It’s hot. Really, really hot.
Normally, in Southern California, it’s hot inland and cool near the beach, which makes said beach an ideal spot for summertime day exteriors.
Unfortunately for most of us, inland seems to be the preferred summertime shooting location, so when I got a call to work on a low budget shooting at the beach with a bunch of really wonderful guys, I had a brief moment of joy.
Beach in Ventura? Sure. It’ll be nice and cool. It’s always nice and cool up there. Hell, I might not even have to run my car’s air conditioning during the 90 minute drive.
Except that now it’s not cool at the beach. And we weren’t shooting on a beach so much as a dusty highway turnout on a cliff above the ocean with no shade anywhere – no trees, no tall buildings, nothing. Just the sun, the heat, the wind and a haze of fine dust which permeated any fabric and formed a coating on skin, teeth, eyeballs, toes, etc…
The first day we lucked out and it was a relatively brisk 90 degrees F. Craft service only had one small cooler so most of the bottled water was also a relatively brisk 90 degrees. One of our more intrepid makeup artists put a teabag in a water bottle, set said bottle on a rock and brewed tea. The sun beat down all day. Had there been a way to get to the water, I would have jumped in – and I did briefly consider just jumping off the cliff, but with my luck I’d hit the rocks, break every bone in my body and just bake there because no one had cell service to call an ambulance.
Not even my hat helped me.
I have yet to find the perfect hat for hot weather. Ball caps don’t provide enough coverage, and anything with a brim seems to either just hold in heat (if it’s cloth or felt) or let sun through the holes in the straw. I’ve got tiny little sun damage dots on my forehead from straw hat leakage.
I tried a damp bandana underneath the hat, but I changed my mind and wrapped in around my face as a dust mask in the failed hope of eating marginally less dust.
Day two sprouted some EZ ups so there was a bit more shade, and chairs under the shelter became hot property – as soon as one got up for any reason, one’s chair would be occupied.
Also, they only had two bathrooms for 40 people, so the restrooms very quickly became unusable, which meant that people didn’t drink any water to avoid having to brave the toilets, so one PA passed out.
The actor has been 90 minutes (at least) late to work every single day, so we do nothing for the first two hours we’re there. This particular production team seemingly haven’t caught on to the fake call time trick.
Tonight we’re downtown – and it’s projected to still be 99 degrees in the late afternoon, which is when we’re scheduled to go into work.
Hopefully they won’t run out of water.
Filed under: hazardous, locations, long long drives, movies, Work, beach, Commute, day exterior, freeway, heatstroke, summer, traffic
Totally Unauthorized 
Hats provide some measure of sun protection, so your face is less likely to get sunburned, but as you noted they do little or nothing in terms of the heat.
Peter
I wear a Tilley Hat on those brutal sun-days. It has enough of a brim to protect ears and face at high noon, but not so much it’ll blow off with the first gust of wind — plus it’s designed to stay on until you want it off. Your cranium will still overheat from time to time, so you’ll have to take it off every now and then, but all in all, it works pretty well to take the solar curse off a bad situation.