the internet's back up at the hotel. so i will be posting again!
i finally put up pictures from our visit to the pyramids, if you can call it that. more like our visit near the pyramids. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7563&l=6e713&id=514867448
today i went to the studio at 8AM, changed and got made up, and shot a scene for about an hour out in the sun. then i sat on set for five hours before they finally released me without shooting any more. pretty easy day! i think it was the last of the vaccination scenes- a good thing, since the little egyptian kids are so used to me prodding and pulling on them that they just walk up to me now and open their mouths for inspection. many of them do it while we're not shooting!
one of the shots this morning was an incredibly close one. my huge head fills half the frame. the director cautioned me in his thick accent: "very close. small. small. small." i tried to be 'small' but i felt like i was just being 'frozen.' he seemed satisfied, though, so hopefully it'll look ok. i really have no idea how i'm doing with this movie- there's not the same kind of feedback that you get from an audience or during a theatrical process. but i know i'm learning quickly, so even if i'm terrible, next time i'll be better!
tomorrow the americans are off because the russian actors flew in tonight and will be shooting for the next day or so. it's nice to get days off because i still feel weak from the stomach troubles, and also from the carb-heavy diet that i'm eating in effort to avoid risky foods.
things are good!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
goooooooood morning cairo!
hello everyone!
thanks for all the emails- it gets very lonely out here and it was
really nice to know that the blog was missed.
several days ago the internet AND the phones went down in the
surrounding area and there's no telling when they'll be back up. i had
a day off today, and as i lounged by the pool i overheard some dutch
people conversing about how they picked up a wireless signal in the
gazebo area by the pool house. well, i just came out here, and voila!
the connection is spotty, though.
it's been a very busy week. we started with that 3AM day, and we did
shoot a car wash scene and the goat rescue. we did one more day after
that in fayoum, shooting a scene where we're pulled over and bill is
vomiting. the cars were covered in live locusts dipped in petroleum
for both days. not exactly ASPCA-friendly, and pretty gross to boot!
since then we've been at the studios, which thank allah, are only
twenty minutes away from the hotel. there is an entire village set at
the studios, which in truth doesn't feel like a set. it is a complete
network of run-down buildings that looks like it was abandoned only
days before. we've been doing the vaccination scenes non-stop,
complete with 60 or so little egyptian rugrats all over the place.
for all of these group scenes, like the goat rescue, the car wash, and
the vaccinations, yuri's approach has been to run the entire scene or
process three or four times, each time filming it all with two cameras
at once, and never explaining to us where the cameras will go. so i
never really know when i'm being filmed except when i sense a camera
looming over my shoulder, or when i accidentally look right into one,
which i've done a few times! my vaccination 'station' involved
checking the kids off and inspecting their mouths with a tongue
depressor and listening to their chests with a stethoscope. MUCH
thanks to cousin karen, without whom i surely would have felt like an
impostor doing those things.
of course, there were several little ones that are so sweet and cute
you just want to hide them in your luggage and bring them home. (there
were two girls who would blow us kisses and say the only thing they
know in english over and over: 'i love you!') and, there also were the
required number of willful little devils as well. tomorrow i shoot a
scene where my character echos my own desire to steal one of the
little ones for my own.
haven't had the food poisoning back full-force, but my stomach has not
been happy with me. all of us americans and many of the russians are
dealing with the same thing. the food's pretty safe at the hotel, but
of course it's very expensive.
we've eaten a couple more times at Mom, met Mom even, and enjoyed it
thoroughly while staring at the desert sky. last night we had the
company of an incredibly large harvest moon.
i'm very homesick, but i'm having fun at the same time. more soon!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
we were aliens
drove the two and a half hours out to our 'lonesome desert road' location just in time to suit up, get made up, and eat lunch in our new actors' trailer (basically a 70's kitchen on wheels) before they informed us that there was a technical problem with the jeeps and we were not shooting any more. luckily scarlett and mark got some shots in before the trouble.
so we rode back, pausing at sundown at an outhouse-sized market in a little village for our driver to break his fast with three twinkies and a pineapple slushie in a bag. we actors made a heck of a stir in the village since we all still had our costumes on, which is pretty much safari gear, and our cameras and our loud voices. kids of every shape, size, and age poured out to the road and stood around looking at us as if we were aliens. which we are i guess.
