As promised, here is the MP3 (it’s long—fifteen minutes long) Ilya and I recorded Thursday night. A true magician never tells exactly how he gets his famed guitar tone, but I’ll be generous and give you two little hints: bubble wrap and Q-tips.
Also as promised, here is an excerpt from an overheard conversation at a hip coffeehouse in Echo Park this past week:
Guy 1: “You could do the shoot at Will Rogers State Park. It’s off Sunset. It’s kind-of, like, where Will Rogers’ old mansion used to be. And there’s these old forests. They’re, like, ruins. There’s stables and shit.”
Guy 2: “Is it private?”
Guy 1: “No, dude, it’s Will Rogers State Park.”
Guy 2: “Well, the place in Griffith is…do you know where Cedar Grove is?”
Guy 1: “Fuck, man, I’m not going to go to Cedar Grove, I’ll get fucked there.”
Guy 2: “What?”
Guy 1: “If I get caught there, I’ll get a ticket.”
Guy 2: “Really?”
Guy 1: “Yeah, we shot there, and there are all these park rangers there.”
Guy 2: “Really?”
Guy 1: “Yeah. That’s why I like this other place, Will Rogers. You could just walk up there–”
Guy 2: “And pretend like you’re scouting? I’d just go up there with a tripod and a hand cam?”
Guy 1: “Yeah, it’s better to fake like you’re scouting and really shoot it for free than have to bribe a park ranger with forty dollars.”
Guy 2: “What would I need? If there was a boom, and you were filming, you’d want an additional person to hold the boom right?”
Guy 1: “Yeah.”
Guy 2: “I still like Cedar Grove, but if you’re worried that you’re going to get in some sort of trouble up there–”
Guy 3: “There are other places you can go and do that at. Same difference, you know? Same landscape.”
Guy 2: “There aren’t normally woods like that in either of these two parks, unless you’re going to St. Andrews.”
Guy 1: “You’re looking for redwoods.”
Guy 2: “I’m looking for the Netherlands. Everything out here looks like California.”
Guy 1: “If it was my film, that’s one thing, but I’m not going to get a ticket shooting for someone else.”
Guy 2: “You can’t just ask a park ranger to turn the other head? What if you get a letter from your dean or something?”
Guy 3: “Get a fucking student to do it.”
Guy 1: “Yeah, you could, but it’s such a fucking hassle. I could also just tell you how to get to this Will Rogers place if we find some time to go over it. It’s not the Netherlands, but it’s woody.”
Guy 2: “Is it California?”
Guy 1: “What’s California, oak trees?”
Guy 2: “No man, it’s palm trees and shit.”
Guy 3: “You know, if you go down Sunset, past La Brea, and you just keep going down there past like…Franklin is it? It’s as far as you can go. Anyway, there’s no sign on the road but there’s this park there. You can go into it, and it’s, like, a Japanese park. If you keep going through it, it turns into hiking trails. Once you get through the hiking trails, it’s crazy. I’ve never seen another person in there. The best part is, it’s like, trees. not palm trees.”
Guy 2: “How long is the hike?”
Guy 3: “Eight minutes.”
Guy 2: “Not bad.”
Guy 3: “It’s just, like, people laying around reading, and people playing with their dogs. No one knows about it.”
Guy 2: “Is it natural, or are the trees planted?”
Guy 3: “Fucking…I don’t know. But no one’s ever there. I’ve shot there before too, I’ve shot fallen trees and stuff. There’s another access point that not many people know about. I don’t know where exactly, I think you can get in there off Mulholland.”
Guy 1: “Huh.”
Guy 3: “Yeah, it’s a really fucking good spot where no one will fucking find you guys.”
Guy 2: “Ok, I’ll have to figure that out at some point today.”
Guy 3: Let’s get out of here, I’ve gotta go.”
Guy 2: “You ready to roll, nick?”
Guy 1: “Yeah, let’s roll.”
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