Hi Reader,

There are some shoot days I’ll never forget. This was one of them.

It was Valentine’s 2004, and Hunter S. Thompson and his wife were going to celebrate later with some black tar heroin. I know this because he told us. He was really looking forward to it.

But first, we needed to interview him. The location was his cabin in Woody Creek, an unincorporated town near Aspen, Colorado. We arrived in the early evening (he usually slept all day), and stepped into his famous cabin.

It was wildly cluttered. Books, papers, notes covered every surface - vertical and horizontal. I wonder how many unfinished projects were there, bits of his genius and scattered mind. Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of the scene (he was very paranoid - see below) so I can’t put one in here without paying lots of money to Getty Images, but Google “photos of hunter thompson's woody creek cabin” and you’ll see what I mean. I do have a photo of us from a previous interview below.

One thing I remember was a large note on his refrigerator: “DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES CALL THE COPS!”

Another thing, Hunter himself was in a leg cast and seemed very frustrated with his immobility.

He told us to set up in the living room, on a couch right against the wall. Not the best spot. We needed some depth. How hard was I willing to fight for the shot?

I asked him if we could put a couple of chairs in the middle of the room. He wasn’t too happy with us touching or moving anything, so he made me set up the camera to show us setting up, with a monitor next to him in the kitchen so he could watch us.

At one point I made the mistake of addressing him as “Mr. Thompson.” “Doctor, please!” he corrected.

When he finally crutched himself out of the kitchen to the little interview set we’d built, he was so agitated that he started throwing pillows at us and our gear. I think our lights were too bright. I turned them off and redirected, “What are we going to do if Bush gets reelected?” That got him going.

I started rolling, and one by one turned our lights back on. And the interview proceeded without a hitch.

I’m really glad I didn’t have to edit this, because the entire interview was one long stream of consciousness. Sentences never really ended, they just merged together. He went from Muhammad Ali to politics in one fell swoop. It was like being on a verbal roller coaster with broken tracks. I’m not even sure how or if this interview ever got used. The client was ESPN. It might have been some kind of favor to him.

We left him a few hours later to enjoy his Valentine’s evening. Just over a year later, Dr. Thompson took his own life.

I wrote a blog post about this and my first shoot with him at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen - My Gonzo Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson​

Do you have any crazy shoot stories? Hit reply and let me know. I'd love to read them and maybe share with this group!
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That's a wrap for this week's Freelancers Friday. I'll see you back here next week with more real-world lighting breakdowns, freelance business tips, and behind-the-scenes fun.

In the meantime, I hope you have a great weekend. And happy lighting!

​Cheers,

Tom Miller
​Freelancers Film School