Dog Wrangler

26^th March 2012

Dear Cassi,

Yesterday I had my first film shoot with Lee. It was more or less what I expected. I divided my time between working the Boom Microphone and occupying Lee’s dog Torque who is a large, lethargic animal with a bad itching problem.

       

The dog had scratched a wound into his right ear, and I kept trying to keep him from making it worse. The dog had what look like lesions from Uric acid build up on his legs. These are big red growths that look kind of like living scabs. That and the fact that the thing pawed at his male bit tells me that he probably has a kidney problem.

       

I gave Lee an anti-itching spray that I had for Gus when he had the skin fungus. The spray did very little for my dog but then Torque doesn’t have a fungus. The big dog looked at me with his pink rimmed eyes and I felt sorry that they were little I could do for him.

       

Other than that, I see that Lee is one for the longer takes. This is something I will have to see before I can argue with. Truly, I would have cut a few of those shots up and came closer to the actors to add focus and suspense. Then, I was not directing these pieces so the director likely found what she was looking for in her footage.

       

I kept my mouth shut with most of this and with some effort as I had strong opinions of how some of these things should play out. I kept having to remind myself that this was not my work to direct. Not that any of my suggestions where met with hostility. Still, a snake with too many heads will bite its own ass.

Stay safe, little sister

Richard Leland Neal