Though I’ve been on more than 50 movie sets, I didn’t know what a process trailer was until last night, when I went to shoot my second day as a noxious cab passenger for an independent feature film. It’s used to film car scenes and make it look like the driver is actually driving.
The cab was mounted on a trailerbed attached to a truck, with spotlights all around. The director and crew rode outside the taxi, on the trailer. We made our way up and down Michigan Avenue until 2:00am. The “taxi driver”, my “date” and I were toasty inside the cab, leaving the crew exposed to frosty late night lake winds. As you might expect, passers-by and other cars slowed to check out our brightly lit setup.
One of the things I had to do was smoke. It took me a while to get the hang of deftly using the cigarette lighter and lighting the cigarette…the things we do for our art!
