A little Neutrino Project story I don't want to forget to get down...

If you know me, you know I'm somewhat of an authority-phobe. I often get nervous when we're doing the Neutrino Project, especially in cop-heavy Wrigleyville, that some police officer is going to decide that what we're doing is illegal and hassle a crew, which would, if nothing else, screw up the timing of the show.

So when we were up in Ann Arbor a few weeks ago, my team had just come out of the BP where we had been filming* and as we were filming out by the "$5.78/gallon" sign I saw some cops across the street. I got my usual little twinge, but they walked by. We finished shooting and headed to meet the others for the final scene. As we were headed down the street, I noticed that the cops were a few feet behind us and keeping pace and I started to come up with all my Neutrino excuses: "It's a theater project" or "it's a student film". (Crap! Does Michigan have a film department?) The cops caught up with me at an intersection.

"What's that you're drinking, there?"

What's that I'm drin...? But, I... I was so flummoxed that it wasn't about the cameras that I couldn't say anything and just turned my AriZona "Caution" energy drink so that they could see the label.

* It's unusual that we get to film in chain or corporate stores. It made my little post-punk heart sad when I was location scouting in a chain sandwich shop (rhymes with Jimmy John's) and the tattooed and pierced lone employee didn't want us to film there because of what "corporate" might think. CORPORATE?! That's The Man! Aren't we supposed to stick it to him?