cavs with Lebron James got swept 4-0 by Golden State. Still, you never know and that’s the worst part. Also, it sounds like this is just the tip of the iceberg, so grab your popcorn.


8. Sometimes I go seeking an adventure, other times the adventure finds me. I was out with my pumpkin, grabbing some Halloween-themed photos at an old mansion. It’s on a quiet road near the beach but is almost always deserted, which allows me to take my time setting up shots. I parked in a lot that is fairly hidden. I thought there might be a path so I could walk to the beach without having to get on the actual road. There wasn’t one, but there was a smaller overgrown parking lot, which I took a photo of so that I might be able to find out what it was used for. On the way back to my car, I spotted what looked like a decaying house about 50 or so feet back in the woods. Obviously, I needed to go check it out. Unfortunately, there was no path to it. This meant that I needed to bushwhack my way through the trees and brush to get there. It was a mess inside. There was a lot of graffiti as would be expected. There were also holes in the floor exposing water underneath. Luckily, I caught myself before falling through the floor but it was close. It’s a bit rundown and somewhat dangerous, so I wouldn’t recommend going inside. I got a lot of photos and videos, which I put together into a little Halloween adventure film so that you can see what it’s like.

9. We are in the hurry up and wait portion of the new bike trail extension near where I live. I’ve mentioned before that it begins just after a golf course and will likely go 4 extra miles. This will allow people to theoretically ride their bike from Wellfleet all the way to the Cape Cod Mall, nearly 30 miles. In the past few weeks, I noticed that the extension has been paved. I don’t know if it’s all the way but I did walk a half-mile or so down it. You’d think it’s nearly ready to be open to the public, but you’d be wrong. If the most recent bike trail extension, which connected the main trail to the golf course where it now ends, is any indicator, we’re looking at a year or more to go. The last extension was being worked on for at least 5 years from the time they removed an old railroad bridge to the day it was opened. Why does it take so long? I mean if you can get it paved that fast, why not just hurry up and finish it? Whatever, I’ll still use it even if it’s not ‘finished.’


10. The big news of the week is that come this time next year I will have had a script of mine made into a feature-length film. There is still so much to iron out, and I can only share a little right now, though. I met with the director of the film I acted in earlier this year, Cape Cod Cthulhu. He and his crew were on Cape Cod this week filming a new movie. 5 of us met for dinner and a chat at Papa Gino’s. I hadn’t had that for years so that was already a plus. We then started talking about a story I had written over 15 years ago. It fits 2 great categories: simple and cheap. We won’t need much for cast or sets, which means that the budget should be fairly low. The tentative plan is to shoot late next summer, so obviously, there won’t be a finished film for quite a while. Still, this is a big thing to have on my resume, being the producer of a feature-length film. It’s a really exciting new project, and the pizza at Papa Gino’s was good. Oh, and the director thought I was in my early 30s, so a great time overall.