Day two of my trip to St Louis saw an early start as Jeremy and I headed out first thing in the morn' to take in some flea market action. Let me preface by saying that I am a huge flea market nut, but not for the obvious reasons. I am a huge fan of kitsch and like buying people's old toys, records, magazines etc. Basically I like to take everyone's crap. Jeremy caught wind of my flea market interests and in an obvious attempt to win me over, took me around to a large outdoor flea market at an old drive in. Weather was nice, but not spectacular, it was probably in the upper 50's, but rather sunny so it wasn't too bad. The flea market wasn't packed with vendors, but there was just enough going on for me to get my fill while away from home. When all was said and done, I had left the flea market with a 3 pack of socks, a Shania Twain cassette, a Pop Will Eat Itself CD and a free bumper sticker. Total $$ spent, 4. Please don't make me explain the Shania Twain cassette, it was only a buck.

We left the flea market and by this time it was early afternoon, and here's the weird thing, it was pouring rain. It went from beautifully sunny to cloudy and raining in a matter of minutes, oddly enough by the time we got in the car and drove for about 3 minutes, it was sunny and dry again! That's St Louis for you! Jeremy drove me around for a bit and showed me some interesting parts of his neighborhood including part of a building that used to be a spectacular haunted house (wish I had snapped a picture of this one) as well as some shooting locations for a few Wicked Pixel Cinema flicks. We were both getting hungry so it was off to get some lunch.

One of my main priorities for the trip to St Louis (aside from hanging out on set of course) was to eat well (and you'll soon find that my definition of well differs drastically than most others). I LOVE to eat, and in Philly, aside from the occasional cheese steak, there's nothing to0 exciting to tempt a finicky palette. Having eaten the glorious BBQ from Bandanas the other day, I was looking forward to eating at my favorite fast food place that's no where near Philadelphia...Jack n the Box. Why aren't there any Jack n The Box's on the east coast you ask? Well, when I was younger they were shut down by the board of health and never re opened. That being said, I have to reiterate that Jack n the Box is my most FAVORITE of all fast food establishments. I pigged out on the dollar menu and indulged in a cookies and cream milk shake, yum!

Once again, the weird weather pattern of St Louis had followed us to Jack n the Box, when we went in to eat, it was HAILING(!) outside! From sunny and kind of cool to freezing and raining, then HAIL! I experienced 3 fucking seasons in 15-minutes! That's St Louis for you!

It was at this point that we headed back to Jeremy's for a little bit of rest, but time was short. We had to meet for the shoot and didn't have a whole lot of time to spare. We hung out for a bit on the comfy sofas, and then we were off. We met up at a gas station/convenience store with the rest of the crew for that evening. On hand were Jeremy and myself (natch) director Jason Christ, actresses Julie Farrar and Ceily Davis along with WPC regular Bill Clifton (on hand to help on set). We grabbed a quick drink and hopped in our cars to head off to Jason Christ's grandma's farm to get ready for the shoot.

Once we got to the farm, there was a bit of a problem almost instantly (aside from all of the cow shit I was stepping in). There was a huge tractor blocking the area they were to shoot at. It took the mastermind of Jeremy Wallace to hop in the tractor, figure out how to turn it on (luckily there were spare keys) and get it moving out of the way. Appropriately enough there was a cassette already in that started playing as soon as Jeremy powered up the tractor, insert unnamed 80's hair band here (I'm thinking Great White?). It was all very comical, and once we had our little trailer problem taken care of (and a nice chuckle) it was almost time to get started. I was given a quick tour of the different areas of the farm and let it be known that I am still picking pieces of cow shit out of my shoes today.

The arrival of Patrick Voss (SPFX guy) signaled that it was time to get things rolling. We started at 5pm and it was evident that we were going to be a long night ahead of us. The entire shoot for this night was to take place outdoors...temperatures remained in the low 30's for the duration of the evening. It was freezing cold, but through it all everyone knew that they had a job to do. I was put in charge of shooting some behind the scenes footage in-between the moments of my own personal stills photography.

Things went pretty smoothly for nearly the entire night shoot. A lot of coverage was needed so everyone was busy for practically the entire evening. One of the things that struck me was the ability the crew had to get everything knocked out in quite a timely manner. Setting up lights or prepping for each scene...everyone seemed to know their part and despite the frigid temperatures, there was not one complaint or hissy fit to be found. Julie and Ceily had it the worst, thinly dressed and having to roll around in the hay all night. I felt even worse once the fake blood was introduced, it couldn't have been comfortable. The night of shooting pretty much entailed an attack on Ceily's character from the now demonized Julie Farrar. The worst of the attack had Ceily's character deteriorating in a few stages which called for some make up touch ups between takes. The final moments of the scene ending with Julie's demonized character chowing down on Ceily's back as blood poured down the sides. These two ladies were real troopers to put up with all of the madness, my hat goes off to them. The ONLY thing that could have made this day any brighter would've been the sight of Ms. Emily Haack, ::sigh::! Tomorrow's only a day away!

The mood on set was very low key and light-hearted. There was a constant barrage of jokes to keep everybody amused and it didn't even feel like work at all. Despite the tough conditions, everyone seemed genuinely pleased to be there helping out...as did I. So far I was having a great time hanging out on the set of Savage Harvest 2 as well as spending down time with the genuinely nice folks of Wicked Pixel Cinema. It's no surprise that since i've been back I've been bombarded with questions about my experiencees from people who are huge fans of the original Savage Harvest, and rightly so.

By the time all was said and done, it was well after 1am and we were all tired and frozen to the bone. Everyone wrapped up the set in what I thought was record time and Jeremy and I headed back to his home. Once we got back, we chatted with Jeremy's wife for a bit, before it was time for bed. I had another day of shooting ahead, this time with Emily Haack on set, perhaps tomorrow we'll only see one season, but in St Louis, I think that's impossible.

Check back soon for Part 3 of my trip to St Louis and read about more toasted ravioli, Steak 'n Shake and Ms Emily Haack rolling around all bloody like on Jason Christ's grandma's kitchen floor...good times!

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