Taking part in the Canada’s Walk of Fame project was a huge highlight for us at Reel Original Media. It was fast-paced, high-stakes and tight schedules but most importantly, it was extremely rewarding. One of the high lights for the crew was travelling to meet with fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger for Canada’s Walk of Fame inductee Jeannie Becker.
The interview was scheduled for 1:30 pm at the Tommy Hilfiger offices in downtown New York City. On paper, theoretically, our heroes had plenty of time to get where they needed to go to get this interview done and then…the Gods of Video Production (as we invented to better rationalize the series of calamitously unfortunate setbacks that beset them) decided to test us in every. Way. Possible.
At 10:30 am the crew landed at La Guardia Airport but was delayed an hour, stuck on the runway behind a long line of aircraft waiting for open gates to deplane. As they went over the plan for their quickest possible pick up of all their luggage and equipment, they get into the airport only to find out that La Guardia airport was on lockdown! The crew later found out that it was a security breach that caused the airport to be locked down. Our director described the situation as such when they returned,
“It was like a zombie apocalypse and everybody was at the airport trying to escape.”
The lineup for the taxis was long and nobody was moving. They bought subway passes but the lineup for the shuttle busses was just as long. The situation was becoming dire and our heroes were running out of options. The call was made to Hilfiger’s people and they told our heroes that Mr. Hilfiger had a very busy day and rescheduling wouldn’t be possible. They had to make it that day in the window they booked. The attempt to buy some more time had failed, they had to get downtown and they had to get there now, but how?
By 12:30 pm all hope seemed lost and our heroes seemed defeated and the situation was at its most dire until an airport security guard of mercy, described as looking like Erykah Badu, approached and asked our director if she could help. He said,
“Yes, can you tell me how to get out of the airport and downtown in one hour?” and that’s when our heroes got the best news they could hope for when she said,
“Yes. There’s a taxi stand at Terminal C.”
Our heroes were at Terminal A.
And just like that, new life was breathed into our heroes like Ulysses and his crew in the Odyssey. Our director was ready to lead the crew across the crowded and congested airport and make their escape. He stressed to our crew that now is the time to abandon their typical nice, kind and courteous nature to get where they have to go faster than possible. With that rally cry, they were off! Cutting through crowds of people, nudging some out of the way until they reached the taxi stand. Our director offered a driver $100 to get them downtown in less than an hour and this driver accepted the challenge and became a road warrior on the Fury Road. The driver was weaving around cars, changing lanes and jumping around curbs to get around cars and they arrived at the Tommy Hilfiger offices! They were five minutes late and Tommy Hilfiger’s people were remaining strict to their timeline and gave the crew three minutes to interview. The crew pushed past their limits and personal bests and set up camera and audio in record time to get the interview done. The photo here is the aftermath of the epic tale.