we stopped fifteen minutes from our hotel at a mall named CarreFour that puts Hyper1 to shame. It's vast, and not only has a Pizza Cream but also a Chunky Fries.
i've stopped being alarmed at the driving. surely we are chancing death every time we ride these streets, but only now do i start to feel the rhythm of the driving here. there's no sense of security provided by strict speed limits and driving laws, or even defined lanes, for that matter. and there's no car insurance. instead people drive extremely alertly, unified by their common goal of making to their destination alive. we've covered a lot of miles here so far, and i've never seen a wreck or a sign of one, but every car is pocked up like someone's been hitting baseballs at it.
our current shooting area is in Fayoum, next to an enormous oasis of a salt-water lake that the Greeks used to call Crocodilopolis, and was a vacation spot for the pharaohs. it's pretty amazing to see such a huge body of water, complete with waves, in the middle of the Egyptian desert. even before the oasis, most of the drive is very pretty, chopped up in tiny acre-sized farms, and large lots that look just like old southern plantations. farmers work in the fields, or lounge next to them, women working too, in everything from jean skirts to full burkas, and kids riding around on little donkeys. camels, cows, goats, dogs and cats are everywhere, too.
it's only 8pm but i just took a sleeping pill in hopes that i can get some rest before our 4AM call. they promise that tomorrow we finally will get to shoot the scenes we're excited about- the attack of locusts, rescuing a goat, and my partner bill vomiting everywhere. yay!
so we rode back, pausing at sundown at an outhouse-sized market in a little village for our driver to break his fast with three twinkies and a pineapple slushie in a bag. we actors made a heck of a stir in the village since we all still had our costumes on, which is pretty much safari gear, and our cameras and our loud voices. kids of every shape, size, and age poured out to the road and stood around looking at us as if we were aliens. which we are i guess.
we stopped fifteen minutes from our hotel at a mall named CarreFour that puts Hyper1 to shame. It's vast, and not only has a Pizza Cream but also a Chunky Fries.
i've stopped being alarmed at the driving. surely we are chancing death every time we ride these streets, but only now do i start to feel the rhythm of the driving here. there's no sense of security provided by strict speed limits and driving laws, or even defined lanes, for that matter. and there's no car insurance. instead people drive extremely alertly, unified by their common goal of making to their destination alive. we've covered a lot of miles here so far, and i've never seen a wreck or a sign of one, but every car is pocked up like someone's been hitting baseballs at it.
our current shooting area is in Fayoum, next to an enormous oasis of a salt-water lake that the Greeks used to call Crocodilopolis, and was a vacation spot for the pharaohs. it's pretty amazing to see such a huge body of water, complete with waves, in the middle of the Egyptian desert. even before the oasis, most of the drive is very pretty, chopped up in tiny acre-sized farms, and large lots that look just like old southern plantations. farmers work in the fields, or lounge next to them, women working too, in everything from jean skirts to full burkas, and kids riding around on little donkeys. camels, cows, goats, dogs and cats are everywhere, too.
it's only 8pm but i just took a sleeping pill in hopes that i can get some rest before our 4AM call. they promise that tomorrow we finally will get to shoot the scenes we're excited about- the attack of locusts, rescuing a goat, and my partner bill vomiting everywhere. yay!
Friday, September 21, 2007
minefields, goats...
recovering now from a serious bout of food poisoning. took a little more than 24 hours to run its course. luckily it set in just as the shooting day ended yesterday and we had today off. it was a long day! i'll be packing my own lunch to the set from now on.
the first day of shooting for me went well. most of the day i sat waiting in our 'trailer,' which is an awesome ancient RV with a wood interior and modified with two AC units powerful enough to cool a grocery store. we shot some 'driving through the minefield' takes at the end of the day, only got a half an hour of shooting in before the sun went down. for that half an hour i sat in the passenger seat of a jeep with a side-mounted camera as we drove all over the dunes. our director yuri was in the back seat and our translator was in the trunk space. pretty wacky.
tomorrow we shoot all day and do more car interiors, basically the opening shots of the movie. in the afternoon, if we get to it, we'll shoot the 'rescuing a goat' scene.
more soon...
the first day of shooting for me went well. most of the day i sat waiting in our 'trailer,' which is an awesome ancient RV with a wood interior and modified with two AC units powerful enough to cool a grocery store. we shot some 'driving through the minefield' takes at the end of the day, only got a half an hour of shooting in before the sun went down. for that half an hour i sat in the passenger seat of a jeep with a side-mounted camera as we drove all over the dunes. our director yuri was in the back seat and our translator was in the trunk space. pretty wacky.
tomorrow we shoot all day and do more car interiors, basically the opening shots of the movie. in the afternoon, if we get to it, we'll shoot the 'rescuing a goat' scene.
more soon...
