On Whidbey Island with Vienna Teng

Our small, but truculent Fat Monster crew arrived at the Seattle Airport on the morning of January 31 and rented an overpriced SUV for the trek to Whidbey Island. We then hooked up with Director of Photography Steven Dempsey at the ferry to the island and found ourselves scouting locations before noon had arrived. We soon split up into two groups and combed the island to find the best shooting spot.

Our intent was to lug a piano to the chosen location even though we weren't exactly sure how we would accomplish that. When we all convened at Cozy's Roadhouse back by the ferry we all agreed that the beach at Double Bluffs was the pick of the litter. Never mind that to get a piano to the precise spot director Tim Hyten selected would mean a portage over soft sand and driftwood and traversing some private property.

Having identified the problem we progressed to the first step of a solution: ordering more pitchers of beer (a quaint local brew named "Dead Man's Ale.") By 8:00 p.m. we were devising ever more elaborate Rube Goldberg-ish schemes to transport the piano as we were graced by the appearance of the lovely Vienna Teng herself. Thus ensued additional eating of indigenous Whidbey foods (nachos and onion rings.)

After some post prandial Dead Men, we convoyed to the home of our host for the weekend - Dean Petrich. Sadly, I cannot even approach justice for the description of either the man or his home-grown architecture. Dean has built an amazing homestead that he calls Huckleberry Hill. I'll quote Dean's website: "The basic premises for this house were: To construct an entire house out of garbage; To incorporate non-toxic and net-energey efficient components; to incorporate three primary components - EVERYTHING must be 1) Pragmatic, Aesthetic and Playful.

I'll write more about Dean's abode and some of the events that have occurred here during the shoot. Right now we are about to depart for the third shooting day of this trip so I'll close this post for now.