Alien Nation Video Shoot

I got up really early and loaded up my car with the stuff for the Alien Nation video shoot. I drove up Laurel Canyon and picked Elene up on my way, and then we met Brandon and Angie, and Shawn, at a Starbucks up in Santa Clarita, near where Dylan’s mom lives. I got a cup of coffee and we talked briefly about what the plan was. I wanted to get a video tape for my camera in case Shawn wanted to use it, so after a brief wild goose chase we finally found a Walgreens that had them.
Then we drove up to Vasquez Rocks, the filming location. We knew it was going to be a guerilla style shoot because we didn’t have permission or any kind of permit to film there, and anywhere near LA it’s always difficult to film things illegally. Also, Vasquez Rock is a very popular filming site - it’s been used in tons of sci-fi movies and television shows. I know it from Roswell, the show about alien high school students that was on the air back when I first moved to LA.
It’s a county park, and I was surprised to find that it’s actually kind of a busy place with families and rock climbers and the like, and there were indeed park rangers there. We picked a spot and got into our costumes. Shawn pulled his jeep up and played the song on his stereo and we started filming, but pretty soon a ranger came and confronted us, immediately saying we needed to move the jeep because it was not parked in a proper spot. Then she asked the people near us if we were “offending” them. They said that we were kind of, because they were trying to enjoy the nature. The ranger said maybe she needed to call a sheriff's deputy in to deal with us.
Shawn then went and had a talk with the ranger, who turned out to be really nice. Apparently, there had been some people filming there recently that were in sort of skimpy outfits similar to what Elene and Angie were wearing, and the next thing you know, the ranger said, people were having sex in front of the cameras! Maybe it was a sci-fi themed porn or something! We all got a huge kick out of the whole thing and the ranger told Shawn we could just move to a more secluded area and resume filming as long as we didn’t play the music loud.
The video was finished really quickly and then we just hung out there for awhile; Brandon, Shawn and I even climbed to the top of the rock.
After the shoot, we all went and ate at Chili’s and then I drove Elene back home. Later in the day, Brandon and Angie met Dylan and I at the TV academy to watch “The Social Network,” the movie about Facebook’s founders, that stars Justin Timberlake. I really enjoyed it.