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
dub you
the good news: i start shooting tomorrow! we're doing the "jeep driving through the minefield" scene so i'll spend the day jostling around looking scared. the word is that the first day of shooting today went very well.
the bad news: we learned today that they plan to dub us in russian instead of using subtitles for the russia release. i think that sucks.
the bad news: we learned today that they plan to dub us in russian instead of using subtitles for the russia release. i think that sucks.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
win win
tonight as we rode on a sweaty chain of camels with a far-off view of the pyramids, jenya got a call on his cell phone that the cameras were finally released.
because of the russian actors' tight schedule, they're starting tomorrow with them, and only one of us Americans, who has a scene with them. so it's win/win. i get another day of vacation, and the filming gets underway!
we had a long script session with the director today which was fantastic. between the script sessions and the chances we've had to hang out and get to know one another, the shooting delay might have been a blessing in disguise.
i'm exhausted. i'll post pictures of camels and pyramids tomorrow.
love,
neil
because of the russian actors' tight schedule, they're starting tomorrow with them, and only one of us Americans, who has a scene with them. so it's win/win. i get another day of vacation, and the filming gets underway!
we had a long script session with the director today which was fantastic. between the script sessions and the chances we've had to hang out and get to know one another, the shooting delay might have been a blessing in disguise.
i'm exhausted. i'll post pictures of camels and pyramids tomorrow.
love,
neil
we ate at Mom
Our cameras are still locked in customs, a situation whose direness seems to be increasing exponentially. The movie is losing money quickly. It's hard to feel bad yet, though, since the result for me has been vacation.
We did spend four hours yesterday trying out various combinations of costume and makeup, and parading for the director, who is VERY opinionated about these things. He has a very demanding and singular vision for how the movie should look, and I respect it. At the end of it, he assigned me to sit by the pool and get some sun. I've had some easy jobs in my days, I'll admit, but that one clearly took the cake. Maybe I should be a lifeguard!!!
Last night we ventured out of the massive gates of the hotel and wandered through this area known as Sixth of October. It's a really bizarre aesthetic here- a complex that has been built in the middle of nowhere in the desert... (I guess most of Cairo is like that!) ...it's clearly trying to be a luxury area- there's a Gold's Gym, and several fancy hotels, one street of mansions (that I hear are homes to rich Iraqis fleeing the war), a condominium complex, and a couple of corporate campuses. But still, everywhere, are trashed-out abandoned lots with old construction materials in them, and the brickwork sidewalks are in dotted lines, petering out into curb-contained sandboxes and piles of unused bricks. It all has the feel that a grand design was hatched, and then halted about a quarter into production. The places that are finished are finished well- our hotel with its mushroom-covered lawns, and the Hyper One mall with its shopping cart that towers into the sky, but the rest seems to be ground down by the sand, steadily sliding into entropy.
We ate at a restaurant called Mom. It only is a restaurant because there are menus and food eventually comes; other than that it really is just a sand field covered with lawn furniture and Indian rugs and pillows. The food was fantastic, and I treated all six of us. We feasted, ordering EVERY appetizer, and each person had an entree (Jeff had two), and I dropped a whopping $50 to cover all of us. It did take two hours for the food to come out, so it was lucky that we still have a lot of getting-to-know-you to do, and the night was rather cool. Apple-scented shisha smoke wafted from around us, and a family of kittens circled us, mewing, but never getting close. The beauty of it all was a little busted when they dragged out a projection TV and blasted some channel with a never-ending story in Arabic, apparently centering on what a great party-town Beirut is.
On the walk back, we passed an enormous mosque, decorated in Xmas lights, in the middle of worship. Hundreds of people were praying, and a singing male voice was blasting at arena concert volume.
