Shooter? I hardly Know 'er!

Picture Cars -- now this is fun. You get to wrangle all the cars that show up in the scene. We're down by Freedom Plaza near the Reagan building, and I'm bringing in police cars, limos, Town Cars, even a taxi cab or two. Mostly, we stand around. The film is called "Shooter," and director Antoine Fuqua doesn't rush his shots. He keeps going until he gets exactly what he wants, and since he's one of the best directors out there, what he wants is clear as a bell. On Day 2, we're waiting around in the limo, while the rest of the crew stands around in the pouring rain. Day three is in Baltimore, and the winds off of the park in Federal Hill will about blow you over. The last shot is Mark Wahlberg, his character badly wounded, driving his pickup truck into a run-down gas station. Everyone's tired but happy.

As we're all saying our goodbyes, I get a chance to shake hands with Mr. Fuqua himself. "Good work, fella." He says.
"Thank you. After that Nike commercial last fall, I wasn't sure you'd ever come back to Baltimore." Usually pretty stoic, he cracks up laughing, "Man," he says, "When they told me Baltimore, I was like 'Oh no..'"

"But it's all good now, right?" I ask.

"Yes. It's all good." And he claps me on the shoulder, and it's time to head home.

The photo? That's Carl, aka "King Carl," blatantly posing in front of Antoine, who turned his head a half second before I got the shot. Oh well -- guess I'm not a shooter...