Wandering into a Movie Shoot

Wandering as described on these blog pages and in the book The Gentle Art of Wandering is about being mindful when walking. That is, allowing yourself to see and then letting what you see guide you on where you go and what you do. This mindset always seems to allow you to discover something interesting every time you get out, and my walk with the dogs yesterday was no exception.

Before we reached the first corner, we saw a sign hanging on a light post pointing in the direction of a movie shoot. I wondered at the time if we would have the chance to see it on our walk. We proceeded to take one of our regular routes along an acequia (irrigation ditch).

The movie being made happens to be called Kepler’s Dream. I am not familiar with the story, but it does feature Holland Taylor as one of the actors. You may remember her as Charlie Sheen’s mother in the TV show Two and Half Men, or as Reese Witherspoon’s professor in the movie Legally Blond.

As we walked along the acequia, we noticed that it was running dry. The water was being sent down other ditches to irrigate a different part of the Rio Grande valley.  But even a dry ditch has standing water in some of its low spots.

Coming upon an acequia wet spot is a good time to stop and take a close look as the water creatures have congregated in the wet spots to stay alive. It’s also good opportunity for the birds and coyotes to fill up. I was pretty certain that we would see crayfish, as we had seen them before when the ditch was dry. On one occasion we saw a mother crayfish with several tiny baby crayfish clinging to her shell.

But what I wasn’t expecting to see fish in the wet spot. I didn’t even know that fish made a home in an acequia with a fluctuating water flow. But there they were. They were much bigger than a minnow but still quite small. Unfortunately, the water was way too murky to tell what kind they were. The fact that they were there was good enough.

After checking out the wet spot, we continued walking along the ditch. As we came around a curve we passed an old adobe hacienda and stumbled right into where they were shooting the movie. So we were able to see it on our walk without making a special detour. As an extra bonus, Holland Taylor came over to talk to the dogs as she was leaving the set.

Even without the bonus of having one of the actors come over to talk to us, checking out a movie location during a shoot is always interesting. The locations are like a self-contained village that can set up and taken down in minutes.

The production companies provide for everything: rest rooms, dressing rooms, food services, power generators, security, medics, movie making equipment (cameras, lights, props, and sound recording systems), set making equipment (electrical, carpentry, and every conceivable supply), and anything else that might be needed to make a movie. And when the shooting is done, the crew packs up the trucks and heads off into the sunset. They’re like a traveling circus, and if you pass the location the next day you would never know that a hundred people were there the day before.

After wandering around the set area for a few more minutes, we then continued our walk along the acequia. And no sooner had we restarted our walk, we noticed that water was starting to flow down the acequia again. Not in a torrent, but at nice steady pace to keep the water from washing out the ditch bank. And best of all, the creatures in the wet spots would soon find their world back to normal.

When we reached our road, we left the ditch and headed back home. Just before we got home, we saw the first sign that autumn would soon be coming to New Mexico. The grocery store next door to our house was roasting green chile peppers in their parking lot. If you happen to visit New Mexico from late August to the middle of fall, it will be hard for you to escape the smell of roasting chile peppers in the air.

And the smell of the roasting chiles was wonderful. Almost as wonderful as a mindful walk with the dogs. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow’ walk brings.