This morning, I wait to see if there are developments on the cameras, but they made it pretty clear that there are some Russian actors here that need to leave soon, they will probably shoot them first. We are tentatively planning on taking advantage of another free day and going to the Pyramids.
There are more pictures up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7563&l=6e713&id=514867448.
Love you all.
We did spend four hours yesterday trying out various combinations of costume and makeup, and parading for the director, who is VERY opinionated about these things. He has a very demanding and singular vision for how the movie should look, and I respect it. At the end of it, he assigned me to sit by the pool and get some sun. I've had some easy jobs in my days, I'll admit, but that one clearly took the cake. Maybe I should be a lifeguard!!!
Last night we ventured out of the massive gates of the hotel and wandered through this area known as Sixth of October. It's a really bizarre aesthetic here- a complex that has been built in the middle of nowhere in the desert... (I guess most of Cairo is like that!) ...it's clearly trying to be a luxury area- there's a Gold's Gym, and several fancy hotels, one street of mansions (that I hear are homes to rich Iraqis fleeing the war), a condominium complex, and a couple of corporate campuses. But still, everywhere, are trashed-out abandoned lots with old construction materials in them, and the brickwork sidewalks are in dotted lines, petering out into curb-contained sandboxes and piles of unused bricks. It all has the feel that a grand design was hatched, and then halted about a quarter into production. The places that are finished are finished well- our hotel with its mushroom-covered lawns, and the Hyper One mall with its shopping cart that towers into the sky, but the rest seems to be ground down by the sand, steadily sliding into entropy.
We ate at a restaurant called Mom. It only is a restaurant because there are menus and food eventually comes; other than that it really is just a sand field covered with lawn furniture and Indian rugs and pillows. The food was fantastic, and I treated all six of us. We feasted, ordering EVERY appetizer, and each person had an entree (Jeff had two), and I dropped a whopping $50 to cover all of us. It did take two hours for the food to come out, so it was lucky that we still have a lot of getting-to-know-you to do, and the night was rather cool. Apple-scented shisha smoke wafted from around us, and a family of kittens circled us, mewing, but never getting close. The beauty of it all was a little busted when they dragged out a projection TV and blasted some channel with a never-ending story in Arabic, apparently centering on what a great party-town Beirut is.
On the walk back, we passed an enormous mosque, decorated in Xmas lights, in the middle of worship. Hundreds of people were praying, and a singing male voice was blasting at arena concert volume.
This morning, I wait to see if there are developments on the cameras, but they made it pretty clear that there are some Russian actors here that need to leave soon, they will probably shoot them first. We are tentatively planning on taking advantage of another free day and going to the Pyramids.
There are more pictures up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7563&l=6e713&id=514867448.
Love you all.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
the mall
tonight my fellow castmates (plus our lovable friend evgeniy) and i did what any american would do in egypt: went to the mall.
the malls here are open until 2AM or later, and they close for a while at dusk for ramadan so that they can eat. so it was weird to get to the mall at 8pm and watch people opening up. other than that, and the arabic everywhere, it was fully a mall, in fact, fancier than most malls i know: there's a waterpark on one end, and in the parking lot is a shopping cart the size of a football field. no joke. i'll post pictures of it tomorrow. the mall had all of your standards: radio shack, KFC, and a place called 'Pizza Cream,' where you can buy pasta in a cone. for dinner we again did what any american would do: ate at Chili's and for dessert, Cinnabon.
the two cab drivers took us from the hotel, waited for us for THREE hours, and took us back. each cab's total came to less than $20. i had a full meal at chili's, appetizer, steak, and drink, and my total was around $15. and apparently that's still expensive for cairo. the drive was again death-defying, since all cars seem to be devoid of seat belts, and the egyptians have a peculiar habit of neglecting their headlights.
tomorrow morning: make-up and costume session, and i get a shave and a haircut!
the malls here are open until 2AM or later, and they close for a while at dusk for ramadan so that they can eat. so it was weird to get to the mall at 8pm and watch people opening up. other than that, and the arabic everywhere, it was fully a mall, in fact, fancier than most malls i know: there's a waterpark on one end, and in the parking lot is a shopping cart the size of a football field. no joke. i'll post pictures of it tomorrow. the mall had all of your standards: radio shack, KFC, and a place called 'Pizza Cream,' where you can buy pasta in a cone. for dinner we again did what any american would do: ate at Chili's and for dessert, Cinnabon.
