Living in Jackson there is not a lot of random production work. Every now and then a big commercial comes to town, but all and all our production community survives on doing their own projects or traveling. However Wyoming does have some movie stars, the Fed meets here twice a year and it plays home to many of the big players in the Republican Party. When Mr. Bush became president our little town had now and then seen a little excitement when Dick Cheney had come to town to spend time in his home in the Pines, a little gated community in Wilson that one of my friend Trey lives in. Once when I was on a walk through the quiet streets, I was even accosted by a bush that turned out to be a cammoed out security person asking my what I might be doing there.
There are no legit grip companies in Jackson, so when it is needed, generally Trey or myself gathers what gear we can and does what we can to rig and light what is needed.
One day I received a call to get some lighting and meet in the pines with a nice shirt, something rarely needed in Jackson unless you on a first date, and meet my the guys from KGB a local production company who had gotten a job to shoot the former VP at his home. I had actually crossed paths with Mr Cheney a couple of times before at restaurants we were both frequenting and like many say about me when they meet me, he was shorter than I would have thought.
Welcomed into his home we set up the lights on his back porch and shot him and Lynn talking about how devastating they thought Obama was to our country. I’ve always been surprised when I meet powerful people, that when they are just one on one they don’t see all that different than the rest of us, because of course they are just like the rest of us baring some life choices. Politely he and Lynn offered to take some photos with us after and I even got to be proud of my work when later that week John Stewart joked that the scene looked fake and Cheney had probably not been in Wyoming.