Okay, this story is from 1996 or 1997. The setting is aboard a crowded riverboat casino, the crowd is loose and wild and completely in the way right now so the PA’s come in and chase them back over to stage B so that we can set up for a new take. We’re in a soundstage/warehouse just outside of Atlanta and pulling a typical “big” extra day. As the crowd starts to thin out, the Director of Photography Frank E. Johnson, begins waving a FedEx box over his head. It’s addressed to Gary Oldknow, one of the grips…..and it’s from FujiFilm!
Bear with me as I do a quick flashback to a week or two prior to this momentous event. Frank had given away a few promotional jackets to his camera crew and Gary started razzing him for not giving them to his grip crew. The razzing had been building and Frank thought long and hard before he picked an appropriate gift for Gary.
So, back on the riverboat set, Gary was eagerly ripping into his FedEx box ready to slip into his exclusive “Frank E. Johnson” FujiFilm jacket….and sure enough as he pried back the final flap he was rewarded by the flash of Fuji’s signature green. You should have seen the grin on his face…it was priceless.
More priceless still was the way that grin shifted into a look of total bewilderment as he pulled out a lacy pair of FujiFilm-green panties. The crew burst out into gales of laughter and Gary kind of stood there looking sheepish. I think a few girls in cocktail dresses gave Gary appraising looks as they drifted back to holding.
Gary did get his revenge the next Monday morning on the set of the police department. During a lighting setup he jumped onto a table and began grinding his hips and pulling his pants down to reveal that he was now wearing his gift from Frank……..