the two cab drivers took us from the hotel, waited for us for THREE hours, and took us back. each cab's total came to less than $20. i had a full meal at chili's, appetizer, steak, and drink, and my total was around $15. and apparently that's still expensive for cairo. the drive was again death-defying, since all cars seem to be devoid of seat belts, and the egyptians have a peculiar habit of neglecting their headlights.
tomorrow morning: make-up and costume session, and i get a shave and a haircut!
hard living
I spent most of the morning today sitting out by the enormous 8-shaped pool, reading an awesome book. So far this job is pretty sweet. Tomorrow was to be the first shooting day, but it looks like things will be postponed, at least another day. For two days now, both of the cameras for the film have been locked up in Egyptian customs. It's a huge ordeal now, verging on national incident, as the Russian government is attempting to intervene. Pretty fun stuff.
This afternoon we Americans watched a 45-minute instructional video on giving vaccines in the field. In a week or so, we will be shooting a big medical-tent-vaccinating-kids scene, so we're studying up. The director has informed us that he's procured a huge amount of Egyptian five-year olds to be our co-stars in the scene. It sounds like that day is gonna be a ball.
Our first day of shooting will involve being in a jeep attacked by locusts and rescuing a goat from a bog. I think I'm gonna have fun with this!
Just a couple of preliminary pictures are up on my facebook page. Go here to see them: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7563&l=6e713&id=514867448
This afternoon we Americans watched a 45-minute instructional video on giving vaccines in the field. In a week or so, we will be shooting a big medical-tent-vaccinating-kids scene, so we're studying up. The director has informed us that he's procured a huge amount of Egyptian five-year olds to be our co-stars in the scene. It sounds like that day is gonna be a ball.
Our first day of shooting will involve being in a jeep attacked by locusts and rescuing a goat from a bog. I think I'm gonna have fun with this!
Just a couple of preliminary pictures are up on my facebook page. Go here to see them: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7563&l=6e713&id=514867448
Saturday, September 15, 2007
early morning egypt
woke up just before dawn today, disoriented. from my window, i watched the daylight begin to spread over the horizon, oceans of sand as far as the eye can see. i went downstairs and walked around the grounds. the morning was very cool, and they keep the grass around the pool so wet that there are actually mushrooms growing everywhere! i went to the buffet breakfast when it opened at 6:30... (12:30 AM in new york!) and feasted royally. i skipped dinner last night because i hadn't exchanged any money yet, so i was happy to gorge and guzzle this morning. i feel a little lost, but i know things will change once i meet the other americans today. i miss monica already.
Friday, September 14, 2007
cairomaniac
hi all!
just a note to let you know that i've landed in cairo safely, ready to embark on egyptian movie madness.
off to a fun start- got through customs after an all-night flight, only to wait around in the airport lobby for an hour, scratching my head. turns out they thought i was supposed to be black, so they didn't know i was the neil they wanted. i took a cab on my own to the hotel, and went on a harrowing, hour-long, near-death experience of a ride in order to get here. but i made it in one piece! and we went right by the pyramids! it's early afternoon here, and for some reason i'm pretty wired, so maybe jet lag won't be that bad.
this is the only mass email i will send- this post and all my subsequent posts will appear on my heretofore rarely-used blog, at http://ilovebigneil.blogspot.com/. so you can follow my progress there! i'll send a reminder of the url in a week or two.
all my best!
~neil
just a note to let you know that i've landed in cairo safely, ready to embark on egyptian movie madness.
off to a fun start- got through customs after an all-night flight, only to wait around in the airport lobby for an hour, scratching my head. turns out they thought i was supposed to be black, so they didn't know i was the neil they wanted. i took a cab on my own to the hotel, and went on a harrowing, hour-long, near-death experience of a ride in order to get here. but i made it in one piece! and we went right by the pyramids! it's early afternoon here, and for some reason i'm pretty wired, so maybe jet lag won't be that bad.
this is the only mass email i will send- this post and all my subsequent posts will appear on my heretofore rarely-used blog, at http://ilovebigneil.blogspot.com/. so you can follow my progress there! i'll send a reminder of the url in a week or two.
all my best!
~neil
in egypt!
the first of my transmissions from egypt. just got into the hotel and linked up. more soon.
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