Rough cuts of the beach movie!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, please grab your popcorn and take your seats, the preview of the big beach movie of the summer is about to begin. Quiet please so you won't miss a single word of the dialogue...

The film opens on a beach during the Spring Tides. Yes, I know it's officially Fall, but the Spring Tides  are especially high and wash out the marshes of a lot of dead grass. Which means a messy beach. But, what can you do?

And.....ACTION!

Like all great silent film stars, Asta knows how to emote with her expressive face and dramatic gestures. You can hear Mommy giving Asta her cues off camera. And at the end, please note the action sequence with me and the hapless tennis ball...

ASTA CLOSE-UP- TAKE ONE...quiet on the set...5...4..3...2..1 and ACTION!

Phew! Who knew acting like you're having a fabulous time at the beach was such hard work? Even though the overcast weather and high tides meant we were running behind schedule, the union rules demand that we stopped production for lunch. So we headed over to the crafty (for you non-film stars, that's the crafts services table where the caterers lay out all the goodies!) Asta's Mommi was responsible for keeping us motivated and focused. She did a great job!

BEHIND THE SCENES - LUNCH BREAK...And ACTION!

Refreshed after our lunch break, we came back for a second take at Asta's closeup scene and she nailed it perfectly! We're talking Oscar (Mayer! Yummy! Bologna!!!) caliber performance. My action scene was moved to another part of the film so I have a brief bit towards the end.

TAKE TWO - ASTA CLOSEUP...5...4..3..2..1 and....ACTION!

BRILLIANT! Simply BRILLIANT! We doggies are naturals in front of the camera. Guess those thousands of photos our owners have taken of us have paid off!

On our last day, we had a disaster on the set. We're talking "Heaven's Gate" kind of disaster. The film of Asta swimming was lost. Disappeared. No doubt it will show up at Christies or Sotheby's 25 years from now and auctioned off as "The Lost Footage" from Petey and Asta's beach movie.

Anyhow, here is a still that captures some of Asta's awesome swimming skills. She had swum 8 miles over to Savannah in this photo, even stopping at this shrimp boat to pick up some of the fresh daily catch for dinner that night!

Me? Well, I like to keep my feet on the ground. I prefer to take a nice run and then plop down in the shallow water. That's why my Mommy, errr, my Costume Designer sometimes insists I wear my Bay Watch lifeguard vest. Asta has nice long legs for jumping over the waves. Me? They hit me square in the face, messing up my beard. Can you see the shrimp boat out on the horizon? That's the same one in the photo that Asta's swimming past! That girl was like a little wiry motorboat!

FINAL PAN OVER WIDE BEACH...PULL OUT SLOWLY....and.....CUT! PRINT!