Shenanigans On A Movie Set [FICTOID]

During a lull in filming, Thelma the stunt girl tried to wring the water out of her ginger colored wig.

The stunt buggy she’d been riding in failed to go off the road in camera range, resulting in a retake.

Sherman, the stingy producer, didn’t like it.

If you had a spare wig and costume, we could have reshot this fifteen minutes ago, thought Thelma, but she kept her mouth shut because Sherman was the type of schmuck who wouldn’t pay an extra five dollars for a back-up but would spend hundreds replacing a stunt performer who mouthed off to him.

“You okay?” Roscoe asked.  He was playing her husband -- rather, stunt-doubling the actor playing the husband of the character the actress she was stunt-doubling for was playing -- in the scene where the buggy careened out of control.

“Yeah.  What went wrong?”

“The release pedal got stuck.  We didn’t break free when we were supposed to but galloped past the camera.”

“Is it fixed?”

“I hope so.  Sherman will blow a gasket if we flub it again.”

They both looked at Sherman, who was arguing with an exotic animal wrangler over the cost of renting a llama for the next scene.

Thelma spied an anaconda in the wrangler’s truck.  She waited until Sherman went into his air-conditioned trailer to use the bathroom, then took the snake from its cage and dumped it in the trailer.

They all heard Sherman scream when he saw the snake and slam the bathroom door shut, yelling for help.

“We’ll help him after we get this shot,” said Thelma.

And they did.

© Buzz Dixon