A few years back, our friends asked me if I could spare an afternoon to help them shoot a motion picture. Intended to be many minutes long, they explained that the script was prepared, all unit was set up, and I’d only need to say a few lines. In spite of our bashfulness, I decided I’d step into the spotlight for them. When I arrived on set that afternoon, it was quite the spectacle! Shooting inside an seasoned auto-repair garage with a barely functioning air conditioning system, our friends appeared covered in sweat, sleepy and highly irritable. As the cameras and sound girl prepped for the shoot, I asked the key grip what was going on. “The air conditioning system in this locale cut off in the middle of the night”, she explained. “The worst section of it is that the crew’s been here since midnight.” I couldn’t wrap our head around that, until I realized they were shooting for a 48-hour motion picture festival. The employer, one of our close friends, was trying to get ahold of the owner of the garage, attempting to coax a visit from an Heating, Ventilation, and A/C maintenance corporation out of the woman. While they had numerous box fans around the set, they couldn’t match the output of a central air conditioning system. I had half a mind to call an Heating, Ventilation, and A/C repair tech myself, just so all of us could shoot in a garage with good air quality. After numerous vain efforts to address the lack of air conditioning, all of us agreed to shoot quickly, and the fans had to be cut off while in shots avoid picking up the sound of them running. Fortunately, the rue of the motion picture was about a kidnapping, so it worked to our benefit to look covered in sweat and sleepy. I was glad to help our friends in a time of need, but girl do I hope they secure a set with better air conditioning in the future!