pictoral weekend

I heard they were filming a movie in downtown Seattle over the weekend, so you know me, I had to check it out.

The working title is called The Battle in Seattle and it's about the 1999 WTO riots that many of you probably saw on the news, because the protests turned pretty violent.

It's a low budget independent, but has some recognizable names (some more than others) such as Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta, Michelle Rodriguez and Andre Benjamin.

This is a shot of the protestors getting ready to march. It was interesting because they were using about 200 extras to simulate 10,000 protestors on this particular leg of it.

Here's a shot of the directors trying to figure out what they want to do (which was how most of our time was spent -- watching them talk). The guy in the olive jacket in the middle is writer/director Stuart Townsend. He's mostly known as being Charlize Theron's boyfriend for the past few years, but he's also been in some films like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Dorian Gray).





Most of the work was "extra" shooting, but they did have some principles on-site. In the center of the picture, there's Andre Benjamin who is actually in a turtle costume (what many protestors actually wore) and is drinking coffee underneath an umbrella. Michelle Rodriguez was also on-site and in that clump of people to the left of Andre, but she kept turning everytime I snapped a pic.

In this scene, Andre, Michelle and some other dude tell this group of protestors that are about a block away from the Space Needle that they are "needed downtown and to turn around and go back." And then they asked me to stop taking pictures.

Before that, I was in The Jingle Bell Run, er Walk. This is a shot of the start/finish because I know you all wanted to see what a shitload of people looks like in downtown Seattle in what is essentially our town square where the big tree is and all the parades go.

We were kind of slow walking the 5K (1 hr. 6 min.), but a lot of that was because I had a bum knee after falling down earlier in the week when I attempted to walk down one of our steep hills in my boots -- and in front of one of my co-workers. Yeah, I'm a graceful one.

My friend Vanessa was a sport to help faux pose for me to figure out if this guy's hair is for real behind her. What do you think? It reminded me of Frodo (click on it to zoom in).











So, I was at Target with my friend Tanya looking at Christmas cards when I suddenly hear this heavy breathing behind me. I turn around slowly and she's pressed the button to this Darth Vadar stocking, and his helmet breathing is the sound effect that it gives off. Yoda didn't make his own sound.

Now, I'm sorry but this is getting a little too geeky for me.