December was a blur!

Well, December was packed. My last post was just after Thanksgiving and then we went "onto the floors" as they say here. That means "into the studio" in American parlance. After that everything is kind of a blur. We shot 12-14 hour days every day for twenty straight days between 1 December and 20 December. I barely had time to sleep never mind blog. Overall things went very well. The sets were under constant construction as we shot the film, but they look great on film. We had all the major stars of our film at one time or another in attendance and usually shooting scenes. The Director is very good and his work is focused. He's editing the film together as we shoot it. It is really great to see it all come together so quickly.

One of the great stories of the month was the first few days where the son of the Director, who is also the star of the film showed up, not as the star, but as an Assistant Director. He worked like crazy making everything right which was really a testament to his dedication. The other thing about his work on those days was that it was clear he was doing it because he loved it and also because it was the first days of his Dad's new film and he was there for him and to make it right. How cool is that? You have to realize also how a big a star this guy is. Imagine Tom Cruise coming onto a set on a day that he didn't need to be there and working with the extras and secondary players to get them in the right places and dumping his hands into a bucket of green slime to make sure it is applied to the actors just right for the shot because it's his Dad's movie and he has been doing it since he was ten years old. Great stuff.

It's the latest rage!

So there wasn't a lot of "seeing India" during December. We did eat a lot of good Indian food every day and I got a chance to see how the Indian labor market works. In short, where we would rent a forklift and an operator if we needed to move a big stack of plywood from one end of the set to the other, here they just hire 50 people and they carry it. So there's a lot of "day players" as we call them. That creates some security problems and I lost a camera because of it. I get called all over at a moments notice and I have to carry everything with me or risk losing it. In the shuffle late in the shoot I somewhere set down my video camera and bang it was gone. This was after the ADs had already embarrassed me at least once by walking up and handing me my phone after I dropped it somewhere. Yikes. Sometimes it's hard to keep a grip. I'm pretty bummed about losing the camera, but it's not like I wasn't warned.

Near the end of the shoot I was gifted a terrific turban from the AD's. I had jokingly pretended to adore a specific billboard with this salesman (entertainer?) wearing this huge orange fan-adorned turban with a big tail on it, saying, "I love that hat!" So they got me one! It was so popular that all the Chinese stunt guys wanted turbans, too. Group photo!

I had time for one banzai run at the shops before heading home on the 22nd. Raksha, the 1st AD again was amazing, taking me to places I would never have managed without her, searching for Ganpati and uniquely Indian shirts and gifts. 

Cathay Pacific Comfort

I got on the plane late night at Mumbai and was on my way back to the USA for another dose of reverse culture shock. I again went through Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. That was a sweet ride actually. I quite like that airline. All the business class seats are set in single rows like diagonal parking, so you have some privacy and it's easy to sleep. I saw some good movies, too, most notably Senna the documentary about the famous Brazilian F1 driver. That was very moving for me as I was always a big fan of Senna and seeing his career and death chronicled so well was quite affecting.

So Christmas was at home. I won't recount that here (coz it's not India!) but there will be pics on the bertonspero.com page soon.